He appreciated her plump pink lips, straight nose, and stubborn little chin. All in all, she was a knockout. The most gorgeous creature he’d ever laid eyes on.
Storm was thunderstruck. He watched her innocently sashay across the otherwise deserted parking lot to a beat up looking pickup truck.
Hmm. Odd car choice, he thought.
That was all he had time to think as three men crept out of the shadows and circled the tiny female. Blood rushed through his being and he couldn’t make out what was being said.
Whatever it was, didn’t matter. One of them dared grab her arm and tossed her purse aside. Storm’s fangs lengthened and claws popped free of his nails. The sound of her scream woke something furious inside of him. His entire body trembled with the strength of his fury. He needed to get to her. Now. There was no time to lose.
“Uh, what is that?” Furio tapped his shoulder and Storm turned and snarled.
His friend pointed down. Storm looked and took a step back in surprise. His palms were glowing. Small blue lights were circling both hands. His feet and legs were covered in what looked like shadowy black smoke billowing skywards. It was magic, he knew that much. It didn’t hurt, but he’d never felt it before.
“Holy shit, Storm! Do you know what this means?”
Then it hit him. The reason for all the sudden changes. He turned to Furio and growled one word.
“Mine.”
His female shrieked and hit the ground and the Wolf inside him howled in fury.
Protect, the Wolf demanded.
He barely blinked his eyes, then he was directly in front of the female. It was like he’d moved through time and space. Storm appeared in front of her, shielding her from the soon-to-be-dead men who dared touch what was his.
He lifted his lip and snarled at the three assholes. It was nothing more than legend, he’d always thought. A fairy tale to keep younger supes from leaving the order. But he might have to change his mind.
He lifted his fists, still glowing with blue magic and slammed it into the face of the first one of the three to launch an attack against him. Sparks flew as did the assailant’s teeth.
“What are you waiting for,” Storm said to the other two.
He smiled wickedly. Looked like even Shifter fairy tales were true sometimes. It was said the Guardians had been blessed by the Fates that upon finding their true mates they would receive certain magical benefits to promote honoring their vows till death.
Stronger together, those were the words etched inside the doorway of the Keep. Now Storm finally understood their meaning.
“Mine,” he looked down into startled butterscotch.
He knew without doubt, the woman was his mate, and he would shield her from harm. Always.
Chapter 1
What a day! Fergie McAndrews headed towards the pick-up truck she’d borrowed from her roommate for work that morning.
Of course, the thirty-thousand dollar certified used luxury car she’d splurged on earlier in the year was in the shop. Again.
Just another in a long line of bad decisions. After leaving a perfectly good job for a startup company, she’d been laid off three weeks ago and had to borrow money from her parents to pay rent. Wasn’t that humiliating?
“This is the last time, Ferg,” her step-monster had said after she’d Venmo’d the money to her.
God forbid the mechanic call and tell her the car was ready. She wouldn’t be able to pick it up for another week. That was when she got her first paycheck from her newest gig at L-Corp. Not a startup, but an older company with new offices in Bayonne which was only a half-hour commute.
But to commute, you needed a car. Fergie had no choice but to borrow the old pick-up from her best friend and roommate, Jessenia Banks. It wasn’t like she needed the truck. She worked from home these days. Besides, Fergie promised to fill it up and have it washed.
She huffed out a breath. It’d been a really long day. A crappy one too. Fergie wanted to love her new job. Really, she did. But so far, it was the pits. If Fergie wanted to be a librarian, she would’ve been one.
Research was her jam. Well, when it was interesting. She had a knack for sniffing out information and compiling easy to read spreadsheets and timelines. It wasn’t the hard work that annoyed her. Her complaint was the content. The actual stuff her new boss had her looking up. It was beyond boring.
Why an enormous conglomerate like L-Corp needed old land surveys, cross-referenced with newspaper reports on accidents, crimes, etcetera, she had no idea. She’d been at it for weeks now. So far, she’d researched six locations given via GPS coordinates across Hudson County. Her new boss wanted everything, every little insignificant piece of information she could dig up.
That was the easy part. It was the hassle of the actual job that really made her want to give up. Every day she had to drive to Bayonne to pick up her work laptop that she’d dropped off the night before with all of that day’s findings. Every single night they wiped her computer clean.
Like she was going to run away with the secrets of what happened on 2nd and Washington sixty-years ago. Can you say paranoid? Ugh.
Fergie had always looked forward to working for a huge global company. It was supposed to be her ticket out of the Garden State. Travelling the globe, seeing new things, visiting far off places was always a secret dream of hers. Well, that, and having her own walk-in closet full of gorgeous designer shoes.
Best secret dream evah! In her opinion anyway. What woman didn’t love shoes? Fergie hummed as she daydreamed about rows and rows of Blahnik’s, Jimmy Choo’s, Garavani’s, Ferragamo’s, and her personal favorites, Louboutin’s on every shelf!
Don’t judge. Fergie wasn’t shallow, she just liked pretty things. Haters gonna hate, but every time she ran across a thrift or second-chance store, she’d search high and low to see what they had. That was how she’d scored the pumps on her feet.
They made her feel good about herself. Being five-foot two-inches short with more curves than a racetrack, Fergie had had more than her fair share of self-esteem issues growing up. Alright, so she was chubby. She could admit that proudly now.
If everyone looked the same, the world would be one boring as hell place. Fergie liked herself perfectly fine these days, in spite of all the times her step-monster tried to make her diet growing up. So she liked food, and shoes. Big deal.
She worked hard to feed and clothe herself, so as far as she was concerned, no one had a right to comment. So what if she wanted some excitement in her life. Fergie was aware she was better off than most, but what was wrong with having goals?
She’d spent a lot of time thinking about how a woman like her could have an adventure. Travelling was the only thing she could think of. Of course, she’d been hoping this job would be the answer to that. Even travelling for work was better than being stuck.
Sigh.
So far, her plans had fallen flat, but hey, at least she was earning a paycheck. Her new boss, Mr. Offner, might be a strange man, but he signed her checks and that was enough for now. Fergie had never seen more than a glimpse of him. All of her instructions usually came via email.
Most of the time she was able to compile her research quickly, then she’d head back to the office to organize it into neat little spreadsheets, and finally, she’d hand it all in with her laptop. But not today.