Page 20 of Awakened By Her Guardian

A chill swept through the air and he went still.

He couldn’t see anything changing, but he sure as hell could feel it.

Was it possible? Was Jack Frost here?

He focused on the space ahead of him. It was just an empty street, the homes on either side belonging to members of Sandman’s guild. Was Ana okay?

He rubbed the back of his neck as another blast of cold air swept across the street.

The temperature plummeted, and snowflakes fell, dancing across the street like they had minds of their own. The purple sky darkened again as silver clouds lined with black smoke moved toward them, covering the sunlight. He heard screams, though he was pretty sure they came from homes on nearby streets.

Faintly he saw a golden glow in the street ahead, and he felt Ana’s power surge.

And then the glow faded to nothing.

Along with her power.

Through their connection as mates, he felt her fear rising and her power ebbing. A distant scream cut through the air, followed by Ana yelling his name.

He wanted to charge ahead, but he couldn’t see anything.

He needed the dread magic to disappear, and he needed to help his mate. Then he remembered what Santa had said about the medallions: “Hold the medallion and lend her your strength.”

But how the hell was he supposed to do that?

He could feel Ana’s fear sharply now, and her magic waning.

Wrapping his hand around the medallion, he closed his eyes and thought about his mate.

His beautiful, sweet mate, so powerful in her slumber magic, and so amazingly his. She was everything he’d ever wanted in a mate and more than he’d known he needed. His better half. His truemate.

He touched his wolf in his mind, stroking the powerful, cunning predator.

Something glowed faintly as he thought about his own power as a shifter: speed and strength, power that came from eons of predator mindset funneled down to him through his family line. He wasn’t just an ordinary wolf shifter. He was the truemate of a unique and powerful dream walker, and together, they were a force of nature for good.

Opening his eyes, he howled loudly and pushed all the love he had for his mate toward her, wherever she was in the cloaked space ahead of him.

As his howl echoed, the air cracked like a plate-glass window shattering.

Then the cloak fell entirely, revealing a battle he hadn’t realized was raging around him. Nightmare and Jack Frost circled Ana with evil gleams in their eyes while the dream walkers fought Nightmare’s evil followers with magic and fists. Sandman and the others battled the evil magic wielders as Ana stood apart from the fight, frozen in terror, tears streaking her cheeks while her golden slumber magic pulsed as if it were in its death throes.

His wolf was not having that one bit.

His shift exploded from him as all the love he had for her grew in his chest like a living thing. His clothes shredded, and the medallion split apart as if it were made of something fragile, sending a wave of deep blue power across the street.

Landing on his paws, he raced for his mate and did the one thing he’d done to get her out of her nightmare before: he bit her.

This time, his fangs sank into her wrist and pulled her off her feet. She tumbled toward the pavement with a shriek of surprise, catching herself against him before she fully hit the ground.

“Oh! You bit me again, you butthead! But thank you!” She kissed the top of his head and pushed to her feet.

She laid her hand on Gabriel’s head, and he felt her blend her magic with the strength of his wolf. Jack Frost looked at them, narrowed his gaze, and disappeared in a gust of snow as Ana focused her attention on Nightmare, eyes blazing.

“Goodbye,” she said quietly.

Her magic erupted outward, bright gold and pure.

Her power ripped through the dread magic like sunlight through fog. Nightmare staggered as the terror he’d been feeding on from bad dreams was abruptly cut off. She tore magic from him, shattering the purple waves of power and leeching them away under the force of her own.