Heart of the Guardians: Meeting Destiny Read online

  Needed.

  Probably.

  She tried to push away any doubts, she was almost all in, almost one hundred percent.

  Claire was silhouetted in the window, her feet on his desk, when James entered the office. The room smelled of books and jasmine, leather and faint traces of sweet tobacco.

  “Lock the door, Professor.” She said with a firm voice. “We are going to finish what was started.”

  James hesitated but only for a second. All thoughts of propriety, student teacher relations or the chance of getting caught fled from his mind. He clicked the lock into place.

  She stood, draped her arms around his neck, pulled him close and pressed her lips against his. She had to be sure, one last tiny little test before she fully committed. It was a long, hot, probing kiss. His hands explored her body as they devoured each other. The wanting, the desire, the electricity between them couldn’t be faked. It wasn’t simply lust, it was much, much more. She let go of her last little bit of reserve, she was all in. When she pulled away, he tried to come closer but she held up a hand to stop him.

  “Enough.” She said. “Do my bidding. Unbutton your jeans, take them off.”

  James stood back and did as she ordered and she could see the tightness in his shorts.

  “Those, too.” She said and sat on the edge of the desk, watched as he bent and tossed them aside. His oxford shirt hung low, his necktie loose, his hair curled above his collar.

  “It wasn’t very nice of you to leave me here yesterday.” She said. “You left me unfulfilled. You were very naughty.”

  “Yes, Mistress. Forgive me.”

  “Maybe.” She said. “You’ll have to earn it.”

  “Anything you desire.” He said. “Your command is my wish.”

  “As it should be.” She said and pulled the silk scarf from around her neck.

  She blindfolded him then took his hands and tied them behind his back with a necktie. She wanted to see, feel and taste a man at her own pace. She wanted to explore his mysteries, get to know it without hurry or worry. She wanted to trace her fingers over the lines of his tattoos, read the stories in them. James stood erect, bound and blindfolded, looking magnificent and aroused. She was going to be bad, do taboo things, and play sex games with a professor in his office.

  She smiled.

  When it was over, they lay on the couch trying to get their breathing under control. She’d never known anything that felt so good, even better than last night and she probably would have passed out if it got any more intense. She knew how sex was supposed to feel, she’d explored her body and climaxed many times over the years. Dana was always going on about how great it was and couldn’t seem to get enough but none of her stories ever mentioned anything like this.

  “You will be the death of me.” James whispered as he curled her into his arms.

  “Is it always that good?” she asked.

  “No.” he said. “This is special, this is perfect and this is rare.”

  He nuzzled her neck, breathed in the mango scent of her hair.

  “James, I want this with us.” She said. “I know I don’t have much experience but I’ve never, ever felt anything even close to what I feel now. Kissing other boys was almost like kissing my brother or something.”

  She trailed off, she couldn’t find the words to articulate what she meant. She didn’t want him to think she was a silly girl but she knew what she felt, she knew she’d felt it from the first moments she’d seen him. It was unlike anything she’d ever experienced.

  “I know, me too.” He said “Claire, I fell in love the instant I saw you. I tried to write it off as jet lag or being in a new country or any number of other things but something clicked. Something in my soul told me you were the one I’ve been looking for and believe me when I say I wasn’t looking. If anything, I was running away from feelings.”

  Claire wiggled closer into him, felt warm and protected. Needed and loved. She’d found something she hadn’t been looking for and didn’t know she’d been missing. It wasn’t the sex, although that was mind blowing, it was much more, something she couldn’t articulate, something more primal.

  James knew he shouldn’t use the “L” word, he’d only known her for a few days. It was impossible to fall in love so quickly, those things took time. Feelings had to grow slowly and you had to work at it, learn to overlook flaws, realize no one was perfect and if the good outweighed the bad then the feelings would come. Love would come. But love is what he felt. Deeper and stronger and more intense than he had with anyone, even women he’d dated for years and had really tried to build a life with. He hadn’t thought it possible to feel like he did is such a short time. He was fulfilled and content and deliriously happy and it was only the beginning.

  “My sweet beautiful darling,” he whispered as he held her. “I love you, you surprise me, you excite me, and you make me feel things I’ve never felt before. You complete me and I didn’t know a piece was missing. I know it’s crazy, we barely know each other but I love you! Something in you soothes and calms and fills me. I would battle the devil himself just to have a chance to try to make you love me too.

  Claire’s mouth formed that cute O of surprise as she ran her hands over his muscles and tattoos.

  “James, I do love you. I’ve never felt this before, this hunger and longing. When I thought you hated me, I felt like I would die. Is it like this for everyone else? How does the world continue, how does anyone get anything done if their head is full of the other person? I felt this pull when I first saw you. I acted stupid around you because, well, how could someone like you want me?”

  He kissed her neck and pulled the comforter draped on the back of the couch over them. He could hold her forever. He could love her forever. He could stay in the States and start a new life with her, let Stig have the throne, it wasn’t important. The advisors and high council would keep him in control, one man couldn’t ruin the country and he would guard the portal. Even he wouldn’t screw that up, too much depended on it. The members were as old as his uncle, some of them gray bearded and feeble, but they were all shifters and in their animal forms, they were still powerful and could force Stig to do what was right even if he wasn’t inclined.

  He absently wiped at a smudge of dirt on her neck and his mind drifted as he toyed with her hair. She snuggled into him and her breathing became deep and even. He had to tell her what he was before this went on much farther. There were steps and processes and approvals and meetings and counseling sessions and all manner of technicalities if he did it right. If he brought her into the fold. If they decided to be married and she became his queen if he took the throne. Part of him felt guilt already at the misrepresentation. She thought he was a Professor from somewhere in England. She thought his tattoos came from an artist and a tattoo gun. If she examined them closer under the light, she would see they were a part of him, they were as natural as his skin tone and had started to appear when he reached manhood, when he was sixteen. The blessing, or curse depending on how you thought of it, was inherited. Over the millennia there could be dozens of shifters in the extended family or sometimes only a few. Sometimes it had been hard to keep the family secret and sometimes they thought it was finally over, the last of them old and wizened with no apparent heir. But a new guardian always came forward, there was always one that manifested when he came of age and didn’t go mad with the change.

  A thousand years ago the Portal Guardian had failed in his duties. Some of the creatures from the other side had come through and there had been a boon of unnatural monsters. All manner of demonic creatures from hellhounds to bloodsuckers. Hundreds of shapeshifters and Skinwalkers of all stripes had been born and for centuries they had run amok, butchering the locals and doing anything they wished. One of James ancient relatives had finally put a stop to it, had hunted and killed most them. Oleg the Undefiled had gone to war with Vlad the Impaler and his blood thirsty horde. He had instituted rigorous testing to check for the insanity tha
t tended to manifest in their kind, especially the first generation born. James personally thought Stig should be retested, his cousin was violent and had a mean streak that ran deep.

  He didn’t have to become king, he could formally deny the throne. With a woman like Claire to keep his wildness in check, he would never have to shift again. Even if he did, he could be careful and travel to an isolated place. He controlled the change; it didn’t control him. He had enough money, they could live comfortably anywhere. She could pursue any career she wanted and he would be happy to follow. He enjoyed teaching and could do his job where ever her profession led them. It could be perfect life. Their age difference didn’t matter, she would catch up to him. The shifters aged much slower than unaffected humans. She would look the same age as him in another few decades.

  Chapter Ten

  The Message

  The next morning Claire woke up and smiled. She was as cheerful as Dana had ever seen her and a half mile into the jog she spilled the beans a little bit about what had happened. She felt like she was floating for the whole run and Dana was the first to tire and slow her stride. Claire was jubilant and bubbly and if she wasn’t mistaken, Dana thought she got a lot more nods and smiles than her that morning. Claire was oblivious to it all, her only thoughts were for James. Her body felt different and she could have run another five miles, she had barely broken a sweat by the time they finished the long route around campus. Maybe it’s all the sex I’ve been having she giggled to herself. It’s opened up a whole new me.

  Dana was happy for her but guarded. She’d felt love a hundred times and had been disappointed on every occasion. It never lasted.

  “You two need to be careful.” she cautioned as they stretched in the park, cooling down after the run. “Don’t do anything crazy, he can get fired, you know.”

  James hummed as he trimmed his beard and had to keep wiping the smile off his face so he could pull the razor close. He was deliriously content and counted his blessings again. He wondered at the mysterious way the universe moved. A week ago he had been distraught, shamed and nearly broken. Frank had whisked him away from the political intrigue and to the middle of nowhere. Here, in the most unlikely of places, he had found love. After so many false starts, so many disappointing relationships, it hardly seemed possible to find true joy in a small town ten thousand miles from home.

  He was at ease and the day flew by. He gave his first pop quiz to see how well the students where versed in Greek history and was pleased with the early results. He took coffee in the teachers’ lounge, enjoyed their company, and was starting to find his place in this new world. During the quizzes, he idly made plans as he graded papers from his earlier classes and students chewed pencils, wracked their brains and wrote out their answers. He would tell Claire who he was while breaking it to her gently. He couldn’t simply announce that he could turn into an eight-foot-tall raging beast at will. Even with all the movies and books that made it seem commonplace, even romantic, he needed to let her in to his world slowly. He didn’t want her to run away, didn’t want her to fear him. His decision didn’t come instantly, he considered implications all day, but he was willing to step aside from the old ways for this new life. He would let his cousin take the throne, he was more suited for battle anyway. Stig was a bruiser of a man, short and barrel chested and violent. He hungered for battle with the creatures from the nightmare realm, anxiously clamored for conflict when the portal opened. The council could control him and his dealing with the Russians, they wouldn’t let him bring dishonor to the entire country.

  For a time, Isabella had been close to the truth. They had dated for years and he thought he had found his mate. The magic wasn’t there but she satisfied him, he thought it would be enough. She had been snooping and almost found out about the secret society of shifters. She would have been brought in the old way if he had given the approval, if he had chosen her to settle down with. It was the way things were done in the kingdom. If he relinquished his claim, the old ways didn’t apply. He could bring Claire into the clan a little at a time and when she was ready.

  Galador was a special place, the worlds were thin under the mountain and a portal between the two had been guarded for thousands of years by the shifters. Their ancient history was lost, they had been the guardians since before written words. Legend had it that Galador used to be the Garden of Eden and the portal was how the dark creatures slipped from the netherworld to this plane of existence. Whatever crossed had to be stopped, hunted and killed.

  There where tales of other shifters in the world, long forgotten illegitimate offspring that carried the gene but didn’t know how to bring about the change. Some went through life with an emptiness that couldn’t be filled and never knew why. Some went mad and spent their lives in institutions, an animal mind trapped in a human body.

  Claire managed to be the last to turn in her test as the others hurried out, talking anxiously among themselves, comparing answers to the questions.

  “Dinner at my place? Eight o’clock?” he whispered as she handed it to him.

  Her short nod and smile that split her face as she followed the crowd out had him struggling to contain a happy dance.

  He allowed himself to stay in the bubble of love and desire as he finished out his day and closed the door behind him. James wanted to take her out, but it was too dangerous to be seen together. It was a small town with only a few upscale places. Like most college towns, the majority of restaurants served burgers and beer, pizza and wings. The best place in town was a French restaurant and he ordered Beef Wellington, chocolate mousse and mushroom cream soup. Uber eats brought it to his door and he had just laid it out when he heard her soft knock.

  The apartment came furnished with chipped plates and mismatched silverware but she wore the red dress, brought candles and the food smelled delicious. They only had eyes for each other, dinner could have been ramen noodles and hot dogs on paper plates, neither would have cared.

  He seated her, rested his hands on her shoulders and breathed in her scent. She was gorgeous in the bombshell dress. It clung to her curves, hiding very little and revealed the tops of her freckled breasts. James couldn’t get over how beautiful, how perfect this young woman was and his good fortune to have found her.

  Claire radiated merriment; the red lipstick made her eyes shine even greener. Gold and blue flecks in them reminded him of the deep mountain lakes of Galador.

  They sat, started the meal and the conversation was easy, relaxed and natural. James told her a little of where he came from and wasn’t surprised she hadn’t heard of it. The entire country was only a thousand square miles, a little smaller than Rhode Island, and rarely made international news. He learned of her childhood, the mother she had never known, her brothers she used to wrestle until she got too old, the tree house she’d built in the woods and the endless hours she spent exploring the forests and creeks of her rural Washington home. Her and Dana were unlikely best friends and had been since grade school. They were polar opposites, the tomboy and the cheerleader. Dana had taught her how to be a girl, to apply makeup and choose flattering clothes although she mostly ignored the advice. In turn, she’d shown her how to shoot guns, put a worm on a hook and cast a line.

  The meal ended, the plates picked clean and they both could have sat for hours hearing tales, learning of each other. There were no long silences where they tried to think of something to say. No awkward moments where they peeked at the clock to see how much longer they had to endure the date. No trips to the bathroom and a hurried text saying call me in five minutes, I need an excuse to leave. The evening was perfect, the food was probably good although neither would have been able to recall what they’d eaten. They were completely engrossed in each other.

  They cleared the table and James produced a small wooden box.

  “I’d like for you to have this.” He said “It was made in my country, I carry it when I travel to remind me of home. Maybe it will remind you of me if you wear it.”
/>
  Claire opened the intricately carved box and gasped, put a hand to her breast. It was an exquisite necklace made of gold in the old-fashioned art nouveau style. An emerald bears head was delicately carved from a single stone and set with diamonds, rubies and onyx. She’d never seen anything like it and ran a finger over its smooth surface. The craftsmanship was unparalleled and obviously a one of a kind piece. James didn’t tell her it had been in his family for generations. It had been a thank you gift from King Frederick of Prussia for eliminating a Skinwalker that had gone mad and had been terrorizing the countryside.

  “This is my heart.” He said. “I offer it to you if you would accept.”

  “James.” She whispered and her eyes shimmered with unspilled tears. “Yes. A thousand times yes.”

  He took it from the box and draped it around her neck and kissed around the emerald bear as it rested on her bosom. He stood, took a candle and her hand then guided her to the bedroom. She was his Goddess, his church and he wanted to worship her.

  His lips found her ivory throat as she tilted her head back and sighed. Claire was much more aware of her body, as if her senses where heightened and her soft moans made him want her more. The butterfly kisses made her burn with yearning. His lips found that perfect place on her neck, the spot that sent shivers through her. She ran her fingers through his dark hair, pulled him closer and wanted to melt into him.