Song of the Guardians Read Online Free Page B

rush."
    She crumbled in my arms, surrendering, at least for tonight. It wasn’t that I didn’t want her. Gods knew I did. But it was something I wanted her to experience, to remember without regret, and if we rolled into bed at that very moment, I knew she would. She'd regret it then hate me for it even more.
    Reaching behind the bathroom door, I handed her a blue robe along with one of my Tee-shirts. As we headed back downstairs, I tried to convince myself I’d done the right thing—even if every ounce of me insisted I hadn’t.

Chapter Five
    T ucker
    That night, after we were both dressed and fed, we returned to the main room of the house. It was the warmest place in the cabin without lighting the fireplace in the master bedroom, and it was still too early to go to bed.
    Emma sat in the chair opposite of me with her legs curled beneath her, nursing a cup of tea.
    I caught her smiling at me and sat up. "How long have you been in love with me?" I asked.
    It was an honest question. While Emma hadn’t told me, I could read her thoughts as easily as she could read one of her books. I knew she’d fallen in love with me before I'd picked her up at the psych ward. Her body language since we left was evidence of that.
    Emma stared down at her tea, the warm liquid steaming in front of her face. "A while," she said, furrowing her brow. "I’m not really sure." She looked right at me. "You were my escape, you know?"
    I cocked my head to one side.
    "Even though I couldn’t leave the ward, my dreams... my thoughts of you let me escape. I guess I’ve loved you ever since you left." She shrugged.
    "It makes sense, especially because of where you were."
    I couldn’t imagine what had gone on within those walls, and I didn’t have the heart to ask. If she’d used her memories to escape, it was only fair for me to keep it that way. Making her look back on the ward and everything inside would’ve done more harm than good.
    "I’m sorry I took so long," I said.
    Emma hugged her mug in her hands, its contents completely forgotten. "Couldn’t you find me?"
    I licked my lips. "I never lost you, Emma, but I couldn’t shift. Not until recently."
    "How recently?"
    "Your eighteenth birthday."
    "But that was over a year ago," Emma pointed out.
    I nodded. "Yes, but I needed to round up some papers to get you out. They wouldn’t have let you leave otherwise, and I didn’t want to risk getting caught until I was sure I had all the necessary documentation."
    "Is the bonding..." Her voice shook, and she looked away. "Is that why you waited until I turned eighteen?"
    "Mostly. It was also because I wanted you to be sure."
    "Sure of what?"
    "Your dreams, me, how you felt about what I told you so long ago. The other guardians might have taken you much sooner, but I needed you to need me, to want my company before I came to you."
    "Because of the imprinting."
    "Yes."
    "What about you?" Emma asked, her eyes on me. "When did you fall in love with me?"
    I stared at the flames in the fireplace. I’d only ever been in love twice, and both times I hadn't been able to explain it. The first time I fell in love with a guardian, it was a mix of being in love with the idea of bonding with a wolf, as well as becoming one. And I was sure Emma felt the same way. But now, I couldn’t say if I’d fallen in love with Emma the first night I'd seen her in the streets, or sometime after that.
    "I’m not sure," I said, after giving her question some thought. "I want to say back when you were still a child. I had a need to protect you, but what I felt then isn't anything like how I feel now. That love—that bond is even stronger since I found you."
    "You're still overprotective. You know that, right?"
    "Oh, I know that. It’s just—"
    "I’m not ready," Emma finished for me.
    I shook my head. "I think it’s mostly me who isn’t." I sighed, looking back on her last question. "Sometimes the need to protect another, and our instincts alone, can be mistaken for