Free The Protector by Sara Anderson

speak
through a guardian. She could not drift over the Earth looking for people or
things. She could not control anyone either. She did dearly love shifters
though, and gave them special abilities.
    David
could control things for a little while, but if this drew out, or more children
were reported missing, half the damn Colorado division of the FBI would be
here. Then they would also have the press everywhere. It would be a nightmare
waiting to happen.
    He
picked up his cell phone. “Myra.”
    “I
heard, I hope you find she has just wandered off,” Myra told him before
disconnecting.
    Cole
hung up with a sigh and shoved his pizza aside. It could be nothing, but the El
Paso County Sheriff’s Department had three kidnapped girls. One was located deceased,
and two were still missing. He hoped this girl had just run away, and they did
not have a predator here.

Chapter
Three
     
    Blair
sat silently in the attic and watched Cole as he moved about his house. She
nearly came down when he started talking to himself in the kitchen. This was the
real Cole. Once again, that whisper in her heart urged her to give him another
chance.   She felt more than a little bit
of guilt while she watched him go through his sad and lonely evening routine.
    Cole
was nowhere near as carefree as he used to be, she could see that. He looked as
though he had the weight of the world on his shoulders since he became the sheriff
and Kelach , when Warren stepped down.
    Myra
had told her that Cole was not happy about taking up the Kelach position and Michael’s beta, and she knew Cole was nervous about letting his
uncle down as he always had been, although, Blair had to admit, she’d never
considered he would panic as much as he did. Cole had thought he would not have
to worry about this for many more years. She knew some shifters thought Cole
was too young, but Blair had no idea Cole struggled that much until Myra had
told her after Cole confided in her.
    Michael
and Warren had both stepped up to help ease him into the position, and he had
done fine, and Blair knew Cole wanted his uncle to be proud of him, and
everyone, except Cole, knew Warren was proud as he constantly bragged about
Cole’s job as Kelach . Cole would never believe and
still thought he had to earn Warren's pride.
    The
man she loved so much had changed in many ways.
    No,
Goddess no. I do
not love him anymore . I
respect him as a man and the Kelach . Yes, that is
much better .
    He
was going through the house as if he was lost. His freezer was full of frozen,
ready to heat and eat store-bought food, and his cabinets full of canned soups,
stews, and pasta. She had not found one thing in his kitchen to actually cook.
It was not good for him to eat that amount of additives.
    She
shuddered. Aside from the triple meat pizza that she loved, thanks to a special
memory made with Cole, she never served frozen or canned meals. She preferred
to make everything from scratch. Although she found herself heating up boxed
food more often now, but at least that was homemade.
    It
was lonely to cook for herself , but she kept in
practice by cooking for the young mothers and elderly shifters. It wasn’t the
same as watching the man she loved enjoying a meal she prepared, but she got
her kicks out of watching the Pleasant Cove shifters and humans devouring her
fresh baked pastries.
    She
was also getting hungry, and she couldn’t cook another of Cole’s pizzas. Cole
would notice. If she ate the pizza he cooked, Cole would catch her for sure.
She giggled as she remembered Cole digging through the freezer for the pizza she
had eaten for lunch.
    She
was going to have a lot of fun with him about that. She walked into the kitchen
and opened his cupboards again. What else could she eat? She picked out one of
the cans turning it to read the ingredients. No way was she eating canned
ravioli. She preferred to make her pasta from scratch. Her heart ached,
remembering the nights she and Cole made homemade beef