The fire crackled merrily in the chimney as Hunter lazily stroked his hands through his guide's hair. He was inspecting the way the strands changed hue in the firelight, the way that he could see the flames dancing over different shades of honey, strawberry, and snow. She was quietly resting, soaking up the very singular attention that only a sentinel could give. The cabin was safe. Hunter had a sensory net cast out over the surrounding area. The back of his mind cataloged the sounds of the nearby radius and filed them away.
Beyond the crackling of their fire, there was the hum of the solar converter providing electricity, the soft shushing of the birds that had taken roost in the overhang and then suddenly a loud popping sound surrounded by two short bursts. The darkness through the eastern window turned into a dim light tinged bright red. Flares!
The noise was loud enough that even Karen could hear it. She shot up from where she'd been reclining on Hunter's broad chest. Her slow comforting heartbeat had skyrocketed in fright. It did not calm down as she hopped over the back of the couch to look out of the window.
"That's Fate's land," Karen shouted, biting her nails in a fit of stress.
Hunter was up and beside her in an instant, "Fate's a strong girl, she's taken care of herself before."
"She is Hunter, but those are alpha's! Two of them!"Karen was starting to panic, her breathing shallow. Hunter gathered his guide into his arms immediately, pressing his forehead against her.
"Breathe with me, guide," he commanded, his voice dropping an octave lower, "Focus on me. I am the sentinel of this area. I will protect you and everyone in my territory."
"Read me, guide," Hunter whispered, closing his own eyes, "Read me and trust your sentinel."
Hunter pressed his forehead against hers and all at once a rush of warmth flooded through her. As if in a trance, Karen's breathing slowed and the cold chill that had dripped down her spine evaporated. Feelings of love and protection slipped through their bond, shoring up her frazzled nerves.
Hunter would do everything to make sure that no tragedy came to Bent Valley. There was no question of trust. His mind was clear, organized and straightforward. There were no secrets between them. There was no fear, no worry, only cool determination. His emotions wrapped around her like his strong arms and Karen let out a final, shaky breath.
"I trust you, Hunter."
Her bonded mate gave her a final squeeze, planting a quick kiss on her lips before drawing away, "Call up the county, have them send Bess and her crew down here. I'll go crank the 4-wheeler."
Karen nodded, her sentinel's calm under pressure translating into her own.
Everything would be alright.
It had to be.
-----------------
Elizabeth "Bess" Shaker was a thirty year veteran of the local NOGS-funded sentinel and guide services center. Born the youngest null daughter of a bustling family full of superhuman sentinels and guides, she was a surprise to everyone she met. Her bearing was so similar to a sentinel that at first meeting, people often mistook her for one. Unfortunately, her only claim to fame was her particularly good eyesight. It wasn't enough to rank on the sentinel charts, but she was quite good at reading the fine print.
Still, in all her years working with sentinels and guides, she'd never quite seen a case like Lafayette Robinson.
Bess hadn't thought much of the quiet girl with the shaved head that came up to take over the old Robinson acreage years after Mrs. Abeline passed and left the place empty. She'd introduced herself around town, as was proper, but mostly kept to herself. She had some kinda fancy IT job that meant the local post office got a lot of big-heavy computer packages, yet she behaved like any other country loner.
Who'da thought she'd bring so much trouble?
Well, trouble was a mean way of putting it. When Bess saw her NOGS examination record she'd thought it was a typo. Most children in the public school system had to take physicals, of which sentinel or guide aptitude checks were a common part. For one, her guide capabilities had manifested in early middle school, about three years earlier than even early presenters.
Sentinels and guides could be detected at birth, but gene sequencing was expensive and unnecessary. After all, most capabilities would begin to be measurably different at puberty. For a guide to begin showing measurable signs before she'd even had her first menses was... well it was unheard of!
Bess hadn't gone into depth investigating the young woman's record. After all, she had no criminal record to speak of, not even a parking ticket or a dog-off-leash citation. Despite that, her record at the NOGS center was thick. There was even a section of it that was sealed and kept in a different state. Bess herself had added several inches of paperwork to the file herself over the years. If she did the math, Fate had been in Bent Valley for five years. To be exact about it, it was 64 months since she first registered herself at the county as a precaution.
It was the right thing to do because, in 64 months, there had been 37 separate instances of sentinel aggression involving Lafayette Robinson. Twenty of those had been on her property, while others were a mix of stalking, manhandling, and -in one particularly newsworthy incident- daytime abduction. Any normal guide would have crumbled under the stress, but Fate just kept on her merry way.
It did help that she could hold her own in a fight. That idiot who'd tried pulling her into a van ended up on his ass in the middle of the street. She knew when Fate was out of town because her hotline would be silent for a week. The girl had the strongest guide-pull that she'd ever seen. Even the local knitting circle joked that they could tell if a child was a sentinel if they found Fate going grocery shopping.
Bess understood, but she just couldn't abide it. Her father was a sentinel, and so were her two eldest brothers. She saw very clearly the effects that a strong guide-pull could have on an unmatched sentinel. It didn't excuse the sentinels their behavior. Sure, sentinels liked to throw their weight around and say they were different or that their hierarchy of needs had a special setting for guides, but by Bess' knowledge that was about as much horseshit as anything else.
A good sentinel could resist the pull of a guide that didn't want them. It was bad news to try and force a bond. Nothing but misery came out of it for anyone involved. That's why she helped Fate with every single Writ of Rejection that Fate filed. Sure, she wished the girl would find a sentinel to take care of her because the accompanying assessments, questionnaires, and increases in dampener dosages were just going to turn her into a dried husk of a human before she was even 30.
But that wasn't her place. Her duty was to advocate for the healthiest and best life for the sentinels and guides in her community so that they could live as happily and fulfilled as a null despite their specific condition.
That's why she didn't even sigh when her on-call phone buzzed her urgently with a call from the Bent Hill Retreat.
"Hey Karen," she answered as she hopped up from the bed and went rummaging for her uniform, "What do you think we're looking at this time? Perimeter breach? Altercation?"
"Bess we're going to need all hands on deck. I think two of the alphas got to her!" Karen's voice was trembling a little through the phone. Bess almost dropped hers.
"Two?"
"Yes...Two! We already sent the samples to the database. Hasn't Henry notated them yet? The alphas both rated positive for focusing on Fate."
"Both alphas? Henry marked them as unlikely to match," Bess was already checking the phone's secure login to the database, "According to this that famous boxer was marked as unlikely to match just like he has at every other retreat, as was this other Alpha, Pete."
Bess read on further, "There are no other alphas on this list. What's going on? Fate's not registered for this excursion. She's a damn special case and wouldn't have skipped out on paperwork!"
Karen was silent for a moment, "Bess I screwed up. I transferred some of her hair when I picked her up from the airport... I didn't think-"
"Karen, honey," Bess felt her heart constricting, "You don't know what can happen when two alpha sentinels catch the same guide."
Bess knew. She knew all too well what could happen, and the worst of it wouldn't fall on the sentinels. It was the reason she'd devoted her life to protecting guides even if she was just a null. The thought of what could happen brought up distant memories of rain and three body bags, of her big family being ripped apart.
"Karen, she could die."