His Alpha's Guardian

**Kataleya's POV—2 weeks later**

I was sleeping peacefully until I realized I suddenly had too much bed. I rolled over in the bed, searching for Justin, and realizing that the bed was next to me. I groaned when the light in the room was turned on, rolled over, and placed the pillow over my head.

I felt the bed dip next to my head when Justin whispered next to me, “Baby, Michael is going to be calling any minute. You don’t want to miss it, right?”

The moment he said Michael was calling, I was automatically alert. I threw the pillow off my head and reached for my phone, checking the time.

Fuck. Did I miss training?

Justin must have seen the panic on my face when he said, “Love, you have been extra tired lately. I decided that it was best to let you sleep in today. Oliver and I led training for you today. The warriors were more concerned about whether their Alpha was sick, rather than you not being there. I swear, babe, sometimes you work yourself too hard. Now come on, get your sexy ass up, so you can get on this video call.” He finished by smacking my ass and pushing my legs off the bed. “Asshole,” I mumbled.

All he did was smile in response and pull me out some clothes from the dresser before making his way to start my shower. I guess, even though he was an asshole, he was a sweet asshole. That has got to count for something, right?

The moment that I stood up I was hit with a dizzy spell and I was suddenly nauseous. I tried shaking away the feeling and I made my way to the shower and quickly did my business before hopping out to finish getting ready. By the time I had finished what I needed to do, Justin had already taken a shower in the other bathroom and changed out of his sweaty workout clothes.

“Ready?” he asked me.

I nodded my head and quickly rushed to my office, where I had planned to take Michael's video call. I was hoping that he would tell me how it was going with his mate. I knew he struggled hard after her rejection, but he had held strong with the hope that she would give him a chance eventually. I finally convinced him to go to her pack...now, I might have pretended to send him there on pack business...but that was alright as long as it was helping my big brother, right?

I shook my head and cleared it of the thoughts that were running through it. While I waited for him to call, I opened my laptop and scrolled through the hundreds of emails that I had to answer.

Thirty minutes later, my laptop and phone started to ring with the notification of an upcoming video call. I quickly answered the call and Michael's face covered my entire screen.

Fuck, he looked rough. I could tell that he hadn't been sleeping. He had bags under his eyes and I could tell that he was groggy.

“You feeling alright, brother?” I asked him, concern clearly laced in my voice.

He nodded his head, but didn’t speak. Goddess, he looked like shit. Hopefully, his mate and he can come to some resolution, so my brother can at least get some rest. I hate seeing him looking like that.

“You sure? You look like you haven't slept in weeks.”

“I am fine,” he whispered. “The last few weeks have just been a little rough and I haven't been sleeping. Nothing that I am not able to handle, Kataleya. Let's move on to talk about the real reason that I called you. The Moonlight Storm pack has accepted your treaty conditions, but they wanted to add in a few of their own clauses.”

I shook my head, chasing the thoughts away that had me thinking about my brother and what he has been going through for the last five years. I knew about the nightmares he had. He thought he was hiding them while he was there in the pack, but he wasn't. He completely moved out of our parents’ house and into the pack house, just so that he could hide the pain, anger, and sorrow that he was in...but, the few times that I had to stay in the pack house, I heard his screams ringing out. By the time I had made it into his room, he would be wide awake and pretending that nothing had happened. He would deny the screams that I heard from him and make it seem like I was hearing things. I know he felt that it made him weak. But, it didn't. He didn't make me feel weak when I had my nightmares after my assault, so why would I make him feel weak, even though our situations were vastly different?

“What are they hoping that we will offer them?” I asked him quietly. Lately, whenever I have gone to sign any treaties with the surrounding packs, they have all wanted something extra, usually some in the supply of rations or fresh water. There were rare few that wanted use of my warriors.

“They are having some rogue issues. I, myself, have had to attend to several rogue attacks along their borders. They feel as if they are being purposely targeted by rogues, as if they are trying to find an easier way into the pack to attack. They act as if they are looking for something. It is rare for rogues to ban together. The last time we saw a huge group ban together was when you were attacked and then later kidnapped...rogues are typically solidary beings. They don't like working with or in groups. They have requested that you send them a few of your warriors in order to help with their problem and to possibly offer some higher quality training than they are used to. As Alpha Stavros told me, our pack has some of the strongest warriors and we offer the highest quality training to our warriors. He essentially wants a few warriors and your Gamma to come help train... and I request that you allow me to stay a little longer to help them.”

I looked at him sympathetically. I know the reason he wants to stay, even though he will not admit it. “Is the situation with her at least improving a little bit, Michael?”

He shrugged his shoulders, once again, not wanting to answer the question. I could tell by the way that his eyes were downcast that the situation was not improving, but he was holding out his hope that she would come around to him.

I closed my eyes, thinking about what they were wanting from me.

Justin, can you come in here for a minute?’ I linked him.

He responded immediately by opening the door and going in.

“The Midnight Storm pack is requesting our assistance with a rogue issue in trade for them signing the treaty agreement. They have had a flare of rogue attacks that are getting out of hand. They have requested that we send a few of our warriors and James to help them with the issues and to help further train their warriors...they want the same training that we offer our warriors. And...Michael requested that he be allowed to stay and help them.”

Justin was thoughtful for a moment before he responded, “I think sending James could be rearranged as well as sending a few of our top tier warriors. Which warriors are you thinking about sending?”

“Can you just make sure whatever warriors you choose that Aziel is one of them?” Michael interjected.

"Sure. We have Aziel going. What if we sent James, Aziel, Jessica, Cadence, and McKenzie?" I asked, looking at Justin for approval.

He nodded his head in agreement with what I had said. “I will link the warriors to meet us here, so we can go over their assignment.”

Just then, there was a knock at the door. I told them they could come in when the door opened and an Omega opened the door and the smell of fresh bacon, eggs, and orange juice wafted to me. I immediately felt nauseous from the smell and I got up and ran to the bathroom in my office.

I barely made it to the toilet before I lost the contents of my stomach.