Hunting Season: Werewolf Bodyguard Romance (Guarded by the Shifter Book 1) by Kate Rudolph (new reading TXT) 📗

Emerald crossed her arms. "You forgot?"

"What's going on?" He and Stasia had gone over her plans for the week and she'd failed to mention this visit. From his standpoint as a guard, it wasn't a huge deal. Emerald was a trusted family member and if she had ill will towards Stasia she wouldn't need to have her abducted off the street, she had a key to the woman's house. But from the perspective of Owen's cock? Not great.

Stasia gave her sister a half hug. "I'm sorry, Em. Some shit's gone down. I guess AR didn't loop you in. It's probably best if you just get a hotel." She winced as she suggested it, and Owen wondered why. There wasn't a hotel in the city they couldn't afford—even if they wanted to buy the building outright rather than just rent a room—and no doubt Em wouldn't want to be caught in the line of fire if something went down.

Not that Owen would let either of them get hurt.

Em was shaking her head, eyes wide and stubborn. "You know what happens when I go to hotels." She grimaced. "It's so much better if I stay with you…" There was a pause. "Unless this is sex week that I’m interrupting."

"No!" Stasia stepped to the other side of Em, putting as much distance as possible between herself and Owen.

That stung a little. A sex week sounded like a dream. But he found it almost… cute, the way Stasia jumped right there. From some other woman he might have seen it as a rejection, but not from Stasia. Maybe it was just his wolf engaging in wishful thinking.

Or maybe this was more than just lust.

Mate.

Em looked between him and Stasia, eyes raised and skeptical. "I mean, I guess I could stay at Dad's penthouse. As long as Riley isn't there." She sounded even less enthusiastic than the idea of the hotel.

"Riley is one of your sisters?" Owen asked. There was a whole family tree in Stasia's file, but it was convoluted and he was bad at remembering names. He vaguely remembered a Riley.

Em scoffed. "She's our twenty-three-year-old stepmother."

Yikes. Owen didn't know how to react to that. He knew Stasia was thirty-four and Em looked like she was in her late twenties. It was no secret that Armand Selby had been married several times, but Owen had never paid attention to the ages of his wives. He was curious to know how Stasia felt about that, but now was not the time to ask. Clearly Em wasn't a fan.

"You have to get over it eventually," said Stasia.

"Why?" Em finally gave up on standing in the doorway and came all the way in and leaned on Stasia's desk. From the ease of the movement, Owen had no doubt she'd done it a hundred times before. "It's not like she's going to last for long. Name stealer."

"What?" The more Em talked, the less Owen understood. What was with this family? He thought being a werewolf made him weird, but it had nothing on the weirdness of the outrageously wealthy.

Neither sister answered him. "I won't make you stay at Dad's," said Stasia. "You can stay here. Owen is my bodyguard. There was a kidnapping attempt the other day. Dad and AR insisted on a babysitter. Just for the week. They don't think it'll take long to figure stuff out." She didn't look at him while she explained the situation.

Owen didn't like the reminder of the time limit. But a week—six days now—was plenty of time. Not to get her out of his system. One kiss was enough to know that wouldn’t happen. But all he had to do was convince her to take a shot on him.

Surely she'd want to upgrade her werewolf bodyguard to werewolf boyfriend.

Right?

Em's eyes got wide, this time in surprise. "Another kidnapping attempt? Why do they always come for you?"

It sounded offensive, but Stasia smiled. "I'm an easy target. Shouldn't you have hulking men surrounding you at this point?"

Em shook her head. "I gave them the week off. I just need a week to be a normal person. Or a few days. I guess your bodyguard will have to be eye candy enough." Owen was a bit lost on why Em needed bodyguards, and he wondered if it had something to do with why she looked so familiar. But he couldn't resist preening a bit when she objectified him.

"Keep your hands to yourself." The words were jealous and petty out of Stasia's mouth and Owen's eyes got wide. Maybe he was closer to werewolf boyfriend status than he thought.

"Oooooooh. What have we got here?" Em pushed off the desk and stepped close to her sister, grinning from ear to ear at the idea of Stasia's possessiveness of Owen.

He loved listening to the banter, but he knew when to make his exit. The sisters needed time to reminisce, and they couldn't do it properly if he was standing right there. "I'll let you two get caught up," he said.

But as he left the room, he trailed a hand down Stasia's arm, a reminder that the thing between them was far from over.

Chapter Twelve

Stasia could still feel Owen's touch as she went back to the couch and sat down. She patted the seat next to her for Em to join her, her cheeks warm. She expected him to do the normal thing: ignore everything they'd just done together and let things go back to normal.

She was going to tuck that kiss deep into her memory and revisit it every time she needed a pick me up. But she could barely dream of letting it be more. What was she to Owen? What was he to her?

What could they become?

Everything. The instinct was terrifying and exhilarating, and she was almost sure it was right. If she let him, if she wanted, they could be everything together.

With one casual touch, he’d destroyed her expectations, and she was