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

She followed the hallway to a staircase, and then she followed her nose to the smell of pancakes and bacon.

Andre, Leland Rowe, and Em were all in the kitchen with plates of food in front of them. It seemed like everyone had decided to stay over last night.

Stasia's cheeks heated.

Had they heard her and Owen going at it? Werewolf stories and TV shows said they had super senses, enhanced hearing and smell, and maybe even sight. And she and Owen had not been quiet.

She clamped her mouth shut. She wasn't going to say a peep about that, and hopefully no one would say anything in return. That was the polite thing to do.

Andre was glowering at Rowe and Em, who were talking quietly on one side of a large table. Stasia found two platters, one with pancakes and one with bacon, and served herself on the assumption the food had been prepared for everyone.

As she got closer, she could tell that Rowe and Em were speaking about a band that Stasia didn't know anything about.

Good for Em. Stasia loved her sister, but she wasn't nearly as into music as Em was. It was good that she could find someone to talk about her interests with. Most people got a bit starstruck around Em and couldn't have a normal conversation. Rowe didn't seem to have that problem. Maybe he didn't know who she was. Maybe he didn't care. Whatever it was, Stasia was glad her sister had made a friend.

But why was Andre glaring? Was he one of the assholes who thought her sister's music wasn't complex enough? Did he think that she didn't deserve her fame? Was he sneering at the conversation? Or at Rowe?

Em worked hard for everything she had. Stasia had seen a lot of it firsthand. In the middle of a tour her sister was bound to collapse from exhaustion, but she always demanded that she keep going. And if Andre couldn't respect that they were going to have words.

Stasia took a seat at the table right next Andre, ready to ream him out if need be. He gave her a tight smile and then looked down at his food, but at least he was no longer glaring at Em and Rowe.

A minute later, Bryan Vega walked inside. He had a bounce in his step and was all smiles, but the smile wiped off his face when he saw Stasia, replaced by a look of remorse. He didn't look like a man who had been shot the day before. And she didn't know a werewolf could look sheepish. "Hi," he offered.

"Good morning," said Stasia. Maybe she should have been angry at him, but he looked scared of her.

He was the werewolf in the situation. She should have been the one that was scared. Right now it didn't look like he could hurt a fly. And Stasia knew he hadn't been in his right mind. She'd worked on patients like that before, the kind who were in so much pain or in such an altered mental state that they had no idea what they were doing. They didn't mean to lash out at their doctors. And holding it against them would just make things worse.

"I'm so sorry," said Vega, all apology as the words poured out of him. "Are you okay? How are you feeling? Can I get you breakfast? Do you need coffee?" The questions ran out of his mouth so quickly she could barely make sense of them.

Stasia tapped her fork against her plate and had to hold back a smile. Vega was young, probably in his mid-twenties, and had the kind of boyish charm that let some men get away with murder. "I'm good. Thanks for offering. And I'm okay. We're good."

But Vega was frozen where he stood and the others stopped talking. Everyone was looking at her as if they expected her to freak out.

Yesterday she might have. And she hated to think that sex had solved the whole thing, but she did feel a lot more relaxed today. Besides, there was nothing she could do. She had been bitten by a werewolf. Maybe she was turning into one. Maybe it would happen in three months. Maybe it would happen in three hours. Maybe it wouldn't happen at all. No one knew.

Was it scary? Yes.

Did she hate not knowing what was going to happen? Of course.

But right now she needed to just accept it.

"It's okay," she repeated. "It's not like you guys have a manual for this. We'll figure it out." She was used to being a steady voice in the hospital, but that didn't mean she was normally the voice of reason. She just wanted things to go back to normal, for some value of normal, as soon as possible.

It took them all a few seconds to accept her words, but Vega went and got his own food and Em and Rowe eventually continued their conversation.

"You're taking this in stride," Andre said to her. He was watching Rowe as if he expected the man to do something, but Stasia didn't know what.

"What are my other options?" she asked him, and meant it.

Andre didn't have a response to that.

She sensed a change in the air and wasn't surprised when Owen walked through the door. His face broke out into a big smile when he saw her and he crossed directly to the table and gave her a thorough kiss.

Stasia kissed him back without hesitation, but when he pulled back she was a bit thrown off. She had never been one for public displays of affection before, and wasn't Owen still technically her bodyguard? The suddenness of the kiss had been enough to overcome any initial hesitation, but she was dealing with a lot at the moment. But Owen kissed really well, and she didn't want him to stop.

"Good morning," he said, his hand running through her hair, grinning at her like they were the