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

Owen pulled out his phone and brought up the information before sharing it to Gibson's email. Gibson opened it on his computer and took a look. There was a personnel picture of Hill that had been taken by the Selby Group as well as a picture that might have been from social media. He didn't smile and he wore a generic looking suit. He could have been anyone. Just looking at the picture Owen would not have recognized him. But when he saw him in person, he knew.

"This is the guy?" asked Gibson.

"He doesn't look like much, but he was there." The sense of torch fire tickled Owen's nose as a flashback threatened to pull him in. Stasia reached out and grabbed his hand, anchoring him in the present.

"You're not the only one who recognized someone that night," Gibson admitted. "And I still have some friends back in Germany who might be able to look into some things. I think we've waited to figure out what happened to us for long enough. We're healthy now, and our pack is growing. We need to know who we are, what we are. We can't just sit around and live with this any longer. This is going to change things. We might be kicking a hornets’ nest, are you ready?" Gibson didn't look at Owen when he asked—the question was for Stasia. She was the newest member of their pack, and her life was the one being disrupted the most at this moment.

But Stasia smiled. "I guess that will make my life as your doctor more interesting."

Chapter Thirty-Four

The news that Owen gave to Gibson didn't send the world into a frenzy. As a matter of fact, things started to calm down in the two weeks after that. There were no more attempts to kidnap Stasia and she and Owen settled in to something new and comfortable.

And wonderful.

His things had started migrating to her house. Slowly at first, and then she suddenly noticed that he had taken over half of her closet. Eventually Stasia asked him when she could expect a rent check, but Owen just laughed and offered to pay in sexual favors.

It was easy, and fun, and freeing.

She was growing into her life as a werewolf and already had plans to start researching the limits of what that meant with her pack. She was their doctor now and while they weren't getting into scrapes that needed medical attention every week, she had more skills than just sewing up wounds.

She and Em were able to squeeze in a final dinner before her sister left for her tour, and Em had only spent about half that night pestering her with questions about lycanthropy. The other half of the night had been spent complaining about issues with her own security detail and Stasia had half an idea that Em was going to end up asking one of the pack to come help her out before the tour was done.

And it was finally little Emmy's birthday party. Stasia had made as many excuses as she could, but her family was persistent and it was the perfect opportunity to show her mate off to everyone.

She just hoped that AR didn't rub it in her face that he was technically the reason she and Owen had met. That would be completely insufferable.

"You're sure they're not going to be weird?" Owen asked as he pulled his car into the private parking lot of her father's building.

Stasia grimaced. "Yes, they're going to be weird. They're always weird. But you're a werewolf. You can handle weird." She leaned in close and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "And if you behave, I'll make it worth your while."

"Really? How?" His eyes shifted to that wolfish yellow that she was growing familiar with before quickly shifting back to their human brown. Owen was working hard to get control of his wolf, and he was getting better at it. He said that now that his wolf had claimed his mate he was happy to cooperate and let the human make most of the decisions.

"I was thinking we could go for a run later."

"It's like you read my mind." Stasia wasn't talking about the human kind of run. No, this would be the kind of run that took place on four legs. But they had to get through the family gauntlet first.

They ran into thirteen-year-old Heidi and fifteen-year-old Ally first, the two girls playing some kind of game near the entrance to the penthouse. Tabitha, the sister closest in age to her, was in the kitchen drinking wine with AR and Ethan, her twenty-two-year-old brother. Thomas wasn't there, since he was in college in Europe and apparently that was a good enough excuse to get out of the party. Neither was Selby, the one other sibling that was older than Stasia. But Selby didn't come to family events, being her father's not-so-secret love child.

She could see Owen mouthing names as he met everyone, and she had a feeling that he had been studying.

Riley and her daughter Emmy were sitting with Stasia's father in the living room, surrounded by what had to be hundreds of gifts. The four-year-old looked ready to start crying. Riley had a faraway look in her eyes that made her look older than her twenty-three years, and Armand Selby was the picture of a doting father.

Stasia had seen that look before in her other stepmother's eyes. Divorce was around the corner. She only hoped that Riley could afford a good lawyer.

Stasia gripped Owen's hand tight and introduced him to her father and Riley, and she was in a good enough mood that she even gave baby Emmy a hug.

There was plenty to drink and enough food to feed an army. The whole party was miserable, though it got better when a few kids from Emmy's preschool showed up with their mothers in tow.

"Who's this?" Tabitha asked her when Stasia and Owen made it back to the kitchen to