by Kate Rudolph
Mate.
The word came naturally now, something to be cherished rather than fought against. Being turned into a werewolf had brought plenty of confusion, but Owen was no longer confused about this, about Stasia. She was his mate, whatever that meant and however it turned out. The wolf knew it and now the man accepted it.
He was keeping Stasia forever.
He slid his hands down her sides, holding her tight. He wanted to do more, wanted to strip her bare and slide into her again. He wanted to mark her so the whole world knew she belonged to him.
His fangs ached to shift, even as he kept his human form. Just a little nip, just enough to make the bond whole.
And if she had fangs and fur of her own, she could mark him as well.
Owen's cock swelled at the thought. She could be his mate in every way, his companion forever, and understand him like no one else. Was it selfish to want that? To celebrate that her life had been completely upended as she was dragged into his world?
She nipped at his lip and Owen groaned.
He thrust against her and it was its own kind of torture. They couldn't start anything here. Half of the team was only a few feet away and anyone could walk down the hall at any time. He didn't want them seeing him taking his mate, but the threat of exposure added desperate heat to the kiss.
He had to stop, but he couldn't. Not when her mouth was just as eager as he was.
He could almost smell her lust. His sense of smell in human form wasn't as sharp as it was when he was a wolf, but it was sharper, and he recognized all of Stasia's wants, or he was beginning to, and he was going to make it his life's work to know her every secret.
It was his job as her mate.
It wouldn't take much to drag her to an unoccupied room and have his way with her. He was sure she'd go with him. But it was hard to remember the layout of the offices when his mind was so focused on Stasia.
No matter how desperate he was, he didn't want to accidentally fuck in Gibson's office. That would be bad.
A sound tickled the edge of his senses, and it wasn't coming from his mate.
Footsteps. Coming closer. He didn't know whose.
Reluctantly Owen pulled away, but he couldn't tear his eyes off Stasia's swollen lips and mussed hair. There was no question that she'd been thoroughly kissed, and no doubt about who'd done it.
He grinned with dark, male satisfaction.
"Caveman," she said with a shake of her head and a fond smile.
He loved that smile, wanted to see more of it. Owen beat his hands against his chest like a cartoon character before leaning down and catching a quick, sweet kiss, forcing himself to pull away before it got any hotter. "Want to see my club?"
That startled a laugh out of her. "Oh god, I should dump you for that." She pushed him away, putting space between them even as she smiled, almost against her will, at his dumb joke.
"You're not getting rid of me." It was both a promise and a threat.
Stasia rolled her eyes. "Come on, let's get back inside. Otherwise they're going to think we snuck away for a quickie."
"We still could." Owen nodded down the hall. He was mostly joking, but his cock was one hundred percent into the quickie idea.
"Come on, caveman." She tugged on his arm and led him back towards the kitchen.
Chapter Twenty-Five
The memory of the kiss was still fresh on her swollen lips as Stasia sat back down at the kitchen table. Owen came in a moment later and everyone gave them knowing looks. Yeah, there was no hiding what they had been doing. But maybe they didn't need to hide.
It was exhilarating to think about. She'd never had someone truly worthy of the title of partner before, but maybe Owen was that guy. Maybe she could count on him for good.
Maybe this time she wouldn't get hurt.
Owen sat down right beside her and she expected a razzing from the guys, but they didn't say anything. Good.
She didn't know them well. Not yet. And she really didn't want to deal with whatever teasing normally went down. After all, these were a bunch of former military guys who only knew how to show affection through insults and swear words.
She didn't want them teasing her yet; that was something only close friends—and sisters—got to do. Even then, it was only Em out of all of her sisters that even tried. Tabitha, Ally, and Heidi didn't try and Emmy was only three.
Maybe one day these guys would be her friends. Maybe she was turning into a werewolf and would soon be a member of the pack, but not today.
Her phone rang and she wanted to ignore it, but she checked the caller ID and saw it was her father. That was a rare enough occurrence that she had to wonder if something was wrong. He didn't take time out from his world domination schemes for just anything.
Had something happened with the kidnappers? Had they missed one? Was she still in danger? Did she still need Owen to be her bodyguard?
It was strange how much she wanted the answer to the last question to be a yes. A week ago and she had fought against it with all her might. Now she couldn't imagine letting him go.
She was a bit frantic as she answered. "What's up? Is everything okay?" She didn't waste time with hellos. Her father was too busy to care for them.
But Armand Selby continued to be full of surprises. "I just got the guest list for Emmy's birthday party. Why aren't you on it?" he demanded, with the same kind of force he would use while negotiating a contract between warring nations.
Stasia had to pull the phone away from her ear and look at the screen to make sure she wasn't being pranked. But the number belonged to her father. And the voice sounded like him. She put the phone back up to her ear. "Are you kidding? I'm not going. I almost got kidnapped, doesn't that give me a break?" And hadn't she had this exact conversation with AR? What was it with Emmy's birthday? None of her other siblings had ever been celebrated so much.
Beside her she could hear Owen growl, and she reached out a hand to place it on his thigh to calm him down.
"You are a Selby and you need to be there," her father pressed, as if this was more than a child's party. It wasn't. Sometimes her dad got a stick up his ass and decided to make a stand. Apparently Emmy's birthday was one of those times.
Her life was Selby bullshit and she didn't need it. Cancer had stolen her mother away, but Stasia carried her name for a reason. "I'm a Nichols and I will do whatever the hell I want." And then she did something she had never done before in her life: she hung up on her father.
It felt good.
All of the guys were looking at her with curiosity in their eyes and Em had a huge grin on her face.
"Good for you, sis," she said. If she'd been close enough, Stasia was sure she would have reached over and hugged her.
"I should have done that a long time ago." She loved her father, even if the relationship was a bit complicated. But he didn't get to run her life. Not even when it came to something as inconsequential as a toddler's birthday party.
"What's that all about?" asked Rowe. He looked the most confused out of all of them. Andre seemed like he was interested but trying not to be, while Vega seemed to be holding still, as if Stasia might forget that he was there. Owen didn't look confused at all. Of course, he already had the story.
There was no use hiding it, and with every retelling Stasia found it kind of funny. "Our baby sister is having a birthday party pretty soon. Emmy. She's turning three. And everyone is trying to put together the guest list." It sounded so inconsequential when she said it like that.
Rowe looked between Em and Stasia, but it was Andre who spoke. "Em and Emmy?" he asked. "What is that? Emma and Emerald? Sounds confusing."
Em's grin turned into a glare, and she took the explanation from Stasia. "We're both named Emerald. Dad lets our moms choose our names. He's had six wives. And ten children. He forgot to mention to Riley, our 23-year-old stepmother, that my actual name is Emerald, so she named her own kid Emerald. It's super fun."
Rowe clamped his mouth shut as if he
had to keep from laughing while Andre had an unreadable look on his face. Vega was still doing his statue routine. Owen already knew the story so luckily he wasn't reacting in a way likely to get him on Em's dark side.
"I know it's fucked up. It's okay," said Stasia. The guys looked like they were liable to break something if they kept holding back their expressions. "We're just as screwed up as any rich family that has a reality show about them. We just don't let cameras into our houses."
"So your dad is still having this big party with you at risk of being kidnapped?" asked Owen.
Stasia glanced at Owen. She had mentioned that the kidnapping threat was gone, but clearly he hadn't said anything to anyone else yet.
She couldn't lie about it. "I'm sure that my father would be more than willing to have a party while we were all at risk of kidnapping if it was what it took to keep up appearances. But AR let me know that his people have identified the threat and are in the process of rounding them up. That's why I don't have an extra team tailing me anymore. It's all good now." She still had her hand on Owen's thigh and his muscles clenched under her fingers.
She didn't know what to say to reassure him that she wasn't about to walk away. She didn't need him just because he was her bodyguard. She wanted him for far more than that. She wanted to keep him around for good.
But before she could figure out how to say that, Hunter stuck her head into the room. "Hey, guys, Gibson wants to talk to all of us. The team. Stasia and Em will need to keep themselves entertained for about an hour. Come on."
That stopped conversation. Apparently when Gibson said jump, his team started hopping.
Owen gave her a resounding kiss before he and his colleagues left her and Em alone in the room.
Stasia wished that a toddler's birthday party was the most of her worries.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Gibson was waiting with the rest of the team as Willa led them into the conference room and took a seat beside Vega and Rowe. Owen and Andre took seats on the other side of the table. Gibson was at the head with Jackson beside him.
He gave Owen a long stare before turning and nodding to greet everyone else. That was kind of weird. Owen wanted to say something, but he didn't know what.
Everything felt new again, and not necessarily in a good way. He felt wrong-footed, just like he'd felt two years ago after the ritual had been performed on all of them. He didn't know what was happening, he didn't understand it, and he wasn't sure he ever could. He only hoped Gibson could shed some light on the subject.
Gibson had a laptop in front of him and projector set up to project onto the white wall at the front of the conference room. He pulled up some pictures and had them on display. "Does somebody want to tell me what went wrong on Vega and Rowe's job?" he asked with deceptive calm.
That was how their debriefs always started. Though usually the job didn't go wrong. Usually no one got shot.
Vega hung his head and stiffened his shoulders. "We got lazy," Rowe said with a hint of defiance in his voice. "We thought the job was over and we were coasting. And Vega almost got killed."
"Are you going to do it again?" Gibson asked.
Both Vega and Rowe shook their heads, followed by the rest of the team also shaking their heads. They might not have been there, but it could just as easily have been them.
"I expect a full write up by morning. You may need to give statements to the police. We will have to do something about Vega's alleged injury if that happens. But I'm glad you're alive." And that ended that portion of the meeting. Normally it went longer. Normally Gibson would have brought up photos from every angle and had them walk the team through the entire job. They were still pretty new to this bodyguarding gig and every job was a learning experience.
But today they had something bigger to talk about.
"How is Stasia doing?" Gibson asked him.
Owen didn't want to answer. His loyalty to Stasia warred with his loyalty to Gibson. But he knew that Stasia and Gibson were on the same side. Gibson only wanted to help. And he couldn't help if he didn't know what was going on. "She's doing well," he said. "Freaked out a bit. But she seems pretty accepting. Maybe resigned is the right word. She says that whatever happens, happens."
It was more complicated than that, he knew. But Owen could really only report what she had told him. And he believed her. So what more was there to say?
"Chip is acting weird, right?" Vega asked, using the nickname he'd earned back in the Army. It was meant to be a jokey name, but now was not the time for jokes. "This is like more than a job to you." It stood on the line between teasing and accusation, and Owen had to bite back a growl and keep himself from lunging toward Vega.
Andre was looking at him as if he expected him to pounce. He didn't know if his friend would hold them back or back him up. "Do you think she's going to turn into a wolf?" Rowe added.
Owen couldn't stop the growl this time.
Gibson ignored Owen's reaction. "No way to know. But I've been waiting for something like this to happen for a while. I've been tracking us since we first turned. Trying to keep a record of our symptoms and our reactions, the things that have changed since we changed. I'm not a doctor or scientist, but even I can see that we’re becoming… More. Different. I don't think our first change was the end of things for us."
"What do you mean?" asked Andre, sitting straighter in his seat.
Owen wondered what he meant, too. And did it have anything to do with what his eyes and his teeth were doing?
"We've all become more controlled over our wolf forms then we were in those first couple of months. And everyone is lifting stronger weights in human form than any of us were back in the military. And I think some of our wolfishness is bleeding into our humanity, just as our humanity is bleeding into our wolves. Does that sound right?" He looked right at Owen as he asked the last part.
It did. It sounded almost scarily familiar. "I think my eyes shifted when I was in human form. Teeth too," Owen admitted. He didn't need to hide this from his people. They were his team, his pack, and he trusted them.
Gibson nodded as if this wasn't a surprise, but he made a note of something on his computer. "Anyone else?" he asked.
Jackson raised her hand. "I managed to summon my claws in human form. Once. I haven't been able to do it again.” She looked a little sheepish as she said it, as if she couldn't believe that she was playing around with her powers.
Gibson made another note. "So what do we do about Stasia?" asked Hunter, her arms crossed. "We all decided to keep the whole werewolf thing a secret."
"It's a little late for that," Andre muttered.
"What can we do?" asked Rowe. "Stasia and Em know now. And we can't exactly take that knowledge away from them."
They all looked around at each other, as if some magical solution would make itself known. It didn't.
"We wait and see what happens to Owen's mate," Gibson finally declared.
Owen startled as if stung. That word had been knocking around in his own head for the past few days but it was strange to hear Gibson say it.
"Mate?" Andre asked, all incredulity.
"Seems so," said Gibson. He looked at Owen, giving him the opportunity to contradict him. When Owen kept quiet, Gibson continued. "One of those changes I was talking about."
Owen didn't argue, but he also didn't add his own thoughts. That was too raw to share.
"What about the sister?" asked Rowe. "Do we have to bite her?" Owen wasn't sure if Rowe was joking. "And doesn't she look familiar?"
Andre made a noise in the back of his throat that might have been a growl, but he didn't say anything.
"No shit she looks familiar," said Hunter, surprising Owen. "She won a freaking Grammy last year." He didn't know Hunter followed music that closely.
"No shit?" Rowe looked impressed. Owen realized that Rowe didn't know who Em was. They descended into discussion of Em's music career for several minutes until Gibson called them back to order. "If yesterday taug
ht us anything, it's that we need someone with medical training. We don't know what would have happened to Vega. Maybe it would be a good idea to have a doctor with us full-time. Something for Stasia to consider."
Owen liked the sound of that.
But he wondered if Stasia would be willing to stay.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Stasia ended up back in the room she'd shared with Owen the night before. She wished he were there with her, and she had no idea how much longer she had to wait until his meeting was over. And then she kind of hated how she was waiting for him. Who was she becoming? She didn't need a man. She didn't need to depend on anyone but herself.
But that didn't mean she couldn't want Owen.
Before she could get too caught up in her thoughts, her phone rang, and thankfully this time it wasn't her father or any of her siblings. "Hey, Luna. What's up?" The nurse didn't normally call her, but it was good to hear from a friend. It was a reminder that the outside world still existed, one without werewolves or kidnappers or toddler's birthday parties.
"I got the job," Luna said with excitement. "You remember the one I told you about the other day?"
It took Stasia a second to remember. It felt like a lifetime ago, even if it was slightly less than a week. But then she did. "Congratulations!" She was happy for her friend, even if that meant they wouldn't see each other at the clinic anymore.
If Stasia was going back to the clinic.
Could she be a werewolf and a doctor at the same time? What kind of complications would that bring up? She had the strangest image of operating on someone while her hands were sporting claws.
"They're looking for doctors," said Luna. "I want to give them your name. I think you would be perfect for this place."
Stasia probably should have said yes without any hesitation. She couldn't spend the rest of her life working at a free clinic. Well, she could, but she didn't know if that would be fulfilling enough. Getting back into an emergency room would be high-stakes. Exhilarating. She'd be saving lives every day.
