Hunting Season: Werewolf Bodyguard Romance (Guarded by the Shifter Book 1) by Kate Rudolph (e novels to read online .TXT) 📕

Her street wasn't crowded, but it was still New York. Scents and people swirled all around him, and Owen had to concentrate to figure out where to go. He didn't see her at first and he had no idea where she was going. But it was only a matter of time.

There!

She was standing at a stoplight and making no attempt to hide her identity. She had to know the surveillance team could see her, and he hoped that was on purpose. She didn't want him, that didn't make her suicidal.

He hung back but didn't care about staying out of sight. She'd see him if she looked over her shoulder, but there wasn't anything he could do about that short of shifting into his other form, and that would certainly attract more attention than it was worth.

She ducked into a coffee shop, giving Owen the opportunity to throw his own watery coffee into a nearby trashcan. He didn't follow her inside. At this point he was curious to see what she was going to do. There were plenty of eyes on her, and he had no reason to believe that the people targeting her would physically harm her. He was going to let this play out.

She had to know he was following her. She sipped her coffee as they walked a few more blocks, then dumped it in a garbage can.

Was this whole thing a simple coffee run?

No.

She took the stairs down into the subway and Owen followed, closing some of the distance between them. He didn't want her getting on a train without him.

What the fuck was she thinking? No way would the surveillance team be able to keep up.

He hoped they were tracking her phone.

The train was already there and not too crowded. There must have been a lull in the commute, or they were lucky. Stasia took a seat.

Owen sat next to her.

"Looks like you're not as much of an idiot as you look," she said as she situated her purse on her lap.

"Hey!" That stung a bit. Owen wasn't dumb. He just didn't think things through all the time.

Stasia glared at him.

That glare did things and Owen needed to look away, or he definitely wouldn’t be thinking things through. "We need to work together."

"You seem to be doing just fine." She was determined to make him beg.

But this was Owen's job and he wasn't playing. "I don't think you're taking this seriously. You were almost kidnapped."

Her eyes flicked to him and then away, unimpressed. "They failed. My father is looking into it. What more can I do?"

"Take a cab?" That had to be obvious. There were only a few passengers in this car with them, but there could have been a hundred, any one of whom could have meant Stasia harm.

She snorted. "And let my would be kidnappers car jack me? No, thanks."

He wasn't sure the subway was safer than a cab, but at least she'd considered it. Owen would count that as a win, though he wasn't sure what game they were playing or how it was scored.

"Where are we headed now?" He was at her side. They could start over. No reason to call this morning a loss just yet.

But Stasia wasn't about to play along. "I don't know where you're going."

"I'm your shadow."

She shifted in her seat to face him, arms crossed and face hard. "I'm not stupid. I'll be vigilant. I neither need nor want you. So go back to my father and tell him that."

"That's not how this works."

"That's exactly how this works."

The train screeched to a halt and Stasia jumped up from her seat. Owen had to scramble to follow, and it seemed like their time for conversation was over. He didn't recognize the neighborhood they were in, but it was a world away from the glittering richness of Gramercy Park.

Definitely not the kind of place a spoiled rich girl would hang out.

Unless she was getting drugs.

He hoped she wasn't getting drugs.

She wasn't. Not unless St. Agnes Charity Health Clinic was some kind of front. She got to the front door and stopped quickly enough that Owen almost bumped into her.

"Patients have a right to privacy. I can't stop you from sitting in the waiting area, I suppose. But you step one foot out of line and I'm calling the cops."

She opened the door and let it fall closed right in his face.

Again.

Owen needed to stop letting her do that.

Chapter Six

Stasia punched the keys of the computer harder than necessary as she looked up the chart for her next patient. The volunteer clinic couldn't schedule her for enough hours due to their own internal rules so she wanted to make every minute count.

What she didn't want to be thinking about was the sexy, frustrating bodyguard who was probably sitting in the waiting room right now.

"Rough night?" Luna Sparks was a nurse at the clinic and Stasia's friend. Her stark black hair and tattoos didn't really fit in with the vibe of the Catholic charity clinic, but she was an amazing nurse and no one wanted to make her upset.

Stasia wasn't sure how they'd become friends. She wasn't good at talking to people, but Luna had slipped through her defenses like it was nothing. Even so, she didn't want to bring her stupid, rich girl bullshit into the clinic. She wanted to pretend she was normal, and that meant ignoring the attempted kidnapping and definitely ignoring Owen.

"Something like that." Stasia kept scanning the file, as if that would be enough to make Luna go away.

She smiled, showing big, bright white teeth rimmed by dark red lips. "Who's that guy you walked in with? He's yummy."

"And what would your girlfriend say about that?" Stasia barely glanced up as she shot off the rejoinder. This was proof Luna was her friend. She knew next to nothing about the other people who worked at the clinic. But she knew Luna's girlfriend's name, Gerry, that she was a Gemini with a Cancer rising