Titus didn't know how he felt about the bill the senator wanted to pass. Since the shifter equality act, shifters had enjoyed equal rights to humans. But with the rise of hyena terrorism, it had become unsafe for everyone. He had made a vow to protect the innocent when he joined the Armed Forces, and still kept that vow to this day. But he feared that the bill would target all shifters as terrorists, and it would be a major step back for all of them.
“What’s going on here?" Titus asked the security crew on detail.
"These gentlemen seem to believe they have the right to intrude on Arabella's concert because they disagree with her mother's political views. They've been asked to leave. The police are on the way.”
One of the young men holding a sign flashed his eyes at Titus and showed his sharp teeth.
"You're a shifter. You can't tell me that you support this bill,” the man shouted.
"It isn't aimed at the entire shifter community. Only at those who would do harm.”
"You are woefully uninformed. It's going to set the shifter community back a hundred years. Just watch and see. It will be tools like you who were responsible.”
"It has nothing to do with Arabella. I suggest you write a letter to your Senator.”
"You are the problem. Shifters like you are going to cause us all irreparable harm with your inaction. And we don't intend to let you be our downfall. This insanity ends tonight. Right here right now.”
"The authorities will be here any minute, Sawyer. You don't need to talk to this lunatic.”
"That's right, let the human tell you what to do. Just like a good little puppet. You can go back to your human mate and tell yourself that you’re doing the right thing when you betray your own kind. Just wait, we'll get the last laugh. You can't stop us." Police sirens blared. “When you take one of us down, ten more rise.”
The protestors started to run as the police cruiser drew closer. The officers got out of the car and asked the security crew what was going on, and Titus took off after the shifters. He didn’t want to let them get away if they were planning to do something that could possibly harm Arabella. He was going to stop them. He wasn't going to wait around for law enforcement to decide what to do.
The hyenas were fast, but Titus was faster, even with his large stature. He'd spent his life training. And he could outrun, outlift, and outfight any man or shifter.
He was right on their tails when one of them dropped something right in his path. It cracked on the street as it rolled toward him. It was too late by the time he realized what it was. The explosion sent him reeling.
He flew twenty feet back and fell hard on the concrete. The explosion lit up the night and the loud bang made the people in the parking lot scream with confusion.
Titus fell hard, cracking his head on the pavement. The pain radiated through him and his eyes went out of focus. Blackness enveloped him. He came to a moment later with Sam and the medical crew standing over him. He sucked a breath through his teeth and growled as an EMT bandaged his head.
"Did you get them?" Titus croaked.
"They were too fast for us," Sam said. “They got away.”
"Is Arabella safe?”
"She's safe. She’s still on stage.”
"Does she know what happened?”
"We haven't told her. She doesn't like to be interrupted during a show.”
"You’ve got to admire her dedication."
"It's impossible not to admire her," Sam said.
A flash of jealousy sparked in Titus, but he quickly let it go. He knew that hundreds of thousands of men must think the same thing. And he was so proud of her. So proud of her dedication and bravery. And even though they had been matched on mate.com, she didn't belong to him. She would always be her own woman, a huge star, loved by millions. The sooner he accepted that, the easier it would be for him.
“She's a heckuva woman," Titus said, sitting up in the street as the medics checked his vitals.
He was bandaged up and released several moments later. His shifter strength would heal him in no time. It was one of the many benefits of being half beast. He healed ten times faster than a human. His leg still hurt and his head was throbbing as he limped back to his post backstage. While her backup dancers took the stage for a solo, Arabella sauntered past, caught a glimpse of him, turned on her heel, her mouth open, and stopped abruptly.
"What happened?" she asked. “Are you okay?”
“Nothing a little shifter healing magic won’t fix.”
"What happened? How did you get hurt?” she demanded.
"There was a scuffle at the south entrance. Some hyena protesters were up in arms about your mom. We called law enforcement, but the perps got away. I gave chase and they threw some kind of explosive at me. I have a feeling it was intended for you.”
"This is just terrible." She put her fingers to her lips. “I can't believe they hurt you.”
"The threat is real.” He looked her dead in the eye. “But I’m here to keep you safe while you focus on making your fans happy."
"Thank you, Titus.” Her voice cracked. "I won't forget this.”
Her acknowledgment made his heart sing even though his head still throbbed. He understood in that moment that for all her stubbornness, all Arabella wanted was for someone to believe in her. It must have been hard growing up in her mother's shadow, while trying to become the woman she was meant to be. He could only imagine the challenges she faced and the sacrifices she’d had to make. It only made him admire her all the more.
Chapter 8
Arabella had been edgy all night, like she knew something terrible had happened. When she saw Titus, she realized what was wrong. She’d heard that shifter mates could feel each other, sometimes, even before they'd mated. And she had felt something was terribly off soon after she'd taken the stage. As much as she didn't want to admit it to him, her feelings for Titus could not be denied.
He had taken a real hit to keep her safe, and he seemed to understand how important her work was to her. Unlike her mother, who just wanted her to give up and live her life like a good little obedient daughter. Arabella could never do that, not after how far she'd come in making a name for herself.
She may be less worldly than anyone would ever suspect, but she knew her own mind. When she’d heard that her mother had sent Titus to protect her, she had expected him to just be her mother's mouthpiece. But she was beginning to see that he wasn't. He was something else entirely.
She hadn't realized until that moment how much she needed someone close to her who wasn’t an employee or a fan. She needed someone right up close and inside her life to understand her dreams and goals and what mattered to her. As she looked at herself in the mirror and the makeup artists touched up her face, she wondered if Titus could be that person.
"We believe we should take some precautions with your safety, Ms. Fernandez," Sam informed her the next morning as the show packed up to leave Denver.
"I'll be perfectly safe in my bus.”
"We believe that if you travel in a private car separate from the rest of the tour, it will be an added precaution.”
"I’ll be driving you,” Titus said.
She saw his eyes flash and her heart skipped a beat. She had been so rude to him when he’d first arrived. Now she wanted more than anything to spend time with him, get to know him, and make up for her previous actions.
"All right then," she said.
Titus showed her to the car he'd be driving and opened the back door for her to slip inside. She climbed in and he got in the front. She was disappointed that they would travel this way, like he was her chauffeur and not her equal. But she knew that it was what he would expect she wanted.
She watched his back as he drove out of the stadium and onto the freeway. He was an impressively large man with bulging muscles and a handsome face. But there was something more to Titus than the façade of a huge shifter military man. He had a heart as big as the sky, and loyalty and tenderness that he kept hidden undern
eath his tough exterior. She didn't know how she knew it. Maybe it was the same connection she'd felt when he'd been hurt. She just knew there was a hidden tenderness inside him. He had a secret trapped deep in his heart that he longed to share. Just like her.
The miles wore on and Arabella was getting tired of sitting alone staring at Titus’s neck. The rest of the tour had gone up ahead and it was just them on the big open highway.
“Would you mind if we did something naughty?" she said from the backseat. He gulped, and turned to her, shocked. She started to giggle, knowing she'd thrown him off guard.
"Do you think we could stop at a fast-food restaurant for a burger and milkshake?"
"Yes, of course, absolutely," he stammered before finding his composure.
“My dietitian has me on a strict diet of meat and vegetables. I'm not allowed junk food, especially on the road when it's so easy to get. But I'm dying for a treat. Especially after last night's scare.”
"I won't tell if you won't," he said.
"Awesome! Let's stop at the next exit.”
Titus pulled the car off the freeway and turned into the first fast-food restaurant they came across.
"I love this place. How did you know it was my favorite?”
"Because it's my favorite too. My sensei has me on a strict diet. But every once in a while, I like to break the rules too.”
She giggled as they pulled into the drive-through. When he stopped the car, she scurried into the front seat. Titus looked shocked at her sudden change in seating. But after a moment, he seemed genuinely pleased.
"What are you having?"
"I'll have a double bacon cheeseburger and a large strawberry milkshake. And a large fries."
"That's exactly what I wanted,” he said with a wink.
They ordered their meals and got their things and started back onto the road. Arabella sucked her strawberry milkshake through the straw and the sweet goodness filled her mouth.
"Oh, this is heaven."
"I couldn't agree more." Titus had one hand on the steering wheel, the other hand holding his milkshake.
They pulled out on the freeway and she helped him fold back the wrapper so he could take a bite of his burger. Their eyes met and she smiled brightly.
"We need some tunes," she said, turning on the radio. "Oh my God! I love this song," she squealed when the sound filled the car.
Arabella began to sing along with the music, her voice rising and falling to the rhythm of her favorite classic rock song. Titus beamed at her, his smile as bright as rays of the sun.
“This is one of my favorite songs too," he said.
"Sing with me," she said.
"No, no, no. I'm not like you, Songbird. My talents lie elsewhere.”
“Oh, come on," she prodded.
She wanted to connect with him, and music was how she knew how to do that best. She gave his shoulder an affectionate tap and he let out a deep breath, his shoulders relaxing.
"All right then."
He opened his mouth and a deep, rich baritone filled the air as he sang along with her. Their voices harmonized with the singer on the radio. And while Titus wasn't a seasoned professional like she was, there was something about the emotion in his voice and the way he used his words that spoke volumes about who he was as a man.
It touched her far more than she’d expected. As the last notes of the song faded into the noise of the highway, Arabella felt closer to Titus than she had to anyone in a long time. Maybe forever. She smiled up at him and his face grew red with embarrassment.
"I can't believe I just sang a karaoke duet with Arabella Fernandez." He laughed.
"It was beautiful."
"You're very kind," he said with a smirk.
"I mean it. You have a way about you that's very emotional.”
“Must be the grizzly bear,” he said, suddenly seeming nervous and distant.
She didn't understand what she'd said to upset him. In her world it was a compliment to be able to capture emotion with your voice. Now she felt like she had offended him somehow.
"You have something special about you that you don't see every day. Especially in men that look like you," she said, trying to reconnect with him. He thanked her and stared straight forward at the road as if trying to avoid her gaze.
“Did I say something wrong?"
"No, definitely not.” He took a long sip of his milkshake.
"Good, because that's the last thing I want to do."
After hearing him sing, she felt so close to him. She didn’t want to let it go. It was like she was finally getting a glimpse of her deepest longing for the first time in her life.
“What was your childhood like?" she asked, realizing she didn't know anything about him other than what he'd entered on his dating profile. “Do you have any brothers or sisters? What about your parents?”
"My shifter dad died in the Great War when I was a baby. I never even met him. Then my human mom lost it and left me with my human grandma. She died when I was five, and I spent most of my youth being shuffled around my human relatives. I never really found a place where I belonged, until I joined the military and found my crew. That changed everything for me.”
Listening to him talk about his troubled childhood and his crew made her feel closer to him than ever. She could hear the pain in his voice when he spoke of his mom and see the pride in his eyes when he mentioned his crew. It made her want to touch him, to know him, to comfort the wounded parts he tried to hide. She wanted to let him know she understood what it was like to wear a mask.
Her feelings were confusing and disjointed. But the longer they spent together in that car, the closer she felt with him, the more she wanted to learn about him and his story. And how a man with such a soft soul came across as such a big bad bear on the outside.
He told her all about his past, about how he was running on the streets and getting into trouble as a teen. The pain he'd suffered at the hands of relatives who didn't understand his shifter nature. Her heart went out to him so strongly, it almost hurt to breathe. By the time they made it to Las Vegas, Arabella knew she had feelings for Titus that she could no longer deny.
Underneath the tough exterior was a beautiful wounded heart that she wanted to touch and to heal with her song, her hands, and her love. But every time she pressed, trying to see more clearly into the depths of his soul, he pushed away or changed the subject. She could tell there was something he was holding onto. Something he felt he couldn't expose. Now that Arabella understood how much he meant to her, all she wanted was to help him show it.
Chapter 9
Titus pulled the car into the parking lot of the hotel in the late afternoon. For Arabella’s security, they had decided to book a separate hotel from the rest of the tour to keep her safe. Everything was already set up, and he just had to pick up the keys from the front desk. She waited in the backseat of the Bentley while he hurried inside. The lobby of the extravagant hotel was full of tropical plants and a whole wall was an indoor waterfall. The furniture was worth more than a year of his salary. It was several steps more extravagant than the place in Denver, and the glitz made his head spin.
Not that he cared about that kind of thing. Titus was more than happy in his simple home in Fate Rock. It was the nicest place he'd ever lived, and he was grateful to Jamison every day for helping him buy it. But spending time with Arabella in these fancy hotels made him realize just how far apart they were. She was from a totally different world.
He was a scrapper and street fighter whose only saving grace was that he joined the military and was lucky enough to get the attention of the right people. Arabella was the daughter of a senator and a literal rock star. He was more in love with her every day, but he couldn't help but be intimidated by who she was. Not that he was intimidated by powerful women, but Arabella was completely out of his league in every way. All he had to offer her was his strength. And he intended to do everything in his power to protect her.
He approached the
front desk and discreetly asked for the keys. They'd booked the hotel under his name so there was no trace of Arabella's presence, and she would go undetected by the shifter terrorists.
"Your suite is prepared, Mr. Sawyer," the receptionist said, handing him the keys.
He thanked her and started back to the car. Arabella was in the backseat with the tinted windows up, avoiding notice from hyenas and paparazzi alike.
"I got the keys," he said. “We can go right through.”
He pulled up to the front of the hotel and helped her out of the backseat. She was wearing sunglasses and a hoodie over her head. He escorted her quickly through the lobby and into the elevator.
They had booked the penthouse suite and the ground Las Vegas hotel. And when they walked into the room, Titus had the same feeling he'd experienced in the lobby times one hundred. It was furnished in the most expensive-looking white leather and hardwood he had ever seen. There were three bedrooms, a living room, a full kitchen and four bathrooms. The place was a literal mansion.
Arabella went to her room and there was a knock at the door from the hotel employees bringing up their bags. Titus took care of their tips and pulled the bags into the room.
"Vanessa has booked me a full spa treatment to be sent up here. I'm going to change into a robe. They're going to set up in my room. Please show them in when they get here."
"Will do."
Arabella disappeared back into her bedroom and Titus waited for the crew to arrive. There was a knock at the door, and he checked the peephole before letting them in. He was greeted by Vanessa and a crew of beauticians, masseuses, and hairstylists.
"She's in her room," he said, leading them to the door. Vanessa knocked lightly, and Arabella invited them inside.
"It's going to be a few hours, Titus, so go ahead and relax."
Bodyguard Bear (Justice Squad Book 3) Page 4