by Alisa Woods
Owen nodded, solemnly. “Nova’s shook up bad and twice as stubborn now as she was to begin with.”
Jace smirked. “That sounds familiar.” They were passing the cabins at the end of the stables, and Piper waved from inside where she was hanging curtains.
Owen lifted his chin as they passed, then waited a moment more, so she wouldn’t hear. “You married one of them,” Owen said, quietly. “Is there ever any talking some sense into them?”
Jace gave him an appraising look. “I guess that depends on what kind of sense you’re talking them into.” He narrowed his eyes. “Did you finally manage to get her up here?”
“Only to pick up some of my stuff so I can stay over at her apartment keeping watch on her.”
Both of Jace’s eyebrows lifted. “How close of a watch are we keeping?”
Owen bit his lip and studied the dirt for a while. This was what he wanted to ask, but he wasn’t quite sure how to do the asking.
Jace huffed a short laugh. “I see.”
Owen’s face heated. “I wasn’t trying to… I didn’t intend…” He shook his head. “It’s complicated.”
“Tell me about it.” Jace smirked. “Let’s just say, with a Wilding female involved, I’m not exactly surprised things happened that you didn’t intend.”
“Yeah, well, now it’s a right mess, and I’m not sure what to make of it. I’m no good as a mate, not anymore. And she’s going to have to take one soon.”
Jace frowned. “What the hell are you talking about, no good as a mate?”
Owen stopped their walk with a hand on Jace’s shoulder. “I told you what happened in those cages. They did things to me, man. I don’t even know what… I don’t know what I am anymore. I haven’t shifted since…” He winced and stared back at the dirt again. “Look, that’s just not going to work. But every minute I’m around her, I just sink in deeper, you know what I mean?”
Jace’s frown was pained. “I’m sorry, Owen. I didn’t realize… Look, I don’t know what’s going on with the two of you, but I know this—loving a Wilding female isn’t easy, but it’s the best damn thing you’ll ever do. Even if it’s just for a short while.”
Owen nodded. “That’s what I thought. But if you want to assign someone else as her bodyguard…”
Jace cocked an eyebrow. “Seriously? You’d be okay with that?”
Owen snorted. “Hell, no. But you’re the boss man.”
Jace put his hand on Owen’s shoulder. “This boss man says, if she’s calling to your wolf, you need to listen to that. And there’s no one I’d rather have guarding our at-risk shifters than someone who actually gives a damn about that person. Just tell me your feelings aren’t going to comprise doing your job.”
“No, sir.” Owen knew that much.
“Well, then, we don’t have a problem, do we?” Something behind Owen’s shoulder caught Jace’s eye.
Owen twisted around. Daniel Wilding was jogging up to them. He was Piper’s brother, and he’d been an instrumental part of putting his father, Colonel Astor Wilding, behind bars. Now that Owen knew where the Wilding family had come from, it made a bit more sense how the Colonel could be flat-evil, even when his offspring were decent folks.
“Hey, man,” Daniel said to Owen. “I thought you were down in the city, watching over Wylderide.”
“Just here for a change of clothes.”
Daniel cocked an eyebrow at him, but let it go and turned to Jace. “All right, I think I’ve got Terra convinced to stay at the safehouse for a while. At least a week, then she’s got a gallery showing for her art in the city. Do you think we can get some kind of detail to cover that, or should I be trying to strong-arm her out of the art show?”
“Has she seen the latest video?” Jace asked.
Daniel nodded. “She had a complete meltdown. I think that’s what finally put her over the edge and got her up here.”
Owen had couldn’t help but be proud of Nova for holding it together in the face of that. Her stubbornness was making him crazy, but damn if that girl wasn’t tough as nails. Which only made him want her more…. while, at the same time, making him want to kidnap her and force her to stay at the River estate where she would be safe.
He was such a mess with this.
“Have you guys had any luck tracking down this Wolf Hunter?” Owen asked them both.
“Nothing yet,” Jace answered with a tight press of his lips. “We’re working it. The FBI’s on it as well. Although, I swear, those guys don’t seem to have half the tools we do at Riverwise for investigations of this sort.” He shook his head in disgust. “Or they’re just not taking it seriously. Hard to say. Most likely, shifters are still on their own with this. Per usual.”
Owen expected as much. The hate group was outspoken about their fear and loathing when it came to shifters, but many in the human population felt the same way, they just didn’t say so in polite company.
“Some things never change,” Daniel added ruefully.
Jace nodded. “In the meantime, keep your guard up. Daniel, we should be able to handle covering the gallery opening. We’ve got more volunteer shifters coming in every day to help, and Jared’s running some training exercises to get them up to speed on security protocols.”
“I could use some of that back up for this tournament Nova is determined to attend.” Owen still didn’t like it, but he’d given up trying to talk her out of it.
“When is that?” Jace asked.
“In a couple days,” Owen said. “I can give you some idea of manpower once I scout out the place.”
“All right,” Jace said. “We should be able to cover that, too—just let me know what you need.”
“What we need is to have every Wilding up here at the safehouse,” Owen grumbled.
Jace and Daniel just chuckled.
“If you can manage that, I’m putting you up for peacemaker of the year,” Daniel said, then started jogging back to the house.
“Anything else you need?” Jace asked. He was throwing glances back to his cabin where his mate was no doubt waiting for him. Dinner was near, and the sun was starting to go down.
His time was up.
“No, I’m good.” Owen left Jace to his mate and headed back to the main house. It wouldn’t take any time to gather up his things—he hadn’t collected up much in the way of possessions since he’d been liberated. He’d been living in a cage for a year; after that, a man’s needs were pretty minimal.
But now he was basically moving in with Nova Wilding—and he had no idea how that could possibly work for any length of time. Either they’d drive each other insane… or they’d end up in bed together.
And his head told him neither was any good for his heart.
Nova was inside a deep, dark cave filled with glittering, moving lights.
It was actually a small theater not far from Wylderide. The lights had been turned down for the exhibition tournament with only spotlights on the teams up front and rotating beams splashing across the audience splayed before them. It created a sense of dynamic motion, even though the teams were stationary in front of their oversized screens, competition-level mice, and high-end keyboards. Wylderide’s sponsorship logo was stamped across the fronts of their jerseys, along with their team names—BitShredders and ChillRoid—and player names on the back.
A large screen over each team broadcast the gameplay, adding a futuristic touch to the rock-show like environment. Domination: Afterpulse’s post-apocalyptic cityscape was overlaid with all the high-tech weaponry lists, stats for each player, their life and cash levels, and kill scores in the game. The crowd was remarkably reserved, but Nova saw more than one smartphone user snapping pictures of the not-yet-released gameplay map, as well as gamers scribbling notes. BitShredders and ChillRoid were the top players on the original version of Domination, and they’d all been given the new game ahead of time, so they’d have some decent strategies to put on display for the fans. With the releas
e to the public in just a few days, the teams were here for the chance to show off, win some prize money, and take a shot at the trophy… and it looked like the audience was eating it up.
The tournament itself was going great—it was the tension between her and Owen that had her stiff-backed and off to the side of the stage. The past two days had been nothing but tension and glares each time he looked her way… or she looked his. She couldn’t decide which of them was checking the other out more.
Right now, Owen was on the opposite side of the stage from her, directing security over his earbud and mic. He hadn’t forgiven her for not hiding out in the mountains at the River pack estate, but that didn’t stop him from watching over her 24/7, both at work and at her apartment, where he’d settled in with a small gym bag worth of belongings. Each of the last two nights, he’d escorted her home and silently taken the couch for his bed.
For the tournament, he’d brought in a couple dozen security personnel, both Riverwise and other shifters. Half were inside the building, scattered throughout the crowd, while the other half were outside in the streets. Owen had insisted on blocking off all the avenues surrounding the small theater and making sure each vehicle went through a security checkpoint with one of his guards before getting within a hundred feet of the place. She appreciated that he was so determined to keep her alive, even if he didn’t agree with her decision to take the risk of coming here in the first place. He was being a professional, and that made things a little easier. She just wished he understood why she was doing it—that this was truly the launch of the new game, and the reaction of the fans here would make all the difference in sales when they released to the public in a few days. Her father actually being dead was the only thing that kept him from being here; she had to do the same, if only out of respect for him and what he’d built with Wylderide.
Brad had come as well, and right now he was up on stage, in between the two teams, giving an introduction to the new features of the game map that the teams knew about, but the audience did not. The casters would take over once the new round started, giving the play-by-play, but Brad was in charge of the warm-up.
He wrapped up his comments and headed toward her off stage. When he reached her side, he touched the small of her back as he leaned in to whisper. He’d been finding more and more excuses to touch her lately, and she caught Owen’s glare drilling a hole into Brad’s forehead.
“I think this is going great, don’t you?” Brad asked over the music swelling to start the next round.
She nodded. “The fans are gobbling up the new game map.”
Brad slid his hand up to squeeze her shoulder gently. “You look fantastic in that outfit. I have a feeling you’ve sold an extra ten thousand copies of the game just with that.” He ran his gaze over her costume, which was black and silver and represented one of the playable cybernetic characters in the new game.
She eased away from him, hoping he would get the message that ogling her at a tournament really wasn’t cool. Then she looked for Owen across the span of the stage, but he’d disappeared. Her gaze flitted across the audience, and she found him again. He was working his way through the circuit that he made every ten minutes or so around the perimeter, checking in with the guards he had stationed at various entrances and exits. For as much time as she and Owen had spent together in the last two days, they’d barely exchanged a dozen words—but she’d watched him enough to learn every nuance of his body language. Today, he was ramrod straight in his posture, even as he bent his head to check in with one of the Riverwise pack members. Owen’s narrow-eyed sweep across the audience was on high alert. She imagined he had a constant stream of curses going through his head aimed at her foolishness in coming here. Or maybe he’d forgotten about her altogether and was just focused on his work—but she didn’t think so. Only a few seconds passed before his gaze found her again, zeroing in on her across the breadth of the entire theater.
Her face heated up at being caught watching him, so she looked back to Brad.
“We’re almost there, Nova.” Brad’s gaze was intent on the screens where the gameplay had started for the final round.
“Honestly, I can’t wait for it to be over.”
He tore his gaze away and frowned at her. “Are you still worried about that video?”
How could she not be? She was having nightmares about it nearly every night. There was a terrible sense of waiting for the other shoe to fall, only she was waiting for a blade to come down on her neck instead. “I’m hoping once we get past the launch, that I’ll somehow be less of a target. That probably doesn’t make any sense, though.”
“No, it makes sense. Wylderide is all over the tech news right now. Any crank who can’t stand shifters might be taunted into doing something—which I don’t think is actually going to happen, mind you. But if it were, now’s a more likely time.” He swept a hand out to the audience. “At least your bodyguard seems to finally be doing his job.” Brad grimaced across the room, but thankfully, Owen was busy talking to one of the security guys.
“No thanks to you.” Nova glared at Brad.
He looked taken aback. “What does that mean?”
“You need to stop trying to make Owen jealous.” She narrowed her eyes at him, daring him to deny it.
He gave her a cool look. “I don’t need to try to make the bodyguard jealous—I already have all the advantages. I’m going to remain at Wylderide. He’s the one who has a temporary job. And I intend to send him packing just as soon as we’re sure you’re safe.”
“That’s not up to you,” she said, hotly. “He’s risking his life to look out for me. And just because I slept with him once doesn’t mean you get to be a dick to him while he’s around.”
Brad held his hands open like he was completely innocent of all charges. “How am I being a dick?”
She couldn’t believe it. Her face scrunched up. “Oh, I don’t know, you’re just touching me whenever Owen is looking and generally acting like a Neanderthal. You could dial back the obvious setting on that just a little.”
Brad gave a small smirk. “Busted.”
She huffed a small laugh, not entirely impressed, but at least he was admitting it.
He leaned in and brushed her hair back so he could whisper in her ear. “You’re just so damn sexy, Nova, I can’t help myself. And that costume is making me hot.”
She rolled her eyes and shoved him away but not hard.
He gave her a devilish grin, but then his attention was drawn to the stage again. The round was almost done, and she would be up next. Brad lifted his chin to the casters who were just finishing their play-by-play of the final match, then he tilted his head for her to join him on stage. She took her time, stopping to shake hands with each of the teammates and thanking them for their participation. By the time she was done, Owen had returned to his station on the far side of the stage, his eyes glued to her. Nova took the trophy from Brad and held it up high. The audience roared their approval, and a chant went up for the winning team.
“ChillRoid! ChillRoid! ChillRoid!”
She handed the trophy off to the team leader, then made a bee-line for Owen, intent on telling him she was finished, and it was time to go. There would be lots of afterparty activities and milling around, but she definitely didn’t need to be there for that—and the idea of being almost done, but not quite done, was creeping up her back and making her nervous. If something was going to happen, she had the twitchy feeling it would happen at the end, like it did at the VA hospital. Just as she reached Owen, Brad caught up to her from behind and tugged at her elbow, making her stop.
She turned a scowl on him, but he swung in fast and planted a kiss on her cheek.
Her mouth dropped open. He did not just kiss her in front of Owen. After what she just said! “Brad—”
“I know!” he said enthusiastically with a wide smirk, completely cutting her off. “This whole thing went fantastically well! Just like y
ou said it would. You’re an incredibly brave woman, Nova Wilding.” Then he dropped another kiss on her cheek before she could wipe away her shock. After a quick squeeze of her arm, he turned away to talk to the ChillRoid team as they broke up and drifted across the stage.
Unbelievable. She was so mad she could spit. If they weren’t in public, she would haul his ass off stage and tell him exactly what she thought of that little stunt. Fucking Brad, marking his territory. And then she might fire him, at least temporarily. Maybe that would get his attention.
As it was, she had Owen’s icy, inscrutable face to contend with. “I have the car waiting for you outside,” he said coolly. “It’s already been cleared.”
He didn’t say anything more, just waited for her.
She was inarticulate with rage for a moment, then finally forced out, “Let’s go, then.”
Owen didn’t say anything else, just led her out to her waiting ride. They were using her car, but Owen was the driver now. She had an internal sigh of relief once they were through the checkpoints his security crew had set up. He waited until they were well past them before speaking again.
“So… Brad is your boyfriend now. Is he the one you’re going to pick for your mate?”
She turned to him, eyes wide. “He is not my boyfriend!”
Owen dashed a quick look at her, then slowly looked forward again. “You sure he knows that? He sure was acting the part.” He took a turn onto the highway.
“He was acting like an asshole. He’s threatened by you, if you must know.” She peered at him, but he wouldn’t look at her. “He thinks you’re going to steal me away.”
Owen snorted, which was a weird, strangled kind of sound.
“Why is that funny?” The heat in Nova’s face was ready to melt glass. She’d been having regular fantasies about Owen stealing her away—as if that were even a possibility—such that she had to keep reminding herself that it wasn’t. They’d only had one hot sex session against the door. That didn’t mean anything. And she couldn’t run away with him, even if it was possible, because she had Wylderide to think of. And yet… she had been so damn close to saying yes to that mountain retreat, it wasn’t even funny. All these mixed-up, confused feelings had been churning inside her in a horrific powder keg, and his smirky little laugh threatened to blow it all up.