Wild Game (Wilding Pack Wolves 1) - New Adult Paranormal Romance (10 page)

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 you 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.

“Sorry,” Owen said in a way that meant he wasn’t sorry at all. “I just get a chuckle out of Brad thinking I could entice you away.” He gave her a sidewise look, all humor gone. “I can’t even get you to stop glaring at me, much less convince you to follow me up the mountains for a few days.” It was a challenge, and she felt it‌—‌felt the rebuke of it‌—‌but at least he was talking to her again.

“Brad told me to kick you out of my apartment.” She gave him a saucy look.

“Is that right?” He smirked, humor back in full force. “And yet, I’m still there.”

“I told him to fuck off.”

He outright laughed at that. “I’m sure he enjoyed that. “

“He knows when to cut his losses and not push me too far.” She eyed him to see if he would take her meaning.

“Well, then he’s smarter than I am.” Owen kept his eyes forward on the road and didn’t say anything more. The rest of the ride back to her apartment was quiet, but not quite as tense as before. They had cleared the air, at least a little, but then, as they were riding up the elevator to her apartment, Owen’s mood seemed to grow darker. He parked her by the door of her apartment while he swept the rooms for lurking threats, like he did every time. But eventually, he let her come all the way in.

It was late‌—‌the tournament was held in the evening to catch all the after-work gamers‌—‌but it wasn’t late enough to go to bed. They had dinner beforehand, so there wasn’t even a meal to distract them. The last two nights, she had retreated to her bedroom, doing work in order to avoid his icy glare. But this time, she didn’t want to.

If she was honest, she really wanted to drag him into her bedroom for some decidedly not work-related entertainment. But that seemed wrong, especially given he was risking his life every day to make sure she was protected. He was trapped with her 24/7 through no fault‌—‌or choice‌—‌of his own. Lusting after him seemed like taking advantage of his situation, somehow, which seemed a poor way to pay him back.

But he
did
seem hesitant to call it a night… like he had something on his mind.

“So…” she said, breaking the awkward silence that had fallen around them. “I’m still alive.” She lifted her arms in victory.

He didn’t even crack a smile as he shucked off his jacket and laid it over the back of the chair next to the couch. “Just because someone didn’t take you out in the most public way possible, doesn’t mean there aren’t people still thinking about ways to do exactly that.”

She frowned. “You could at least admit the tournament wasn’t the threat you thought it might be.”

He shook his head, not looking at her, and his fists curled up. She was making him mad again. He slowly turned and marched over to face her.

“
No,
I don’t have to admit that.” He would have been nose-to-nose with her, but he was a half-foot taller, so he was just staring down his nose at her instead. “I don’t have to admit
anything
that might increase the risk to you. I don’t want you getting any ideas in your head that somehow this was a low-risk event, just because you didn’t die.”

“You really don’t get this at all, do you?” she said, her anger rising. “I’m not doing this because I’m stupid. I’m doing this for a reason! Brad at least understands what this means to me.”

Owen’s teeth clicked together. He forced his words between them. “Once this threat is over, I’ll be out of your hair. And your boyfriend’s.”

“He’s
not
my boyfriend!” She glared up at him.

“So you keep saying.” He returned her glare. “Until the threat has passed, I’m going to do whatever is necessary to keep you safe. It’s
my job,
Nova.”

That part was a slap across the face.
His job.
That’s all she was to him. With a casual fuck thrown in for fun… or maybe that was just part of the job, too. Keeping the client calm with a little mind-blowing sex.

She fought to keep back the tears. “You think I don’t worry about all this? About dying? I’m having nightmares every night about that damn video! And the bomb that killed my father. And the grenade that almost blew me up. I think about those things
all the time.
But I know there are other shifters out there who’ve seen what’s happened. They’re watching me, just like this crazy-ass Wolf Hunter. I’m just trying to do the right thing‌—‌to not let this hate group win by scaring me off and killing my father’s business by murdering him.” She had to stop because it was getting hard to breathe. And if she kept talking, she really
was
going to cry in front of Owen, in spite of the bravado of her words.