Her Shifter Bodyguard (Shifter World Novella - Book One) (SERIES OF 13 SHORT STORIES)
Chapter Nine: Vega’s Desperate Plan

Johnny Vega studied the man before him. He has heard stories about his kind but has never met one in person. The man didn’t seem too scary. The stranger smirked at him as if he could read his thoughts. Hmm, maybe he could. Johnny doesn’t know much about them, just what he has read online.

“Don’t believe everything you read online,” the man said, his eyes following Johnny around the room.

Johnny nodded, “indeed. So, can you do it?”

“I can,” the man said with a nod. “For a price.”

“Of course.” Johnny snapped his fingers.

One of his men set a case on the desk, and Johnny opened it.

The man smiled at the amount.

“Half now and the other half after she’s mine,” Johnny said, snapping the lid closed.

The man nodded, “of course.”

“Do you understand what I want?”

“Yes, but I’m curious as to why. I mean—if she doesn’t want you….”

Johnny grinned, “she does. She’s just stubborn. We were good together for over three years. Then—she just left. No words as to why. I sent men after her, but my men never came back. From what I’ve heard, she’s been hanging around shifters.”

“Shifters, huh?” the man asked, eyeing Johnny. “What is a human doing around shifters?”

“I don’t know—I guess she hired them to protect her.”

“From what?”

“No clue. But I’ve had fuck all luck in getting close to her. I was hoping your kind of persuasion would work to bring her home—away from the shifters.”

Tate Umber studied the man before him. He’s not someone he usually does business with, but he owed a friend a favor. And a friend of his owes this man a favor, so here he is, like an expensive love potion for him and his lost girlfriend.

Easy enough job.

But then Vega had to mention shifters. Tate knows plenty of shifters; hell, he’s friends with an entire shifter clan. So, he knows it will be hard to get the woman alone. He should try her work.

He looked at the piece of paper and picture the rich son of a bitch had given him and whistled. She’s good-looking, alright. No wonder he didn’t want to let her go.

“I’ll try to get to her tomorrow,” he told the man.

Johnny nodded. “Good—here’s the first payment,” he said, handing Tate the case of money.

“Good.” Tate nodded to the room and left.

Tonight, he’ll plan his moves. Then tomorrow, he will bring Johnny Vega, his girlfriend—Sharissa Flemmings.

~🐱~

“Shar, the boss wants to see you.”

Sharissa looked up at a coworker, nodded, and turned to Dustin, who sat beside her at her desk. He nodded, and they stood together, then headed to her boss’s office.

When Sharissa got to work that morning, she introduced Dustin to her boss as her bodyguard. She doubted Mr. Trinkle would have allowed Dustin to stay if she’d said, ‘Hey, meet my mate.’ She knew her boss had noticed Dustin last week and needed to explain why she had a shifter following her around. So she told her boss about the break-in and the threats to her life. Mr. Trinkle had agreed to let Dustin stay with her during work hours. Shar had a feeling that Dustin would have found a way to stay at her side if Mr. Trinkle had said no.

“Sir?” Shar asked as she entered the man’s office.

“Sharissa,” Mr. Trinkle said with a smile as he got to his feet. “I want you to meet your new partner, Lyvia Yule.”

Shar turned and smiled at the lovely girl sitting in an office chair. Lyvia smiled up at her, and Shar noticed her silver eyes.

“So nice to meet you,” Lyvia said as she stood and held her hand out to Shar.

“You too,” Shar said with a smile as she shook the other woman’s hand.

Lyvia sucked in a shocked breath when she saw Shar’s wrist.

“You okay, Miss Yule?” their boss asked.

Lyvia cleared her throat. “Yes, sir, just fine. Sorry,” she said, staring at Shar with wide eyes.

“Please show Miss Yule around, Sharissa.”

Shar smiled, “yes, sir.”

Once they were out of the office, Lyvia took hold of Shar’s hand and stared at her wrist.

“I have heard of this before, but I’ve never seen it,” she said, turning Shar’s wrist over and reading the word Unity out loud. “Who is he?” she asked, looking up into Shar’s eyes.

“He’s behind you.” Shar smiled and pointed behind Lyvia.

Lyvia spun around and placed her hand against her chest. “Holy fuck.”

Dustin chuckled, “nice to meet you, too.”

“Sorry,” Lyvia said, out of breath.

“Lyvia, this is my mate, Dustin.”

Lyvia smiled up at the tall man. “Nice to meet you. Can I see your markings?”

Dustin chuckled as he held his wrists out to her.

“Wow,” Lyvia whispered. “Did it hurt?” she asked, looking from one to the other.

Shar chuckled, “if you consider your flesh burning, any kind of pain, yeah, sure, it hurt.”

Dustin laughed, “she screamed like a banshee.”

Shar snorted. “Yeah, well, I didn’t have years of knowledge of what was happening.”

“I doubt that would have helped,” Dustin said as he pulled her against his chest and kissed her.

Lyvia cleared her throat, and the couple parted.

“Sorry, right, I need to give you a tour of the building,” Shar said as she pulled away from Dustin.

“Right,” Lyvia said with a smile.

“We won’t need you, Dustin. We should be okay,” Shar assured her mate.

Dustin shook his head, “you know I don’t let you out of my sight….”

“I don’t need a bodyguard here—you know that. He won’t attack us with so many witnesses. The actual reason you’re here is that you have nothing else to do.”

He chuckled, “it’s because I hate the thought of being away from you all day.”

Shar grinned and said, “see. We’ll be back in thirty minutes. Okay?”

Dustin sighed, “alright. But if you’re not back in thirty, I’m coming looking for you.”

Sharissa grinned up at Dustin. “Wouldn’t expect anything less.”

He nodded, gave her a quick kiss, and headed back to her desk.

“Wow,” Lyvia said as she watched Dustin walk away. “He’s hot and tall.”

Shar chuckled, “that he is.”

“So, is it true?” Lyvia asked, looking at Shar. “Did you get his abilities?”

Shar nodded. “A few of them so far. And he’s a lot stronger, too.”

Lyvia sighed. “I wish it was in my cards to replace my mate.”

Shar nodded, “maybe your Goddesses will smile down on you.”

Lyvia grinned, “I hope so. Now, let’s get this tour over with so we can get you back to your tall drink of water.”

Shar chuckled and started the tour.

~🐱~

Tate snuck into the building where Sharissa Flemmings worked and took the elevator to her floor. She wasn’t at her desk, so he went in search of her. He heard female voices down the hall and followed them.

“This place is a wonderful place to work,” the blond said as she showed the brunette around the break room.

“I can imagine so,” the brunette said with a wide smile. “Oh, hello. Do you work here too?” the brunette asked when she saw Tate.

“Not quite,” Tate said as he approached them.

Sharissa Flemmings stared at him. “I’ve never seen you around here before.”

Tate smiled. “Because I’ve never been here before,” he said as he looked into the brunette’s eyes. “You want to go back to your desk now.”

The brunette’s silver eyes glossed over. “Of course,” she said, then walked out of the room.

“Wait, Lyvia!”

“Don’t worry about the shifter—you want to come with me,” Tate said, looking into Sharissa’s eyes.

Sharissa’s eyes clouded over. “Of course I do. How silly of me,” she said with a smile.

Tate’s eyebrows lifted. Okay, that was odd. They usually say two words, which is more often than not, “of course,” before they do his bidding. “This way,” he said as he started walking.

Sharissa followed him to the elevator, but when he stepped inside, she didn’t follow.

“Wait, I need to….”

“You need to follow me,” Tate said, looking into her eyes again, which had started to focus.

“Oh, of course,” she said with a smile as she joined him in the elevator.

This was getting odder and odder. They got to the bottom floor, and luckily, no one was in the reception area as they left the building. He led her to the alley and pressed her against the office building wall.

“Now, to get serious,” he said with a smile. “You love Johnny Vega....”

She shook her head, “no, I don’t.”

Tate stared at her, stunned. What the hell was going on? “You love your boyfriend,” he said.

She nodded. “Yes, I am in love with my boyfriend.”

He sighed with relief, “you will go back to him and tell him you love him.”

She shook her head. “I’m not ready to tell him yet.”

He grunted. This chick is off her rocker or something. There has to be a reason she was disobeying his commands.

“Go tell Johnny that you love him.”

She frowned, “but I don’t love Johnny.”

He growled, “yes, you do. Johnny is your boyfriend, and you love him more than anything….”

“No. Johnny is not my boyfriend—I do not love Johnny.”

“What the fucking shit?” Tate grumbled. He took hold of her shoulders and looked deeper into her eyes. “You love Johnny Vega, and you will tell him how much you love him and tell him you’re sorry for ever leaving him.”

She blinked, “no.”

“NO?! What do you mean, no?!”

She blinked again, and he calmed his irritation.

“Okay, why won’t you tell Johnny you love him?” May as well get some answers from her.

“Because I never loved Johnny, and I have a mate now. I love my mate.”

“Mate? What the fuck?” He grumbled, then took her face in his hands. “How do you have a mate?”

“I found him when I went to hire a bodyguard. He is tall and beautiful and all mine,” she said with a wide grin.

He shook his head. “This cannot be. There is only one mating that is strong enough to withstand me,” he grumbled as he took hold of her hands and looked at her wrists. “Ah, fuck”

’This is not good,’ he thought as he looked back into her eyes.

“Who is your mate, Sharissa?”

She smiled, pure joy on her face. “Dustin Kraftman.”

“I am so fucking screwed,” he groaned as he started pacing the alley. Occasionally, he looked at Sharissa Flemmings.

She still had that beautiful grin on her face, and it killed him; he was messing with her mind. But he couldn’t let her go just yet. She will freak. He needs to get her back to her office and tell Johnny Vega to replace someone else to help him because he’s out.

~🐱~

Dustin saw Lyvia but not Sharissa. He stood and moved over to the female shifter.

“Excuse me, do you know where my desk is?” she asked a man sitting at a desk. The man shook his head, and she sighed.

“Lyvia?” Dustin asked when he got to her.

She looked at him and smiled. “Hi, do you know where my desk is?”

“Where is Sharissa?”

“She’s with the man; he told me I need to go to my desk. Do you know where my desk is?”

Dustin growled and took hold of her shoulders. “What, man?!”

She blinked up at him. “Do you know where my desk is?”

“Where is Sharissa, Lyvia?!” he asked as he gave her a gentle shake.

“She is with the man—he told me to return to my desk. Do you know where my desk is?”

Dustin growled and pulled her to the desk next to Sharissa’s.

Lyvia sat in the chair at her desk, then blinked.

“Dustin?” she asked, looking up at him, her eyes clearing.

“Where is Sharissa?” Dustin asked with a little more patience.

“Uhm. This man came into the break room. He told me to go back to my desk or something like that, and all I could think about was how I needed to return to my desk, but I didn’t know where it was.”

“You didn’t see him leave with Shar?”

She shook her head, “no. Who was he?”

“A vampire,” he retorted.

“Holy fuck,” she said with wide eyes.

“I need to replace Sharissa.” He got to his feet and headed for the elevator.

“Wait up,” Lyvia said, running after him.

Just as they got to the elevator, it dinged, and the man and Sharissa entered the hall.

“Fuck,” the vampire cursed when he saw Dustin.

“Tate!” Dustin hollered with a growl.

“Look, Dustin, I can explain….”

But Dustin didn’t give him time to explain. His fist connected with the vampire’s jaw before he could explain himself.

“Okay, I deserved that,” Tate said, rubbing his jaw. Dustin moved to hit him again, and Tate held up a hand. “You only get one free pass, Brother. Think about it.”

Dustin paused, and Tate pushed Sharissa toward him.

“She is unharmed. Take your mate.”

Dustin looked down into Sharissa’s smiling face. Her eyes were glazed over, and she was still under the vampire’s spell.

“How do I break your enchantment?” he asked with a growl.

“Kiss her,” Tate said with a shrug.

Dustin mumbled as he pulled his mate into his arms and kissed her.

Sharissa moaned as her body relaxed against him. When Dustin pulled back, he watched her eyes clear, her smile never leaving her face.

“We need to talk.”

“No fucking shit,” Dustin said, looking at his friend.

“I’ll meet you at your place tonight,” Tate said, then turned and vanished.

“Whoa,” Lyvia said with wide eyes.

“What happened?” Sharissa asked, looking at them, confused.

“You just met your first vampire,” Dustin said, looking at the spot the vampire had vanished.