Page 22 of Guarding the Rock Star
“The bears are here,” Wanda told me.
She must have given them the code to the gate, because they hadn’t buzzed to ask to enter.
Wanda and I went to the front porch, watching as the bears backed the motorhomes onto a grassy patch at the edge of the property, neatly parking them side by side. The doors opened, revealing three of the largest men I’d ever seen.
The guys on my outside security team were large. Most of them had been football players or Navy Seals before they got into the private security business, but next to the bears, my team was downright tiny. The bears were easily six and a half feet tall, maybe taller, and wide as mountains. With matching brown eyes and short cropped brown hair, there was no mistaking the family resemblance.
“Wanda!” One of the bears called with a big smile. “We are happy to see you again.”
He raced over and picked her up, lifting her off her feet as if she was a tiny little doll.
“Put me down Boris, you idiot,” she laughed.
“Guys, this is our client, Tasha Blue. Tasha, this is Boris, Yuri, and Alexei.”
“It is pleasure to meet you, Miss Tasha,” Boris said, his voice accented. He took my hand in his and pressed a quick kiss to my knuckles like I was royalty and he was a knight coming back to pay tribute.
Wanda growled deep in her throat.
Boris looked between us, then gave us a wide smile. “Oh, it is like this, huh? Okay, we understand, vampire. Retract your fangs.”
“Congratulations on finding your mate, Wanda,” Yuri said as he too gave her a big hug.
“Don’t congratulate me yet,” she grumbled. “Tasha only wants to be friends.”
I felt my face heat in embarrassment as the three shifters turned to study me.
“She is not ready yet, no?” Boris said in his accented voice. “This is okay, sometimes the humans need time. Now show us around this property please. Then we will make plan to, how you say? Smoke out this stalker.”
“Yes, let us hurry,” Yuri added. “I am hungry.”
“You guys are always hungry,” Wanda teased.
“We are bears. We must keep up our strength.”
“Would it be rude if I asked to see you shift while you’re here?” I asked. “I’ve never seen a shifter in real life before.”
“You’ve been around lots of shifters,” Wanda corrected. “You just didn’t know they were shifters.”
“I will shift for you, beautiful little human,” Boris promised. “But first we must work.”
“Just keep your paws off my girl,” Wanda chided, throwing her arm around my shoulder in a move that was blatantly possessive.
I should have hated it, but it made me feel all warm and tingly inside.
“Do not worry, Wanda,” Boris said. “We will all be just friends.”
Wanda
It was good to see the Belarusians again. We’d first run into them when Angie was protecting her mate from the Russians. The bears had shown up next to Suzie’s bakery, allegedly opening up a restaurant. We’d all been suspicious until we’d learned that they were anti-Russia and also contractors for the American CIA.
Once they’d help kill the mercenaries sent to grab Suzie, they’d become fast friends with Suzie and Angie, and by extension, the rest of us. They still did some jobs for the CIA and every once in a while, contracted with us as well. All of the women at Sapphic Security loved the bears. They were always down to be a date at a wedding or help you move something heavy.
I gave the guys a tour of the property, Tasha trailing behind us. I’d spent enough time with her now that I could pick her scent out of a crowd, which means I pretty much always knew where she was.
The bears and Tasha were fast friends even though, like me, they had no idea who she was. It was all I could do not to crack up as Tasha struggled to explain why she was famous.
“We don’t know too many American music people,” Alexei explained. “Only Elvis.”
