Page 2 of The Vampire's Werewolf Bodyguard

Cody

Waking up naked in the company basement is a terrible habit. Cody Weston scrunches his face against the torn-up carpet. His features are flat and human again. His fingers are blunt, clawless, raking through his hair. Every sense is muffled. But echoes of the wolf ache through his entire body.

The same pain as every time he shifts out of control.

“Fuck,” Cody mutters, his throat sore from snarling. The pain is tolerable. The gap in his memory is not.

He’s woken up in this basement room before. Padded walls, perfect soundproofing, a prototype security door Tobias got cheap because he knows a guy. The only furniture is a wooden bed frame and a mattress that gets replaced whenever Cody shreds it too badly .

Cody’s the reason Tobias set this room up in the first place. But last night was still the night before the full moon. Cody should have been safe.

Which is why he’d been on a job when the wolf took over.

Involuntary shifts are different from normal shifts. He can’t communicate with other people as a wolf either way—not unless they’re his pack or mate, and Cody has neither. But at least during normal shifts, Cody keeps his mind and remembers everything.

Cody shoves to his feet, body stiff and mind racing with too few clues. He clearly made it back to Atwood Security bodyguard agency, and nobody shot him up with silver. So, he must not have lost his shit completely.

He must not have hurt anyone.

Relief is tempting, but guilt and uncertainty still tangle around his guts. Cody won’t know what really happened until he talks to Tobias. The prospect fills him with a more selfish dread. He promised when Tobias hired him that the werewolf thing wouldn’t be a problem if they took precautions. He could cope without having a pack.

This sure as fuck doesn’t look like coping.

Next to the door, a plexiglass box is set into the wall. A clear pane displays the folded clothes inside, latched shut with a complicated puzzle lock. Bold red letters on the pane read: In case of emergency, use opposable thumbs .

One of the few areas in which Cody’s human form can beat his wolf.

Cody unlocks the box, then drags on the sweatpants and sweatshirt. They’re loose and comfortable, even though he’s put on muscle since he started working for Atwood. No mirrors in the cell, so he slides on the flip-flops and grabs the last item in the emergency box—the key.

Thin light and quiet mechanical noises fill the building. Cody doesn’t see anyone until he passes the janitor on the third floor. He forces a smile and waves, which must not look too deranged because she waves back.

“Is Tobias in?” Cody asks.

“He was here when I clocked in.” She sighs, and her gaze speaks uncomplimentary volumes about Cody’s rumpled clothes and scruffy jaw. “You both need to stop sleeping at the office. It isn’t good for you.”

“Working on it,” Cody says cheerfully.

His smile falls away as he knocks on Tobias’s door. No need to announce himself—the hallway cameras will tell Tobias exactly who’s knocking.

The lock clicks. Cody enters the office and closes the door behind him.

Even without Cody’s werewolf senses, this office belongs unmistakably to Tobias Atwood. Gadgets and prototypes gleam from all the shelves. His professional credentials hang from one wall—next to three certificates for second place in the company foosball tournament. And Princess’s obedience school diploma.

Two framed photos sit on the desk. Cody can’t see them from this angle, but he knows one is Tobias’s wife, Aditi. The other is their snow-white Pomeranian, Princess.

Tobias himself sits behind his desk, cradling a steaming mug that smells like his usual black coffee. “I’d make a joke about the wolf dragging something in, but it’s too early for jokes. Sit the fuck down.”

Cody sits across the desk. The chair’s built for clients, who usually don’t have Cody’s bulk, and it makes him feel monstrous. Like a caged animal.

His phone and wristwatch sit on the desk, the watch’s wristband snapped.

An apology knocks against his teeth, but Cody bites it back. He needs to know what he’s apologizing for first. “Last thing I remember is escorting the client through the parking lot. I heard something in the bushes. What happened after that?”

Tobias pushes his laptop aside, giving Cody his full attention. He’s only twenty-eight, same as Cody, but usually he has a boyish smile he has to tone down so clients take him seriously. Today, he looks every year and then some. He owns a business he built from the ground up. He and Aditi are expecting their first kid.

And he doesn’t want his out-of-control werewolf friend to ruin everything.

“What happened is you got lucky,” Tobias says. “The guy in the bushes really was a corporate saboteur, not some innocent socialite throwing up her cocktails.”

Cody doesn’t relax. “Was anyone hurt?”

Tobias doesn’t remark on the cowardly passive voice. “Nobody’s hurt. You weren’t violent, and you got into the van easily when I arrived. You were just a fucking wolf when you shouldn’t have been.”

The night before the full moon. Cody’s never lost control this early.

“What about the client?” Cody asks.

“She already knew about werewolves, which makes the cover-up easier. Like I said, lucky.” Tobias’s stern expression dissolves into a smirk. “The client seemed to find the whole thing thrilling. She asked for your number.”

“Fucking hell,” Cody groans, slumping back. The chair creaks under him. That all sounds as good as it could have gone, but he doesn’t feel any better. Next time, he might not get lucky.

All the possible solutions feel like stopgaps. Locking himself in the holding cell earlier in the month. Finding a witch he can trust enough to sedate him without poisoning him. Nothing will change the fact that he’s a werewolf without a pack or mate, and eventually, it will drive him insane.

Cody once thought Atwood Security could be a new family. Protecting people makes him feel worthwhile. But it’s not enough. Tobias is a good friend. The only friend Cody trusted about the werewolf thing in college, and Cody’s only friend left after his pack kicked him out. But Tobias has his own family. Cody can’t keep relying on him.

“This can’t happen again,” Cody says. “Are you firing me, or do I need to quit?”

Tobias should be relieved Cody brought it up first. Instead, he rolls his eyes. “You fucking wish you could quit.” Tobias taps his laptop, and Cody’s phone lights up with an incoming email. “Your new job starts in three days.”

After the full moon. Cody should be stable again, but he doesn’t trust himself. Tobias shouldn’t trust him, either.

“That’s a bad idea. Send someone else.”

“I can’t send anyone else.” Tobias sends him another email. “This client is less human than our usual demographic.”

Cody straightens up reflexively. He’s seen a lot on the job, but this is new. Explains why Cody didn’t find a letter of termination in the Opposable Thumbs Emergency Box.

No, Tobias is too stubborn for that. There would be a probation period. A performance improvement plan, trying to management-best-practices the uncontrolled werewolf out of him. Only when everything failed would Tobias admit that his friendship with Cody was a sunk cost he needed to cut loose.

This job changes things, though. Cody is the only nonhuman at Atwood Security. As far as he knows, none of his coworkers are aware of the paranormal. If a werewolf needs a guard, Cody’s the only possible choice.

“What does a werewolf need a bodyguard for?” Cody asks. Pack feuds get ugly, and grudges run deep as the moon’s pull. But outcasts like Cody are rare. Wolves protect their own, and hiring outside help feels more like invasion than protection.

“Irrelevant,” Tobias says. “The client isn’t a werewolf either.”

Cody’s confusion melts into dread. Fuck. This isn’t just a bad idea. It’s a disaster.

He hates vampires as much as the next werewolf. The treaty between vampires, werewolves, witches, and hunters has been in place for seventy years, but that can’t erase centuries of conflict. Vampires are always the ones picking at the tattered edges. They survive by doing exactly what Cody is desperate to avoid—feeding on humans. Antisocial predators, incapable of keeping each other in order, even as they argue for harsher restrictions on werewolves.

Plus, they’re old and snobby as fuck. Not great for Cody’s control issues. Either he’ll rip the vampire’s throat out, or the vampire will rip out his.

“I can’t work with a vampire.” If Cody were a wolf right now, his fur would be bristling. “I’m sorry, I just can’t. ”

“Too fucking bad,” Tobias says bluntly. “Your job is to protect Simon Caley. The client is his… sire? That’s what they call it, right?”

“Right.”

“Freaky shit. Anyway, the sire’s sparing no expense. Full security tech install, plus a rush rate for your services.” Tobias leans forward, grim. “I’m going to be honest because we’re friends. Normally, there’s no way I’d take this contract. But I need this money if I’m covering up last night’s… incident.”

Cody exhales. The word ‘if’ carries the threat.

He can’t handle this mess on his own. A pack would help him, no questions asked, but however good their friendship is, Tobias isn’t pack.

“Understood, boss,” Cody says, using the title to wedge some distance between them. Even if it hurts a little, how relieved Tobias looks. “I’m in.”

Two hours later, after he’s showered and eaten, Cody starts reviewing the files. With every detail, his inner wolf snarls like alarm bells. An assassination attempt two nights ago? Unknown culprit and active threat? No communication with law enforcement? Cody should have rejected the assignment, and fuck the consequences.

Because this job is a house of cards, and Cody is a ticking time bomb.