Chapter 220: Kat the Bodyguard
Edrick
When I arrived back at the penthouse after work, I half expected Moana to be still laid up in bed and exhausted after her first therapy session. That would have been perfectly fine and reasonable, but I was completely not expecting her to be standing in the foyer when I first stepped out of the elevator.
“I want to talk to you,” she said without so much as a greeting. She grabbed my hand and began to tug almost aggressively on my arm, like I was being an inconvenience just for trying to set down my briefcase and hang my suit jacket on the hook.
“Woah, woah, woah,” I blurted out with a chuckle as she tried to pull me away. “What’s the big deal? I haven’t even walked in the door yet. Is everything alright?”
Moana nodded. There was a bit of a twinkle in her eyes, which made me smile a bit. That twinkle also made me involuntarily let my guard down, which allowed her to succeed in yanking me away to my office. She pushed me inside and closed the door behind us, which made me think that either one of two things were going to happen: either she was going to start an argument with me, or she was going to leap on me in a passionate frenzy after being cooped up all day. Neither of those things happened, though.
“I want to talk to you about something,” she said, putting her hands on her hips. “It’s important.”
I furrowed my brow, but nodded anyway as I took off my suit jacket and loosened my tie. “Go ahead,” I said. “Lay it on me.”
Moana took a deep breath, then spoke very quickly and all in one breath as though she expected me to shut her up right in the middle of her sentence. “I want to go back to work and the therapist said that he thinks it could be good for me as long as I have an aide and I was thinking that maybe we could talk about the bodyguard situation again and—”
“Geez,” I said, putting my hands up in surrender as I sank down into my chair behind my desk. “Talk slowly. One thing at a time…”
Moana sighed. “The therapist said that he thinks it might be good for me to return to work, so long as I have an aide with me in case anything goes wrong,” she said. “I know that the doctor told me that I should take a week of bed rest, but I feel like I’m going crazy in here with you and Ella being gone all day. I really miss my job, so I was thinking that we could talk about the bodyguard situation again.”
I raised my eyebrows. There were only a few days left of Moana’s week of bed rest, but she seemed so passionate about it that I had a hard time saying no. Even though it terrified me, I knew how happy teaching made her. And if the therapist said that it could be good for her, then maybe it wouldn’t be so bad so long as she promised to keep the bodyguard by her side.
Besides… I did have the perfect candidate lined up.
…
“I’m Katherine. But you can just call me Kat.”
The female bodyguard sent to me by my chief of security stood in front of Moana and me in my office the next morning. After some thought the night before, I finally agreed to at least let the two of them meet to see how it would go.
Katherine — Kat — was tall and slim, with short black hair cut into a boyish style and stood in a powerful stance. However, unlike many of the other bodyguards who I had interviewed when I was first setting up our security team, Kat also seemed sweet and friendly. I could tell instantly just from the way that she interacted with Ella when she first came in earlier that day that she would be really good with kids, which was a relief. I could also tell that Moana liked her right off the bat, and so I sat back and allowed them to talk while I only asked a few obligatory questions in regards to Kat’s abilities.
I could sense that Kat’s wolf was strong, too. She seemed like the perfect fit, honestly, and by the end of our interview I had a good feeling about it. Now all that was left was for Moana to approve of having Kat in her classroom; the night before, when I told her that I would let her go back to work early, it was only under one condition: she had to have her bodyguard with her at all times. Moana, unlike before, was just so desperate to go back to work that she was finally open to the idea, and I was feeling a lot better about it myself.
Therefore, that evening, I already knew Moana’s official answer before she gave it to me.
“I think I’d be okay with having Kat in my classroom,” she said, holding her chin up high as she spoke to me. “I’ll have to make sure that she’s good with the kids, though.”
“I’m sure she will be.” I cut my steak on my plate and popped a piece in my mouth, chewing slowly as I watched a whole host of emotions run across Moana’s pretty face. I could tell how badly she needed to return to her normal life. Although I still hadn’t gotten to the bottom of whatever that knife represented, I had hope. And, unbeknownst to Moana, I had begun some research on what to do if she suddenly shifted. As it turned out, the Mother Witch had some apprentices who were very helpful the past few days, and when Moana thought I was at work I was actually spending part of my day talking to them. Although I didn’t tell them that Moana was the Golden Wolf out of fear of them turning on us, they did have some ideas for keeping her safe if she shifted; one of those ideas was a perfume that could mask her scent if she shifted, which they were still working on. I just hoped that it would work on the Golden Wolf’s scent.
“I guess it’s settled, then,” Moana said matter-of-factly. “I’ll notify the headmistress that I can return to work tomorrow.”
Even though I still felt as though it was a bit too early, the happy look on my mate’s face made it all worth it. Besides, I thought, maybe Moana and Kat could eventually become friends while Kat was working as Moana’s bodyguard.
After all, Moana had just told me how the prejudiced people at the school weren’t talking to her much since she was a late bloomer. I knew how badly she needed a good friend. Sometimes, in my opinion, having a good friend to lean on during bad times was more helpful than any kind of medicine.
And, I figured that having a good friend to talk to, along with the right therapy, might help Moana relieve some of her stress. The doctor did tell me, after all, that any more stress could be detrimental for both Moana and the baby… And that terrified me
