Guarded by the Golem, page 1
GUARDED BY THE GOLEM
Copyright © 2024 by Cara Wylde
All rights are reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher, except for the use of brief quotations in book reviews.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are fictitious or have been used fictitiously, and are not to be construed as real in any way. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales, or organizations is entirely coincidental.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter One – Mason
Chapter Two – Maya
Chapter Three – Mason
Chapter Four – Maya
Chapter Five – Mason
Chapter Six – Maya
Chapter Seven – Mason
Chapter Eight – Maya
Chapter Nine – Mason
Chapter Ten – Maya
Chapter Eleven – Mason
Chapter Twelve – Maya
Chapter Thirteen – Mason
Chapter Fourteen – Maya
Chapter Fifteen – Mason
Chapter Sixteen – Maya
Chapter Seventeen – Mason
Chapter Eighteen – Maya
Chapter Nineteen – Mason
Chapter Twenty – Maya
Chapter Twenty-One – Mason
Chapter Twenty-Two – Maya
Chapter Twenty-Three – Mason
Chapter Twenty-Four – Maya
Epilogue – Mason
Epilogue – Maya
Monster Security Agency
Arranged Monster Mates
About the Author
Chapter One
Mason
Finding a new job in the private security department after getting fired from Monster Security Agency was impossible. It took me two weeks to realize why. I’d been blacklisted.
It seemed fair seeing how I’d botched my last job, but it wasn’t. Because I knew, the client knew, and even my boss knew it hadn’t been my fault. I’d warned the stupidly rich idiot not to trust anyone, not even his best friend. I’d protected him with my life, and he went behind my back and almost got himself killed. Fortunately, I got wind of it in time and saved his life, but he still ended up in the hospital with a bullet in his leg, and I still ended up laid off.
I couldn’t afford to lose my job. Not now, not ever. Yet it happened, and now I was running all over the city, trying to find work when no one wanted to hire me. If I couldn’t be a bodyguard, then what could I be? Could I train others in the field? No one trusted me. When they heard the name Mason Stonewarden, their polite smiles turned into frowns, and they started making up excuses, pretending like they were needed somewhere else.
I was done. My career in private security was over. I’d dedicated years of my life to the MSA, and now they’d thrown me out like yesterday’s trash. Monster Security Agency was the best in the business, known for always getting things done, no mistakes. I’d made a mistake and now I was paying for it. I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was, because my boss knew me well, and he knew I was fully dedicated to the job. When I debriefed him about what had happened, he was understanding and sympathetic. But the client was always right, even when the client was dumb. From the hospital, fresh out of surgery, he’d called my boss and asked for my termination.
It wasn’t even the first time the MSA had failed me and my family. I should’ve known better. My brother was the only one who would understand what I was going through, so this morning, instead of heading out to look for a job and find only rejection, I called him and told him I wanted to pay him a visit. He was happy to hear from me.
“Come over for lunch, Mason,” he said. “The kids will be home from kindergarten. They’ve missed you. I’ll ask Kara to make your favorite.”
My heart ached at my brother’s words. He sounded upbeat, like he was having a good day, and I was going to go over there and ruin it for him. At my kitchen table, with only a cup of cold coffee and a stale sandwich to call breakfast, I hung my head and rubbed my bald head. How had it come to this? I was supposed to be the strong one, the one who never gave up, because giving up meant not being able to support my loved ones. My brother, Goliath, and his human wife, Kara, with their two hybrid children, Xavier and Nira, were the most important people in my life. They depended on me, and today, over lunch, I was going to tell them I’d failed them.
I spent the rest of the morning straightening up my apartment and rehearsing in my head how I was going to break it to them that I’d lost my job and couldn’t help them with money anymore. I lived in an old building that had been transformed to host monsters of the more humanoid kind, and the rent was high because it was near the city center. If I didn’t find work soon, I’d have to look for a new place, probably around where my brother lived. He and his family lived in a neighborhood built by our kind – golems – and they owned their house. I was sure I could find something close to them, but living so far from the city, where I got to mingle with humans and other species, meant it would be even harder to find work that paid well. As golems, we only joined our tight communities when we were ready to settle down.
Not that I wasn’t ready to settle down, but with whom? And now that I didn’t have a job, it would be even harder to find a wife.
I put on a fresh set of clothes – a buttoned up shirt that wasn’t too wrinkled, and a pair of jeans – and got into my truck, knowing it would take me an hour to drive to my brother’s place. If I was lucky and traffic was light. I wasn’t, and I got stuck on the highway for fifteen minutes, trying to distract myself from my dark thoughts with heavy metal music. Meanwhile, above everyone’s heads, creatures with wings had no trouble getting to where they needed to be. Only monsters who couldn’t fly drove, and not that I was unhappy with my genetics, but a pair of wings would’ve served me well in life. I realized it was silly to think like this. My body was heavy, entirely made of stone. There was no way I would’ve been able to lift myself a foot off the ground.
Being made of stone, essentially indestructible, had its advantages and disadvantages. I was a warrior, born to use my physical strength in the service of others. However, when people looked at me, all they saw was a massive beast who needed to be told what or who to crush. They didn’t see what was underneath my rough exterior, couldn’t fathom that I, too, had a heart. In time, I came to accept that no one was interested in hearing me express my emotions, so I buried them deep and focused on what was in front of me.
Maybe that was why my brother, Goliath, had married Kara, a human, even if both families had been against their union. She could see him for who he was, even when he looked at himself in the mirror and only saw a block of stone. Today, she was going to see through me, too. It was her gift. She was going to look into my eyes and see what was in my soul, and I was afraid that it would cause me to break down in front of them.
The cars in front started moving. I turned my engine on, and for a second, considered turning back. I wanted to see my brother and his wife, and I missed my niece and nephew. But it was going to be a difficult conversation, made even more uncomfortable by Kara’s very much human ability to see through my tough façade.
She was good for Goliath, especially after the accident, when he’d needed so much grace and understanding. I wondered if someone like her would be good for me, too.
Relationships between golems and humans were an oddity. It was better to not get my hopes up. More likely than not, I would one day find someone like me, a female who was tough and made of stone, and together, we would pretend we were unbreakable and had no feelings.
I turned the music up and only turned it back down when I drove into my brother’s neighborhood. All the houses here were large, with expansive backyards. Golems needed a lot of space. I pulled into the driveway, parked behind my brother’s truck, and as I got out, Xavier and Nira burst out of the house and slammed right into me. I lifted both of them easily, and they screamed as they clung to my thick arms.
“Uncle Mason, we missed you!”
“I missed you too, my favorite rascals.”
Their hybrid nature meant they weren’t entirely made of stone. Unlike their father and me, they had hair on their little heads. Nira had her mother’s blonde hair, and it nearly reached her waist.
Kara appeared in the doorway. She shook her head and came over to give me a kiss on the cheek and retrieve her overenthusiastic toddlers. Behind her, my brother rolled in his wheelchair. His face lit up when he saw me, and I rushed to him so he wouldn’t have to cross the driveway.
“Long time,” he said. “I always tell you that you should visit more often. You look good!”
“You too, brother.”
I was lying. The truth was that since the accident – which hadn’t been an accident at all – he’d become smaller, narrower, thinner. His right leg was weaker than ever, and his left leg was only a stump. He’d lost it a year ago, and we hadn’t yet managed to raise the money for a good prosthetic that would actually help him be useful again, not hinder him more.
So, after all, golems weren’t completely indestructible. With the right weapon, we could get chopped off, too.
We gathered in the large dining room, and Kara enlisted the kids to help her set the table for lunch. I sat across from my brother, and for a few minutes, we just stared at each other.
“It’s good to see you,” he said.
“Yes.”
I cleared my throat and looked away. Plates and glasses materialized on the table as Xavier and Nira made round trips between the kitchen and the dining room.
“Since you hate how busy I am,” I said, “You’ll be glad to know that has changed recently.” I was being sarcastic.
“What do you mean?”
“The MSA dumped me.”
He inhaled deeply, exhaled, and shook his head. Over my shoulder, he locked eyes with his wife.
“Kids, go wash your hands,” Kara said, before sitting down next to me.
It took me five minutes to tell them the whole story. There wasn’t much to tell. I left all emotions out and focused on the facts.
“They’ve done it again,” Kara said. In her voice, I heard anger mixed with sadness. “First Goliath, now you.”
My brother had worked for Monster Security Agency, too. He hadn’t botched his last job, though. On the contrary, he’d done it so well and put himself in so much danger that he’d lost his left leg. The MSA let him go, because what were they supposed to do with him in a wheelchair? They covered his medical bills but didn’t do more than that for him and his family.
It was a job that came with high risks, and we all knew that.
It was the only job I knew how to do.
“Let’s eat,” Kara said when she noticed the kids had stopped just outside of the dining room to listen to us. She gave them a smile and motioned for them to join us. “Come on. There’s no reason to be sad. Everything will be fine.”
I shook my head as I stared at the food on my plate. I didn’t feel worthy of it, but Kara had made it for me especially, so I ate and asked for seconds. Xavier and Nira started telling me about what they were learning in kindergarten, and their lightheartedness shifted the energy at the table. We ended up laughing and having the best time I remembered us having in months.
After lunch, the kids wanted to play outside, and Kara let them. She made herself busy while Goliath and I talked, listening and chiming in when she noticed the conversation was in danger of taking a depressive turn.
“Mason, you don’t have to worry about us,” she said at some point. “We’re doing okay.”
“You’re burning through your savings,” I said.
She shrugged. “Xavier and Nira are old enough now that I can go back to work.” Before marrying my brother and becoming a stay-at-home mom, Kara had worked in sales. “And Goliath will find something, too. It’s a little harder, but not impossible.”
At least he hadn’t been blacklisted.
I rubbed a hand over my face, not knowing what to say. I felt so embarrassed that when my phone vibrated in my pocket, I was relieved I could take a break and step outside. I excused myself and went through the back door, into the yard, where the kids were playing. My relief turned into anger when I saw my boss’s name on the screen.
“What?” I barked into the phone.
“Mason. I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”
“You are.”
“I’ll keep this brief, then. I know we haven’t parted ways on the best of terms, but a job just came in, and you’re the only one who can do it.”
Chapter Two
Maya
As soon as I opened my eyes, a pain like I’d never felt before exploded between my temples. My vision was blurry. I blinked rapidly, trying to make sense of what was happening to me. I was surrounded by darkness, I was cold, so stiff that I could barely move, and the pain started seeping through all the muscles in my body. I was lying on the floor, with just a thin mattress to protect me from the rough cement. My shoulders were stiff, and when I tried moving my arms, I realized I was restricted. I felt the bite of metal on my wrists, and panic gripped my chest.
I was cuffed.
Gathering all the strength I could muster, I rolled onto my side and pulled at my restraints. It didn’t take me long to realize that the chain was bolted to the floor, a few feet from where my head rested on the old, smelly mattress. I groaned, my head spinning, but I had to push through the panic. Now that I was awake, I couldn’t just lie here and accept this. Whatever this was.
I knew what it was. I’d been kidnapped.
I sat up even though every bone in my body protested, tucked my legs under me, and looked around the room. I couldn’t distinguish much, and it wasn’t just because it was dark and there were no windows. There wasn’t much to distinguish. The only objects in the room seemed to be the mattress I was lying on – no pillow and no blanket – and a bucket in a corner. It was within reach, so I stretched toward it, the chains that held my hands tied rattling. I grabbed the bucket and stared into it. It was empty.
I frowned. What was the purpose of it? Did I even want to know?
I pushed the bucket away and crawled toward the bolt in the floor, so the chains would be looser and allow me more range of motion. I rubbed my eyes and forehead, but the headache didn’t let up. I ran my hands through my long, tangled hair and discovered it was wet and glued to my scalp at the back of my head. When I looked at my fingers, they were caked with red. Blood.
I must’ve hit my head, and that was why everything was so muddy and confusing. I couldn’t string two coherent thoughts together. Okay, I’d been kidnapped, but how? When? I didn’t know what day it was, and to my utter horror, I realized that no matter how hard I tried to remember the last thing I’d done, or the last place I’d been, my mind went blank.
I tried harder. There had to be something. A memory...
What had I done the day before? What was the last thing I ate?
Maybe I was going home, and that was when they took me. Who were they? I tried to remake the itinerary in my head and soon realized that I couldn’t picture anything. Not my house, and not the place I was presumably coming from.
Gripped by shock, I sat there with my eyes wide, staring at the wall. Since my memory didn’t seem to work, what else could I do for myself right now? Using my awareness, I quickly checked my body to see where it hurt and if I’d been... touched in any way. My muscles ached, but aside from that, I was fine. My head hurt the worst. My clothes were intact, albeit dirty.
“What is happening?” I whispered, just to check that my voice was working. “Who would do such a thing? And to me... Why me?”
I racked my brain for a few more minutes, but it refused to cooperate. I was willing to bet the wound at the back of my head was the culprit. I wondered how I got it. Had someone hit me over the head with something heavy? Had I fallen and hurt myself? So many questions, and not a single answer my brain could deliver.
“Hey!” I yelled or tried to. My voice was weak, so I cleared my throat and tried again. “Hey! Let me out! Help! Help!”
I pulled at the chains, rattling them as loudly as I could. Then I started banging my feet on the ground, all the while screaming for help.
I did this until I tired myself out and my voice stopped working. The headache was so bad that I had to crawl back onto the mattress and lie down. I started crying silently, feeling the tears roll down my face.
I didn’t understand why this was happening to me. Did I have enemies? I couldn’t remember. Was this random? Had I been in the wrong place at the wrong time? The statistics said that most women were kidnapped by people they knew. It rarely happened that they were kidnapped by strangers. I tried to think really hard about the people in my life, but my mind drew a blank again, and the panic was back, gripping my chest. There was something really wrong with me if I couldn’t remember anything.
I heard footsteps beyond the door, and I stilled. They came closer and closer, and then I heard a key in the lock. My heart started galloping in my chest. I sat up again, pulling my knees in and trying to make myself small. The door opened, and there was light on the other side. A shadow appeared in the doorway, and I could tell immediately that it was a man.
“You’re awake,” he said in a flat tone.
He stepped into the room and closed the door behind him. In his hands, he carried a box. He reached for a string that I now noticed was dangling from the ceiling, pulled it, and a light bulb came to life. It illuminated his face, and I saw he was young, maybe in his late thirties, with black hair and dark eyes that looked dull behind thick-framed glasses. He didn’t look like a kidnapper at all. He didn’t look like a bad guy. More like a regular guy who seemed mildly bored with everything around him.
