by Ramona Gray
“Thanks for inviting me.” Daisy took a sip of her own drink. It was Saturday afternoon and the coffee shop was jam packed with people. Now that she didn’t have to worry about a shifter potentially approaching her, Daisy didn’t mind how busy it was. It would help conceal the conversation she was about to have with Ryan.
She hadn’t been at all surprised when Ryan called her this morning and invited her for coffee. After overhearing Grayson and the other guys’ conversation, she’d expected it. What she hadn’t expected was that it would be only Ryan and not Grayson as well.
“So, how’s your weekend going?” Ryan said.
“Fine,” Daisy said. “I went grocery shopping last night and, um, just relaxing today.”
She really needed to make more friends, but it was hard to make friends without revealing her fear of shifters. Not only was it embarrassing to admit, but it was hard to do normal things with other people when you were constantly worried that a shifter might be close by. Going for coffee or a movie, hell, even a round of mini golf was an exercise in torture for her. It was almost impossible for her to act natural and normal when out in public. Megan had understood and very sweetly worked around Daisy’s fear, but her best friend was one of a kind.
That’s not a problem anymore. You can be normal in public now, thanks to Cooper.
That feeling of giddiness washed over her along with a healthy dose of surrealness. The idea that she could walk around in public without being afraid was intoxicating.
If Cooper agrees to keep marking you.
She wanted to drown out sensible inner Daisy, but it kept right on talking.
He probably won’t. Not after you practically throw yourself at him every time he does and then freak out and run away. It’s like you want to be fired. Then you’ll be homeless. How would that feel? To be living on the street, not knowing who’s a shifter and who isn’t?
“Daisy?” Ryan touched her hand. “You okay?”
“Yes, sorry.” God, she’d been sitting there for over a minute, lost in her thoughts. Ryan must think she was a complete moron. “Um, how is your weekend?”
“Good. Grayson and I had dinner last night with my friend Shay, and we’re having a games night with my sister and her boyfriend tonight.”
“Sounds like fun,” Daisy said.
There was uncomfortable silence and then Ryan said, “So, I wanted to chat with you about something that’s a little awkward, but I hope you’ll hear me out. You know that Grayson and Cooper are best friends, right? Grayson loves Cooper a lot and he asked me to -”
“Talk to me about spending time with Cooper because his lion thinks I’m his mate. His lion is going mad because I was spending time with Cooper when he was injured and now I’m not.”
Ryan’s mouth dropped open, but she recovered quick. “Yes, that sums it up. How did you know?”
Daisy traced the top of her coffee lid with her finger. “I overheard Grayson and the others talking in the office. Grayson said that the two of you would talk to me about spending time with Cooper outside of work. Why isn’t Grayson here?”
“I thought it would go better with just me,” Ryan said. “Grayson is trying to hide it, but he’s really worried about Cooper and that makes him and his tiger a little tense. And I know that you can be a bit nervous around shifters, so I thought just you and me would be easier on you.”
Daisy couldn’t help her small laugh. “A bit nervous? Is that what Grayson told you? Because he’s being kind if that’s what he said. I’m terrified of them.”
Ryan sipped at her coffee. “Can I ask you something personal?”
At Daisy’s nod, she said, “Why did you take a reception job in an office full of shifters when you’re so scared of them?”
Daisy took a deep breath. “I’m trying to get over my fear. I’ve gone most of my life being afraid and I thought maybe if I worked with them, if I was around them every day, it would help me manage the fear. It was my therapist’s idea.”
Ryan mulled that over. “I can see the logic behind that. It must be very difficult on you though.”
“At first, it was,” Daisy admitted. “Honestly, I almost vomited during the job interview. How I even got the nerve to join Cooper and Wes and Grayson in the boardroom… I don’t know. I remember answering their questions but don’t remember what my replies were. I could hardly talk I was so afraid.”
She traced the scar on her forearm. “I knew I wouldn’t be hired, you know? I could see it on Grayson and Wes’s faces. They could smell my fear. When Cooper offered me the job right there in the boardroom, I – I almost fell out of the chair. I croaked out a yes and two days later I was working in an office of shifters.”
“That’s pretty brave of you,” Ryan said.
“Not really. The first month was horrible. I vomited every morning before going into the office. I wouldn’t have lasted that first week if the person I was replacing hadn’t been human. Having Amanda there training me, seeing how well she got along with the shifters and how unafraid she was, helped me a lot.”
She smiled a little at Ryan. “Of course, it also helped that every shifter in the office actively avoided me the first few weeks. They could smell how scared I was of them and they deliberately emailed me rather than talking to me in person and kept their distance from reception.”
“That was Cooper’s idea,” Ryan said. “Grayson told me last night that Cooper talked to everyone in the office after that first week about giving you your space until you were more comfortable.”
“He’s a really good boss,” Daisy said, and then shook her head at how stupid she sounded. “I mean, he’s … well, he’s a good guy.”
“He is,” Ryan said. “I don’t know him super well, Grayson and I haven’t been dating for that long, but Cooper risked his life to save Gray’s, and I will never forget that.”
“The last couple of months, I’ve been doing a lot better,” Daisy said. “I know Grayson probably doesn’t think that because I still get kind of anxious and sweaty around him and the other guys, but I can eat lunch with Lusa now and have normal conversations with her.”
“That’s great,” Ryan said. “Grayson said that Cooper was marking you?”
Daisy nodded, feeling weirdly embarrassed. “Yes. I had an… incident with a shifter in a coffee shop and when I talked to Cooper about it, he suggested marking me to keep other shifters away from me. It’s very effective.”
“Don’t I know it,” Ryan said with a laugh. “Grayson marks me all the time now and I swear, any shifter who gets within two feet of me acts like I have the plague.”
As she spoke, a man was heading for the empty table beside their table. He was on the smaller side and Daisy would never have guessed he was a shifter, until he paused in pulling out his chair, and inhaled deeply in their direction. An uneasy look crossed his face and he studied first Ryan and then Daisy before pushing the chair in and walking away.
Ryan gestured in his direction. “See what I mean?”
“I like it,” Daisy said abruptly. “I’m always so afraid and now I don’t have to be afraid. Shifters avoid me. It’s … it’s like being released from prison.”
She sounded like a drama queen and she grimaced. “Sorry, I don’t mean to sound so melodramatic.”
“You’re allowed to feel how you feel,” Ryan said. “And honestly, I can only imagine what a relief it must be to know that shifters won’t go near you after spending a lifetime being afraid of them. It’s a sweet thing that Cooper has done for you.”
“It is,” Daisy said.
Now Ryan would ask her why she was so afraid of shifters, and Daisy would have to be rude. She liked Ryan but she didn’t know her very well. She wasn’t about to share her life story with someone who was practically a stranger.
Instead of asking why she was afraid, Ryan said, “So, would you be open to helping Cooper?”
“Yes,” Daisy said. “Whatever he needs.”
Oh yeah? So, you’re gonna fuck the madn
ess right out of him?
Her cheeks grew hot again and she took a big gulp of coffee, hoping Ryan would think her red face was from the hot coffee.
Ryan visibly relaxed. “That’s great. Thank you, Daisy. I know this will be hard for you, but I promise you that Cooper won’t hurt you. It doesn’t have to be every night. If you could spend even two or three evenings with him a week, I think that will make a huge difference. And if you’d like, Grayson and I can be there too. We can have dinner at our place or at Cooper’s. Or yours, if that’s where you’re most comfortable.”
It would be a cold day in hell before she let any of them see the shitty building she lived in. It was two crumbling walls away from being condemned, as far as she was concerned. She kept her apartment clean, but it was a tiny studio apartment with cracked ceilings, leaking faucets, and mold growing in her bathroom no matter how much she cleaned. The furniture was… well, her furniture consisted of a lumpy loveseat, a gouged and stained coffee table, a bookshelf with a missing shelf, and an air mattress as her bed.
Jeff had drained her bank account and maxed out her credit card, and she’d spent the last of her cash moving here to California. Most of her paycheque went to paying her credit card debt, leaving the bare minimum to cover living expenses, but really, she had no one to blame but herself. At the end of the day, she’d believed Jeff’s lies about the inheritance, believed him when he said the money she was spending on him would be paid back in full.
“Daisy?”
Jesus, she’d zoned out again. Ryan was going to think she was a real idiot.
“Sorry. I’m happy to help Cooper and I think I’ll be okay spending time alone with him, but if not, I’ll definitely call you.”
“Okay,” Ryan said. “Thank you, Daisy.”
“What if it isn’t enough?” Daisy said.
“What do you mean?” Ryan said, but her look suggested she knew exactly what Daisy was talking about.
“What if he goes mad anyway because I won’t, uh, have sex with him. I heard what Grayson said about a friendship not being enough. If Cooper’s lion thinks I’m his mate, he’ll push Cooper to ask me for more. To… to sleep with him. Right?”
She held her breath, a weird part of her hoping that Ryan would tell her that yes, she was right and if Daisy was a real team player, she’d climb into Cooper’s bed, spread her legs, and let Cooper have his deliciously dirty way with her.
For the greater good, of course.
Instead of trying to convince Daisy to fuck Cooper, Ryan said, “That’s true, but we have a plan for that as well, so don’t worry. We’re not going to ask you to be anything more than friends with Cooper so don’t stress about having to do anything else. Cooper won’t pressure you for sex, I promise.”
“You have a plan for that too?” Daisy echoed. She waited, jealousy gnawing at her insides, for Ryan to elaborate. Grayson had said something about finding another woman to sleep with Cooper. Had they already found someone?
“Yes,” Ryan said. Instead of sharing the plan, she said, “So, are you originally from California?”
Knowing a subject change when she heard one, Daisy swallowed down her disappointment and said, “No. I grew up in Connecticut.”
* * *
“What? Holy shit. Are you all right?”
Cooper paused outside of Lusa’s office. It was Monday morning and although Daisy wasn’t in the office yet – slightly unusual as she normally was the first one at the office – his lion was in a fantastic mood. Ryan’s conversation with Daisy on the weekend was a success. Daisy had agreed to spend time with him outside of the office. While his human side was struggling with some shame about looking so weak, his lion side was practically euphoric over the news and had been purring like a kitten for hours.
The first thing we’ll do is mark her again, his lion rumbled. You should let me do it this time. You don’t do it right.
He ignored his lion and stuck his head into Lusa’s office as she said, “All right. No, I’ll let Coop know. Are you sure you don’t want me to pick you up once you’re done with the police? I’ll be at the Landon’s place this morning for an hour or so and can swing by when I’m done. You sure? Okay. See you later.”
“Everything okay?” Cooper said when she ended the call.
“Hey, that was Daisy,” Lusa said. “She’s going to be late to work.”
“What’s wrong?” His stomach clenched and his lion stopped purring.
“Her car was broken into last night. She said she didn’t have anything worth stealing in the car, but they broke all the windows and slashed her tires. She’s waiting for the police to arrive to take her statement and then she has to arrange for her car to be towed. I told her I’d pick her up, but she said she’d take the – Coop? Where are you going?”
She followed him to his office and watched as he unlocked the drawer that held the employee’s personnel files and yanked it open. He grabbed Daisy’s and flipped it open, rifling through the documents until he found the paper with her address on it.
His eyes widened. Holy fuck… Daisy lived in the goddamn Bartwell neighbourhood.
“She lives in Bartwell,” he said.
Lusa made a face. “Half of those apartment buildings are run by slumlords. It’s a terrible neighbourhood. I’m not surprised her car was broken into.”
He stuffed her file back into the drawer and locked the drawer before heading toward the cubicles in the middle of the office. “Chase! Hey, Chase, you here yet?”
Chase’s head popped up above his cubicle wall. “Yeah, boss. What’s up?”
“Can you listen for phones? Daisy won’t be in until later.”
“Sure.” Chase followed him toward reception. “You going out?”
He nodded as Lusa said, “Coop, you’re supposed to be going with me to the Landon client at nine.”
“You can handle it on your own,” he said. “I trust you.”
His lion growling and pacing restlessly within him, Cooper left the office.
Chapter Ten
Daisy didn’t know if the police officer was a shifter or not and she was kind of freaking out about it. He was tall and broad shouldered like a shifter but that didn’t mean he was one. He wasn’t sniffing her and backing away, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t a shifter. She hadn’t been marked by Cooper since Friday. It was highly probable that his scent had faded on her.
The police officer walked around her car and she backed up a few steps when he drew closer, trying not to flinch. The officer being a shifter or not was the least of her damn worries. Not when she had a destroyed car and a letter shoved under her door early this morning with a written notice of immediate termination of lease.
She clapped her hand over her mouth to block the hysterical laughter that wanted to escape. Jesus, what did she do now? She had twenty-four hours to find a new place to live, and maybe enough money in the bank for a week at a motel if she ate nothing but crackers and peanut butter.
She’d have to quit her job. She’d have to quit her job and ask Megan for a loan for a plane ticket back to Connecticut. She could crash on Megan’s couch for a month or so while she looked for another job.
You’ll never see Cooper again.
“Ma’am?” The police officer had stopped circling the car and was standing next to her. She backed up a step and tried to smile at him. God, she hoped he wasn’t a shifter.
“My car is pretty much toast, right?” she said.
He nodded. “I’m not a mechanic but it’s not looking great. It looks like in addition to slashing your tires and breaking your windows, they put sugar in your fuel tank. It’s gonna cost more to fix than your car is worth, I think.”
She blinked back the tears and stared at her ruined car as the officer said, “Is there anyone angry with you?”
“What?” she said.
“An ex-boyfriend, maybe? A co-worker that you got into a fight with,” the officer said. “You’d be surprised at what people will do when they’re pissed
off.”
“No, I… no, there isn’t anyone,” she said in a low voice.
He took a step closer. Although her rational mind said he was only doing it because he couldn’t hear her, her fear was clawing at her insides now and she knew she was about to lose it. She couldn’t stand here a moment longer, not knowing if the officer was a shifter or not, not knowing if he might hurt her or –
“Daisy?”
She whirled around, staring wide-eyed at Cooper before crowding up against him and wrapping her arms around his waist. He hugged her tight and kissed the top of her head before rubbing her back. “It’s all right, baby. You’re okay.”
“What are you doing here?” she said.
“Lusa told me what happened.”
“How do you know where I live?”
“I looked it up in your personnel file.” Keeping his arm around her waist, he studied her car before glancing at the police officer. “Do you think this was deliberate?”
“And you are?” the police officer said.
“My boss,” Daisy said.
“Her mate,” Cooper said.
Her face flushed as the officer raised an eyebrow before saying, “It could be deliberate if Ms. Martin thinks there may be someone who’s upset with her. That being said, we’ve had a rash of these types of car break-ins in the last month, so it fits the pattern.”
“There isn’t anyone,” Daisy said.
“Then probably just bad luck,” the officer said. “I have a few more boxes to fill in on the report and then we’ll be finished. Give me a minute.” He walked back to his car and glanced over his clipboard, filling in some information as Daisy stared up at Cooper.
“Is he a shifter?” she said.
“No, baby, he isn’t,” Cooper said.
She relaxed a tiny bit. “I didn’t know if he was a shifter or not because I think your scent has probably worn off and I… will you mark me again when I get to the office, Cooper? Please?”
She hated the pleading sound of her voice but God, it had been so nice not to have to be afraid.