by Ramona Gray
She looked around the busy restaurant, her gaze landing on Wes who was sitting at a table about twenty-five feet away. Anna lowered her voice, even though Daisy was pretty certain Wes couldn’t hear them, not with the din of the other patrons, the two flat TVs blaring sports, and the chatter of the servers. “Scott wants to be more than friends.”
“Do you want to be more than friends?” Daisy dipped a fry into the pool of ketchup on her plate.
“I think so. I mean, he’s my age which will make Dad and Mom happy and he’s really smart and funny. He’s not, like, the best looking guy around, but Xander was super hot and look how that turned out.”
“Is Scott a human or shifter?”
“Human,” Anna said. “I don’t think I’ll ever date a shifter again.”
“I’m sorry you’re going through this,” Daisy said.
“It does suck.” Anna picked at the sesame seeds on her bun. “Xander seemed like a good guy at first, you know? He was so nice to me and he told me how mature I was for my age and stuff. But, like, only a few months after we started dating, he was talking about wanting me to be his mate, and what kind of wedding we would have, and how many kids did I want, and it got weird. I broke up with him and then the shit really hit the fan.”
She took a sip of her soda before glancing at Daisy. “I had to leave my mom and all my friends because of him, and, like, he still won’t leave me alone. I don’t get it. I’m not that special or pretty… why won’t he leave me alone?”
Daisy reached across and took her hand. “You’re smart and gorgeous and any guy would be lucky to have you. But it sounds like Xander has some mental health issues. And I’m not trying to suggest you’re immature, but you are too young for him. Xander is an adult and he took advantage of you, honey.”
“Yeah, that’s what my parents say too. I’m not a child though, Daisy.”
“But you’re not an adult yet either,” Daisy said gently.
Anna shrugged. “I guess. But I thought I loved him and that he loved me. But now…”
“What?” Daisy said, squeezing her hand gently.
“I’m afraid of him.”
“It’ll be okay, honey. Your dad won’t let anything happen to you, and Xander won’t be able to hide forever. Sooner or later, he’ll mess up and the police will find him.”
“Maybe,” Anna said. “He’s pretty smart though.”
“Even smart people make mistakes,” Daisy said.
She released Anna’s hand and took a drink of her own soda. Anna pushed back her chair. “I’m gonna use the washroom. Be right back.”
Daisy watched her weave her way around the tables, smiling when Anna studiously avoided looking at Wes as she passed by his table. She’d have to tell Anna that she didn’t have to pretend Wes wasn’t watching her, and that in fact, it might be better if she didn’t.
She took out her cell phone and studied her text messages. Cooper hadn’t texted her, but it wasn’t like she expected him to, right? After his reaction to her this afternoon, after his non-reaction to marking her, she’d be a fool to think he would. He was looking for a new mate and when he found her, Daisy would become nothing more than a –
“I need you to give her a message for me.”
She glanced up, staring curiously at the good looking guy standing next to Anna’s empty seat. He was wearing jeans and a t-shirt with a blue hoodie layered over it. He had black hair and a dark brown beard and gorgeous green eyes.
“I’m sorry?” she said.
“You need to give her a message,” he said.
He cracked his knuckles nervously as Daisy stared at him in confusion. “Who?”
“Jesus, are you fucking stupid?” The man stepped closer. “Tell her that I love her and -”
He stopped and sniffed at Daisy, anxiety flashing across his face. “Fuck, you’re a lion’s mate.”
She swallowed hard. The man was a shifter. She pushed her chair back as he took a step back. “Just tell Anna that -”
“Oh my God…”
Anna’s voice was faint and barely legible above the noise in the restaurant. The man spun around. Adrenaline rushed through Daisy, making her feel lightheaded and her legs shake as she shoved her way to her feet.
Anna was staring up at the shifter with terror in her eyes. She cringed when the shifter cupped her face. “Xander, don’t.”
“Wes!” Daisy screamed. “Wes, it’s him!”
She strained to see around Xander’s broad body, relief rushing through her. Wes must have sensed something was wrong when Xander approached the table. He was already halfway to them, shoving his way through the large group of people blocking his route.
“I miss you,” the man whispered.
Anna pulled away from his touch, stumbling back as Wes cleared the group of people.
“Fuck,” Xander growled, glancing at Wes before spinning back to face Daisy. He pushed past her, knocking her flat on her ass as, moving fast, he ran toward the back of the restaurant. Wes ran by Daisy without a word and Anna helped her to her feet.
“Daisy! Are you okay?”
Daisy rubbed her elbow before putting her arm around Anna’s waist. They’d already lost sight of Xander and Wes in the restaurant and Anna gave Daisy a frightened look. “What do we do?”
“Stay right here where there are plenty of people,” Daisy said. “If Wes isn’t back in five minutes, I’ll call Cooper.”
She put her arm around the frightened teenager, ignoring the looks from the people at the table next to theirs. “You okay, honey?”
“Yeah, I think so,” Anna said before hugging Daisy hard and burying her face in Daisy’s shoulder.
* * *
If anything could convince Daisy that Cooper was already halfway to believing she wasn’t his mate anymore, it was his reaction when he walked into the Landon mansion. Or rather… his lack of reaction.
Her expectation that he would either be completely freaking out and worried about her or be cranky and spilling out I told you so’s left and right, was completely mistaken.
Looking calm and completely in control, he said, “Are you hurt?”
“No,” she said.
“He pushed her down,” Anna said. “Hard.”
“Do you need to go to the hospital?” Cooper asked in that calm tone of voice that, honestly, was starting to freak her out a little.
“No,” she said. “I’ll have a bruised elbow, nothing more.”
“All right.” He turned to Anna and smiled at her. “How are you doing, kid? Okay?”
“Yeah,” Anna said. “He’s changed. He dyed his hair and he grew a beard and he’s thinner now. It’s why I didn’t recognize him when I was walking back from the bathroom. It wasn’t until I heard his voice that I…” she took a deep breath, leaning against her father, “I’m really sorry, Daisy. This is all my fault.”
“It isn’t,” Cooper said. “You’re allowed to go out, and you and Daisy did the right thing by calling Wes to go with you.”
He turned to Wes. “Did you get a good look at his new appearance?”
Wes nodded. “Good enough.”
“Why didn’t you catch him?” David said to Wes. “He was right there in the restaurant. If you had caught him, all this would be over.”
“Dad,” Anna said, “be cool.”
“Xander is a cheetah shifter,” Cooper said.
“And he’s a lion shifter.” David pointed at Wes.
“Yes,” Cooper said, “he is. But cheetah shifters are incredibly fast. As soon as he was out of the restaurant, he shifted to his cheetah. Once that happened, once Xander had a clear and open path, there was no way Wes, or anyone who isn’t a cheetah, would have caught him.”
David scrubbed his hand over his face. “Fuck, sorry.” He looked down at Anna before kissing her forehead. “She’s our world and if something happened to her…”
“Oh my God, Dad,” Anna said with an embarrassed grimace, “you and Mom gotta get hobbies.”
Daisy laughed, and even Wes and Cooper cracked smiles as David kissed Anna’s forehead again. “I love you, kid.”
“I love you too,” Anna said.
The doorbell rang and David said, “That’ll be the police.”
As David opened the door, Cooper glanced down at Daisy. She smiled tentatively at him, the smile dying when he nodded briskly before turning away. She was aching to hug him, wanted the comfort that only he could give her. Instead she crossed her arms over her torso and stared at his broad back.
* * *
Cooper kept it together at the client’s. He even kept it together on the drive home with Daisy, despite the way his lion was growling and whining and demanding.
But his control wavered in the house, wavered and then disappeared under the overwhelming desire of both his and his lion’s need to touch his mate. To assure himself that she really was okay.
His entire body shaking, he followed Daisy into the kitchen. She set her purse on the table before opening the cupboard for a glass. His legs weirdly weak, he walked toward her as she said, “Do you want a glass of water?”
She gasped when he turned her around and boosted her onto the counter so they were face to face. Without speaking, he hugged her hard, wrapping his arms around her slender body and burying his face in her neck. He was probably crushing her, probably making it impossible for her to breathe. But the panic that settled over him like a slab of cement the second he got Wes’ phone call finally broke when he had his mate in his arms.
He purred to her, stroking her back and reminding himself that he couldn’t kiss her.
His lion purred louder when Daisy returned his hug. She hooked her legs around his hips and pulled him in even closer, her small hands smoothing up and down his back. His body was still shaking, and she pressed a kiss against his shoulder through his t-shirt. “I’m all right, Cooper. I’m okay, honey.”
“Are you sure?” he rasped against her throat.
“Yes. Your scent scared him. He knew I was your mate and it kept him away,” she said.
She wasn’t his mate, couldn’t be his mate, but hearing her say it soothed his lion in a way that Cooper could never replicate. He marked her throat again, cupping the back of her neck and tilting her head back so he could mark every inch of her pale skin.
She didn’t protest, not even when her throat was bright red, not even when he could see faint scratches from his stubble rising on her skin. She let him mark her until he was satisfied, until his scent on her was so overpowering, that every shifter within twenty feet of her would smell Cooper.
His lion growled its approval as Cooper marked her a final time before cupping her face and staring into her eyes. He could get lost in their gorgeous green depths, wanted to get lost. She made a soft sound of encouragement, her lips parting as her gaze dropped to his mouth.
His cock hardened as the scent of her need infused the air between them.
He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to touch her. He wanted to take her upstairs, undress her, and make her come repeatedly until she was warm and sated and utterly satisfied. He wanted to bury himself deep in her warmth and forget all the reasons why she couldn’t be his mate.
Instead, knowing it would crush him when her desire turned to fear, he made himself pull away from the warmth of her body, tugging free of her limbs as she stared at him with hurt and disappointment.
“Cooper -”
“I’m glad you’re okay,” he said. “It’s late and I have a busy day tomorrow. Good night, Daisy.”
His lion roared angrily and tried to surge forward. He held it back grimly, digging deep for control, as Daisy swallowed hard and looked away.
If she asked him to stay, he would. He could deny his mate nothing. His lion growling furiously, Coop clenched his hands into tight fists behind his back.
Instead of asking him to stay with her, Daisy said, “Good night, Cooper.”
He walked out of the kitchen with stiff and jerky strides. By the time he reached his bedroom, his lion was growling so loudly, he could hear nothing else. He dropped onto his bed and ignored his lion’s pleading to go to their mate.
Chapter Seventeen
“You okay, boss?” The worried look Boone gave him, indicated just how fucking terrible Cooper looked. It wasn’t that Boone didn’t care about Coop or the others, he just often masked his worry or concern under humour or sarcasm. If he was concerned enough to drop the humour, he obviously thought Cooper was about to lose it.
“Fine,” he said. “Didn’t sleep well.”
That was the fucking understatement of the year. He hadn’t slept a goddamn wink all night. He’d laid in bed, staring at the ceiling, straining to hear the soft sound of Daisy’s breathing through the wall, until the sun rose.
“Maybe you should take the day off,” Grayson said. “The office won’t fall apart if you take a day off, Coop.”
“I’m fine, I said.” Cooper stared at Wes sitting next to Grayson. “Tell me what you found out from your friend in the police department.”
Wes took a sip of coffee. “I talked to Roberto this morning. He said there were four separate calls last night about a streaking complaint in the Rose Valley neighbourhood, near the cross streets of Moncton and Torrance.”
“Bing-fucking-o,” Boone said. “It has to be Xander.”
“Not necessarily,” Grayson said. “But it’s probably the best lead we’ve got right now.” He glanced at Cooper. “You sure you want to use resources to find this guy? Landon asked us for security, not to hunt the guy down.”
Coop wanted to bare his teeth at his best friend. Wanted to snarl at him that he didn’t give a fuck what Landon had hired them for. What mattered was finding the man who had dared to go near his mate.
Instead, he took a deep breath and made his voice calm. “I’m sure. Boone and Wes, you’re on stakeout duty. Chase will replace Wes in watching Anna when she leaves the house. Unless Daisy is with her and then I’m on watch.”
He waited for the others to protest. To tell him that his ability to keep them safe would be compromised by his feelings for Daisy. Wisely, everyone kept their mouth shut.
“You want us to head over to Rose Valley today?” Boone asked.
“Yes. Start at Moncton and Torrance.”
“There are a lot of apartment buildings in Rose Valley,” Boone said. “This could take a while.”
“I don’t care how fucking long it takes or if you have to sit outside every goddamn apartment building in the neighbourhood. You find this asshole and then call me.”
“No, call the police,” Grayson said.
Cooper glared at him and Gray shook his head. “If you think I’m going to let you go to prison for life just because your lion is pissed that Daisy was shoved by this guy, you really are going mad.”
“I just want to talk to him before I call the cops,” Cooper said.
Boone burst into laughter. “Bullshit, Coop. Gray is right, you’re not getting anywhere near Xander. It’s for your own good, big guy.”
Coop growled at him, but Boone only laughed again before standing and clapping Wes on the back. “C’mon, buddy, we’ll hit the grocery store and stock up on some munchies before we head over to Rose Valley.”
The two shifters left Cooper’s office. Coop frowned at Grayson when he didn’t move. “Is there something else? I have a lot of work to do today.”
“Are you still planning on going out with Shay tonight?” Grayson said.
Cooper glanced at the open door. “Yes, why?”
“Because Daisy smells so strongly like you that there’s no way you didn’t have sex with her last night.”
“We didn’t,” Cooper said shortly. “I marked her again to be on the safe side.”
“Coop -”
“She can’t be my mate,” he snarled at Grayson. “Jesus Christ, we’ve talked about this how many fucking times? Give it a rest, will you?”
“Yeah, okay.” Grayson stood and guilt rolled through Cooper like dark clo
uds before a storm.
“Gray, I’m sorry. I didn’t sleep last night and I’m exhausted. I have a lot of shit on my plate right now.”
“I know.” Grayson leaned across the desk and squeezed his shoulder. “Text me tomorrow and let me know how it goes with Shay, all right?”
“I will.” Cooper sat back in his chair, rubbing at his eyes before tilting his head back and staring at the ceiling. He was doing the right thing, he told himself, as his lion growled a constant litany of demands to go to Daisy.
* * *
“Okay, I know what you’re thinking,” Eleanor said, “but give it a chance. The food here is amazing and they have, like, forty-two different craft beers. Do you drink?”
Daisy slid into the booth, setting her purse down beside her and studying the large and, frankly, dingy looking pub that Eleanor had driven them too. Despite the grungy look of the place, it was packed full of people and she had to raise her voice to be heard over the noise. “I drink a little.”
“Cool.” Eleanor leaned back against her seat and smiled at her. “So, how come Wes texted me and said I didn’t have to pick you up after you were finished tutoring? Did the two of you hook up last night or something?”
She was trying to sound casual, but even though she didn’t know Eleanor very well, Daisy could see the falseness of her smile. She quickly shook her head. “No. Wes and I are coworkers, nothing more. There was an incident with Anna.”
“Shit, she okay? Was it the stalker guy?”
Before Daisy could answer, their server arrived. They each ordered a beer and when he’d left, Daisy said, “She’s fine. But Xander showed up at a burger place we were at.”
“Oh my God. You’re kidding?” Eleanor said.
“No. Wes was with us and he almost caught him, but the guy is a cheetah shifter and I guess they’re incredibly fast. He shifted and took off and Wes didn’t have a chance of catching him.”
The server brought back their beers and set them on the table. Eleanor glanced at the menu in front of her. “We’ll need a couple more minutes, please.”