“How do you know?” he asked.
“I just do,” she said, rolling her eyes and trying to play dumb.
She didn’t want him to know about Mountain Bear. Her true mate. She sighed, just thinking about his feral eyes and hot body. A thrill went down her spine. Mountain Bear was her secret.
“I don’t have time for any sass from you, Daisy. It’s time for you to be useful for once.”
“I’ve been trying to go to college for two years. You know I want to be an interior designer. If you just let me go to school or get a job, I’d be out of your hair in no time.”
“You are much more useful to me in binding ourselves to the Updike clan, than with whatever minuscule income you’d ever be capable of earning as an interior designer.”
“Thanks Rubio,” she said, crossing her arms and tossing her long blonde curls over her shoulder.
She pursed her lips and stared at him. He’d never exactly forced her to do anything before. And she had to admit to herself, it was a lot easier to stay home and do what her stepdad wanted than to go out and get a crappy job at a fast food restaurant to pay for a room in someone’s boarding house.
“Your time has come, Daisy,” he said authoritatively. She could tell he was trying to play the wise parent, but he was falling very short. “Now get your things packed. We’re doing the trade off in a few hours.”
“Trade off?”
“You are valuable, Daisy. Today you can prove it to me. Don’t you want to be of value to your family?”
“Yeah, sure. Can’t wait…”
She wanted him to leave her room so she could figure out a way to escape. Her stepdad had let her do pretty much whatever she wanted, except get a higher education or date, for most of her life. If that meant shopping and clubbing with friends, he left her alone. This was the first time he’d tried to make her do something she didn’t want to.
And she definitely didn’t want to do it. If she knew anything about her stepdad, it was that he got what he wanted, and he didn’t mess around. If she defied him, her fate would not look good. That much was certain. Exactly what he’d be willing to do to his own stepdaughter was another question.
“Pack. You have fifteen minutes,” he said before leaving the room.
“This is bad, Fifi,” she said, picking up her Yorkie. “I don’t know what to do.”
Fifi licked her face and wiggled in her arms. Daisy put her down and walked to the window, looking outside. She was on the second floor of her stepfather’s suburban mansion. There was a big maple tree outside with long thick branches. One branch was not too far from the window.
Daisy Danes contemplated jumping out of her window and scaling down the maple tree into the front yard to make her heroic escape. She then looked down at her shoes.
The three-inch Louboutins would have to go. Then there was the question of whether or not she could even make it to the branch, which she doubted. As much as she hated the idea of marrying a stranger, she liked the idea of falling to her death even less.
Her door swung open behind her and she turned with a gasp. Her stepfather stood in her doorway, gripping the knob.
“You’re going to have to change into something more practical for the weather on the mountain,” he said, looking her up and down.
Daisy looked at her pink Prada suit and then back at her stepdad.
“What’s wrong with my outfit?”
“Nothing, for brunch in the city.”
“But I like this outfit,” she said, looking at herself and posing in the mirror.
“Suit yourself, just don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“Fine,” she grumbled, putting Fifi down. “I’ll change.”
“Good,” her stepfather said, closing the door.
She groaned and trudged to her closet. What to wear to a mountain? She flipped through her clothing, not happy with anything she found. Finally, she chose a pair of dark-wash blue jeans, a thick cashmere sweater and knee high boots.
She looked at herself again and decided it was an okay look to meet her future not-husband in. There was no way in hell she’d marry this hyena shifter her stepdad was intent on giving her to. But she didn’t know what else she could do at this point besides go through the motions with her stepdad.
You can’t force someone to take vows, can you? This was the twenty-first century in a free country. They couldn’t get away with it. She’d never let them. In the meantime, she decided to pack her things.
“I’m not sure what’s going to happen to us, Fifi,” she said to her dog as she put her into the pink carrier that looked like a designer handbag.
“Are you ready yet?” her stepfather said, stepping into her room again.
“Yes. I guess. I only had time to pack one bag. What about the rest of my things?”
“I’ll have it all delivered. The trade-off is happening today, no matter what. Get yourself together. We’re leaving.”
Daisy followed her stepdad out of her bedroom and down the whitewashed walls of their home. They walked down the ornate staircase and through the front foyer to the door. The Escalade was waiting in the driveway, and the driver took her bag as soon as she approached. She held tight to Fifi’s bag as she climbed into the SUV. Fear flooded her chest and sank into her stomach. She gulped as her stepdad’s driver started the car.
“Where are we going?” she asked, clutching Fifi’s bag to her chest.
“The airport,” her stepfather said. “You’re taking a ride.”
Chapter 3
The driver weaved through traffic and made it to the airport as the sun rose to its midday height. When they stopped, Daisy couldn’t get out of the car. Her body had locked up from fear. Her stepdad gripped her arm and pulled her from the Escalade. A helicopter sat in the distance, the blades slicing through the air.
“Rubio, do I really have to do this?” she pleaded.
“I’m in the middle of a negotiation with the hyena packs. You are not going to mess this up for me, Daisy.”
“But this isn’t fair.”
“Let’s go,” he said tugging her along.
She had an iron grip on Fifi’s dog carrier as her stepdad pulled her over the tarmac to the waiting helicopter. He pushed her inside, getting in after her. The driver got in with her bag and her stepdad gave an instruction to the pilot.
It was all so loud she couldn’t hear what was happening. She had no idea what her stepdad meant about the trade-off he kept talking about. There was no way she was going to marry this hyena guy her stepdad wanted to sell her off to. They could put her on a helicopter, but they couldn’t make her say ‘I do.’ Daisy slumped in her seat and crossed her arms. Fifi whined in her bag, and Daisy tried to comfort her.
“We’re going to be okay, Fifi,” Daisy whispered.
The helicopter lifted from the ground, and Daisy watched the ground falling below them. Soon they were sailing over the buildings of her city and flying toward Fate Mountain. She could see the peaks in the distance. Her heart sank.
“Where are we going exactly?” she asked her stepdad.
He and the driver sat across from her, not taking notice of her until now.
“The trade-off point is on the top of Fate Mountain.”
“What are you trading me for?” she asked.
“A ton of crystal, if you must know. This will seal a pact between us and the hyenas. You’d best behave yourself.”
She glared at him and rolled her eyes. She couldn’t believe this was happening. Yesterday she’d been unpacking her last shopping haul and now she was on this helicopter, flying to a mountain to be shoved into an arranged marriage.
Nothing in her life had prepared her for this day. She knew her stepdad was a bad guy, but she’d never expected him to turn on her like this. It hurt more than she wanted to admit to herself. At least she had Fifi.
The helicopter flew over the farmland between the city and Fate Mountain, growing closer to their destination with each passing second. Daisy gulped, seeing the mount
ain approaching in the distance.
“Dad, can’t we talk this through?” she asked, trying to appeal to his sense of loyalty to her as a parent.
“I’m afraid not, Daisy. Now be a good girl and keep your mouth shut.”
She bared her teeth and looked back out the window. All she could do was sit and wait and hope that her future fiancé was more reasonable than her stepdad. He couldn’t possibly want to marry her against her will.
The helicopter started up the rise toward the peak of Fate Mountain. Daisy’s heart thumped in her chest and jumped to her throat when she saw the other helicopter parked on a landing just below the snow line.
Her stepdad’s helicopter veered toward the landing and settled down near the one already there. The doors to the other helicopter swung open and out stepped two men in brightly colored jumpsuits and gold chains.
“Who are they?” Daisy asked.
“The Updike brothers. One of them will be your future husband.”
She blanched. It wasn’t that they were ugly, there was just something off about them both. They reminded her of her stepfather’s henchmen. And that turned her off right away. What had she expected? Some sweet Romeo to sweep her off her feet?
That wasn’t going to happen with anyone but Mountain Bear. She thought of him for a moment, contrasting him with the men making their way toward her stepfather’s helicopter. All she could hope was that somehow, Mountain Bear would save her. As irrational as that hope might be, it was all she had to hold onto at that moment. Besides Fifi’s carrier.
Her stepdad swung open the door of the helicopter and pulled her out into the cold mountain air. In that moment, she was so grateful for her warm clothes that she almost forgot what was happening.
But that didn’t last long. The same man who’d told her to dress warmly was gripping her arm and forcing her to walk toward two strange shifters, one of whom apparently wanted to marry her.
“Did you bring it?” her stepdad asked.
“It’s here. A thousand pounds of crystal. It’s in the crate behind the chopper,” one of the Updike brothers said.
“And this is her?” the second one asked as her stepfather tugged her toward the crate.
“This is her. You’ll get a lot of miles out of her,” her stepdad said as if he was talking about a used car.
“Which one of you is supposed to be my husband?” she asked, clutching Fifi’s bag.
“We haven’t decided yet,” one of them said.
“Do I get any say in it?” she asked.
All the men around her burst out laughing. Her stepdad shook his head. One of the Updike brothers pushed open the door to the aluminum crate. There were stacks and stacks of bags full of white powder.
“Finest crystal in the west,” one of the brothers said.
“I see,” her stepfather said, letting go of her arm as he walked into the crate.
“What are you doing?” one of the brothers asked.
“I’m inspecting my payment,” her stepdad said.
Daisy started to inch backward, holding Fifi’s bag in both hands. Her stepdad moved further into the crate, digging through the bags of crystal.
She looked around, spotting the tree line of a thick forest. In the other direction was a rocky cliff. She kept inching closer and closer to the forest, determined to get the heck away from all these crazy people.
“What is this?” her stepfather shouted from inside the crate.
“That’s not what it looks like,” one of the Updikes shouted.
“Like hell it isn’t,” her stepfather growled.
Daisy looked over her shoulder at the forest and made a break for it. She heard a gunshot behind her and looked back to see one of the Updikes’ henchmen take a bullet in the chest.
She clutched Fifi’s bag as her dog barked at the noise. Daisy ran, hoping no one noticed her in the confusion.
More gunshots followed. Daisy made it to the forest and kept going as fast as she could. As her boots crunched over the cold forest floor, her heart pounded inside her. Fifi barked and Daisy pleaded for her pet to be quiet.
She didn’t want anyone to catch her now that she’d escaped. More gunshots fired in the distance and a moment later a helicopter flew overhead. She kept running, not sure if it was her stepdad’s helicopter or the Updikes’.
She heard her name screamed in the distance over and over. It was her stepdad’s voice. He was still looking for her. She scrambled over a fallen log and hurried down the other side. Why was this happening? Her hands hurt from the splinters of the log. Fifi kept whining and crying at her from her bag.
“Please be quiet, Fifi, or they’ll find us.”
Her stepdad had tried to sell her to the Updikes for a crate of drugs. Then something went wrong. The Updikes had tried to rip him off, it seemed. At least one person had been shot. She wasn’t going back. She didn’t care if she was lost on the mountain. Daisy Danes was not going to be sold into marriage to man she didn’t love for the price of a crate of drugs.
She couldn’t be that far from civilization, could she? She pulled her cellphone from a side pouch in Fifi’s bag as she slowed to a walk. She checked for reception. There wasn’t any. But the picture of Mountain Bear was still on her screen.
She sighed, wishing she knew where he was. His profile had said he lived in a cabin on Fate Mountain. Before she’d left home, the idea of living in a cabin in the woods had no appeal. Now that she was lost in the woods, she’d give anything to find a cabin among the jungle of trees.
The sound of her name being yelled, faded in the distance as she walked. A while later, a helicopter, carrying a crate below it, flew through the sky overhead. Her stepdad had left. She wasn’t sure if she should be relieved or angry that he’d left her.
She settled on relieved for now. The realization of how big a bastard her stepdad really was hadn’t fully settled in until that exact moment. She couldn’t keep fooling herself.
Up until today, Daisy had had an easy life. She’d never pushed herself or challenged herself because there had never been a need. She felt stupid for letting her stepdad have so much control over her life.
She should have moved out a long time ago. She hated that she’d been so spoiled and weak, and that she’d let her life end up like this. Then again, what would have stopped her stepdad from doing exactly the same thing if she’d been in college and living on her own? He could have shown up at her door at any time and kidnapped her pretty much just as easily as he had today.
She could have put up a fight, called the cops. Brought down her stepdad’s whole business. But she knew that her stepdad had cops in his pocket. There was nowhere she could go for help. She thought of Mountain Bear, wanting to believe there was someone out there who could protect her.
Daisy kept walking as the temperature dropped and the sunlight dimmed into evening. It would be dark soon and she would be stuck out in the woods with no food, water, or shelter. She stopped for a few minutes to give Fifi some dog food and let her drink from a puddle. She wanted to drink the water so badly, but she couldn’t bring herself to drink water from the ground, no matter how thirsty she was.
Daisy put Fifi back in her bag and she continued to walk, her feet growing more tired with each step. As the sun started making its way to the western horizon, she shivered under her parka. She’d worn the warmest clothes she owned aside from her ski suit, yet she was still freezing.
She could feel Fifi shivering through her bag and pulled the little dog out to rest her inside the front of her parka. They could help keep each other warm. The tiny dog’s little body pressed against her chest. Fifi licked her face affectionately.
“We’ll get through this Fifi,” she said wearily, no longer sure if she believed it.
She continued through the forest and picked up the slight smell of smoke on the breeze. She sniffed, looking above the trees for a hint of where the smoke was coming from. She saw wisps of smoke rising about the treetops. She held Fifi in her jacket
and ran as fast as her tired feet could take her in the direction of the smoke. When she came to the edge of the forest, she could barely believe what she saw before her. Across the clearing sat a little log cabin, with gray smoke billowing from the chimney. She was saved!
Chapter 4
A knock sounded at Cyrus’s door and he grabbed his gun, the scent coming from the other side of the door sending his grizzly into a panic. He pushed open the door, his shotgun under the crook of his arm. What he found on the other side of the door made his inner grizzly rear on his hind legs. The smell of the little human standing in front of him with a tiny dog poking out of the neck of her coat almost made his knees buckle.
Mate.
He knew it beyond a shadow of a doubt. His mate had found him and come to his door.
“Mountain Bear?” she asked, looking up at him through thick lashes.
The little dog barked at him and jumped out of the neck of her jacket. The girl caught the dog before it dropped to the ground, but the little creature wiggled away and lunged at Cyrus, yapping and barking.
“She doesn’t like you,” his mate said, looking up at him from her knees. She grabbed at the dog and finally got it back under control, shoving it into a handbag.
“I don’t like her either,” Cyrus said.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, looking into his cabin.
“I should ask you the same question,” he said, crossing his arms.
She was clearly his mate. That much was certain. But he still didn’t understand how the little human and her silly little dog had gotten to his cabin.
“I can tell you the whole story if you let me inside,” she said, and he noticed her weary expression for the first time.
“Of course, come in,” he said, stepping aside to let her by.
She continued into the cabin and quickly found a place to sit by the fire.
“I can’t believe I found you,” she said. “I was worried I’d have to spend the night in the forest.”
“You were lost?” he asked, handing her a cup of water.
Mountain Bear (Bear Shifter Romance) (Timber Bear Ranch Book 3) Page 2