by Daphne Snow
“I see you were in the middle of something Hopefully it won't disrupt your work, Benson. We are businessmen after all.” He said, nearly chiding Alexander as he sat in the chair in front of him.
“Remember you are the one here to ask for my help.” Benson almost growled at him and the older man's displeasure dripped from his aura. “You young people don't know anything about respect. Your father was a much more agreeable man.” Kaiser crossed his legs one over the other and folded his hands in his lap.
“I doubt that because if that were the case you wouldn’t be here at all.” Alexander leaned back in his chair, his fingers tented in his lap.
Kaiser was really not that much older maybe in his mid-forties but that kind of attitude always bothered Benson. Just because someone was older doesn't mean that automatically garnered his respect. Especially not a man like him.
“Besides it's no concern of yours.” He waited a moment thinking the man would come back with some snappy quip but he didn't he just looked at him clearly impatient.
“I've gone over your proposal. And I dont think it's tangible on a technical note and I believe it is disgusting on a personal one. ” He stated not looking the man in the eyes but he could feel his anger. He started to gather the papers from the proposal he presented yesterday afternoon.
The proposals were a formality he liked. Alexander was a fan of structure. When someone wanted something they presented a proposal. It contained what they wanted either money or information. How much they were willing to spend on the information or how much money he was going to make on the investment. All the more underground types like mobsters, gun runners and hookers hated it because they didn’t want to get caught with anything in writing. Alexander didn’t care. If they wanted something from him this is how they would get it. Whether they liked it or not.
He slipped the papers back into the folder and snapped his fingers.
Two guards came in their hurried steps echoing onto the floor as Alexander and Kaiser stared at each other, hate sizzling between them. The men stood on their side of Kaisers chair waiting for their next directions.
Alexander saw as the man's hands gripped tightly at the leather arms. Threatening to rip them to shreds.“Not tangible? We are in a prime spot for it!" He barked his already midnight eyes somehow growing darker with indignation.
"You know just as well as I do that personal feelings should never play a part in doing business, Benson.” He spat his name in at the end, his voice virulent.
“No Kaiser! I don't deal in trafficking!” Benson was the money man, the info man but that was it. He wouldn't deny the people who came to see him were not exactly needing money for legal activities. He didn’t care about that. The last thing on earth he would touch though would be trafficking. He would sooner be killed than participate in something that destroyed the lives of women and children.
“You pull shifters from other countries you could make so much money getting shifter women here.” His incredulous smile trying to convince him that money would be worth it. No amount of money could ever justify this.
“To give them a better life. Not to trick them into becoming tricks themselves.” It had been a small project he started a few years back. Helping asylum seeking shifters or shifters from third world countries get to America. It wasn’t the dreamland but they would have more opportunity here. A chance to start fresh. With all the wrong and hate he brought into the world he wanted to do something good for others. His mother had influenced the project. It was unfortunate she’d never get to see it.
"Hear me out, my friend."
“I’d prefer not to.” Still, he smiled but now becoming a little panicked.
“I'm just thinking about the good of the community. The money being brought in could help everyone. All the bears respect you, Benson, they look up to you. Like they looked up to your father. You are their leader. You could make them understand. I'm sure they would be happy to help out. Everyone could get a cut.” He shook his head slowly, his eyes filled with disgust at the man.
“Make them understand what? That you intend to take their wives, their mates, their daughters and sell them out on the street. I am no one's leader anyhow and I will not even attempt to convince my people in favor of any of your pathetic repulsive plots.” Alexander was starting to fume and his beast was there with him. He considered letting him out to teach Kaiser a lesson or two in the word no.
“Shifter women have a higher sex drive, the return would be enormous. Human women can only go so long before they get fatigued.” Even the idea of putting human women as much as he didn't care for them through that kind of ordeal sickened him. He thought for a moment about his mate, his Francesca being forced to serve men, shifter and human alike and he almost heaved up his lunch.
Alexander stood slamming his fist down onto the oak desk. The guards even flinched a moment moving a hand to their guns. They were ready to kill Kaiser at the simple flick of the wrist. Benson walked around his desk to the man still seated and grabbed him by the collar.
Kaiser stood slowly as Benson rose his hand fisted in the man's shirt. He didn't tremble, he wasn’t frightened of Alexander and that wouldn’t do. Alexander morphed his hand into Axl's enormous bear paw and the claws started to dig into the man's flesh.
It was then he winced, it was then Alexander could see the man's own beast flash in his eyes….scared. Benson raised him higher and higher until the man's feet were lifted from the ground. As the claws clinched tighter around Kaiser's throat Benson spoke his fangs bared.
“This is the end of the conversation Kaiser.” He tossed him and the man crumpled to the floor. Alexander walked away back to his seat and sat comfortable.
Kaiser stood abruptly, his hair flopping every which way as he straightened his striped suit jacket and flinched away from the two guards trying to haul him away.
“You’ll help me whether you like it or not!” He declared and then mad as hell he stormed out, the two men hot on his heels.
Not that he was fearful of his threat but to ensure he wouldn’t go traipsing around asking others for backing Benson gave the panther leader a call since Wilfred Kaiser would fall under his jurisdiction and as well as the council overseeing all shifters. Though Alexander would not become physically involved he would keep an eye on the situation until Wilfred Kaiser was dealt with.
Alexander wasn’t the murderous type though so this would have to be handled in a way it didn’t come back to bite him.
A lesson his father had taught him rang through his head. Killing a man was a mobsters job. Killing a man was a gangster's job. Bringing justice and executing a man was the council's job. But making money off a man was Alexander's job.
He would be lying if he said he didn’t want to tear the man's throat out but it wasn’t his way. Simple as that. Kaiser would die but not by his hands.
No shifter community agreed with the idea of putting women at risk. It was more of a human ideology and one he for sure didn't believe in. Shifters believed women were sacred beings. Ones to be cherished and loved. The bringers of new life and the beings that kept their communities thriving.
His thoughts drifted to a beautiful curved figure he couldn't wait to get his hands on again. The idea of her belly swollen with his cub. The blissful look on her face, a dream he would hope to someday have.
Costas walked in a pensive look on his angular face. “Gather the rest of the proposals and send them away. I’m going home.” The man nodded his head and walked out leaving Benson with his thoughts.
Chapter 6
The ride back to her parents was silent. At least Frannie was silent, her mind in another place. Carl had greeted her and been courteous. She acknowledged it and was all smiles at him. He had asked her how she was and if she had any other plans for the day as he drove. She gave him short answers and eventually he probably realized she wasn't exactly up for talking. So he sat quietly up front, gliding through traffic with ease.
In the back seat on the o
ther hand Francesca's mind was wracking. How was she going to deal with her parents and how in the world she was going to douse these feelings for one Mr. Alexander Benson.
He was so strong and she could feel his power in the way he grabbed her. With the strength he held he could've easily snapped her in two. Yet he was also incredibly gentle with her. The flares of intense chemistry between them were unlike anything she had ever experienced. Goosebumps flared on her skin in remembrance.
Alexander made her want to possess him. To have her way with him as she never imagined. A flash of an intense thought passed through her mind. His hands tied down to the top of a bed while she rode him with abandon. Not allowing him to touch her as he wanted.
She wondered how his face might look, how he might react to that. Would he try to break free? Would he call her a good girl? She rubbed her legs together, her folds suddenly slick with need.
Frannie desperately wanted him to call her a good girl again. She couldn’t let herself go there. Any thoughts with him involved were just downright filthy.
She was basically begging for him to take her right there in his office. To rip her clothes off and fuck her over his desk. She would have barely resisted. Hell, she walked up to him and taunted him. She didn’t know what came over her.
In truth, Frannie wanted to blame it on her damned beast.
Fey had been rolling and conjuring up thoughts in Frans mind the entire time. How Alexander would look naked and the feel of his cock in her. Growling about how the tall man was and how he was theirs and she was his. She knew though she couldn't solely blame the hussy of a black bear. No matter how much she wanted to.
Fey so desperately was reaching out to Axl as well relaying what he was thinking back to Frannie.
Axl wanted them, the two bears had basically agreed they were mates. We are mates! Fey was clearly annoyed at Frannie's indecision.
Frannie was still cautious though. She hated that she was careful but she couldn’t let go of her insecurities that easily. No sane woman could. Or maybe she just wasn’t brave enough to take that leap of faith. To say screw it all and jump into bed with him.
She could tell or at least she thought she could tell Benson wanted her. That gave her the kind of courage to tease him a little. The kind of courage she didn't normally have.
Fey would typically growl and rake at her to stop. It always made her look and feel awkward and ex's in the past had made it a point to mention it.
With Alexander though she felt on fire and gorgeous. Her sexual prowess peaked when he was near. Though she wasn't prepared for his near glittering green gaze to capture hers. The embarrassment when his guard had walked in killed her mood so quickly it felt like she jumped in an Alaskan lake. She must have looked ridiculous.
She had been surprised to see him, to begin with. Though she smelled that wild scent of him she didn't want to believe he could be the man that her parents had an otherworldly debt with.
But he was.
Alexander Benson was the monster, the crazy wild eyed criminal with gold teeth in her head. He was the man that took someone's eye without remorse and didn't deal with women. And as angry as she wanted to be with him she was angrier with herself and her parents.
First off Raymond had lied about the money. Though she barely knew him she believed Alexander when he said he didn't charge interest on shifters. A gangster with morals, she had laughed at that idea earlier.
Second off, it didn’t bother her like it should that he wasn’t a good man. She still wanted him. Not just sexually either, she wanted to be near him to feel his comforting presence. And she was curious about him. The hard lines in his face held stories that she wanted to hear.
Everything within her meaning Fey really and a good portion of her heart was telling her Alexander Benson and his bear Axl were their mates. Fran just couldn’t believe it. She didn't know if she could trust that feeling.
What if she was wrong and this whole idea in her head came crashing down. Now that the little bear was silent she let her mind wander to more unfortunate realistic possibilities
What if he was just toying with her? What if he realized the silly back sassing girl he had met outside the airport was coming to see him and he planned it all out? Making her think he wanted her by nearly fucking her on his desk. She bet it wasn't even really his cock that rubbed up against her. No matter how warm it was. Also, taking her out on a date to what? Embarrass her, to make fun of her for even imagining he wanted her?
Was it all just one big joke she wasn’t in on?
There was no way on this planet the man would wave off an eighty thousand dollar debt for a date with her. Not unless this was a parallel universe and she was suddenly Miss Universe.
Memories bombarded her brain of highschool boys teasing her and the dates that never showed. Short term boyfriends who couldn't seem to ‘get over’ her body. How she’d spent more nights crying than she cared to count, all because someone thought it'd be funny to pick on the ‘fat’ girl.
She scoffed out a shuddering breath irate with the prospect of Benson's potential joke. She wouldn't take it sitting down, she wouldn't cry, she would show him how sexy and desirable of a woman she was and all he was missing out on. He wouldn’t win.
Determination swelled within her. She was tired, so fucking tired of people pushing her around. So fucking tired of people thinking they could toy with her just because she was a little quiet and had more love to give than they could handle. So tired of the ruthless insults from Ray and her mother's unwillingness to do a damn thing about it.
"We are here Miss Bianchi.” Sweet Carl called out hopping out of the car and around to open the door for her. His gentle and kind face had been the only reason she hadn't unloaded on him about how his boss was a major dick.
The sound of shouting drew both of their attention as she stepped out. Unsurprisingly it was coming from her parent's house. She looked at Carl giving him a small smile and said “Thanks for the ride.” She approached the house she would rather see in a rearview mirror than be entering right now.
Opening the creaky falling apart screen door the shouting just got louder.
“This is all your fault Ray if you just would have fucking listened to me!” Her mother started. Ray returned with a voice so filled with such hate it made Frannie wince.
“Maybe if you weren't a fucking whore I could have won. I was too busy watching your skank ass flirting with the bartender. We wouldn't be in this fucking mess if it weren't for you!” Frannie walked into the kitchen.
Raymond, all rat faced and mad, was standing up with a lit cigarette in his mouth and a cup of whiskey in his hand. Her mother was sitting down with a chipped cup of something clear and Fran doubted it was water. Her head was bowed not looking at him as he yelled at her. Claudia’s matted hair hid her desolate face.
Frannie wanted to be shocked at the scene but it was nothing new. They argued and drank like this for the last ten years. All she could do was release a heavy sigh her brow furrowed in frustration.
They noticed her quickly and her mother went to stand wobbling a little. “Your back sweetheart.” She was quick to grab the edge of the table to steady herself as she stood. Fran stepped forward to help her into a hug before letting her sit back down. The bathrobe she wore smelled of vomit and garbage but Frannie didn’t care.
Ray sneered at her in what Frannie would now think was an admirable disgust. For the man to hate her even as she hugged the woman who birthed her was a feat.
As she released her mom to the chair she gave Ray such a decidedly nasty look Frannie had surprised herself. Though it did nothing to sway the man's emotions. He took a long drag of his cigarette blowing the smoke in her direction and voicing his only concern. “So did you take care of it?”
Her earlier thoughts of not taking bullshit anymore building in her. She promised herself that enough would be enough. She needed to start looking out for herself.
“You lied to me! You borrowed eighty grand
not thirty and he had no plans of taking the house. I was about to go in there and spend the next decade of my life paying off debts for you two.” She was near tears, her mother looked at her, her eyes in a far off place. Ray grew angry at the claim. Not that he wasn't already fuming but now his rage had settled upon her.
“Did you take care of it or not?” He yelled at her barely even acknowledging her protest, her accusation.
As usual, her mother said nothing. At this point though her silence spoke volumes. She knew it wasn't thirty grand but let Ray lie to her anyway. She knew the kind of danger she could have been in but hardly lifted a finger to stop her. The woman had enough energy and cognizance to argue with a man for ten years but not enough to worry for her daughter's safety for ten minutes.
“It's taken care of no thanks to you. Can’t even hold a job for more than a day and rather drink your life away.” Ray approached her pointing a rancid finger in her face, shaking his head slightly as if he was trying to hold himself back from hitting her. Her face remained resolute. She wouldn't let him scare her not now and never again.
