Daisy sat at one of the booths in the diner, the heel of her foot bouncing frantically. Lily was taking an order at another booth and Lucy, the other waitress, kept coming around to top off Daisy’s hot chocolate with whipped cream. Daisy appreciated the gesture, but she’d barely tasted any of it. From her vantage point she could see the town offices clearly; had seen Alek arrive and enter the building with an escort. What was taking so long? What were they discussing? Was he okay? Did he need help?
She felt her claws extend in her agitated state and was glad the tabletop was Formica or Lucy would have had her head for scratching up one of her tables. Her nerves were stretched so tight she nearly jumped out of her skin when Constance Tully flopped down in the seat opposite. “You,” Constance said pointedly, “look like you need a distraction.” She said taking a sip through a straw of what smelled like strawberry milkshake. “So tell me all about this lover boy I’ve been hearing so much about.” A wiggle of her perfectly tweezed eyebrows, “And don’t you dare skimp on the details.”
Constance was wearing her usual work uniform of black pants with a white button down top. Her blonde hair pulled up into a tail high on top of her head, kind of reminding Daisy of Barbara Eden in that old show I Dream of Jeannie. Wouldn’t it be nice if Connie could cross her arms, nod, and blink all of Daisy’s wishes true?
With a sigh, Daisy dipped her finger in the whipped cream and put the dollop in her mouth. “He’s all I think about.”
Connie leaned her elbows on the table and rested her chin in the cup of her hands. The grin added to the squished cheeks made Daisy laugh as Connie said “Tell me more.” And then, “I heard you have drawings of him. I want to see. Did you bring your sketchpad?”
Daisy shook her head. She didn’t even know at this point where her sketchpad was. The stupid thing was why Alek was over at the town offices right now, possibly in trouble. Daisy grit her teeth as she looked out the window for any sign the meeting was breaking up.
Connie waved a hand in front of Daisy’s face. “Hellooooo… best friend here, waiting for details. The least you can do is describe him for me.”
Daisy’s eyes glazed over and a dreamy smile transformed her face. “He’s tall, a little over six feet if I had to guess. About the same as Conner actually.”
Connie growled low but Daisy ignored it. Connie was doing an admirable job of getting over her infatuation with Conner Pierce and was now in the ‘angry’ stage of healing.
She went on with her description. “He has dark brown hair that curls a bit, especially when it’s damp, and these amazing blue eyes that sometimes have hints of yellow that make them look turquoise. He doesn’t smile a lot, but when he does – gah! It takes my breath away.” Daisy let loose with a pleased purr, “And don’t even get me started on his body.”
Connie reached over and grabbed her shoulder to give her a small shake. “Oh, come on, you can’t stop there. Get started on his body – please! I need more!”
Daisy laughed at Connie’s enthusiasm. “Have you ever watched the male swimmers in the Olympics? Well, that should give you an idea.”
“I am so jealous right now. I wish I could meet some dreamy, mysterious male but it’s not like I can do on-line dating.” Connie lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper even though no one was near to hear. “You know, the whole human and shifter thing. Not that it’s not unheard of, I just don’t want to be bothered with tiresome explanations or the hysterics that would follow – mine or his.” She chuckled.
Daisy frowned. “So you’re not going to give Jacob a shot?” Jacob Pierce had a massive crush on Connie and they’d even gone out once. Connie had admitted she’d had a great time but then the rumors started flying that Connie was only using Jacob to get close to Conner. It wasn’t true, but the accusations had made Connie rethink any budding romance with Jacob.
Instead of answering, Connie turned her attention to the window. “Ooh, I think I see your man.” She gasped, “He is so hot, you lucky bitch. Why can’t I get that lucky?” She asked, leaning back and fanning herself with both hands. “Lucy!” Connie called out. “I’m distraught! I need pie to soothe me.”
Daisy looked out the window to see Alek getting into his SUV. He looked whole and healthy, so her worry on that point was put to rest, unfortunately that left her other worry plenty of space to expand. “The problem is,” Daisy said, leaning her chin on a balled fist, a hangdog look on her face. “I think he’s leaving soon. He has this mission and all, but I’m not ready to say goodbye to him.”
Connie took a long pull on the straw in her milkshake before she shrugged. “So convince him to take you with him.”
Chapter Nineteen
Convince him to take you with him. Daisy was still thinking about that two hours later. With nothing more to keep her in town, Daisy had headed back to the cabin, her mind playing Connie’s advice over and over again. Considering plans and then discarding them. It was advice well meant, but easier said than done.
The first thing she needed, she decided, was more information. With that in mind, she headed out to see Alek, fully intending to sneak past any of the patrols should she encounter them. She had barely stepped off the stoop when her little bobcat friend joined her. “Don’t you know that bobcats aren’t supposed to be friends with panthers?” No response, not that she expected one, but the cat did thump its head against her leg. Daisy bent down and scratched her behind the ears. “Not that I’m one to talk. I live with a bunch of wolves.”
Straightening up, she continued walking. “You’re supposed to be all elusive and mysterious, Bob. You’re totally wrecking your reputation by hanging out with me. And don’t tell Lily I called you Bob or I’ll have to listen to another lecture about making you a pet.”
The gray speckled cat continued to walk quietly beside her and Daisy sighed. “How would you convince a male to take you with him, Bob? You’d probably be all, ‘I don’t need a man in my life. I’m female, hear me roar.’ But I like him too much to just let him leave. I mean, he could be The One, you know?” Another sigh. “You strong silent types are no help at all.”
Suddenly the bobcat stopped, head at the alert and ears perked, she tracked something with her eyes before charging away at a full run. Daisy spotted the rabbit a moment later and shook her head. “Good talk, Bob.”
Continuing on, Daisy was deep in thought when she spotted the patrol. She was relieved to see it was Jacob Pierce instead of Conner. The middle brother of three, they all looked incredibly similar though their personalities differed greatly. Conner was the serious one, Jacob the flirt and resident clown, while Zachary was the sweet one. At least this one could be easily distracted by the mere mention of Constance Tully. Daisy recalled the conversation just a few hours before in the diner. She felt bad for Jacob and for Connie. It wasn’t right that town gossip should keep them apart.
Daisy raised her arm to wave and Jacob jogged over. “What’s up, buttercup?” He asked when he reached her.
“Hey, Jacob. I saw Connie earlier at the diner. Have you had any luck getting her to agree to go out again?” Daisy asked, sure that if Jacob kept at it they would eventually work it out and they’d both be happier for it.
Jacob huffed out a self-deprecating laugh and shook his head. “I’m still wearing her down with my boyish charm.”
Daisy started walking again and Jacob fell into step beside her. Spotting Mrs. Potter’s house in the distance, an idea popped into Daisy’s head. “You should put together a basket. Some wine, maybe some cheese and crackers or some strawberries, add to that a good rom-com and surprise her some night after she gets off work.”
Jacob stopped walking as if he’d been struck, his face lighting up. “You,” he said, pointing at Daisy. “Are awesome.” Before he turned to run back through the woods leaving Daisy to continue her journey. She chuckled and shook her head. Fish. Barrel. Bang. Now, if only her Alek puzzle could be solved so easily. Actually, a romantic seduction wasn’t a half bad idea. Maybe she sh
ould take her own advice.
Arriving at the farmhouse, Daisy mounted the steps to the porch. Before she could knock, the door opened and Alek was standing there, a finger to his lips to signal for quiet. He motioned her inside. Coming through the door she heard Patsy Cline playing softly through the speakers while Mrs. Potter was in her recliner, head back, mouth opened slightly as she softly snored.
“She had a late night.” Alek whispered as he motioned for her to follow him into the kitchen.
Daisy watched as Alek pulled a picnic basket out of one of the cupboards and she almost choked thinking of the conversation with Jacob just a handful of minutes before. Giddy at the thought that he might be attempting to romance her she watched in anticipation. Well, he didn’t pull out a bottle of wine, but bottled water was okay with her. Nor were there any romantic foods like strawberries or grapes he could feed to her. Instead, he made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and added them to the basket, though he did use strawberry jelly. “Come on out to the barn. We’ll have lunch and I’ll show you Harold’s old woodshop. That way Mrs. Potter can sleep.”
Hmm… A woodshop in the barn. So no rom-com in his room where she could pounce on him on his bed and seduce him. She should probably be relieved. She knew nothing about seduction and would probably just make a fool of herself.
Besides, she had already decided she needed to get information from him so that she could create a plan. Plan first, seduction later. With a sharp nod of determination, she followed Alek out of the house.
Daisy had never seen the woodshop. It was in the hayloft of the barn, the air heavy with the scent of sawdust and warmer than anticipated. She was actually able to strip off her hat, coat, and mittens and still be comfortable. That’s when she noticed the short little cast iron stove in the corner that was heating the area admirably and creating a warm haven where Mr. Potter must have spent hours on his creations.
Daisy remembered Mrs. Potter saying that Harold enjoyed whittling, but this seemed like a lot more than that. There were several large carvings that looked like Native American totem poles as well as some of animals. Admiring a carving of a fox she went over to touch its nose. “L.J. Mason in town does carvings as well. He did most of the signs and he does some custom work. I wonder if they ever worked together.”
“Mrs. Potter didn’t say, but considering all of the people she knows in town I wouldn’t be surprised.” He said as he set the picnic basket down. “Have you ever seen Mrs. Potter’s bedroom?”
When Daisy shook her head no, he continued. “Almost every surface in there is covered with little carvings that Harold made for her through the years.”
“That’s so romantic.” Daisy breathed, turning to face Alek.
He cleared his throat and suddenly looked uncomfortable. He opened the picnic basket and pulled some sandwiches and bottles of water out. “I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.” He said, spreading a tarp over the floor and sitting.
Daisy joined him and took one of the sandwiches he offered. “How did the meeting go this morning?”
Alek took a drink of water to wash down his bite of sandwich and shrugged. “Considering what they originally thought, pretty well. They’ll be happy to see me leave though, I’m sure.”
Daisy wouldn’t be. The thought of seeing the last of Alek Stevens – no, Aleksandr Stepanov – caused her stomach to drop. You need a plan, Daisy, she reminded herself. With that in mind she said, “Tell me about the fur traders.”
Chapter Twenty
“What do you want to know?” Alek asked, laying on his side on the tarp and propping one elbow beneath him.
“Conner Pierce called them the boogiemen of the shifter world.” Daisy said, mirroring Alek’s position.
Alek nodded. “That’s a pretty good estimation. I wouldn’t be surprised if shifter parents told their young to behave or the traders would come for them. Sad thing is, it wouldn’t matter if those children behaved or not if the traders were in the area. They took any shifter child regardless if they were naughty or nice.”
“Tell me about them.”
Alek grimaced but didn’t say no. “They’ve been around for thousands of years, probably longer. They target shifter towns with the intent of stealing shifter children and raising them for sale to the highest bidder. They break them, train them, and sell them. Some they keep for their own personal army to further the cause.”
“But why? Who would want to buy shifters? I mean, do they think we’re pets?” Daisy asked confused and rather insulted.
Alek shook his head. “The juveniles are trained to be assassins. They’re taught tracking, hand-to-hand combat, and trained in weapons and explosives in conjunction with their natural abilities. Throughout history, shifters trained by the fur traders have been used in various wars on all sides. These days, who better to have as a bodyguard than a shifter who can track down and kill your enemy with such efficiency that it’ll never come back on you? Or perhaps an organization needs more men in their personal army. One lethally trained shifter would be as good as ten human mercenaries and they wouldn’t have to pay them because they own them.” He snarled. “Just two or three jobs and they’d have gotten their money’s worth with years more of service to look forward to. Hell of a bargain.” He sneered.
Daisy swallowed hard, not sure if she wanted confirmation of her next question, “And that’s how you were raised?”
“I was taken when I was nine, before my transition. They came into my village in the middle of the day and slaughtered everyone but the children. In the bright light of day. They didn’t even have the decency to act like they needed the cover of darkness to perform their massacre.” Alek got a faraway look in his eye and Daisy knew he was remembering the horror. He grimaced. “The fur traders prefer to take the children before they’ve experienced that first shift. They can break the spirit before the transition and the animal belongs to them.”
Daisy thought of the whip marks on his back and the burn on his chest. So much pain. Alek hadn’t broken easily, if at all. “The mark on your chest…”
“It’s a brand. They burn it into the flesh of every shifter they take so their property is easily recognizable even in fur.”
Daisy took a deep drink of her bottled water trying to wash down the bile that had risen up in her throat. “How did you get away from them?” She asked, her voice cracking with sympathy for him.
“The traders usually target areas where shifter towns are abundant yet out of the way; barely blips on their government’s radar. Places in Eastern Europe, remote areas of Asia, the African interior and the jungles of South America. Entire shifter towns would vanish and either no one noticed or they were so afraid of revealing the shifter secret to the world that they never told anyone. The traders use that fear to their advantage. But they messed up. Back in 2011 they snatched a kid that had family in high places and wasn’t afraid to mount an investigation. A tip was called in about certain terrorist cells and the traders’ organization was busted wide open; charged with human trafficking.”
There was such immense satisfaction in Alek’s tone but Daisy was confused. “If they were stopped then who are you hunting?”
Alek growled. “The government was able to shut them down for the most part but the traders are like fleas, if you don’t get every single one, they multiply. There are still some out there. They’ve changed up the game now. They’re not going in and killing entire villages but conning pack members with the promise of a big pay day if they bring them one or two females of breeding age. We’ve also had intel that they may be working in big cities where the disappearance of a few females are considered runaways if they’re even reported at all. There’s only so much an overworked police force can do when there’s no trail to follow.
“You said breeding age, so they’re…”
“From what we’ve found so far they’re abducting the women and using shifters still in their control to rape them in order to impregnate them. The babies would then be tak
en from the mothers, raised to be loyal to the traders, and trained to be the next generation of assassins for hire.”
Alek scrubbed a hand over his face in frustration. “The women we’ve been able to free so far have been so traumatized, Daisy.” He shook his head sadly, “I honestly don’t know if they’ll ever recover.”
Daisy was repulsed. She didn’t know what to say. Alek was absolutely right that the fur traders were monsters that needed to be hunted down and destroyed. Those poor women, used only as a breeding vessel. She knew what that was like, had been treated as just such a vessel her entire life. And the abuse they must have suffered, Daisy had seen abuse first hand dealt out in daily doses to her sister; belittled, demeaned until she was walking on egg shells in her own home; the one place that she should feel safe. Daisy felt a moment of clarity, sharp and pure. It was as if her whole life had been building toward this moment. She wanted to help. She needed to help.
“I want to help.”
Alek blinked. “What? Daisy, no. It would be too dangerous.” He said standing up and picking up their sandwich wrappers and bottles to stuff them back in the basket. His jerky movements betraying his agitation.
Daisy stood up as well, angry with his refusal. “Don’t do that, Alek. I am not some weak little creature that needs to be protected. I have been told I’m weak my whole life. You don’t get to do it too.”
Alek grabbed her by her upper arms. “You are not weak. I have never thought you were weak. But I can’t let you… You don’t need to see that life, Daisy.”
Daisy reached up and cupped Alek’s jaw. “Don’t you realize that I have seen it? Maybe not in this exact color but this is the portrait of my life! These women have been treated as nothing more than cattle. Breeding stock, probably with every intention of discarding them when their usefulness is through. They’re seen as worthless beyond that one aspect of their lives. I’ve told you what it was like. Don’t you see the similarities, Alek?”
For Her: A Malsum Pass Novel Page 10
