Chapter 12
Cruz
The whole place went quiet when Daisy and I walked in.
“Oh my God. It is her,” Peyton said.
Her mate, Oliver, was the first to step up and say hello.
I hugged him. “Ollie, this is Daisy.”
“Thomas gave us a heads up. We’re all big fans around here. It’s really nice to meet you, but also even better to meet this guy’s mate.”
Daisy smiled. “Thanks. I mean, not everyone around here is a fan.” She elbowed me in the ribs.
“That asshole wouldn’t know good music if it slapped him over the head,” Austin teased.
I rolled my eyes. “Thomas, come on. You couldn’t go easy on her for her first outing in Collier?”
“Hey, these guys know I’ll kick their asses if they make a big deal out of this.”
Kate came around the counter and held out her hand to Daisy, graciously shaking it.
“Hi Daisy, I’m Kate. Welcome to my diner. And this is Peyton, Oliver’s mate. I wouldn’t be able to run this place without her.”
“Hi. It’s really nice to meet you.”
“Let them sit down. The girl’s probably starving,” Ruby hollered.
Then she jumped up and joined us by the door.
She put an arm around Daisy. “We have seats for you both right over there. Do you know what you want?”
“I haven’t even looked at the menu yet.”
“Oh, no matter. Peyton can whip you up anything you want.”
I shrugged. “BLT with fries?”
“Sure thing. I’ll get that started and then you can look over the menu and order with the rest of them. Lily said you were hungry.”
“I don’t usually eat anything more than that. Actually, I’m rarely allowed fries, kind of a secret pleasure when I can get away with it,” Daisy admitted.
“I got you.”
“Go sit down Cruz. I’ve got this,” Ruby said.
“Should I be worried?” Daisy asked me.
I chuckled. “Very. Though she’s mostly harmless.”
“I’ll make this fast. You met Oliver. Peyton is his mate. And you met Kate. Wyatt, raise your hand.” He did so and Kate pointed to him. “That’s her mate, Wyatt. Kate and Wyatt own this place. Now follow along. Thomas is our Alpha, and Lily is his mate.”
“I’ve met them.”
“Okay, so Thomas has six sisters. Me and Peyton live here year round. Maddie and Shelby live in Westin Pack now. Lizzie is the oldest and shares her time between here and Westin. She’s not in town at the moment.
They’re all mated. Clara is also stationed here.
She and her mate, but they travel a lot and I’m not sure when they’re due home next.
Zach and Cora are our parents. They live here too, but aren’t here, as in here-here right now.
And minus all the kids, that’s the Collier family. Following?”
“I think so.”
“Good. So, next is Sydney and Luke.”
“I’ve already met them.”
“Great. Then on to the Six Pack.”
“The Six Pack?”
“Yeah, Thomas and his closest friends who like to think they run this place. We already covered Wyatt and Kate. So y’all raise your hands as I call out your names. Austin and Angel. Emmett and Paige. Clay and Winnie. That’s the five of them here. James is actually working, unlike these slackers.”
“James the sheriff?”
“Yup.”
“I’ve met him already. Someone was falling asleep at the wheel and we got escorted home.”
Ruby chuckled.
I just shook my head.
“Let’s see, we have some other cowboys here. They all work with or for Cruz. Brady and Tricia.”
“Over here!” Tricia called.
“Brady’s one of Oliver’s brothers. Tim and Kenneth aren’t here, but you’ll see them both around the farm. Will too, he’s the baby of the group. And remind me when you come by the barn and I’ll introduce you to them and Ridge and Travis. They all hang out with Cruz often.”
Bran cleared his throat and threw his arms in the air in exasperation.
“Oh yeah, that one’s Bran. He’s all mine.”
She looked around the room satisfied. “That should be everyone here at the moment. Any questions?”
“Will there be a test?”
Ruby looked serious as she answered her. “Of course. It’s your turn. Go.”
Daisy chuckled and then to my surprise she went around the room and named every person there.
“How’d I do?”
Ruby high-fived her. “You’ve got one hell of a memory.”
“Kinda have to with the number of songs I have to have memorized.”
“True. So Syd says you might be putting on a concert right here in town?”
“My band will be here in three days,” she confirmed.
“Oh my gosh. You’re serious?” Sydney asked.
“They got in touch with me on the drive over here. Cammie’s kind of a genius.”
“Please don’t tell her that,” Lily said. “She already thinks she’s older than she is.”
“And smarter than all of us,” Thomas added.
“Your food’s ready,” Peyton said. “I fixed you your usual,” she said setting down a plate for me and one for my mate. “The rest of you can start ordering now if you want.”
“Thanks, Peyton,” Daisy told her as she sat down next to me.
Daisy was different in front of an audience. She seemed confident and fearless. I wondered if she’d ever feel that way about me.
I did notice one thing though, despite how outgoing she became, she had clung to me on a few occasions, and she hadn’t jumped each time I’d touched her. That felt like progress.
Oliver pulled me to the side and asked if we’d like to come over for dinner sometime.
It was strange to think how far we’d come.
As kids I’d terrorized Ollie and been a horrible person to him, yet he’d looked past that for the sake of our former Pack, and it had changed me forever. I now considered him amongst my best friends, so of course I told him yes.
“I’ll talk to Peyton and let you know.”
I was grateful my Pack was opening up to my mate.
She’d met the majority of those that meant the most to me, but I needed time to wrap my head around everything that had been exposed today, and not with prying eyes and teasing moments.
They made me feel like a fool for not knowing who she was.
And the more I thought about it, the more I was struggling to understand it all.
“Are you okay?” she asked after we said our goodbyes and left the diner.
“Yeah, of course.”
She waited until we were in the truck to call me out on it.
“You’re lying. Something’s wrong.”
I sighed. “It’s nothing I won’t get over. I just feel like a fool for not knowing who you are when clearly the rest of the world does.”
She reached over and took my hand. “I should have told you. I’m sorry.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Now who’s lying?” I wasn’t sure how I knew it. I hadn’t been listening to her heart rate or anything to test her. I just knew.
She inhaled a deep breath and nodded her head in a resolute kind of way.
“Okay. It’s going to sound crazy though.”
“Crazier than you being a superstar?”
“Yes. Because everyone has expectations of a superstar. They build me up into this person that I’m not and then I hate to disappoint them, so I pretend to be that person I think they want me to be. But with you, I didn’t have to do that.”
“You don’t ever have to pretend to be something you’re not for me.”
I couldn’t imagine the world she lived in. No wonder everything seemed new, fresh, and exciting through her eyes.
“I know that. And at first, I was a little weirded out that you didn’t know who I was. I even sang my own songs, and you had no idea. After the weird phase passed, I was relieved. I don’t know how else to explain it. There were no pre-conceived notions, no expectations.”
“So you’re saying I actually got to meet the real you?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know, because I’m not sure who I am anymore. I haven’t for a long time.”
“That must be hard. I kind of know a bit about that.”
“You do?”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
I didn’t really want to share my past with her, but I felt like I should.
“How?” she asked, curiously.
“It’s not something I like to talk about, but the short version is that I grew up in a shitty little Pack where I never felt like I fully fit in or belonged, but I played the part well.
I wasn’t someone I liked. And it wasn’t until I started working here that I started to find myself.
Once my birth Pack dissolved and merged back into Collier, where we originally came from, things changed for me.
And I went from someone who hurt people and bullied my way to the top to one that helps people and earns my spot in leadership.
I know it’s not the same, and there was a hell of a lot more to it, but the point is, I lived much of my life as someone I thought I needed to be, scared to let others know the real me. So in that regard, I get it.”
She seemed to consider that for a moment. I stayed quiet as I pulled into the driveway and parked the car before turning to look at her.
“Thanks for sharing that.”
I wished I knew what was going through her pretty little head right then.
“Well, all that said, it would have been nice if you’d at least given me a heads up or something because they will never let me live this down.”
She laughed, lightening the mood after the too-real bomb I’d dropped on her.
I wasn’t proud of my past, but I was damn proud of the man I’d turned into.
As we were walking into the house, my phone rang again.
“Hello?”
“Who is this?” a harsh voice insisted.
Daisy froze with her hand on the knob. Her entire body began to shake.
“You called me. I don’t deal well with assholes.”
“Who is this, and what have you done with her?”
I hung up the phone.
“Are you okay?”
“That was Ronnie. How did he get your number? Jed would never have given it to him. None of my band would. At least I don’t think they would.”
I put my arm around her, opened the door, and ushered her inside.
“He’s going to find me. And he’s going to drag me back.”
My arms wrapped around her as I held her tight.
“You are my mate, Daisy. Mine. I will protect you. If you don’t want to go back, then you aren’t going back.”
She sniffed and when she looked up, tears were glistening in her eyes.
“That’s the thing though. I don’t want to go back to him and the life he forced me to live, but I also don’t want to give up performing and recording. I don’t want to let my fans down.”
“He’s your manager, right?”
She nodded.
“Then we’ll fire him and find a replacement. If you’re as big as I think you are, reputable managers will kill to take you on as a client.”
“I can do that?”
“It’s your business, Daisy. You can do whatever you want.”
“But I’d be nothing without him,” she whispered. I wanted to find this asshole and rip his throat out.
“That isn’t true and you damn well know it.”
“No one will come see me if I don’t follow his orders completely.”
“You just offered to do a free concert for the Pack. Do you really believe only Lily and her girls want to be there?”
She shrugged.
“If I don’t listen to everything he says, I’m going to end up hurt or dead by overenthusiastic fans.”
“He’s brainwashing you to believe that. Look at me.”
Hesitantly, she really looked at me this time.
“You broke the rules by leaving the bus, didn’t you?”
She nodded.
“And did anything bad happen to you?”
She shook her head.
“You met some very overenthusiastic fans today without security, did you get hurt or die?”
She shook her head. “But I did have security. You were there.”
“That’s right, honey. And do you really think for one second that I’m going to let anyone hurt you?”
“No, but . . .”
“There’s no buts, Daisy. And that includes this asshole, Ronnie. No one is going to hurt my mate and get away with it. Am I clear?”
She gulped and nodded.
“Now, there’s a chance he could be tracing my number, so I need to make a quick phone call.”
“Do you think the boys will still come?”
“They said they would, right?”
“Yes, but what if he follows them?”
“I’ve already considered that, so I’m going to see if I can pull some strings and get my own security team here.”
“You can do that?”
“I’m damn well gonna try.”
She didn’t seem to want to leave my side, and I loved that. We sat down on the couch, and she curled into my side like she needed to feel safe and I was the only person in the world who could do that for her.
My determination to fix this somehow grew even stronger.
I immediately called Thomas.
“Miss me already?” he teased.
“Something like that. I’ve never called in a favor before, but I am now.”
I launched into my plan before I could talk myself out of it.
In truth, I didn’t feel like I deserved to be granted favors from the Alpha or his friends, and pridefully, I would never have made this call for me. But this wasn’t about me. This was for Daisy, and there was nothing I wouldn’t do for my mate.