Chapter 14
“But I haven’t seen Mr. Bane, yet,” Carson said.
“I know, Carson. But it’s already dark outside. We’ve spent the whole day with other friends. It’s time to go home now.”
“Why don’t you just stop by for a few minutes?” Daisy asked.
“We don’t want to impose,” Charlie said.
“Come on. It’s just a few minutes. Carson is happy. My dad is happy. Everybody’s happy,” Daisy said, nudging Charlie with her elbow.
Charlie smiled at her. “Your dad is going to get so tired of seeing us.”
“Not a chance,” Daisy said. “I’ll see you there.”
Charlie nodded, but didn’t really say much else.
“You alright?” Daisy asked as she started to walk toward her jeep, but then stopped and looked back at Charlie.
“Yeah. Just think there are some things I still don’t know about you.”
“There are a lot of things we don’t know about each other. But I’m looking forward to learning all of them. Are you?”
“I am. I really am. Just wondering why Brandt said that we need to have a conversation.”
“Brandt said that, huh?”
“Yeah. And then there’s the way your family says couples are mates, and referring to Brandt as the Alpha, and calling men and women males and females rather than men and women.”
“None of it is really wrong, it’s just different terms,” Daisy suggested.
“Could be. But I can’t help but think there’s more here than just different terms. The way Brandt said that he’d thought you already had the conversation with me… What conversation?”
Daisy looked a little defeated, but smiled at him anyway.
“Why don’t you meet me at my house, and Carson can visit with my dad if he has a minute, and we’ll try to find a little time to talk about some of it.
” She got in her car and drove away without waiting for him to confirm he’d be there or not.
“Are you ready, Dad?” Carson asked, looking up at him.
Charlie looked down at Carson. “Yeah. I guess I have to be,” he said. “Let’s go see if Bane’s at home. If he’s busy though, we might have to come back another day.”
“Okay,” Carson said, satisfied that he’d get to see Bane at all.
It took Daisy all of about three minutes to get home and park her jeep. She hurried up the steps and into the house, calling for her father before she’d even closed the door all the way.
“I’m sitting right here,” Bane said, from his spot on the sofa.
“Oh, sorry. I wasn’t paying attention.”
“You gotta do better than that, Daisy. You have to be paying attention at all times, baby. I’ve told you this.”
“I know, Daddy. Look, Charlie and Carson are going to be here in a little while. I was wondering if you could entertain Carson for a few minutes.”
“Sure. He’s my buddy. But why?”
“Brandt and Barron came over to meet him at Havoc’s today.
I guess they assumed I’d already told him because I was bringing him around.
They weren’t real careful with what they were saying, and apparently, I haven’t been either.
Brandt wanted to know why I haven’t told him yet, and then told him that he and I need to have a little talk. ”
“That’s all normal. Why are you so put out over it?” Bane asked.
“Because I like him! I really, really like him. And I started to believe that we could be something special, and now I have to tell him the truth about us. He’s going to walk away.”
“Why do you think he’ll walk away?”
“Because we’re not like him. Because he won’t want his son to be around us.”
“Then why tell him at all?” Bane asked.
“Because if he’s going to be around us, he needs to know.”
“True, but he might go tell everybody.”
“It’s like you always said, nobody would believe him anyway, and if they did, Tempest could just mist their memory of what we are away. But if he reacts negatively, I have to let him go. And I’m just now feeling like me again. It’s just not fair.”
Bane stood up and walked over to her. “Just be honest. Be who you are. He cares deeply for you.”
“You keep saying that. If he does, shouldn’t I be able to feel it?”
“Not necessarily. Bam couldn’t feel Everly because she was his true mate.”
They both turned at the knock on their front door.
“Trust yourself, and Charlie. He’s got more feeling for you than you’d ever guess.”
“Human me,” she whispered.
Bane scowled at her, but went to the door. He opened it and pretended he was surprised. “Carson! How are you, buddy? Hey, Charlie.”
Carson beamed at Bane, then his father. “Told you he’d be glad to see me.”
“You sure did,” Charlie said.
“Want to come watch a movie with me?”
“What are you watching?”
“Captain America.”
“Yes. Yes, I do,” Carson said, walking right past Bane and grinning up at Daisy as he walked past her and scooted himself up on the sofa.
Bane laughed. “We have a movie to watch. We’ll see y’all in a little while,” Bane said, dismissing both of them.
Daisy glanced toward Charlie but barely made eye contact. “Let’s go outside so we won’t disturb their movie,” she said.
Charlie followed her outside and down the porch stairs to the yard.
When she heard his footfalls on the grass behind her, she turned toward him, her arms crossed over her chest, practically hugging herself.
Charlie immediately noticed her body language and rushed to reassure her. “No matter what you have to tell me, it’s not going to change how I see you.”
“I wish that was true. But it’s pretty big.”
“I meant every word I said to your brother at Havoc’s house. Go ahead. Tell me, you’ll see that I still feel the same.”
Daisy didn’t even smile, she simply looked at him, the emotion in his eyes before she dashed all his hopes, and then had to have Tempest erase his memory of everything she was about to tell him, and of him caring about her, and implant one that made him believe he wasn’t interested at all.
“Before I tell you everything, I want to thank you for helping me start finding myself. For believing in me when I couldn’t, and for bringing Carson to my art classes.
You both have made such a difference in my life. ”
“Daisy, I’m not going anywhere.”
She smiled this time, and nodded as she looked down at the grass in the darkness.
She didn’t look up when she next spoke. “I’m a Bear shifter.
So is my father, my brother. In fact, most of my family are shifters of one species or another.
My mother is human, as are several others who have been taken in, or are mates.
” Daisy paused to give him a chance to say something, but he didn’t say a word.
She raised her gaze hesitantly to his face, and found him just standing before her with a confused look on his face.
“I’ve seen that before. You think I’m crazy.”
“No. No, I’m just trying to put together all the pieces. You mean a shifter like a werewolf? Like in books and movies and all?”
Daisy nodded. “Yes in that we can shift from our human selves into our animal selves, but no in the way that we are not all rabid, wild creatures just waiting to feast upon some unwitting human. We are the same people when in animal form as we are in human form. We say female and male rather than woman and man, because woman and man is indicative of humans. As I said, we do have some humans in our clan, but most of us are not human ourselves, or at least not fully human. We call Brandt Alpha because Brandt is our leader. Kaid was our leader before he passed the authority down to Brandt, but basically, a male is born with certain tendencies that will make him Alpha or not. It’s not something you just decide to do.
Kaid was born Alpha, and so was Brandt. There are others that could have been Alpha, but for the most part, it’s a lot of responsibility and most don’t want to be bothered. ”
Again, she paused to give him a chance to react, but he gave no reaction; he just remained focused intently on her.
“We use the word mates because it’s so much more committed than a marriage ever could be.
Mates are monogamous, for the most part.
Some are assholes, but for the most part they’re monogamous.
Mates is a soul-deep connection that is all but impossible to ignore.
Some have tried and after years have been successful.
Others have tried and have had their entire lives ruined.
One of my cousins is fighting exactly that right now. ”
“Is that the Remi y’all spoke of at Havoc’s?”
“It is. He’s the kindest of all of us. I hope he figures it all out.”
“Part of the humiliation and embarrassment about what happened to me with my professor is that I’m a shifter.
I can scent lies. I can scent deceit. I should have known that he was manipulating me, but I fell for it hook, line and sinker.
I never doubted him. Partially because I tried to detect any untruths on his part, and I found none.
I’m a healer. I can heal illnesses, I can heal heartbreak.
I’m empathetic. I should have known. I don’t know how I was so easily misled. ”
“Because you trusted. You wanted deeply to be loved and accepted and you made yourself believe it.”
Daisy shook her head. “Have you heard anything I’ve said? I’ve made this huge revelation and you’re worried about explaining away my past mistakes.”
“Because I don’t want you to blame yourself for someone else’s bad behavior. And yes, I’ve heard you. I’m not exactly sure how I feel about what you’ve said. I’m not totally sure I believe it, but I believe something very out of the ordinary is going on here.”
“You don’t believe that I’m a Bear shifter.”
“I believe you believe it, and I’m not yet sure what I believe. But I don’t doubt you’re a healer. I’m not the least bit surprised by that.”
Daisy sighed, locked eyes with him and shifted into her Bear. A huge Black Bear with the softest fur and the most kind eyes.
Charlie’s eyes grew wide, then he squatted down in front of her. “Holy shit,” he murmured, looking into her eyes. “You’re amazing.”
Her big, block head canted slightly when he told her how amazing she was.