"There's no need," Erik says hastily. "Actually, you could help me with something."
He sinks back into his seat with a sigh of relief. "What can I help you with?"
"That girl earlier," he says. "What can you tell me about her?"
Thankfully for him, the old man is a great gossip and has no qualms telling Erik everything he knows about Ally.
She is eighteen-years-old and has been here her entire life. She lives alone in the cabin together a little distance from the city, which he disapproves of because a young girl such as herself shouldn't be staying so far away from the rest of society. He thinks that's why she's so shy with people. Lack of exposure, he says, adding that they don't really know her. Then, he quickly contradicts himself by claiming that everyone loves her.
Her father is a recent addition in her life. It's kind of an open secret that her mother had cheated on her father and that drove him away. Her parents are both big cats, the man says. Lions, he says like it's a point of pride for him personally.
He has to admit, he has never met a Cat Shifter who is also an Alpha before. Big Cats tend to be solitary creatures, shunning companionship.
"Why do people think she's not their child?" he asks the librarian.
"It's obvious, isn't it?" he says.
Erik shakes his head, understanding that the man is just dragging this out to build suspense.
"She's tiny," he says. "When her ears appeared, her father took off. Disappeared when she was six, poor thing. She's too small to be anything other than a house cat. And with him gone, her mother doesn't see the point in staying and playing house. She starts leaving her too. A few days at first, and then months at a time. People in town take turns babysitting her," he continues with a careless shrug.
That explains why the farmer that morning had seemed so protective of her. Perhaps he had been one of her caretakers.
"Her father, that's Derek Stone, returned to town a year prior and seized control from the resident Alpha, poor old Kent. He's getting too old, if you ask me. Better to have someone like Derek in charge. She's been living with him ever since. Doesn't seem right, if you ask me. She's at the age where she should be married."
Perhaps the old man is right. He should give them a visit.
Chapter Three: Exhibitionism
He meets her again for the third time in one day that night. He is jogging down a path that is barely there, exploring the undeveloped lands and abandoned cabins that could be renovated and rebuilt into something else entirely. Already his mind is filling up the empty plots of lands with new designs. He is by no means an architect, but he knows potential when he sees it. Everywhere he turns are tall trees, valleys that promises to fill with water come rain, and a promise of peace.
Summer homes here will go for insane prices for people in the city, a piece of a fantasy where they can escape their city life and play pretend for a few weeks at a time.
They'll pay for the people here to keep their houses habitable for those few weeks. Perhaps he can have a separate business where the houses can be rented instead of purchased, but he would put that in a different part of town. The insanely rich like to pretend they're the only people who matter.
He is deep in thought when he hears it, a keening sort of noise that makes the hair on the back of his neck stand on edge. He thinks it's a trick of his mind at first. He hasn't
seen a soul for the last half hour. Surely no one would live so far on the edge of town?
He is about to turn around and head back when he hears it again, the soft sound of someone in distress. His feet begin to move unbidden. Erik has never been good at minding his own business. He smells something downwind that makes him hasten his steps. It's a delightfully sweet scent, one that is familiar and unique enough that he recognizes it instantly.
He stops before he reaches a clearing, hiding behind a tree when he sees something that gives him pause. He doesn't understand what he's seeing at first. It's so bizarre, so out of this world, that his mind can't wrap his head around the images his eyes are sending to his brain.
Ally is standing underneath a tree, hands raised above her head, tied together with a loop that is held up around the branch of the tree. It keeps her on her suspended, legs stretched out as far as they seem to be able to go. She's a flexible thing, spread to her limits with her feet tied to two chairs, binding her calves to the seats with the middle of her completely exposed, spread open for the taking. It is not the way that she is tied to the tree that causes him to be shocked. No. It is not even that she is completely naked, pale skin perfect under the shadows of the giant tree.
To think. He had thought her a virgin.
The man standing by her side exudes power and danger like no man he has encountered before, the signs of a true Alpha. He has never met one like himself before. It is lucky that the wind is blowing in his favor, keeping his scent hidden from the Cat Shifter. Lion, his Wolf supplies readily, bristling, ready to attack. His blood sings for a battle, adrenaline pumping through his veins at the thought of taking this Alpha on in order to win the favor of the pretty little mate tied to the tree. He could take him in a fight, pin him down and slit his throat so he can claim her.
It is her voice that stops him from venturing forward.
"Daddy..." her voice is small and hurt.
He freezes in his tracks, his breath stopping entirely at the way she sounds. She is frightened, yes. But that's only the surface of what she's feeling. She is aroused as well. Her cheeks are flushed, stained by the tracks of tears that continue to trickle down from her eyes, pupils blown so wide that he can see if from as far as he is. Her lips are parted, bitten red. It is perverse, what they're doing. Her own father, he thinks with a note of jealousy that he pushes down. But she's not really her daughter, is she? Now that he sees the two together, he understands why everyone had seen the truth so clearly. He is so much bigger than her, so much stronger. He does not wear his animal on his skin as obviously as her, but any Shifter worth a damn can tell that he is not someone to be trifled with. While the man is all hard edges and pure muscle, the young shifter girl is as domestic as they come. They don't even smell related.
He is wearing a black top and a pair of dark grey slacks that screams personally-tailored and expensive as fuck whereas she is naked as the day she is born. The juxtaposition is absolutely lovely.
"Daddy, please," she whimpers.