“But Piper Harper could. It’s why I wanted to come right here to the store, to where she works. To ask her in person.” she was looking up at him, with those big blue eyes of hers, pleading with him. How anyone could not give her want she wanted was beyond him. Pitied the poor wolf that would be her Mate, he was doomed already, those eyes so big and expressive, the man was never going to be able to say no to Hadley.
“Alright, but you’ll let me take you shopping tomorrow first. Try on other dresses, be open to it.” he told her firmly.
Watched as Hadley pouted up at him again, but then nodded and said, “Yes Bradley.”
“Good girl, now let’s go and eat I’m starving.”
“You’re always starving, going to get fat you are.” she teased him.
Bradley laughed “Unlikely, I work out a lot, and Benson is always ripping out of me to bolt off and hunt. Not an ounce of fat on me.” he poked her in the belly “You’ll get fate one day.”
Finally saw her smile “Yep, and It’ll be all pup.” watched her as she pushed her belly out trying to make it look as though she was already pregnant.
“Enough of that, you’re too young for that.” he told her and took her hand and lead her out of her room so they could all go and eat.
They spent the entire next day dragging Hadley from one bridal store to another, and though she tried on many dresses, and she looked beautiful in all of them, she never truly smiled, and Eddie just sighed after each dress and shook his head.
“Brad, it’s not going to work. The girl was a ball of sparkly excitement going into Piper Harper’s Goddess Gowns store, I’m not even getting a flicker of any of that.”
Bradley knew he was going to have to go and confront the woman, didn’t particularly want to, hated having to push his Alpha Aura over humans, much preferred to use his charm and good looks but, this Piper Harper woman from what he’d gleaned from Cooper was not going to be a pushover.
If she wasn’t human, as Cooper suspected she wasn’t, then he didn’t even know what he was walking into tomorrow, could bloody well be a witch for all he knew, and taking on of them on was a no no, especially if she had sisters around or a coven. Didn’t want that coming back at him, but he could find nothing on her, neither could his unit and they searched out everything, just appeared and opened a store 7 and a half years ago, till then, didn’t seem to exist at all.
Finally got a picture of her, a small woman, light caramel brown hair with highlights that fell down past her shoulders, honey brown coloured eyes, quite pretty with that slight golden hue and very fair skin, likely didn’t see the sun much. She looked young in the photo, she was wearing a white suit with a dark purple blouse, it was a picture of her on the cover of a magazine just a few months ago.
“That tiny woman, didn’t flinch at Steel at all?”
“Nope.”
No human that tiny could hold up to Cooper and Steels fierceness, he frowned, didn’t like that they couldn’t find out where she had come from, or what her past was, what she was for that matter. Too much of nothing around her, made him more than a little uncomfortable. Piper Harper, likely was not her real name, likely she had left her past and become someone else when she moved out here. Was why she had nothing in her past.
Brad had called the store several times that morning, to request to speak to this Piper Harper woman, and was informed she was not in the store, but working in her studio all day. Would not be taking appointments, so he sent his Delta and Gamma to watch the store at 11 only to find out that the bloody woman was there, that her studio was a part of the store.
Infuriated him. Brad had grabbed Hadley and said, “Let’s go sort this out, you’ll have your Piper Harper dress, I guarantee it.” He’d called himself 4 times that morning, to speak with the woman, instead of having to go down there and confront her, and her assistant Izzy had told him the same thing each time, that she was not there. Well, she bloody was here, Eddie and Harry had seen the woman herself cross the street and get a round of coffees for herself and her employees, had carried 6 cups back in fact.
Izzy her shop assistant had stood and stared at him, her eyes had moved to Hadley a moment later, she’d frowned right at the girl in fact. Had clearly recognized her from her previous visit to the store with Cooper.
He had snapped right at her, “where is Piper Harper.” his irritation showing, it was unavoidable, with the way he had been handled all day, not something he was used to at all. People did what they were told by him, not declined his requests, certainly didn’t go about avoiding him or outright lying to him.
Izzy had snapped her mouth shut but her eyes had belied her, flicked up to the loft area of the store fleetingly. He’d not missed it, and against her wishes had marched himself up there and banged the door open to let himself in.
Saw this woman Piper Harper, turn around from the dress she was working on and look right at him, watched as her brown eyes had widened completely as she stared at him, saw actual pain flare in those eyes, as his locked right on to hers. Saw her whole body react to his presence in the room. She was instantly rooted to the spot, her heart rate increased dramatically, and she stopped breathing suddenly like she just forgot how to breathe, as she stood staring at him.
Saw her creamy coloured skin go pale, right before his very eyes, and then as Hadley stepped into the room next to him, she went completely ashen in colour, her brown eyes dulled and lost their luster, that golden hue was gone and left her brown eyes bland, and her heartbeat was racing uncontrollably, he saw her break out into a sheen of sweat and registered pain in her facial expression.
Bradley couldn’t understand her reaction to him, he smelled nothing in this room, his Beta was right, she did not smell like anything at all. Her reaction to him only infuriated him even more. Why on earth would this woman feel pain just from laying eyes on him? And that was what he was seeing.
The breath she finally managed to drag into her lungs, sounded like it took a lot of effort to actually draw, watched as she took a step away from him, and shook her head slowly as if to say, ‘No you can’t be here.’ why on earth would she have that kind of reaction to him.
He did not recall meeting her before, there was no reason for this kind of reaction to him, yes, he looked mad and irritated, but that should frighten her not cause pain. “You will make Hadley the dress she wants.” he informed her, and he was not going to be taking no for an answer. He allowed his tone to speak for him, implied that she would be doing as she was told.
Saw the damned woman, shake her head again, defying him and his request. Glared right at her, no-one said no to him, he was not about to let this woman start a trend. Took a full step towards her, he was not going to leave until Hadley got her dress.
Piper Harper took a full step back away from him, the moment he stepped forward, she did not want to be near him that much he got. Then her eyes changed to a brilliant white, looked very much like a wolfs eyes, but where white, it was odd and pretty at the same time. Looked right into them only to have her beast snarl all low and menacingly at him. Shocked him more than a little, as he realized this woman was a wolf. White wolfen eyes must be very rare. Hadley touched his arm and he saw them, those eyes move right to the way Hadley was holding onto his arm, and then they were just gone, heard Hadley say his name softly and then the woman before him was just gone, at full wolfen speed. Vanished through an interconnecting door which he was now staring at closed behind her, banged shut at that. His hearing picked up her fleeing from the building altogether, out another door and down a set of stairs, just to get away from him it seemed.
Felt his wolf Benson huff inside of his mind, confused by her reaction to them as well.
“Bradley, she was afraid of you.” Harper sighed and shook her head.
“No, she wasn’t.” he answered her, Bradley didn’t believe that Piper Harper was afraid of him it all. He smelled no fear in this room, fear had a very distinctive scent, smelled like astringent weeds to him.
“But I could hear her heart racing and the way she run away.”
“Not afraid Hadley. It was pain. Looking at me caused her physical pain.” he’d seen it, and before she’d fled the room, the entire building for that matter, he had felt it coming off of her and her wolf in waves. Bradley looked to where Hadley’s hand was on his arm, Piper and her wolf had looked right at that herself, more pain had rolled off of them, not just Piper but her wolf too. Something else was going on.
Bradley walked over and pushed through the door to the next room an office, pushed out to the balcony he could see, and saw the stairs that lead down and away, looked around that area, couldn’t see her, she was gone, they were too fast, were gone now. Frowned and turned to take Hadley back to the hotel.
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