Unscentable

CH 11

Piper POV

Brandon was back in school and, thankfully, back to his normal self. Laughing and happy with his friends, apparently they were super shocked to see his snowboarding skills on the half pipe. He’d been showing them the photos and the footage she had captured.

Piper was currently working from home as she’d told Izzy and Brandon she would be. Izzy had sent one of the girls to her home to drop off the dress she had been working on, first thing Tuesday morning, so it wouldn’t fall behind schedule.

She was working from her home studio on the second floor of her home, but knew she could not avoid going into the store forever. She did actually have in-person appointments to attend to. Though she had already heard from Izzy that they had been fielding calls, all of Sunday and Monday while managing the store, from Drake Industries, at least a dozen.

Izzy had passed on the new policy to the other two stores as well, and it wasn’t just their store in Portland turning Drake Industries away. Izzy had sighed heavily “I don’t think that man is going to just go away, Piper.”

“He will,” Piper had sighed right back “What days and times do I actually have to come into the store this week? Can you send me the list? If you can handle the lesser clients I’d appreciate it, Izzy.”

Izzy had sent her the appointments she needed to attend to herself. Only four of them this week. All the rest Izzy could handle. There was one today and one on Friday, and two on Saturday, then none till the entire following week. She was going to come into the store from the back courtyard, because she didn’t relish running into any more wolves. If that man was still ticked off about not getting his own way.

Though now she had another Alpha to worry about as well, and not even one from this country. What was going on in her life? Why all of a sudden were things up in the air? Where had her well-settled and comfortable human life gone?

Piper drove herself to the parking lot a few blocks away, where she always parked and made her way to the store via the back alleys, to attend her appointment for today. She saw another store owner sitting in the courtyard having a cup of coffee, though she could smell alcohol in that coffee. Piper smiled at Caroline, she got along with all the store owners around her, made a point to do so. Asked her how she was doing today.

Had a chat for a few minutes, and move on.

Drinking alcohol in her coffee at work, was the way she dealt with having an unfaithful husband. Poor woman really should just go and get a divorce. She had heard the two of them argue on more than one occasion now. Had actually stepped in when the man had slapped her, he had not realised she had walked into the courtyard at the time, and had seen him.

Piper had glared right at the man and slapped him right back for the woman. A little of Harper had been in that hit, that day. They had both watched with satisfaction as he’d stumbled backwards a step, and held his own hand to his face, much the same way his own wife had done, just seconds before. Then she had told him to leave, or she would call the police. He’d come at her, and she’d reminded him of the security cameras in the courtyard, evidence he’d hit his wife first, he’d stalked off.

Caroline was still with him two years later. Although she now drank at work, Piper had never seen any bruising on the woman to indicate any further abuse from her husband, and she did note that when he was here they were out in the courtyard, Caroline used those cameras to her advantage now.

It was not Piper’s place to get involved, though she had told Caroline if she ever needed assistance that her door was always open. She had never used it though.

Piper let herself into her office via the back stairs, and called down to Izzy to let her know she was in the store and setting up for her appointment. Izzy strolled upstairs and into her office 10 minutes later, with a hot coffee and sank down on the chair across from Piper, and had looked right at her for a solid minute.

“What is it, Izzy?” she knew that look.

“Regular walk by’s going on. Two rather largish men, not uncharacteristic of Mr Drake himself, about every two hours or so. They think I’ve not noticed them.” she shook her head.

“Observant as always Izzy.” it was expected that she would notice, Izzy had her own family issues going on and, when she’d first started working for Piper, had found herself under her own father's watchmen. Though that had stopped a long time ago now.

So this was about her, though which Pack those two men belonged to she had no idea. “Did you recognise them?” Piper asked out of simple curiosity.

“Not the same two that came in before.” she sipped her coffee “Though that blonde one, mm, yummy to look at.”

“Blonde one?” she questioned further.

“Mm, he’s about six-two, wearing a nice pair of dark blue jeans today and a well-fitted white tee-shirt, don’t know what it is about him. But he gets my attention every time he strolls on by.”

Hm, likely Edward the Gamma of her former pack, all women were drawn to him, and his Gamma Charm, it was lucky for Izzy that, that man had stayed outside. “Don’t get close to that man. Edward is his name. A real charmer, you’d be in his bed before you realised it.” she warned Izzy.

The woman did have a type, blonde and buffed up, which is exactly what Edward was.

“How do you know them, Piper?”

“I used to work for Drake Industries, before I came out here. Left.” she thought about that for a moment “Without permission, I guess you could say.”

Piper had thought about how to explain all this to Izzy, who she knew was going to come in here and ask questions at some point. She was her closest friend, hell her only real friend. The woman was trustworthy and a good employee. She had helped Piper out a lot when Brandon was little.

Piper paid her well above the standard award. Izzy was likely not going anywhere. Would still be around for years to come, Piper was actually thinking about bringing the woman on as a partner, before she moved on to run the up-coming store about to open in Australia.

That job came with a lot of perks; a company car, a pay raise, an apartment for the first year, travel and moving expenses. Izzy wanted to go, Piper couldn’t deny her that. She had worked hard and earned it. Would miss her like crazy, though right this minute her and Brandon’s three-month stay in Australia, for the opening of the store, might just roll into a full move if things didn’t settle down and go back to normal around here.

“You can leave a job anytime you like. What’s the big deal?” Izzy asked.

“Drake Industries, once you're in, it’s usually for life. The boss has to approve your leaving. It’s a bit weird I know.” she waved her hand at Izzy to stop the next bunch of questions “You kind of sign your life away when you sign up to the new boss.”

“And you left without...permission. Broke your contract?”

“No, I just left and didn’t tell anyone…” she shrugged “that man, the first one to come into the store, Cooper, is his name, Mr Drakes, second in command of the company. Likely recognised me and report me to his employer or something like that.” It was not the truth. He’d not recognised her, but this would allow Izzy some closure.

“So, you are in trouble?”

“No, they actually can’t do anything to me, other than harass me at this point.”

“Your life is weird Piper,” she shook her head, “though a guaranteed job for life, that is some neat security.”

“And your life wasn’t weird?” Piper smiled at her. She knew it did sound nice to humans, a guaranteed job for life. They, however, didn’t have to put up with random rogue attacks, enemy pack attacks and being tossed onto the front line by their Alpha to defend and die for his pack, at his will any time he liked. They did not have to lose family members to those things, be left abandoned to fend for themselves when their parents died and there was no-one else around to look after them.

“I can only hope, you’re smart enough not to get involved with Mr Yummy, Izzy.”

Izzy laughed “I’m not likely to. Mr Yummy can hang out in my dreams while I work on that promotion to Australia.”

“You already have that promotion.” Piper smiled at her.

“Mr Yummy ain’t likely to move now, is he? So I’ll stay away.” she stood up, “I’ll send Avalon up when she gets here. It shouldn't be too long now.”

“Thank you, Izzy, and no, he’s not likely to move from Montana, ever.” she told the woman. “Sorry.”

“No biggie.” Izzy shrugged and headed back downstairs.

Piper sighed, guessed coming in the back was a good idea. They had roaming patrols waiting for her outside the front of the store. Guess she really had ticked him off. He didn’t like being told no. Well, now he got to see what it was like, to not get what he wanted.

Bloody Alphas always used to getting everything they wanted. It was about time one of them learned that life wasn’t actually fair. That you couldn’t just have what you wanted, even if it was yours.

She took a breath in and shoved that tinge of pain touching her chest down and away. Not to be thought about, not ours anymore. She reminded herself.

Avalon turned up for her final fitting and adjustment, she was happy with her gown, and was out of her office within 45 minutes, all good. Piper headed out the way she came in, via the back entrance to her courtyard.

She was headed to the carpark when she heard a muffled cry of pain and fear. It was female. She stopped at the sound of men laughing, she closed her eyes, hated these alleyways sometimes, and the dumb-ass men that thought it was okay to drag girls into them, for what they believed was a fun time. Only to them, not to women or girls.

She took a breath in and smelled four distinct male scents, frowned, not humans, wolves, and rogues at that. Took another breath in and found the female was a she-wolf, her nose actually crinkled instantly at the scent she was smelling. Piper heard Harper snort in annoyance, they knew that scent.

They did not want to get involved, the girl was not their problem, but… four rogues and one she-wolf, regardless of who that she-wolf was, it was not a fair fight. She turned down the alleyway and saw two of the rogues just standing back smiling, all lecherously. Watching on, while one was holding the young she-wolf shoved up against the wall, a hand over her mouth, and the fourth one was touching her all menacingly and plucking at her clothes, tormenting the girl about what was to come, she supposed.

Stupid girl, was obviously out without her escort, she was pinned to the wall with a hand around her throat, a hand over her mouth to muffle her cries and a knee jammed between her thighs.

Harper snarled right at them. None of them smelled her coming, but they were all looking at her now. She saw the big guy holding the she-wolf, laugh right at her, “More fun boys,” he stated, and she watched as the two standing back came towards her.

The idiots thought she was a human. Well, she was not and she was well-trained. Unbeknownst to them, it was going to shock them greatly. She punched that first guy at full wolfen speed and strength, right in his face, busted that nose of his, and he fell backwards, completely caught off guard by her speed and strength. Spun a round house kick right into that second guy, as he stood shocked by the attack on his buddy, slammed him right into the dumpster, and heard both of them swear.

Saw that big guy raise an eyebrow at her and then try to smell her, he would smell nothing just like every other damned otherworldly creature would.

“Fight Hadley, I know you can.” she snapped at the girl who was just standing there, looking terrified about the situation she found herself in. Surely she had training, was an Alpha female. It had not escaped her sense of smell the day she had walked into her store. She had also noted the girl was fit, like she trained as well. Didn’t want to say the girls' name out loud, not ever, but had to.

She was taking on two rogues at the same time down the alley from her, as both those men had gotten back up and come at her together now. She had trained for this, but it was years ago, and she’d not actually had to hit a wolf in nearly a decade, mostly humans, and they were easy to take down, one punch at wolfen strength, and they generally got the message and ran off.

Not this lot though. Her fists were flying, and so were her feet. In her attempt to fight them, at one point she was grabbed by the third rogue from behind. He’d managed to snag her and pin her arms to her sides, which only left her to use her feet.

Her claws were out suddenly, and Harper was aiding her, she hadn’t seen their claws in years, dug them into the man's thighs and gouged him til he was crying out in pain, moved her head to the side when she saw one of them coming to punch her in the face, likely trying to knock her unconscious, he hit his own buddy in the face.

That man let her go, and he gasped in pain, and she took chunks of flesh from his legs with her as she stepped away from him, dragged her claws through his legs and shot off the mark to tear into the next guy. Finally, her hearing picked-up fighting going on behind her, seems the girl had decided to fight back; about bloody time.

Piper turned on the rogue who had a busted nose, and dodged out of the way of his hit, feinted at him and then slammed her elbow right in between his shoulder blades and sent him sprawling on the ground. Kicked him between his legs as hard as she could while he was trying to get up, and heard him howl in pain, and watched with satisfaction as he grabbed his balls and curled up in a ball, Harper had lent all her strength on that one.

She turned around, two down, two to go, though the smaller of the two men was now looking at her quite wearily, “Come here you dumb ass, I’m going to rip your balls off.” she snarled right at him and, just to add to her threat and make it more menacing, reached her clawed hand out and snapped it shut, made a yanking motion as though she was showing him, what she was going to do to him.

He looked passed her to his two injured friends, then just turned and bolted away, down the alley in the other direction, didn’t want to take her on, it seemed. Her eyes moved to the big man, he had Hadley pulled up against him a hand around her throat. She was tiny for an Alpha female, barely five feet tall.

She huffed in annoyance, his other arm was around her waist, and she was completely lifted off the ground, had no leverage to get herself free. She was still struggling against the man, had several bruises and there were claw marks ripped through her shirt, she was bleeding in several places.

As was he, her eyes said it all. She needed help. The woman that was taking her place, was now begging with her eyes for Piper to help her, to save her life. She didn’t like it, but couldn’t let her be taken away by this S.O.B. who would brutalise her for Goddess only knew how long, before passing her off to his friends, and then selling her off when he was done with her.

“Put her down.” she snarled at the S.O.B. “I’m a better choice.”

“You’re nothing.” he laughed “She’s Alpha-blooded, she’ll sell for a real good price.”

Hadley’s eyes went really wide, fear in them now.

“Not on my watch. I know her pack and you, you’re a dead man.” she shot off the mark, regardless of the fact that he was using Hadley as a shield. The woman’s wolf would heal her injuries, if she sustained any.

The rogue's eyes went wide as he realised holding on to Hadley was not going to stop her from attacking him. He threw the girl against the wall to his left and Piper was on him all claws out, ripping into his side, managed to snag just one claw right between two of his ribs and right into his lung, heard it collapse the second her claw was out. She took a knee to her own ribs, and felt two of them c***k and hissed in pain, as she turned on him, and put a full front kick right into his abdomen, and then a knee to his face as he fell down.

Thankfully, Hadley had already wounded him and that collapsed lung helped a lot, so he was easier to take down than the others, saw him lying there on the ground now unconscious, and lifted her eyes to the other two, who were getting up off the ground and snarled right at them loudly and aggressively. She didn’t need nor want to fight them again, but they were not looking at her, but at their leader. Finally, their eyes moved to hers, she feinted at them and they both turned and ran off.

She groaned and held on to her side, where her cracked ribs were, it was paining her, she wiped the blood from her split lip and muttered “just freaking great.” as she turned to look at Hadley, the girl was still laying on the ground, seemed to be dazed, had a head wound, that was bleeding from where she’d hit the wall.

Piper couldn’t just leave her there. If that big bastard on the ground woke up first, or his men came back, they’d just pick her up and take her like they had originally planned to in the first place.

Great what to do? She sighed and hauled the girl up, she could half-walk in her half-dazed state, made her way down the alley in the opposite direction that the rogues had gone, and flagged down a passing taxi. The driver looked very shocked at the state of the two of them, both had bloody wounds on their bodies. “Take her to the hospital.” she told him and took all the cash she had in her wallet and shoved it into his hand.

He looked at it, it was more than enough. “I’ll get there on my own.” she put a still dazed Hadley into the back seat of his taxi. She just flopped down on the back seat, then closed the door. “I mean it, straight to the hospital.” she pointed a finger at him and snapped a photo of him, making her point.

“What about you?” he asked, glancing over her wounded state.

“I’ll make my own way there.” she told him again. Saw the man get back in his taxi, snapped the number plate and committed his face to memory in case the girl didn’t make it to the hospital. He looked trustworthy, she hoped he was.

Then she went right to her car and left, headed home. She had to get cleaned up and hopefully healed up before Brandon got home from school.

Piper looked at herself in the bathroom mirror and sighed, she had a split lip, a gash through her right eyebrow and a nice sized bruise on her cheekbone. Bloody knuckles and a massive bruise where her ribs were broken, multiple claw marks on her arms and across her abdomen, a couple on her lower back. They were not out to seriously injure her, subdue her more likely. They wanted her alive, was all she could presume, to be taken and treated as they would the other girl.

To be sold off on some otherworldly black market; not a nice thought. Unfortunately, alone and unprotected, it did happen. Those four now knew she was not human. Hopefully, they weren’t locals to the area.

She’d not really smelled many rogues over the years, the odd one here or there, but could pass on by them like she was nothing to them, like she was a simple human and of no interest to them.

Despite not wanting anything to do with that girl or her Mate, Piper could not, in good conscience, leave that girl to a hideous horrible fate. It was not in her, as much as it pained her to know she’d just put the two of them back together, the girl was only young and didn’t deserve to be sold off, and used as a s*x slave by some sadistic brute of a wolf, to live a life of torture and pain.

Piper showered and changed, got rid of her bloodied clothing altogether and headed off the two blocks to wait to pick Brandon up at the bus stop. Her face was healed, Harper had focused her healing ability on her face first, the bleeding had stopped on all her wounds, but her broken ribs would need more time, but it was autumn, so a long sleeved shirt and a pair of jeans were okay this time of year and hid her wounds from his eyes.