Free Primal Song by Danica Avet Page A

fixed up. They stared at the center of the room where Daisy’s mom stood with her dad and a very familiar figure.
    Two clients stood off to the side, their faces reddened and bruises shadowing their jaws. Three of her mom’s stylists looked even worse with bloody scratches, busted lips and tangled hair. It looked as if they’d gotten into a knockdown, drag-out fight and Daisy knew of only one person who could bring friends to blows. Ramsey Reinhardt.
    His mane was even longer than the last time she’d seen him and her fingers itched to sink into the silky-looking strands, maybe guide him— Her mother called out to Daisy, breaking into her X-rated thoughts.
    She shot Ram a glare as she headed over to her mom who was tearfully trying to explain herself to her husband. “I don’t understand, Thomas! I was just setting up this fine young man’s trim and blow dry and everyone went crazy!”
    Her dad comforted his wife and shot dark looks at the much taller Ram. “Now see here, son, I don’t know what kind of place you come from, but inciting a riot in the middle of my wife’s place of business is frowned upon.” He caught sight of Daisy. “Deputy Picou, arrest this man.”
    “But that’s not what happened,” Ram countered with a wild look in his eyes. “I came in here for a trim, wash, and a blow dry and this lady offered me a blowjob.”
    Daisy stopped in mid-step as if she’d hit a solid wall. Her dad’s mouth opened and closed in shock, but from the corner of her eye she noted that most of the women in the place were nodding. She glanced at her mom, who wiped her nose with a piece of tissue and nodded.
    Daisy closed her eyes and prayed for patience. Her mother wasn’t stupid, she was naïve. Their birds-and-bees talk when Daisy was fifteen had come with a lot of blushing and stammering and fanning until Daisy finally told her mom her Aunt Francine had told her all about sex— or “relations” as her mother called it. Daisy’s theory was that her mother tried so hard to ignore their illustrious connection to the notorious Fleur Lebeau she shunned anything sexual in nature. It was a wonder she’d managed to have a baby.
    Daisy gave her dad a resigned look. He gently clasped his wife’s shoulders in his hands and raised his head to look her in the eyes. “Honey, do you know what that is?”
    She shot him a dark look. “Well of course, I’ve only been a beautician for forty years, Thomas Paul Picou.”
    He shook his head. “C’mere,” he muttered and tugged her closer for privacy.
    Though he whispered, nearly everyone in the shop was a shifter of some kind and they all heard very clearly as Thomas described what a blowjob was to his wife. Claudette gasped as a tide of red crawled up her throat and settled in her cheeks.
    “But—I—” Her mouth opened and closed as dawning horror darkened her eyes. She looked at Ram, then at the five women who’d been fighting and her blush deepened. She crossed herself and gasped, “ Cher bon Dieu! ”
    Her knees sagged and Daisy leapt forward to help her much smaller father catch her mother. She shouldn’t have worried because Ram was there, his face gentle as he caught her swooning mother in his arms.
    Daisy stepped up. “Follow me,” she ordered the lion shit-stirrer and started for her mom’s office at the back of the shop. She stopped at the door and swept a look over the room. “Y’all get back to your business now.”
    She led a procession of Ram, carrying her mother, and her dad, who followed up the rear like a short caboose. Her mom’s office was free of clutter except for a small sofa and a desk. Daisy had spent nearly as much time in this office as she had the police station as a child and it always reminded her of her youth.
    “You can put her on the sofa,” she directed Ram. “She should come out of her faint soon.”
    He gently placed his burden on the cushions and straightened with a chagrined expression. “Does this happen