The Mating Game: Big Bad Wolf (11 page)

“First of all, I have a confession to make,” Ryker said as he spread a blanket out by the swimming hole.

“You brought me all the way out here to make a confession? You couldn’t confess in your living room?” Daisy looked at him quizzically as she sat down next to him.

“No, I didn’t bring you out here just for that reason. But I wanted to get this out of the way first. Oh, don’t worry, it’s not a terrible confession.”

He cleared his throat. He seemed unusually nervous.

“Now I am worried.” Daisy stared at him. “What is it? You like to wear ladies’ clothing? You’re involved with another girl? You’re wanted by the law?”

“Good God, woman. Settle down. Hell no to all of those.”

“Well what, then?” she demanded impatiently.

“I’ve been watching your rom-coms,” Ryker blurted out. “It started out with me thinking I’d hate them, but I wanted to at least give them a try so we’d have something we could do together, and you kept telling me that I didn’t have to, but damn it, I started watching
Love Actually
and I needed to find out what happened.”

Daisy reared back. “Good Lord. This changes everything.”

“It does?” Ryker said with alarm.

“Yes, now I have someone to watch my favorite movies with. Cadence and Larissa hated those movies,” Daisy said with a sigh. Then she brightened. “Okay, confession time is over. Now what? Swimming? Food? Hot sex?”

Ryker cleared his throat again, then looked Daisy in the eye. He was worried about something. She’d never seen him look like this before, and she felt a twist of worry in her gut. What could be wrong?

“I don’t want you to leave,” he blurted, and seized her hand in his. “Ever.”

“Ohhh,” Daisy breathed, and relief washed over her. “I don’t want to leave either.”

The words rushed from Ryker’s mouth, tumbling over one another. “I know in the beginning, this was all for show. But there’s always been more than that…at least for me. I just didn’t admit it to myself at first, mostly because I thought a girl like you would never want a guy like me, so I didn’t let myself hope for more. But the truth is, the minute I laid eyes on you at that restaurant, I felt something that I’d never felt before.”

“Me too,” Daisy said.  “When you think about it, if we could survive a first date like that, we must be meant for each other.”

“My parents always told me that when you meet the right one, you’ll know right away. And as soon as I saw you, I wanted to be with you.  And the more time that I’ve spent with you, the more sure I was.  It’s not just because you’re beautiful, and sexy, and sweet, and funny, and my family loves you.  It’s just…you’re the one.  You’re my girl.  I want to fall asleep next to you every night for the rest of my life.  I want to wake up to you every morning.”

Daisy felt her throat swelling as she struggled not to cry tears of happiness.  After a lifetime of feeling like a puzzle piece that didn’t fit, she finally felt like she belonged.  She was loved.  She was needed.  And she loved Ryker, and his pack, so much that it made her ache.  She felt more at home walking through the door of Ryker’s little one story country house than she’d ever felt walking through the massive double doors of her pack’s antebellum mansion.

Now he just had to do one more thing, if he wanted her to stay forever. 

“So, what you’re saying is…” Daisy prompted.

“Jeez, I’m terrible at this.”

“No, you’re doing great,” she assured him.

“Ok, what I’m trying to say is that I—”

“Hurry up, you moron! While you’re still young enough to have cubs! Ask her to marry you!” a woman’s voice called out from behind a stand of bushes.
Harriet.

“What the hell?” Ryker roared, and spun towards the sound.

“Quiet, you fool, you’ll ruin it!” That was Lem.

“Who are you calling a fool, you old coot?” Harriet’s voice was aggrieved.

“You, you fool!” Lem groused at her. “You see anyone else here?”

Ryker let go of Daisy’s hand and leapt to his feet.

“How in the hell did they sneak up on me?” Ryker demanded. “How did I not scent them?”

“Well, there’s stuff they could have sprayed on themselves to mask their scent,” Daisy said, but Ryker didn’t hear her, because he was shifting into wolf form as she spoke.

Within seconds he was an enormous gray wolf, fur standing on end, bristling with rage. He turned and ran towards the bushes. The last thing Daisy saw was Ryker chasing his father’s large, grizzled older wolf and his mother’s smaller wolf. She wasn’t sure what he’d do to them if he caught them, but it was obvious from their wildly churning legs that they did not want to find out. Ryker’s father ran with a limp because of some workplace injury from long ago, but he could apparently run damn fast if he was properly motivated.

When Ryker looked back over his shoulder, he saw Daisy sitting there still in human form, head thrown back, laughing so hard that there were tears pouring down her cheeks.

* * * * *

Ryker walked up the front steps with Daisy as students and teachers streamed into the school on either side of them.

He grabbed her arm and took her to the side of the big double doors, just outside the metal detector.

“So, about dinner tonight at my mom’s house,” he said.

“Yes?”

He cupped her chin in his hand, tilted her head back, and grinned down at her. “Just so you know, I’m going to ask you to marry me. Obviously it’s going to have to be in front of the whole pack, because if I try to do it in private, they’ll just crash my proposal and ruin it.”

She felt a rush of happiness sweep over her, and looked up at him with a huge, goofy smile that threatened to split her face in two.

“Just so you know, I might actually even say yes.”

“I think that would be an excellent decision on your part.” He bent down and kissed her forehead. “Love you,” he said, and she felt her breath catch in her throat. It was the first time he’d ever said those words.

“I love you too,” she said. And she meant it. She loved his kindness and generosity to his family and everyone around him, she loved how he interacted with the cubs at her school, she loved how sexy he was, she loved how he made her laugh, and she loved how he loved her.

“Oh my God, Ryker Harrison?” one of the parents cried out.

Daisy winked at him. “I love you enough to put up with that for the rest of my life,” she added. “If you don’t want to be swarmed by autograph seekers, you’d better make a run for it.”

She walked into the school, feeling as if she were floating on a cloud of happiness.

She’d just settled into her classroom when a call came over the loudspeaker, summoning her to the principal’s office.

Okay, which one of my students is in trouble now?
she thought with annoyance as she walked down the hallway.

To her shock, when she got to the office, she saw two police officers standing there with scowls on their faces.

“Daisy Bennett?” one of them said. “I’m Officer Donovan.”

“Yes, how can I help you?” she asked.

“You were recently photographed with a jacket featuring artwork done by a graffiti artist named JKat,” he said. “How can we contact Jkat?”

“Why?”

He scowled. “Ma’am, just answer the question.”

She felt a sudden surge of protectiveness. “I’m JKat,” she said.

The principal stared at her, his eyes widening in surprise.

“No she isn’t,” Mrs. Finster piped up. “I know who JKat is.”

“Mrs. Finster, leave it,” Daisy said, shaking her head. “I’ll deal with this.”

“You’re under arrest for defacing public property,” the officer said, taking his handcuffs off his belt.

Oops. “What, exactly, did I allegedly deface?”

“The Caring Souls Nursing Agency, and six cars in their parking lot.”

Uh-oh.

So, Jasmine had lashed out by defacing the nursing agency that had fired her grandmother. Crud. She didn’t want to turn Jasmine in and have her sent to juvie… Maybe she could talk to Ryker and come up with some alternative.

“Jkat is one of our former students! She spray-paints our school all the time! Daisy is not Jkat!” Mrs. Finster protested, leaping to her feet.

The officer shrugged. “We’ll sort it out at the station.”

Well, I definitely did not think that one through
, she thought ruefully as she was led out of the school in handcuffs.

As he marched her towards his car, she was dismayed to see a photographer there, snapping away.

And the investors’ meeting was in two days. Would this ruin Ryker’s chances of getting the loan? How badly had she messed things up for his pack?

When she was taken to the station, however, she was surprised that as soon as she was put in a cell, they called her back out again. “Your bail has been posted,” the officer told her.

She expected to see Ryker when she was escorted out into the lobby – but to her shock, Larissa was there waiting for her. That was weird; she hadn’t heard from Larissa in over a week.

“What are you doing here?” she asked as they walked to Larissa’s car.

“I wanted to apologize for me and Ronald,” Larissa said. “Cadence told me she saw the two of us, and she said she told you about it. Bitch,” she added, muttering that last bit under her breath.

“Well…it’s your life, you can date who you want,” Daisy said, following Larissa out to the parking lot. “New car?” she added as they slid in. How did Larissa have an Audi on a temp’s salary?

“My car’s in the shop. This is a rental.”

Daisy frowned to herself as they drove off. Something felt wrong, but she wasn’t sure what.

“I’m not dating him, anyway. We went out once, I realized it was a mistake. He doesn’t mean anything to me,” Cadence said. “Our friendship is much more important.”

As they drove, Daisy glanced behind her.

“There’s a car following us,” she said.

“Probably the press,” Larissa suggested, looking in the rearview mirror. “Here, I’ll take the back roads and try to lose them.”

“You know how to take the back roads to get to Ryker’s pack property?” Daisy asked, watching behind her.

Larissa ignored her and pulled off the main road.   They’d left the city behind them, and Daisy didn’t recognize where they were, not that she knew the areas outside of Cedar Park all that well.  The car was still following, way too closely. It was giving Daisy the creeps.

“Larissa, that guy is acting more like a carjacker than a reporter,” she said. “You need to get back on the main road.”

Larissa ignored her and kept driving.

Alarmed, Daisy fished in her purse for her cell phone. “I need to call Ryker,” she said.

“Don’t,” Larissa said sharply. “Don’t talk on the phone while I’m driving, it’ll distract me.”

Daisy gave her a skeptical look.  “Since when?”

Larissa sped up around a sharp curve, then turned off the road, heading down a narrow side road.

Now Daisy was officially freaked out.  And a thought occurred to her. “Larissa, how did you even find out so fast that I’d been arrested?” she asked. “And who gave you bail money?”

“I used my own money,” Larissa muttered.” Put it on my credit card. And I saw it on the news.” The car was bumping and jerking on the dirt road.

“You never watch the news.”

“You got me there,” Larissa said, and pulled over so abruptly that Daisy was thrown against her door.

She’d stopped in the middle of the road. The other car pulled over – on the right, beside Daisy’s side of the car.

Daisy felt panic welling up inside her.

She reached into her purse for her pepper spray. Larissa grabbed her arm, and at the same time, her door was yanked open. Daisy shrank back and saw Ronald standing there, towering over the car.

Then the truth dawned on her.

“You both work for my pack, don’t you?”

“Me and him, and every bad date you’ve ever had,” Larissa sneered. “You were supposed to get the message and just give up and go back to Frasier.”

“But…you answered my roommate ad… You mean…”

Larissa rolled her eyes. “Yes. Your pack sent me there to keep an eye on you and try to get you to go back home. Nobody knew it would take this long
. Idiot
.”

Daisy felt her heart pounding in her chest. Rage and humiliation boiled through her. Months and months of miserable, degrading dates… Larissa reporting back on her every move…

“Was my mother the reason I didn’t get hired at Miss Bolker’s?” she demanded.

Larissa shrugged. “Probably. You could have made this a lot easier on everybody, you know.”

Furious, Daisy started to shift – but before she could, Ronald clapped something over her face. It was a wet cloth soaked with something that smelled like chemicals and made her head spin. And then the world went dark.

Daisy woke up with her head aching and whirling. Her stomach churned, and she thought that she might vomit.

She sat up, trembling all over, and hugged herself. She was in a pitch-dark room. The window was boarded up. With her good shifter eyesight, she could just make out her surroundings. No furniture, she was on a dirt floor…

Slowly, painfully, she climbed to her feet. She began walking around the room, feeling the damp walls with her hands. Concrete.

As her head gradually cleared, she sniffed at the air. It smelled familiar. She was in a storage building on her family’s estate. Apparently it had been emptied out completely, the better to serve as a prison cell for her.

“Hey! Hello?” she yelled out.

There was no answer.

She swallowed hard. She was thirsty and she felt sick.

After a minute, she heard a scraping at the door. The door swung open and her mother walked through – with Tritan.

Her father was nowhere in sight. Of course – he always let her mother do all the dirty work.

“It smells in here,” her mother said, looking around and glaring.

Had her mother actually just kidnapped Daisy, dumped her in a dank prison, and then come in to complain about the prison?

Of course she had.

“I’m thirsty,” Daisy snapped. “And you’re in deep trouble. Kidnapping is illegal.”

Her mother scoffed. “Nobody around herewould raise a paw to help you; our pack owns the county. And Ryker’s not coming for you, I assure you. Not after the text you sent him.”

As Daisy started to protest, her mother interrupted. “The text came from your phone. Oh, don’t worry, I didn’t go over the top and have you say anything mean.” She flashed an evil smile. “That wouldn’t be your style. You’re too weak for that. You simply told him that you had actually been engaged to Frasier this whole time, but you couldn’t make your mind up and you were trying to keep all your options open. And once the investment company dumped Ryker’s pack because of your arrest, you couldn’t go through with marrying him.”

“He won’t buy it,” Daisy said.

“Oh, but he already has.”

Daisy’s mother pulled Daisy’s phone out of her purse.

She held it up for her to see.

Daisy’s heart sank. It was a text from Ryker.

I understand
, Ryker said in the text.
You and me come from different worlds. We probably wouldn’t have worked out in the long run anyway. I appreciate you letting me know, and I wish you all the happiness in the world.

Daisy gasped in shock. She couldn’t believe it. He’d said that he wanted to marry her – how could he give up so easily?

He wouldn’t.

That just wasn’t like him. He’d be hurt, angry, demanding an explanation – he’d insist on talking to her face to face.

“There’s a million ways you could have faked that text,” she said angrily. “And it doesn’t matter whether or not Ryker marries me. I am still not marrying Frasier.”

Her mother’s eyes sparked with anger.

“Our pack has already made a number of business deals that are contingent on you marrying Frasier and combining our two packs and our land,” she said coldly. “It would be financial disaster for us if those deals did not go through. We would be…” She shuddered delicately. “
Poor.
Is that what you want for us?”

Daisy shrugged. “Might do you some good,” she said coldly. “You could learn a thing or two about compassion and tolerance.”

Her mother gasped. “I might have known!” she said. “You’d let our entire pack go down in flames because of your own selfishness! Well, you can just sit here until you change your mind, you ungrateful wench!”

And her mother and Tritan left and slammed the door. “Hey! I’m thirsty!” she yelled at the door.

“You’re going to get a lot thirstier!” her mother yelled at her.

Panic clutched at her. Would her mother let her die of hunger and thirst in here?

Who knew? She hadn’t expected her mother to kidnap her, either. Her parents had a very expensive lifestyle, and they’d be desperate to maintain that.

It was a long, dark and boring day, that stretched into night – she could hear the crickets chirping outside. The door and window were locked tight, and she could scent the guards who were posted outside the door.

Her mouth was as dry as sandpaper, and she could feel her lips cracking.

When she heard roosters crowing outside, she came to a decision. She wasn’t going to let them kill her like this. She’d go down fighting.

She’d shift and fight to the death before she let them force her into mating Frasier.

She couldn’t believe that it had been this long and she was still here. She was on her family’s property – it wouldn’t even be that hard to find her.

Was Ryker never coming for her? He couldn’t have abandoned her like that. But here she was, hungry and thirsty and frightened, and getting increasingly angry – with no rescue in sight.

She pounded on the door and shouted at the top of her lungs. Nobody answered.

Long minutes stretched by, and then she heard angry shouts, and to her alarm, she scented Jasmine, along with her mother and Tritan.

The door flew open and Daisy blinked in the light as Jasmine cursed and clawed at Tritan. Tritan had a death grip on Jasmine’s arm, and they stood just outside the doorway. Tritan’s face was bleeding, which made a smile twitch briefly on Daisy’s lips. Then she saw that Jasmine’s mouth was bleeding too, and she vowed to find a way to kill Tritan at the first opportunity.

“Look who we found nosing around on our property,” her mother sneered. “And by the way, here’s today’s newspaper.” She shoved the newspaper at Daisy.

“You kidnapped a child,” Daisy growled at her. “She’ll be missed. You’ll go to prison.”

“She trespassed on our property. That means our pack has the right to take whatever legal measures we deem appropriate,” her mother said coldly.

Unfortunately, that was true. Humans didn’t get involved in pack politics. If Jasmine had a pack, in theory they could come rescue her, but she didn’t have a pack. She was on her own.

“The newspaper,” her mother said, shoving it into her hand. Daisy looked down at the paper and felt a great wave of nausea wash over her.

The story explained that Trenton Investments was severing all ties with Big Bad Wolf Industries, and they were likely to lose their pack land.

Ryker Harrison, according to the article, was formally announcing the end of his engagement. There was a photograph of him standing there with his family crowded around him, faces serious. In the news story, he apologized to Trenton Investments, and vowed that he would turn over a new leaf. She read the story over carefully, then handed the newspaper back to her mother. She knew what she had to do.

“Don’t hurt Jasmine,” she said coldly. “I’ll marry Frasier.”

Tritan started to drag Jasmine off, but Daisy let out a sharp bark of warning and let her fangs descend.

“She stays with me up until the wedding, and you bring us both food and water, or I will die right here on the spot defending her,” she said. “The rules of inheritance say that if you’ve got no bride, you’ve got no pack merger. Care to have another cub,
mom
?” She said that last word with sarcasm dripping heavily from it.

Her mother let out a long, snarling growl and her eyes glowed yellow. Daisy growled back at her. After a very long, tense moment, Daisy’s mother finally muttered, “This is the last time you win a fight with me, you bitch.”

She nodded at Tritan, who threw Jasmine into the room with Daisy and slammed the door.