The Mating Game: Big Bad Wolf (5 page)

As soon as Ryker walked in through the front door of his house, he sensed that Daisy was gone. The house felt empty and a little colder without her there. He called out her name and went to her room, but she was nowhere to be found.

He felt a sharp stab of loneliness lance through him. How strange; he’d never minded being alone in his own house before. He enjoyed his own company. Maybe it was the fear of Daisy not coming back at all.

She’d be gone in a few weeks either way, back to her lifestyle of old money and privilege, so it shouldn’t bother him, but it did.

Had she changed her mind and headed for the hills? Any sane woman would, after dealing with his family.

Then light dawned. His family – right. Of course. That was where Daisy was. He went back into Daisy’s room. Yep, her purse was sitting on the nightstand. So, she hadn’t left the property.

He shifted into wolf form, dropping to all fours, and ran the short distance to his parents’ ranch house. Normally he’d lope along slowly, drawing in all the familiar homey scents of the pack lands. The wood-smoke from fireplaces, the scent of his pack members, the loamy earth, the sap of fallen pine needles that crunched under his paws. Not today, though. Right now he was pissed. He’d told his family not to come back onto his property, and they’d disrespected him. Family or no, he was the Alpha.

Daisy was in the dining room of his parents’ house, sitting between his mother and his Aunt Marge, with several empty plates in front of her.

He stormed in, glaring at his mother, who jumped and let out a startled squeak.

“I am your Alpha. I told you to stay off my property and leave Daisy alone,” he snapped at her. “What do you have to say for yourself?”

Daisy looked at him with big, innocent eyes. “Oh, it’s my fault,” she said as his mother started mumbling excuses. “You told me all about that pie, and I couldn’t resist. I had to come try some.”

His mother flashed Daisy a grateful look, and he was sure he saw Daisy wink at her. Great. Daisy and his mother were conspiring together? It was a good thing she wouldn’t be sticking around.

Wasn’t it?

He scowled at them. “I am taking my mate back now.”

“So she is your mate?” his mother said eagerly.

He let out a rumbling growl of annoyance. Why had he just said that? He didn’t need to encourage his mother any further.

“You heard him. His mate,” Marge said to Harriet, nodding with satisfaction.

Daisy leaped to her feet and hurried to the door. “Bye, all! Thanks for a lovely dinner!”

Daisy walked out the door with Ryker, and when he shifted, she did too.

This time he took it easy, strolling along the dirt road that led back to his house. He told himself that he was just being thoughtful – he wouldn’t want to make her run on a full stomach. Or did he want to see how she liked the quiet country road and the pack lands? Was she a city wolf at heart, or could she ever come to enjoy living in the country like this?

She seemed to enjoy it, frequently sniffing at the air and the ground, strolling slowly, in no apparent hurry.

When they got to his front door and shifted, she smiled and said, “Lovely land you’ve got here. Way more relaxed than my family’s lands. They’ve got everything mowed and trimmed to within an inch of its life.”

“I know my family dragged you to their house to interrogate you,” Ryker grumbled as they walked into the living room.

“It was fine,” Daisy said. “I actually enjoyed it.”

“You mean they weren’t completely crazy?”

“Oh my goodness, beyond crazy. Crazy doesn’t even begin to cover it.” She grinned at him. “You wouldn’t believe the kinds of questions they were asking me. Your mother told me that she could have her husband build us an extra-sturdy bed if we needed it. Wanted to know if there was any chance of grandcubs yet. Said she’d be fine with designing a wedding dress with a larger waistline if necessary, no judgement, but she hoped she’d get to pick the middle names.”

Ryker turned red and spluttered. The fact that Daisy was still here was proof that miracles still happened.

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” he muttered, hurrying to the fridge to grab a beer.

“More than a little,” she said with a grin.

Then her face went serious as he sat down next to her, handed her a beer, and downed half of his in one long, desperate swallow. “I feel bad about lying to them, Ryker. They’re good people. I mean, I did try to remind them that we just met each other and all that, but then your cousins kept chiming in with stories about how their parents married after dating for a week, and…”

He heaved a sigh. “I know. I’ve never seen my mother take to a woman the way she has with you. In fact, on the rare occasions I introduced her to anyone I was dating, she’d snarl at them and walk away.”

“What?” Daisy said, appalled. “You’re not helping!”

He cleared his throat. Now he was starting to feel really bad about it too. “Okay. You’re not lying to her. It’s true that we just met and we haven’t made any commitments. And she’s been a crazy, nosy momzilla for years. It’s not your fault.”

“I guess,” she said doubtfully.

“So should I offer you dinner?”

She patted her stomach. “Not unless you want to see me literally explode. It won’t be a pretty sight. Your mom sure can cook, I’ll give her that. It almost makes up for all the crazy.”

“Almost,” he said.

“So, which rom-com shall we watch first?” she said. “I’ve got an enormous collection. I think we could pull an all-nighter. Didn’t your dating profile say you loved rom-coms?”

“Um…uh…well…”

She let him stare at her in open-mouthed dismay for a good ten seconds.

“I’m kidding! I know your mother and your uncle made up your entire dating profile. Why are you staring at my face, by the way?” she asked.

“Well, you’re incredibly sexy and beautiful. And also you’ve got a smear of blueberry jam on your lip.”

Before she could say anything, before he could stop himself…he leaned forward and kissed it off her.

She tasted sweet, and she stifled a low moan as he tangled his fingers in her hair. The scent of her desire swirled in his nostrils, and he felt blood rushing to his groin. His cock swelled in his pants, rubbing against the fabric.

He probed the sweet, silken cave of her mouth with his tongue. All the while, little alarm bells were chiming in his head.

She was right. His family loved her. And he could feel himself falling for her, craving her presence. And she’d made it very clear – in a few weeks she’d leave and go back to her ivory tower, or wherever she lived, and he had a feeling that it wasn’t just his mother who’d be heartbroken.

He should stop kissing her. He should pull away.

But she tasted so good, and felt so right…

The door flew open with a bang, and two women raced in, shrieking like banshees.

“Unhand her, you monster!” a tall skinny brunette screamed at him, waving a baseball bat.

“Kidnapper!” a short, curvy blonde yelled, pointing a pink bedazzled canister of pepper spray at his face.

Ryker jerked away in astonishment. He must have been really, really distracted if he hadn’t even noticed two crazy women at his front door.

Daisy pulled back and leaped to her feet. Ryker snarled, and his fangs descended. Fur shot through his skin, and his ears went pointy and flattened back against his skull in anger.

“These are my roommates, Larissa and Cadence,” Daisy hastily said to Ryker. “What are you doing here?”

“Saving your life,” Larissa said indignantly. “You should be thanking us.”

“Larissa thought your message sounded forced,” Cadence said quickly. “Like you were being held hostage. It did seem pretty weird that you’d move in with someone you just met.”

“How did you get in?” Ryker demanded, his voice a little blurred because of the fangs.

“The door was unlocked,” Cadence said.

“So I was holding her hostage with the door unlocked?” Ryker said indignantly.

“Well…” Larissa muttered. She and Cadence glanced at each other uncertainly.

“Guys, I am going to walk you to the door now,” Daisy said firmly.

She grabbed them each by an arm and led them to the front door and out onto the porch. “I will see you guys later this week, but you need to leave now,” she said. “I am fine, I have not been kidnapped. Come on, if I’d been kidnapped, I wouldn’t be sitting there kissing the guy on the couch. I’d either chew his face off or die trying.”

“That’s true,” Cadence said, nodding. “You’re badass like that. So, what exactly is happening with this guy?”

“Uh, hard to say,” Daisy muttered. “It’s early days yet. But I am definitely staying with him for the next few weeks.”

“What about our Wednesday night dinner?” Larissa demanded petulantly.

The roommates met every Wednesday night for tacos at the Thirsty Iguana.

“I will be there,” Daisy said firmly. “Now go.”

Daisy went and sat back down on the couch, and turned to him with a look of expectation on her round, beautiful face.

“So, where were we?” she said to Ryker.

He thought of how lonely he’d felt when she wasn’t home earlier. How hurt his mother would be when he told her that he and Daisy weren’t going to be mated after all, a few weeks from now.

He cleared his throat and summoned all his willpower, which was barely enough. He ached for her and craved her touch.  He wanted to taste her, bite her, make her moan in pleasure… If he gave in now, he’d never be able to let her go.

“We…you know what, you’re right. We don’t want to lead my family on and get their hopes up. We shouldn’t start anything we aren’t going to finish.”

He sat there and waited for her to tell him that maybe they could finish. Maybe she’d want to stay there after all.

But she just looked angry and hurt, and leaped to her feet. “Fine. Be that way. I’m going to bed.”

“Be what way?” he said defensively. “I’m just agreeing with what you said earlier. Have you changed your mind?”

“No, but the fact that I’m still here apparently means I’ve
lost
my mind.” She flounced off to her room, scowling.

Monday morning

Daisy’s ancient car was making horrible gurgling, coughing sounds. She turned off the ignition, closed her eyes, and waited ten seconds. Then she turned the key again, and the engine made even worse noises.

Ryker strode up to her and rapped on the window with his knuckles.

“Morning, glory,” he said. “Your car sounds like it’s trying to cough up a hairball.”

She stopped turning the key to direct a scowl at him. “Thank you, that’s helpful.”

“I’ll give you a ride,” he said, tilting his head at his car. “And I’ll have your car towed to a repair shop.”

She glanced over at the car, biting her lip. . On the one hand, she was still really hurt and offended over last night, and seriously pissed off about the mixed messages he was sending her. One minute he was kissing her senseless and the next he was pushing her away?

But she didn’t want to be late to work. And she had to admit, their situation was weird and confusing – a fake relationship with a built-in expiration date. It wasn’t all Ryker’s fault.

“Fine,” she sighed, and climbed out of her car. He headed towards his little sports car. “We’d be better off with the pickup truck,” she told him.

“Okay,” he said, and they headed over to the pickup truck and climbed in. “But why?”

“You’ll understand when you see the neighborhood where I work.” She gave him the address and he punched it into his GPS. It was about half an hour from his house, and they rode in moody silence.

As they drove into the neighborhood, he looked increasingly worried.

“I thought you worked at some fancy prep school,” he said as they drove past buildings with boarded-up windows, and the burned-out shell of a car.

“You assumed. Maybe you don’t know me as well as you think you do,” she said loftily.

“Ouch.” He looked up at the school building ahead. “So I guess you took a job there because you wanted to make a difference?”

“I’d love to claim that I’m that noble, but the teaching job I had fell through at the last minute and I had to take something, or I wouldn’t be able to pay my rent.” She glanced out the window at the kids filing in through the front door. “But you know…it’s not all bad here. A lot of these kids have no responsible adults in their lives. They need someone to care about them. I’ve never felt needed before.”

“You’re needed,” Ryker said quietly, staring at the road ahead of him. Daisy suddenly felt a little lighter and warmer as they drove. But Ryker was frowning as he pulled into a parking space near the side entrance.

“You drive here every day?” he said, his tone worried, as he turned off the ignition.

“Nobody’s murdered me yet.” She shrugged. “I mean, it’s not like I go gallivanting around the neighborhood. I get here, I go to work, I drive straight home.”

“Maybe I should drive you and pick you up from now on,” he said.

“Ryker, we’re only together for a few weeks, remember? After that I’ll be back on my own. Nobody’s ever tried to mess with me. Don’t worry about it,” she said. She climbed out of the car quickly..

Inside, as she headed for her classroom, she saw Jasmine sitting on a bench outside the principal’s office. There was an older woman with her, wearing pale blue scrubs and looking tired and haggard. Marta Diaz. She worked the overnight shift as a nurse’s aide.

“Hey, Ms. Bennett, this is my grandmother,” Jasmine said.

“Oh, you’re the lady who was so nice to Jasmine this weekend! I hope she wasn’t too terrible,” Marta said.

“She was a delight,” Daisy said.

Marta looked alarmed. “Jasmine, did you threaten her to make her say that? What did I say about threatening people?”

Jasmine ignored her and kept carving the bench beside her with her extended claws.

“Okay, she was interesting and entertaining,” Daisy said. “And entirely unique.”

Jasmine’s grandmother looked relieved. “Well, thank you for saying that,” she said. “I don’t get to spend as much time with her as I should, with me working crazy hours and all.” She shot her niece a severe look. “She really should be watched twenty-four seven,” she added. “She’s going to make my fur turn prematurely gray. Jasmine, stop defacing school property!” she added.

Jasmine ignored her and kept carving.

Daisy leaned in to look. “On the bright side, she really is a wonderful artist,” she said. “And the principal looks great with devil horns.”

Jasmine favored her with a small smile, which she immediately replaced with a scowl. “If anyone gives you a hard time today, come get me, and I’ll shank them,” she said. “You can find me in detention, pretty much any time.”

“Jasmine, we do not threaten to shank people!” her aunt scolded her.

“No, Grams,
you
do not threaten to shank people,” Jasmine said. “I do it all the time.”

Her grandmother fanned herself with a bus schedule. “Lord, give me strength. And Valium,” she muttered.

Daisy went to her classroom with a smile. Jasmine was lucky she had someone who cared about her, which was more than a lot of the kids here had.

By lunchtime, Daisy was feeling less optimistic. Somebody had stolen her jacket, the children were swarming around like overcaffeinated monkeys, and yet another teacher had quit.

She kept an eye out for Jasmine – she’d planned on offering her half her lunch – but Jasmine seemed to have vanished.

She sat down at a picnic table on the playground with several other teachers.

“I mailed off all the grant applications,” said Mrs. Finster, the school secretary. “Thanks for writing them – you did a great job.” In addition to working for the school, she was a community leader who was spearheading the drive for the rec center.

“I might have a friend who will donate a little bit,” Daisy said. She didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up by telling them about Ryker Harrison’s pack; the donation was far from a sure thing.

“That would be lovely. Oh, and I see you befriended Jasmine,” Mrs. Finster said. “Quite the artist, that girl. If only she’d redirect her talents.”

Daisy laughed. “She is something, isn’t she?’

A couple of the other teachers rolled their eyes and shook their heads.

“She’s something. I don’t know what, exactly,” one of them muttered into her ham sandwich.

“If you can get through to Jasmine, you can get through to anyone,” Mrs. Finster said. “So, do you think you’ll be staying here?”

Daisy looked across the playground. A bear cub had a coyote in a headlock, and a teacher was trying to pry him off. A little boy was peeing on a fence, and three wolf cubs had shifted and treed a cougar cub. They were ignoring the teacher who stood there yelling at them to let him down.

Then a little boy named Jasper turned and waved at her and flashed her a big, genuine smile, and she felt as if the sun had burst out from behind the clouds.

Daisy grinned at Mrs. Finster. “Why would I ever want to go anywhere else?”

* * * * *

Ryker knew the investors would blow a gasket if they saw him in his pickup truck, so he went home and fetched his fancy sports car.

He passed his cousin Sally’s house as he headed into town. The house was under construction. Sally was pregnant with twins. He felt tension curling in his gut as he drove. Sally’s husband needed this job. He couldn’t afford to blow it.

Her husband Kory, like most of Ryker’s pack, worked for Big Bad Wolf Apparel. He worked in the factory, maintaining and repairing the machines.

Walt was the CFO, which was why he was always twitchy when it came to money. Ryker felt sorry for him, because he’d rather chew his own paw off than look at numbers all day long, but Walt seemed to thrive on that kind of stress, in a weird way. And then there was Carlotta. Walt was always going on about how lucky he was to have Carlotta, and he couldn’t stop showering her with expensive gifts every chance he got. Ryker doubted that Walt had saved up a penny of his generous salary.

Would Carlotta really ditch Walt if he ever stopped making money? Walt seemed to be terrified to find out.

Ryker’s job these days was mostly as a figurehead. He sponsored a boxing gym in Cedar Park, along with a couple of up-and-coming young boxers, and he wore the clothes that his company manufactured out to various public events. He still consulted with the designers, but lately he’d been feeling out of touch. If Trenton Investments agreed to fund them, he’d like to hire a new designer to breathe some fresh life into their designs.

The company, both the factory and offices, was located on pack land. Expanding their operations would take a lot of capital. They had a six-thousand-foot facility, and wanted to double in size. They needed new sergers, new embroidery machines, new industrial sewing machines – dozens of them. They would need to hire outside the pack.

He drove to the west side of Cedar Park and pulled up in front of the Trenton Investments building, where he let a valet take his car. He wished he were still in the pickup truck. He wasn’t crazy about driving that tiny little toy car, but the investors expected him to project success.

He walked inside the building, feeling the familiar anger and irritability churning in his gut. This meeting would require him to sit there and act civilized around a bunch of controlling stuffed shirts who annoyed the hell out of him. Basically, it went against everything Alpha in him. Walt, an Omega, did a much better job of dealing with the investors, but they wanted to see Ryker, too, since the company was built around him.

He walked into the conference room and sat down next to his uncle. Harriet was sitting there on the other side of Walt.

There were baskets of her homemade muffins on the table, and everyone had helped themselves to one.

“Hello, Mr. Trenton.” He nodded to the president of Trenton Investments. Trenton was a lean, hawk-faced coyote shifter who favored bespoke suits and handmade Italian shoes.

“Ryker.” Mr. Trenton nodded back, with a frown.

“So what’s the problem?” Ryker growled, since Trenton was looking at him like had bitten into a rotten apple. Walt flashed him an annoyed look. He wanted Ryker to make idle chit-chat; that wasn’t Ryker’s thing.

“You drove your pickup truck this morning, and we specifically provided you a more appropriate vehicle, for a reason.”

“I’m more of a pickup truck kinda guy,” Ryker said.

Mr. Trenton folded his hands in front of him and raised a disapproving eyebrow. “We’re trying to project an image of success.”

“You always say that,” Ryker grumbled. “Why not try to show the real me?”

Mr. Trenton made a face as if he’d just smelled something bad. “Our image consultants say it’s too risky.”

“What else?” Ryker could feel the fur itching under his skin. He’d need a long, hard run after this meeting.

“Well, there’s your boxer, Eric. The one you sponsor. He got arrested last week.”

Ryker struggled not to eat Mr. Trenton’s face off. He doubted it would taste good anyway.

“Yeah, some guy insulted Eric’s momma, Eric punched his lights out, and the public is eating it up. I’d have done the same thing. Next?”

Walt made a strangled sound and kicked Ryker under the table.

He glanced over at Walt. “You feeling okay?”

Walt managed a pained smile. “Never better.”

“Now, about your public image. The woman you have recently started dating. You really should have run that by us first.”

Ryker stifled a snarl.

Walt flashed Ryker a look that was half pleading, half warning. “Don’t eat him,” he mouthed.

“You have a problem with Daisy?” Harriet barked at Mr. Trenton. “Then you’ve got a problem with me.”

“Does she need to be here at every meeting?” Mr. Trenton snapped at his assistant, Joseph.

“She’s a shareholder. And my mother. So yes,” Ryker responded coldly.

His mother was also a whiz at sewing and helped to design a lot of their most popular outfits.

Mr. Trenton barreled on. “We’re not
entirely
against this match. We’d have preferred someone skinnier—”

Ryker leaped to his feet, and his face went shaggy.

Walt grabbed him by the arm, pleadingly. “Alpha. Think of your pack,” he said in low, urgent tones.

Several of Mr. Trenton’s associates glanced at Ryker and took nervous steps back. Trenton cleared his throat and inched his chair back a little.

“She does have an excellent pedigree,” Trenton said quickly. “We researched it. Her family lineage is impeccable. However, her behavior in front of the press the other day—”

“Is none of your business!” Ryker growled.

Mr. Trenton looked him right in the eye. “But it is, if you expect us to invest in your company,” he said coolly. “This is our money that you’re asking for. Your public image is everything, and whoever you mate is part of your public image. So I suggest you rein in her behavior if you expect us to move forward.”

Ryker shifted into wolf form, and barely restrained himself from lunging at Mr. Trenton again. Instead he turned and stormed out of the room.