The Mating Game: Big Bad Wolf (4 page)

Daisy was tired and sweaty and dirty after spending the morning cleaning up the school playground,and all she wanted was a hot shower. But something was wrong. She paused in the doorway of her apartment, and the hair on the back of her neck rose. “Cadence? Larissa?” she called. Their cars hadn’t been parked in their usual spots, so she knew they weren’t there, which was not surprising. It was a bright sunny day – they’d be out shopping or at the movies or at a museum.

But…someone had been in the apartment. Strangers.

She scented the air and listened. She was pretty sure that nobody was there right now.

Hesitantly, she walked through the doorway. Everything in the living room looked fine, but she had the oddest feeling that someone had been there.

Then she saw a note on the coffee table. It was from her roommate Cadence. “Thanks for telling me about this! Not.”

Telling her about what?

Daisy walked into her bedroom, exasperated – and her heart almost stopped.

Everything was gone.

The room was completely empty.

The bed, dresser, nightstand, lamps, pictures…even the curtains.

She rushed over to her closet. It was stripped bare.

She rushed back out to the living room. There were a few things missing. The ficus plant. Three paintings. A vase and end table.

All things that belonged to her.

Who would do this? Her pack? That seemed the most likely answer, since at a quick glance it looked as if everything belonging to Cadence, Larissa and Doris was still there. If so, she’d never see any of her belongings again. They were wealthy and powerful and owned the police in her county. They’d smugly deny it, thinking that now she’d have no choice but to go home. She’d be left with the clothes on her back.

With shaking fingers, she called the police to report the robbery, then sat down on the couch to wait.

What would she do? She hadn’t paid for renter’s insurance, because she was so broke, so if the police couldn’t find her stuff, then she was truly, totally screwed.

Her phone vibrated, and she remembered that she’d turned off the volume when she’d gone to clean up the school. Her aunt had called, her mother had called, Cadence had called. She didn’t have the heart to talk to any of them right now.

She sat there by herself, and burst into tears as she waited for the police to arrive.

A police officer arrived about twenty minutes later. He was a stocky, middle-aged wolf shifter.

As she started explaining what had happened, a small fleet of cars pulled up. There was Ryker in his little red sports car, and his Uncle Walt and some woman Daisy didn’t recognize in a shiny new Porsche, and a group of other people in a mini-van pulled up next to them.

They all climbed out and hurried up to Daisy, who was standing outside her front door staring at them in bafflement.  A short, round woman who scented vaguely like Ryker rushed up to her, accompanied by a man who looked like an older, lean version of Ryker and walked with a pronounced limp.

“Daisy!” the woman said, throwing her arms around her. “You’ll have to excuse me – I’m a hugger.” She felt like a soft pillow, and smelled like flour and jam, as if she’d just been cooking. The complete opposite of Daisy’s mother, who felt lean and bony and smelled of Chanel No. 5 and always had lettuce on her breath.

Then the woman stepped back. “Oh, I’m sorry, we haven’t been properly introduced. I’m Harriet Harrison, Ryker’s mother, and this is my husband, Lem. I want you to know that we come from good stock, so you don’t have to worry about passing along any crazy genes.”

“Uncle Torrence,” a tall, skinny teenaged girl piped up.

“Okay, that’s one,” Harriet said to her impatiently. “But only when he’s been sampling the moonshine. Mostly.”

“Your great-aunt Susan,” Lem mused. “She was a little tetched.”

“You are not helping,” Harriet said, looking at him severely. “And she wasn’t tetched before she tried to jump off the barn roof into the swimming pool and missed.” Then she favored Daisy with a big smile.

“You mean you actually still want me to see your son?” Daisy said in surprise. “After the way I looked on the news, stuffing hot dogs in my face and beating up a reporter, I figured you’d be taking out a restraining order.”

“Good heavens, girl. I saw a lady with a healthy appetite, who doesn’t put up with any guff from anybody. Two requirements if you’re going to make it in this pack.”

Then she finally paused to take a really good look at Daisy. “Oh, dear, are you crying?” she said with alarm. “Why are you crying? Lem, give the girl your kerchief.”

Daisy sniffled and wiped at her nose with the back of her arm. “Oh, I’ll be fine. I’m unfortunately in the middle of an emergency here,” she said. “There’s been a burglary. Everything I own is gone.”

Harriet went pale and, for some reason, looked away and gulped hard. “Oh dear.”

Ryker skewered his mother with a ferocious glare. “Yes, that’s why we’re here,” he said.

“How did you know about the burglary already?” Daisy stared at him in confusion. “And how did you find me here?”

“You texted your address to me because of the damage to my lawn? Don’t worry about that, anyway – it’s the reporters’ fault. Just give me one minute,” Ryker said.

He inclined his head at the police officer, and the two of them stepped aside and had an urgent, hurried conversation.

“Well, why didn’t she say so?” the police officer said, looking back at Daisy in confusion. Then he gave her grin and a big thumbs-up, said “Congratulations”, and turned and walked away.

“He’s leaving?” Daisy said, bewildered.

Ryker stalked back over, his brows drawn together in a thunderous glare.

“Mother, is there something you want to tell Daisy?” Ryker said through gritted teeth.

“But…” She looked at him with a wide-eyed, pleading stare. “Then she really will think our pack is crazy.”

“You don’t think you’d have to tell her eventually?”

Harriet cleared her throat and looked nervously at Daisy. “Apparently there’s been a teensy tiny itsy bitsy…”

“Mother!” Ryker barked.

She shot him a hurt look. “I’m not deaf, you know.”

“Right. Now,” he growled at her, and his ears briefly went pointy and furry.

“…misunderstanding,” she finished.

“It’s my fault,” Ryker told Daisy. “She asked me how my date with you went, and I said great. So, uh…she rounded up a bunch of my relatives, came over here today while you were at work, and moved all of your stuff to my house on our pack property.”

“Yes, it was meant to be a surprise!” Harriet said brightly.

“Ahhh…wow. Yes, I certainly was surprised,” Daisy said, blinking in astonishment. Her heart was starting to slow down to something resembling a normal level now. Okay. So she hadn’t just lost everything she owned.

But she was going to spend the next few weeks pretending to be mated to a guy whose family was batshit crazy.

“In his defense, that’s pretty much how things are with shifters in our neck of the woods,” Walt said. “Once you find your mate, you know it, and things move very quickly. That’s why the police officer left; he understands how things work around here.”

“I’m Carlotta, Walt’s wife,” said a pretty woman in her early thirties, a good ten years younger than Walt, sticking out her hand. Carlotta was human. She was dressed to the nines in a pink silk Chanel suit, with ropes of pearls around her slender neck and a huge rock glittering on her finger. “Honestly, these people may seem a little…enthusiastic, but they’re the best family you’ll ever meet.” She gazed up at Walt fondly.

“So you’ll be able to move everything back tonight?” Daisy said to Harriet.

“Back?” Harriet clutched at her ample chest and looked stricken.

Daisy didn’t want to reveal the plan to fool the investors if Ryker hadn’t told his parents. “Look, I think Ryker is a great guy and all, but I…uh…this is moving very fast,” she said carefully. “Where I come from, we take things a little more slowly. Ryker and I need more time to get to know each other before we make any kind of final decision.”

Walt looked nervous. “Can I talk to you for a minute?” he said to her and Ryker.

He took her by the arm and led Ryker aside, with Carlotta following. “I might have told our investors about your new mate,” he said in a low voice, glancing back at the rest of his family to make sure they hadn’t heard. “So if suddenly she doesn’t want to live with you, that’s going to look pretty bad.”

“But…my
stuff
.” And they actually wanted Daisy to move in with Ryker? Would that mean sleeping in the same bed with him? Would he be naked when that happened? Daisy felt her cheeks heating up again, and looked away.

Walt glanced at her pleadingly. “Couldn’t you just at least move in to pack property for the next few weeks until the investors’ meeting?”

“What would I tell my roommates?” she protested.

“It’s not forever. And we’ll pre-pay the rent and utilities for all of you guys for the next six months,” Walt said.

Daisy bit her lip. That would be a huge help to her roommates; they could save a ton of money.

“What would happen when we’re done?” she asked.

“You guys can just say that you broke up.”

“Or maybe it will work out!” Carlotta said brightly. “Harrison men are simply divine.” She stroked her husband’s arm and looked at him adoringly, and Walt practically simpered in return.

“Or we could just donate the money to the rec center,” Ryker said to Walt. “I don’t want to force her to do anything she doesn’t want to.” He glanced at Daisy. “But I still owe you dinner after what my family put you through.”

Daisy felt an odd little thrill run through her at that. So he still wanted to spend time with her, did he?

Walt grabbed Ryker by the arm and dragged him away. Daisy, who was nosy by nature, especially when it involved her, strained to listen. Wolf shifters had excellent hearing, even in human form.

“We can’t afford to donate to the rec center unless we get that investment,” Walt growled. “All of our money is going into keeping the business going. If you didn’t have so many people on your payroll…”

“This business is all about creating jobs for the pack, and for our neighborhood,” Ryker snapped. “You’re putting way too much pressure on this girl. It’s not fair.”

“They won’t have jobs if we can’t expand. We’re heavily mortgaged. Do you want to lose our pack land?”

“You’re more worried about losing your fancy arm candy,” Ryker said in a low, angry voice. Daisy shot a look at Carlotta, but she didn’t have shifter-sensitive hearing, so she didn’t have a clue what they were saying.

Walter let out a snarl, and then Ryker and his uncle were growling and bristling at each other with their snouts extended and their fangs out, and Carlotta ran over to step between them and stroke her husband’s arm.

Daisy thought about it. Despite all those grant applications she’d written, there was no guarantee that any of them would be approved, and even if they did get a grant it would take a long time. A rec center would provide a safe, supportive place for kids to go after school and on weekends. They’d have help with homework, they could play basketball and shoot pool, they’d get free dinner, they’d have art classes… It could make the difference between the kids ending up in juvie or staying on the straight and narrow. And even if Ryker’s family was crazy, and even if Ryker was a smug, swaggering playboy, he was basically a good guy, and so sexy he made her panties melt. Spending time in his company wouldn’t exactly be painful.

“I’ll do it!” she called out to Walt and Ryker. “I’ll come stay on pack property.”

Ryker’s house on the pack property, just outside the city limits, was the complete opposite of his flashy home in the city. It was a farmhouse style building with white clapboard siding, a gabled roof, and a porch with white spindle railing. There was a mud-spattered pickup truck parked in front of the house and wildflowers in oak barrels and wheelbarrow planters, and a pile of logs with an axe leaning on it in the front yard. A tire swing dangled from an oak tree at the side of the house.

Ryker pulled up in front of the house and parked, and Daisy parked her own car next to his. His family, minus Walt and Carlotta, who’d headed off on their own, pulled up behind him and started piling out of the minivan.

Ryker stalked over to them.

“All of you. Out of here,” he snapped.

“What? We have to get to know your new mate!” His mother looked indignant.

“She hasn’t agreed that she’s my mate. And we want our privacy. Go back to your property, and don’t come back here ’til I tell you.”

When his mother started to argue, Ryker shifted so fast that even Daisy shrieked. Usually shifting took up to a full minute. It was a beautiful, fascinating sight; the shimmering in the air, the rippling fur, the features melting and flowing into something new and fierce.

But when shifters were angry, they changed faster. Ryker was so mad that within a second, he was a snarling, snapping animal. His mother let out a yelp and fell back against his father, and several of the members of his pack let out small yips and hung their heads submissively.

Then, just as fast, he shifted back. He was naked now. His clothing lay in shreds on the floor around him.

“Get off my land, and do not argue with your Alpha!” he bellowed at them. They scrambled to get back in the van.

“This isn’t traditional!” his mother yelled out the window at him as they drove off. “You’re thumbing your snout at Harrison Pack tradition, that’s what you’re doing! I’m supposed to bake her a pie!” And they drove off in a screech of tires.

“Did I hear something about pie?” Daisy asked as they walked inside.

Ryker snorted. “Yeah, yeah, the Harrison Pack tradition says that when the Alpha brings home his new mate, the pack matriarch greets her with a specific home-cooked meal. There’s a pot roast, there’s a pie, there’s scalloped potatoes…it all goes back to the 1900s when my great-great-grandfather brought home his mate.”

Hmm. Being a member of this pack might not suck too badly.

She tried to imagine a similar Bennett Pack tradition. Her pack would probably greet a new bride with a bottle of diet pills and a gift certificate to the nearest plastic surgery center.

She looked around the living room, with its broad heart of pine plank floor, mismatched furniture, and pictures of his family in home-made frames on a wooden bookcase. Now, this place felt like a home.

“Interesting,” she said. “What kind of pie would this be?”

“Apple. Homemade, from our orchard. Do you want pie? I’ll buy you pie. I just don’t want to see my family right now, after they pulled that crazy stunt.” He scowled. “They made you cry.”

She didn’t want to cause trouble between him and his parents. “Well, their intentions were good.”

He stifled a smile. “Don’t let them off the hook like that. You’ve never met such a pack of nosy busybodies. Give them an inch, and they’ll be practically moving in to the place, sniffing all over you, getting in your business.”

Then he said, “Did you get the note that I left you this morning?”

“No, I was so embarrassed about passing out drunk that I pretty much just ran out of the house.” She hesitated. “What did it say?”

He gave her a slow, sexy grin. “That I’d had a great time and I was looking forward to round two.”

* * * * *

Ryker grabbed a couple of ice-cold beers from the refrigerator while Daisy went to check on her belongings. Her stuff had been set up in the guest bedroom, and his family had moved all the guest bedroom furniture into their barn. They had been busy little bees that day.

“Everything there?” Ryker asked when Daisy came back out. “My mother probably went through your drawers and everything.” Ryker briefly imagined going through her drawers, in a more literal sense, but that sent all his blood rushing south and suddenly he felt a little light-headed.

“Everything’s here – they unpacked for me. Oh, there’s a note in my underwear drawer suggesting I buy some sexy briefs.” She came out, holding the note. “Is this your mother’s handwriting?”

Ryker snatched the note and ripped it up. He could feel his cheeks burning with embarrassment. This was mortifying. “God, my family is crazy. I can’t believe you’re not running for the hills.”

She laughed. “Hello? Do you remember my Aunt Wynona beating you on the head with her purse? And at least your family is the good kind of crazy.”

He smiled ruefully as he handed her a beer. “What, exactly, is the good kind of crazy?”

“Well, they’re not mean or critical. They’re just…overenthusiastic.”

“That sure as hell describes them to a T.”

He saw that she was looking around the room. Ryker felt a prickle of self-consciousness. She came from some rich family who’d been born with silver spoons up their butts. “This place probably isn’t what you were expecting from being the fake mate of a big-time celebrity,” he said, trying not to sound defensive.

“I like this much better than your house in the city,” she said. “It feels warm and real. It’s a lot more like you.”

“You do?” he said, surprised. “The investors in my company own that apartment, and they designed it for me. They’ve got this image they want me to portray.”

“The image of a macho, swaggering showoff?”

“Pretty much.” He smiled at her. “Well, this place is all me, so I’m glad you like it. I actually have to go meet up with my board of directors just for a bit, and talk some strategy. You can help yourself to anything in the fridge. Will you be okay by yourself here for a few hours?”

“I’m a big girl, Ryker.”

“I know,” he said, with a wicked gleam in his eye. “That’s one of the things I like about you.”

* * * * *

She felt a warm glow wash over her as he left. She loved the way he looked at her, and how he made her feel. He’d just made a joke about her being larger – but unlike Frasier, who’d joked at her expense, Ryker made her feel like she wanted to laugh along with him.

She shook herself. She shouldn’t get used to this. She was here for a purpose – to get help building the rec center – and when that was done, she’d be gone.

She called up Wynona and told her where she was. She’d already texted Cadence and Larissa. She hadn’t told them why, just that she’d be staying with Ryker because it was pack tradition. “Are you sure you want to do this?” Wynona asked. “I feel terrible about this. It’s the first time I’ve ever questioned my instincts about match-making, and even worse, you’re my favorite niece.”

“Only niece,” Daisy pointed out. “And he’s not actually the worst guy for me to fake a mating with.”

“But everything about this is a lie,” Wynona fretted. She was silent for a minute. Then she said, “Then again, Ryker did pick you out on his own at the restaurant, the night I arranged your date.”

“He did?” Daisy said in surprise.

“Yep. He said he’d just seen a woman he wanted to get better acquainted with. And that woman was you.”

“He picked me out of all the women there?” Daisy said.

“Well, of course he did. You’re a hottie. You just need to start believing that about yourself,” Wynona said chidingly. “So maybe it was meant to be after all. Clients are pouring in, by the way. The publicity has been great.”

All the more reason to stick it out for a few weeks until the investors’ meeting.

Daisy glanced out the window.

Ryker’s family had come back and they were standing pressed up against the white picket fence, staring.

“That’s great, Winnie. I’ll keep you posted. I have to go,” she said.

She hung up and went to talk to his family.

“Greetings, crazy people,” she said.

“Don’t tell Ryker we’re here,” Harriet said, looking worried.

“We just couldn’t resist,” one of the women said. “Ryker finally found a nice girl, and we’re so excited!”

“Goodness, Marge, don’t make it sound like Ryker’s been running around with floozies,” Harriet said huffily. Marge looked just like Harriet; the two must be sisters, Daisy thought.

“Why not?” Marge said, looking puzzled. “I mean, he was.”

“Because she’s standing right here, she’s going to have my grandcubs, and we don’t want to scare her off,” Harriet said, smiling through her teeth.

“Yes, indeed, I am right here,” Daisy said, but she was trying not to laugh.

“Oh, did you hear us?” Harriet said, looking innocent.

“Listen, Ryker’s going to be gone for a couple hours,” Daisy said. “And you mentioned pie. Where is this pie?”

“Yes! Pie!” Harriet brightened. “I have several in the oven right now. Would you like to come to our house, and we’ll feed you and find out everything about you?”

“She does mean everything,” Marge whispered to her as Daisy opened the fence gate and walked through.

Daisy considered this. They’d be interrogating the heck out of her and she’d have to dodge all kinds of awkward questions.

But, pie.

After a moment’s consideration, the pie won.