The Mating Game: Big Bad Wolf(44)

Chapter Eighteen




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.