The Mating Game: Big Bad Wolf(15)

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.”