“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.