The Mating Game: Big Bad Wolf(45)

She couldn’t believe that it had been this long and she was still here. She was on her family’s property – it wouldn’t even be that hard to find her.

Was Ryker never coming for her? He couldn’t have abandoned her like that. But here she was, hungry and thirsty and frightened, and getting increasingly angry – with no rescue in sight.

She pounded on the door and shouted at the top of her lungs. Nobody answered.

Long minutes stretched by, and then she heard angry shouts, and to her alarm, she scented Jasmine, along with her mother and Tritan.

The door flew open and Daisy blinked in the light as Jasmine cursed and clawed at Tritan. Tritan had a death grip on Jasmine’s arm, and they stood just outside the doorway. Tritan’s face was bleeding, which made a smile twitch briefly on Daisy’s lips. Then she saw that Jasmine’s mouth was bleeding too, and she vowed to find a way to kill Tritan at the first opportunity.

“Look who we found nosing around on our property,” her mother sneered. “And by the way, here’s today’s newspaper.” She shoved the newspaper at Daisy.

“You kidnapped a child,” Daisy growled at her. “She’ll be missed. You’ll go to prison.”

“She trespassed on our property. That means our pack has the right to take whatever legal measures we deem appropriate,” her mother said coldly.

Unfortunately, that was true. Humans didn’t get involved in pack politics. If Jasmine had a pack, in theory they could come rescue her, but she didn’t have a pack. She was on her own.

“The newspaper,” her mother said, shoving it into her hand. Daisy looked down at the paper and felt a great wave of nausea wash over her.

The story explained that Trenton Investments was severing all ties with Big Bad Wolf Industries, and they were likely to lose their pack land.

Ryker Harrison, according to the article, was formally announcing the end of his engagement. There was a photograph of him standing there with his family crowded around him, faces serious. In the news story, he apologized to Trenton Investments, and vowed that he would turn over a new leaf. She read the story over carefully, then handed the newspaper back to her mother. She knew what she had to do.

“Don’t hurt Jasmine,” she said coldly. “I’ll marry Frasier.”

Tritan started to drag Jasmine off, but Daisy let out a sharp bark of warning and let her fangs descend.

“She stays with me up until the wedding, and you bring us both food and water, or I will die right here on the spot defending her,” she said. “The rules of inheritance say that if you’ve got no bride, you’ve got no pack merger. Care to have another cub, mom?” She said that last word with sarcasm dripping heavily from it.

Her mother let out a long, snarling growl and her eyes glowed yellow. Daisy growled back at her. After a very long, tense moment, Daisy’s mother finally muttered, “This is the last time you win a fight with me, you bitch.”

She nodded at Tritan, who threw Jasmine into the room with Daisy and slammed the door.





Chapter Nineteen




Her mother and Frasier weren’t taking any chances. They scheduled the mating ceremony for that afternoon.

They tossed a big, ugly, white frothy dress in to the room along with a couple of bottles of water. Daisy gulped hers down greedily.

After a couple of hours passed by, Tritan threw the door open and barked at her “Put the dress on. Wouldn’t want to keep the groom waiting.”

“Kiss my fat ass,” Daisy snapped at him. He gave a snort of disgust and slammed the door shut again.

“God, this dress is fugly,” Jasmine said as she helped Daisy get dressed.

“And therefore perfectly appropriate for a forced wedding to the world’s biggest barf-bag.” Daisy stared down at the dress with disgust. “There is now a ruffle shortage in the northern hemisphere, and it’s all thanks to me,” she said.

The door flew open and Tritan stood there, glowering. “Don’t try anything,” he snapped at them.

Daisy and Jasmine were led out of the room by half a dozen armed guards, and marched through the woods, towards her pack’s mansion, off in the distance.

“Any time now,” Daisy muttered.

“Don’t worry, they’re coming,” Jasmine whispered to her.

Then she heard it.

The howling.

A lone voice rose, an eerie, portentous sound that made the hair at Daisy’s nape stand on end. Another voice joined it, then another, the song punctuated by the staccato yipping of coyotes.

“What is that?” her mother cried in panic. “I thought he gave up! He said he wasn’t engaged to her anymore!”

Jasmine’s expression should have made her shrivel up on the spot. “Lady, it’s a good thing you’ve got money, because you sure haven’t got brains.”