The Mating Game: Big Bad Wolf (9 page)

She was tight, but so wet that he slid inside her with a single controlled stroke, filling and stretching her as she gave a long moan of pleasure. But it wasn’t enough. She wanted – needed – to feel him thrusting inside her, hips pumping as he drove them both mindless.

She squeezed her internal muscles hard around his cock, and smiled as he groaned and began to pump, grinding his pelvis against her and breathing hard. The whole world was the patter of the water, now starting to cool, the thrumming of their heartbeats and the frantic, syncopated gasps of their breathing. The slow throbbing waves of electricity building between her thighs as he moved inside her started to speed and intensify, and she found herself giving frantic little whimpers of pleasure and need.

Ryker was unrelenting as he thrust in and out of her wet, willing pussy, and he buried his face against her neck, grunting with each powerful, possessive motion of his hips. His fingers tightened on the backs of her thighs and she could feel him trembling as he tried to master his sensations.

Her self-control was not as good. Sensation overwhelmed her – the rising, singing sensation in her clit, the sweet friction inside her, the tension coiled like a spring in every muscle of her body, and bliss swept over her. But it was the feeling of being Ryker’s - the memory of the predatory, possessive need in his eyes as he’d stepped into the shower stall and taken her, the sweet release of all that desperate
wanting
, the same want she’d seen on his face before he kissed her – that tumbled her over the edge and into the relentless spasms of a mind-blowing, spine-melting orgasm.

Ryker made a noise that sounded almost anguished as he let himself go, his cock twitching inside her as he shuddered and thrust, pursuing every last moment of pleasure he could take from sated body.

“Apparently your jacket was a big hit on social media,” Ryker said to Daisy as he pulled in to the school’s back parking lot. The main parking lot was full.

“I guess I should join the twenty-first century and get a Twitter account, right? Not that I’d know what to twit about. Anyway, I’ll be sure to let Jasmine know,” Daisy said. “Anything to encourage her to use her powers for good.”

“You sure you’re safe walking to the front door?” Ryker asked as he opened the door for Daisy.

“Of course I’m safe. You think the grade school kids are going to mug me?” she asked.

Ryker looked at a cluster of boys next to the playground, rolling on the ground fighting, then back at her.

“I’ve got pepper spray,” she said. “And fangs, if necessary.”

“I’ll just go break that up,” Ryker said, and loped over towards the fray.

“See you this afternoon!” she called out, and hurried around the corner towards the school. As she passed a van with darkened windows, Frasier stepped out from behind it and blocked her path.

The wheedling expression he’d had on his face the other day was gone. It had been replaced by cold anger and disgust.

“Will you give it up already?” she said with annoyance. “You’re wasting your time and mine. Actually, I really only care about my time. So listen very carefully. I’m not going back to Georgia with you.”

“Yes, you are,” Frasier snarled. A large, muscular man strode out from behind the van and stopped, uncomfortably close to Daisy. She recognized him – a pack member named Tritan, a big bully of a Beta wolf who wanted to be an Alpha. She felt a tremor of alarm ripple through her. She glanced around. Most of the kids were inside the building now, and Ryker was nowhere in sight. He was probably driving off.

“Frasier, come on,” she said, trying to stifle her uneasiness. “I am never going to agree to marry you. I don’t love you.”

“You think I love
you
?” he said, his lip curling in disgust. “I don’t even
like
you.”

“Seriously? This is your big pitch?” she demanded indignantly. “Why would I want to marry a cheating dickhead who doesn’t even like me? And why the hell would you want to marry me?”

He rolled his eyes at her stupidity. “Obviously, so our packs can combine their land, and we can give birth to a dynasty of Sheffield-Bennett cubs.”

“Please do not say things like that right after I ate breakfast,” Daisy scoffed.

She started to walk away, and he grabbed her arm, hard. His face briefly went furry, and his eyes glowed yellow.

“I’m done being embarrassed by you,” he growled. “You’re coming back to Georgia with me, now. And when we get there, you’re going to learn some manners. Go ahead and shift if you want to. I’ll shift too, and my wolf is bigger than yours.”

Tritan let out a threatening growl, and his eyes glowed yellow as if he were about to go wolf. Then he glanced over at Frankie and Paolo and Jasper, who had wandered up and were standing there staring at them, and his lip curled back in a sneer.

“You going to make a scene?” Tritan said. “Those little boys look like they want to help you. Be a shame if they got hurt. Or you could just get in the van and come quietly.”

Daisy froze where she stood. Would he really hurt cubs? “Don’t touch them!” she said loudly. “Boys, run!”

“Be quiet!” Frasier hissed. “I’ll make you sorry, I swear.”

“Jasmine!” Paolo shouted. “They’re trying to take Daisy!”

Frasier dragged Daisy towards the van as she screamed and struggled. “Run, boys, run!” she howled.

Then there was a blur of motion as Jasmine shot through the air in coyote form and sank her teeth into Frasier’s arm. Daisy shifted too, rippling from human to wolf in seconds, and she bit Frasier as he was halfway shifted.

Seconds later, an enormous gray blur flew through the air. There was a heavy thud of two bodies colliding, and then Tritan was lying on the ground in wolf form, blood pouring from his flank.

The fight was over almost instantly. Tritan rolled over on his back and waved his paws frantically in the air, exposing his belly and indicating his submission.

Frasier did the same, and Daisy and Jasmine climbed off him and shifted back into human form.

“My God, did you just pee yourself?” she demanded of Frasier, sniffing at the air. “You did. Gross!”

“You were really going to marry him?” Jasmine said to Daisy, looking appalled.

About a dozen cubs, late for school, had gathered now, and were staring at them.

“You leave my teacher alone,” Jasper growled at Frasier. “She’s mine – you can’t have her.”

“Mutt!” Frasier whimpered, cradling his bleeding arm.

Jasper shrugged. “Yeah, so?”

Ryker, still in wolf form, cuffed Frasier in the head with one mighty paw, so hard that Frasier cried out in pain and terror. Then Ryker shifted, standing over the two sniveling, bleeding men who lay at his feet.

“You tried to take my mate. The only reason you’re not dead is that I don’t want to kill you in front of these kids,” he snarled at them. “Come near her again, and I’ll tear your head from your body.”

Frasier and Tritan scrambled into the van, slammed the doors shut, and screeched out of the parking lot.

“Ryker.” Daisy gasped, her breath coming in gulps. “Thank God you came. You saved my ass…pirations,” she said, glancing at the kids crowded around them. “How did you know he was here?” she asked curiously.

“I didn’t. You forgot your lunch and I was bringing it to you,” Ryker said. He glared after the van. “I’m going to walk you to the door, and then I’m going to call your pack and tell them that if they come for you again, I’ll consider it a formal challenge.”

* * * * *

Thursday afternoon

Ryker had a hot, prickly feeling itching under his skin as the secretary guided him towards Mr. Trenton’s office. Walt was keeping pace with him, looking nervous. They’d been summoned by Mr. Trenton’s assistant and told that it was urgent, but the assistant refused to say why.

Ryker’s lip curled back in a snarl as soon as he walked into the office.

Daisy’s mother, Phyllis Bennett, was standing there talking to Mr. Trenton, and Mr. Trenton did not look happy.

She glanced over when Ryker walked in. “I need to speak to you in private,” she said, inclining her head at Ryker, and she turned and walked out of the room into the hallway without glancing back.

Ryker followed her, feeling anger bubble up inside him. She turned to face him and looked him up and down as if he were a particularly nasty dog dropping that she’d just scraped off her shoe.

“Careful, your face will freeze that way,” Ryker said with annoyance. “Oh, looks like it already did. Might want to step down the Botox a notch.”

Anger flared in her ice-blue eyes.

“How much do you want?” she asked coldly.

“Excuse you? How much do I want to stop choking on your perfume? Pretty bad,” he said.

“No, you ignorant buffoon, how much do you want to stop pretending that you care about my daughter?”

Ryker felt his fangs itching in his gums.

“I care very much about your daughter,” he said. His wolf howled inside him and he forced it to stay down.

“Obviously that’s a lie. Daisy isn’t beautiful, she isn’t flashy, and the two of you have nothing in common. So you’re with her because you think you’ll get our family money if you marry her.”

Ryker stared at her in astonishment. Who spoke about their own daughter like that? No wonder Daisy had fled her hometown and her pack.

“Excuse the hell out of you. Daisy is the prettiest woman that I’ve ever seen,” he snapped.

“Riiight.” She drew the word out in a mocking drawl. “You could not possibly make her happy. She is a refined woman used to the finer things in life. You are coarse and vulgar and will bore her and offend her.”

She’d struck a nerve there. Was Daisy miserable being with him? She didn’t seem like the type to put on that kind of act, but…anyway, it didn’t matter. Her mother got no say in what happened between him and Daisy.

“Daisy’s having the time of her life,” he said hotly.

She shrugged one bony shoulder. “All right, if that’s the way that you want to play it. You are wasting your time with my daughter, because she has no money. We cut Daisy off when she left home and insulted Frasier Sheffield, and she will not receive one red cent until she comes to her senses. If she were to be your mate, she would get nothing. So the smart thing to do is accept my offer. Your pack is in financial straits. My pack is prepared to invest in your company – if you tell Daisy to leave.”

“Oh, really.”

Her eyes lit up with malice. “So you’re interested. Good. The more viciously you break it off with her, the more we’ll pay. We want her to understand that she doesn’t have any other options besides Frasier.”

He looked at her with disgust. “Lady, I’ve never bit a woman before, but you’re tempting me. I just don’t want to have to gargle with soap for the next hour, so I’ll give it a pass. But you better hit the road before I change my mind, you high-falutin’ sack of horse manure.”

“You’re making a very big mistake,” she spat at him. “Frasier will press charges against you for assault.”

“Tell him to go right ahead. Daisy can press charges for attempted kidnapping. We’ve got plenty of witnesses.”

“Yes, but in the meantime, the bad publicity will destroy your company.”

She turned and stalked off, returning to Mr. Trenton’s office.

Ryker stormed out of the building; he had to get out of there before he lost control, or he might end up literally biting her face off.

As he was driving back to his office, his uncle called him. Ryker answered the phone with a twist of uneasiness.

“Let me guess,” he said. “The investors are pulling out?”

“Not yet,” Walt said. “Apparently, company stock has been climbing higher ever since you started dating Daisy. The public likes her. Also, Mrs. Bennett may have money and influence, but so does Mr. Trenton. She just marched in there and tried to order Mr. Trenton around, and he found her offensive.”

“She offended him? Imagine that,” Ryker snorted.

“But we’re skating on thin ice here,” Walt said. “One wrong move, and we lose everything.”

“I survived your family! Hey, where are you?” Daisy called as she walked in the front door, holding a basket of banana muffins. His mother had insisted that Daisy come over so she could apologize to her for dumping the paint on her head, give her some more family recipes and, of course, interrogate her about how many cubs she planned on having.

“In here!” Ryker called out.

Daisy set the basket of muffins down in the kitchen, walked into the living room, and was shocked to see Ryker sitting there watching
Love, Actually
with a look of bafflement on his face.

She looked at him suspiciously. Then she leaned down put her hand on his forehead. “Are you feeling okay? And where did you even get this movie from?”

“I got it from your room. I hope you don’t mind,” he said. “Hey, are you in the mood to go clothes shopping?”

She looked at him skeptically. “Are you saying that you are?”

“Yep. And after that, we can bake.”

“I just spent two hours baking. Who are you, and what have you done with Ryker Harrison?”

“What? You don’t like doing those things?”

“Of course I do, but you don’t. What made you think of doing them?” she said as she grabbed the remote control and turned the movie off.

He told her about her mother’s visit.

“Oh my God. I can’t believe she did that.” Daisy paced the floor, her forehead furrowing in anger. “Wait, of course I can believe it. This is my mother we’re talking about here. When it comes to pack prestige, she’s like a piranha crossed with a Tasmanian devil. But what does this have to do with you watching rom-coms?”

“Your mother said I was going to bore you and offend you. I know you don’t actually want to stay here past the investor’s meeting, but I don’t want you to be miserable while you’re here.”

She shook her head. “I’m not bored at all,” she said with an edge of exasperation in her voice. “I told you that, and I don’t lie. And you’re the one who doesn’t want me to stay.”

“I never said that,” he said indignantly. “Stay as long as you want. Stay forever if you feel like it.”

She flopped down on the couch next to him. “Fine. Maybe I just will.”

“Fine!” He glowered at her, then grabbed the remote from her and turned on the TV. “Have my cubs, for all I care!”

“Maybe I will!” she yelled at him. “Five of them! No, ten! And I’ll invite your mother over to babysit them
all the time!
”

“Ouch.” He winced. “My mother? Over here? You’re playing dirty pool.”

She reached for the TV remote and turned it off.

He grabbed for it. “Nope. We’re going to watch what you’re you want to watch.”

“No we’re not,” she huffed. “Quit being so noble.”

They wrestled for the remote, and the next thing she knew, he’d pinned her down on the couch. He wrapped his fingers around her wrists as she wriggled beneath him, then sobered as she stilled except for the rapid rise and fall of her breathing.

“What were we arguing about again?” she asked.

Her heart was thrumming and she was acutely conscious of the weight of his body on top of hers. Her panties dampened and sparks of excitement flickered low in her belly. Ryker was looking down at her, his pupils dilated, his full, soft-looking lips slightly parted.

“Um…the remote control? Something stupid? What was it again?” There was a slightly dazed cast to his expression, as if he’d taken a blow to the head.

“I can’t remember. I can barely form words right now,” she said, her voice gone husky.

She could feel his heart hammering against her breasts, and her nipples were tight, painful peaks. Her gaze was locked to his plump lower lip. She wanted to lick it. Bite it. She wanted…

Before she could properly fit her mind around what she wanted, much less voice it, Ryker bent his head and, with the softest of touches, he kissed her.

It was firm but sweet, his mouth torturing her with slow, deliberate motions. She parted her lips for him and the very tip of his tongue touched hers, flickering softly, then stroking and exploring as he deepened the kiss.

His hands went to her breasts, squeezing the plump curves and pinching her nipples through the fabric of her T-shirt and bra. She gasped against his mouth, then made a little noise of disappointment when he drew away from her…until she saw the wicked promise in his eyes.

He whipped his T-shirt over his head, exposing his muscular chest, the toned planes of his flat stomach, and a touchable, kissable expanse of smooth golden skin. He flashed her an irresistibly crooked grin. “Race you.”

Daisy was out of her clothes so fast she was surprised she didn’t get friction burns. As Ryker struggled out of his own garments, she discarded her T-shirt and jeans and flung her bra away with such enthusiasm that it ended up dangling from the ceiling fan.

She glanced at Ryker, who was gloriously naked and looking incredibly smug and…
oh, my
…impressively erect.

“No fair, you had a head st—” she began.

Ryker hauled her onto his lap so she straddled him, and claimed her mouth with his. The hardness of his cock press tantalizingly against the damp fabric of her gusset and her pussy clenched with the desire to have that hot length throbbing and thrusting inside her. His kisses were hard, intense and demanding, and she writhed against him, frustrated by the flimsy barrier of her panties between them. She tried to pull away, but Ryker wrapped his arm around her waist and ripped one side of her panties between his hands before tugging the fabric out of the way so she could sink onto his pulsating shaft.

She gave a low moan as he filled her, their bodies fitting tightly together like puzzle pieces, their breaths finding the same rhythm as she began to move above him. He caressed her hips and ass, squeezing her ample flesh, guiding her as she rose and fell. The position was awkward, but she was beyond caring – the burn in her thighs as she worked herself against him was barely a murmur of sensation in comparison to the liquid arousal surging between her thighs and rising through her body in an intoxicating flood.

Ryker’s grip on her hips was hard, now – almost bruising – and she was panting with exertion as he helped to set the pace. He met each downward roll of her hips with an upward thrust, and as she sank down again her orgasm crested inside her and washed over every nerve ending, every erogenous zone, sweeping away all thought.

Ryker flipped her onto her back on the couch, his still-rigid length never slipping from her slick sheath. She felt weightless, almost dreamy as she wrapped her legs around his slender hips and clutched his back, feeling the muscles bunch and flex beneath her fingers.

He pounded into her hard, relentlessly, his hips pistoning and sweat sheening his skin as he pursued his own release. Each swift, decisive stroke of his cock caused fluttering contractions that deepened to orgasmic spasms as she cried out again and move her palms down to his firm buttocks, trying to draw him still further inside her.

With each thrust, Ryker made a low, feral sound. His eyes were squeezed closed, his face contorted in an expression of intense concentration and pleasure. Then he lost his rhythm, lost his control. He groaned hoarsely and gritted his teeth as he came, burying his face against Daisy’s breasts as he collapsed against her.

She was left lying pinned beneath his weight, sore and sated and sticky with her sweat and his. Her ruined panties hung from one leg. Their clothes were scattered around the room. The rom-com had long ago finished and the screen was showing a news report being read by a stern-looking middle-aged woman who looked a little like her mother, minus several thousand dollars’ worth of plastic surgery. Daisy’s mother would certainly have disapproved if she’d been able to see the wreckage of Ryker and Daisy’s lovemaking. Daisy found that she didn’t care in the slightest.