Oh Hell No

Chapter 16

Mason sighs, sending an apologetic glance towards Jamie, "Danielle, you know I love you very much, faults and all-"

"Nice try!" She pushed him away and grabbed Jamie, "You must be the mate of someone in my pack, in which case it's nice to meet you. You have a bit of Ryder's scent on you, so are you his mate? I could have sworn that boy would have had to go on some big roadtrip to find you, but it seems as though fate just brought you guys together naturally!" Danielle let go of her to look around, "Now where is that lying son of a-" She paused, apparently rethinking her use of that phrase since she'd be talking about herself.

"Very amazing woman?" Mason offered hopefully.

"Don't even try it you suck up!" She warned, "Now, since my own son and mate were cowards and didn't bother to tell me about you, I'll have to get to know you myself. C'mon!" The headstrong luna drags Jamie into the kitchen, sitting her down at the island, "Do you have any allergies I should know about? I may be mad at Ryder for keeping you from me but I don't want to hospitalize you."

"Uh, not that I know of," Jamie awkwardly responds, "Can I ask what you're doing?"

Danielle paused, a bowl in one hand and a bag of chocolate chips in the other, "Oh, right. I figured that we could get to know each other while baking. Everyone in the pack loves my cooking and I can ban Ryder and Mason from eating any to get back at them," A vengeful woman that allegedly makes amazing sweets, huh? Jamie suspected that she'd like Danielle a lot.

"Alright, is there anything I can help with?" If she turned out to be as good a cook as she claimed, then Jamie might as well learn the recipe for herself. It might come in handy if she ever needs to bribe someone or if she ends up on Danielle's bad side.

"If you could get one and a half cups of water and pour it in this," She handed Jamie a measuring cup and set the large silver bowl down, "That'd be great! I'll just grab the rest of the ingredients for now," That was probably for the best, since she had no idea where everything was.

Jamie did as instructed, narrowly avoiding being barreled over by Danielle, whose arms were full of different baking ingredients and utensils, "I just realized I never got your name," Danielle practically dropped everything onto the table.

"It's Jamie," She answered.

The two continued on with their cookie baking, with Danielle almost constantly asking Jamie more and more questions about herself. Jamie did ask her a few as well, but they were still vastly outnumbered. Soon after they placed the final tray into the oven, Ryder arrived home.

He had smelt that his mom was back, so he hurried inside to hopefully distract her. But, he was already too late, instead finding both his mom and mate talking in the kitchen. It was clear by the smell and layer of flour that covered the room that they had been baking, and he suspected by the glare his mother shot him that he wouldn't be getting a single scrap.

He was already plotting his escape when she spoke, "Ryder Gaylord Daniels, you better get your sorry ass in here and explain why you kept this amazing girl a secret from me!"

Jamie chokes on the cookie she was allegedly taste testing, "Your middle name is Gaylord? Gaylord?!" She almost falls out of her chair from laughter.

"Do me a favor and forget that," He mutters, blushing profusely.

"Sure thing," She tells him with a smirk, "Gaylord!"

"This is the main reason I didn't want you two to meet," Ryder grumbles, about ready to give up and leave them alone.

"Hey, you're not off the hook yet, mister! Am I really so terrible to prompt you to hide your own mate from me?" Danielle asks, really pushing the guilt trip card.

He sighs, "No, I just know how excitable you can be when the topic of mates comes up. Especially when it comes to my mate."

"That is not true!" She argues.

"Oh really? What about that time when I brought a human over from school for a project and you gave away the whole 'we're werewolves' thing?" He responds, "Braxton had to knock her out. She hasn't talked to me or anyone here since!"

While Artemis wanted to growl aloud at the idea of him bringing a girl to his pack house, maybe even his room, Jamie had too much fun visualizing it. She found that imagining Ryder's suffering was much too entertaining.

"Well forgive me for thinking that she was a lovely young woman," Danielle stated, crossing her arms defensively, "You know I've always wanted a human in the family," She paused, realizing that Jamie was still here, "No offense to you, dear, I'm still very glad that you're mated to my son. He's been needing someone like you to knock him down a couple pegs recently."

Jamie is about to let her know that they aren't really together yet, mostly so she doesn't have the chance to ask about grandkids, when Ryder sends her a pleading look. He mouths "please just go along with it," or it might have been "she's not on crack I swear," she wasn't great at reading lips. Mind-linking would make it easier to understand but that'd make it more obvious that they were talking behind her back, and it would take a lot of effort to form the connection so long as they hadn't started the mating process.

"Mom," Ryder started, "I know you already like Jamie, but can we go have some time alone?" He asks, trying to play to her weakness; young love.

"Oh," She looks at him, then Jamie, "Right, don't let me stop you two from bonding. I'll be down here to keep your father from stealing any of my cookies. Make sure you lock the door!" She called after them, while Ryder dragged her out of the room as fast as possible.

"Please stop talking!" He yelled over his shoulder at her.

"Leave room for the Moon Goddess!" She added loudly.

"Shut up!" He shouted back.

Her cackling followed them all the way back to Ryder's room. 

A/N: So, who likes Danielle? XD Other than the eccentric new character I wanted to say, I swear the story gets way more interesting soon, throwing in genuine conflict and maybe putting all the character you've (hopefully) grown to like in danger...