Dire Wolf Mates - Chapter 59: Chapter 59

The time before that, Toni had been in the hot seat. It was her own fault though. She was the one who woke up stark naked on the Palace lawn with Gavin Green, a Rabbit Shifter from town, with a half-eaten bowl of banana pudding and one green flip-flop between them. Adrianna and Ariella took photos—how could they not?
They even sent the images to a couple of producers of pornographic magazines and Toni had received no less than twelve offers. Rumor had it she was to be featured in the Naughty or Nice Christmas Charity Calendar which was rumored to be Shifter run non-profit that selected a different cause every year as beneficiary.
Ariella couldn’t blame her if she posed for them. Toni was simply gorgeous and had a rockin’ bod. Besides, it was for charity.
“So, how are you?” Annabeth asked, interrupting her musings.
“Fine.”
Ariella squinted. She was sure Annabeth would crack, but the brat turned her head with a squeak. Being mated must have given her some backbone. Lucky beyotch.
“I see,” Adrianna said, coming between the two of them. “Nothing you’d like to discuss, honey?”
“Like what?”
“Well, if you ever need advice on, you know, anything,” Toni said, tucking one hand in the crook of Ari’s elbow and waving the other one in the air.
“What is wrong with you three?” Ariella asked. She did not trust them at all. Not one little bitty bit.
“Nothing!”
“Sheesh.”
“Can’t sisters just be nice?”
“Wait a second. It can’t be true! Didn’t you bang Hairy Henry on prom weekend?” Annabeth asked in a stage whisper.
“Oh my gawd! Shut up, Annabeth. And no, I didn’t bang Hairy Henry,” she whisper screamed back at her nosy sibling, painfully aware of the questioning eyes of her coworkers and Pride mates surrounding them.
What the heck was going on? Fucking hell. This was going to be awful. She just knew it. Practically felt it in her gut.
“Well, I mean, Mom said you found your mate, so we were just shocked when the tweets went out about you still being a virgin and all,” Annabeth said and shrugged.
“Tweets? I saw it in a TikTok,” Adrianna added.
Ariella groaned.
“Oh no. Please tell me she didn’t,” she moaned, covering her face with her eyes.
“Wish we could, cupcake,” Adrianna added.
“Mommy dearest sent out a Pride wide alert asking for help in devirginizing her youngest daughter,” Annabeth informed her.
“I will put hair remover in every single bottle of shampoo in all of your apartments, I swear on my firstborn,” Ariella growled, and tried to stop the tide of embarrassment that was currently threatening to drown her.
“Well, we’re in luck then, sister. Cause if you ain’t getting’ any, you ain’t havin’ any cubs,” Toni snarked, a wicked grin splitting her pretty face.
Beyotches. All of them.
Ariella could not believe it. Her own mother had outed her. Again. That was it. She was so going to show everyone the pictures of her mother, pre-bikini wax, she’d been holding over the female’s head.
“Alright, I get Mom’s lunacy, but you three are behaving very suspiciously. What did you do?”
Ariella quirked an eyebrow and followed them down the hall, noting the snickers and giggles from her co-workers as she walked to her desk.
“Now, don’t get mad,” Adrianna began seriously, but ruined it by snorting.
That was when Ariella saw it. The mother of all pranks. Right on her desk inside the offices of Eat Well Live Proud, her place of business, where she had a reputation to uphold, was an enormous gift basket.
“You had it coming,” Annabeth said in a singsong voice, and she was not wrong.
After all, Ari had gleefully taken part in a similar such thing for Annabeth. Only, this was her place of work, and this basket was not fruit and stale crackers with awful nuts and cheese that no one liked.
Nope. This was filled with other things. Scandalous, gossip producing, funny if it was happening to someone else, horrifyingly embarrassing things.
Sigh.
Her coworkers, which included three sisters, eighteen cousins, and various other Pride members, stood around smirking and giggling as Ariella’s eyes grew wide with horror. Naturally, the most prominent object inside the oversized basket that was topped for some reason with a big pink glitter ribbon was a stuffed poodle.
The dayglo purple pooch was about four feet high and sporting a strap-on which happened to have the biggest, pink glow-in-the-dark dildo Ariella had ever seen. Not to mention the pink leather ball-gag tied around the pornographic puppy’s neck.
Next to the dildo dog was an assortment of vibrators, nipple clamps, whips, chains, and—oh shit—a straight up gallon of strawberry flavored lube. There was also a thick, hardcover copy of a fully illustrated Kama Sutra, translated by a Harvard scholar, apparently. Beside it were more instructional books on how to train your puppy.
Dog collars, leashes, a box of wee wee pads, and an assortment of rawhide and chew toys were scattered throughout. Not to mention, a giant box of peanut butter flavored dog treats, and a giant jar of peanut butter. The creamy kind.
“We just thought we could help you snag that dog you’re after,” announced Adrianna to a round of laughter and applause.
“What the hell is going on here?” her boss, Maggie Pierce, one of the King’s new circle, yelled from the doorway and everyone snapped to attention.
“Um, nothing,” Ariella answered.
She clapped a hand over her mouth, trying to stand in front of the giant dildo basket, but to no avail. Her boss did not like smarty pants. Especially anyone who was dumb enough to answer what was clearly a rhetorical question.
Shit.
This was not good.
“Well, if you are all finished with what I am going to assume is a basket of dog training supplies, maybe we can get on with the meeting and our workday. Oh, and Ariella, while I appreciate your virtue is the gossip of the hour, let’s keep it down until after work, shall we?” Ms. Pierce snarled.
“Yes, ma’am,” she replied in a low voice.
“Good. Get that basket out of here. Now.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Ariella whispered again.
She lugged the tremendous thing down to her tiny car where it took up all of her trunk, even spilling over to the passenger seat, which she had to lay down. Ariella bit her lip and wondered if the strap-on was visible from the outside now that she had a ball gag wearing purple poodle as a passenger.
FML.
She groaned and ran back inside. Ariella was only fifteen minutes late to the meeting. Mrs. Pierce waited until the end of her long drawn out speech over new import laws and procedures at the docks to announce the top contenders for this quarter’s leaders.
Ariella held her breath when the top three were announced. The entire room did, as a matter of fact. Call it a predator’s need to win, whatever it was, this quarterly contest was very motivational.
Ariella had never won. Not once. She’d been very determined this time around. Had worked her butt off too. What else did she have going for her at the moment?
Besides Fluffy, her new BFF that was waiting in her car. Sigh.
“Well, ladies and gents, this has never happened before, but it seems there is a tie for the lead between Cornelia Higgins and Ariella Golden,” Ms. Pierce announced,
“You have a few more days till we close out the contest. Good luck, you two.”
“Ari, that’s great!” Adrianna whispered.
Her sisters accompanied her, while her work friends offered congratulations, as she walked back out to her desk. She was both happy and bummed. Ari just couldn’t believe after all her hard work, she was still tied with Cornelia Higgins. How did that woman do it?
Well, it was her own fault for pussyfooting around the Serious Moonlight account, and not going in for the kill. She’d already hit up every other small business in the area.
She needed that Wolf run bar, and not just half of what she offered. Ari needed to get all their business, darn it. Freaking Brock was standing in her way. The only reason he’d ever offered even a portion of their business to Ariella was because of her connection to Leo, Sheila’s mate.
Rawrrr.
Her Lioness objected loudly to the insinuation that their mate wouldn’t do it out of devotion to her alone. Silly kitty didn’t understand that while Brock smelled like her mate, and looked like her mate, the guy simply was not interested in being her mate.
RAWRR!
Ariella winced. Angry kitty was loud kitty, and she was still recovering from the whole catnip thing. Her she-Cat needed to tone down her sass.
Sigh.
She could not think about Brock right now. Ariella had other things to worry about. Like the blond mantrap headed her way.
Cornelia Higgins was technically Ariella’s second cousin, but their families were not close. Bad blood over one slight or other over the years had led to a little feud between the Higgins and Golden families. As a result, Cornelia had always been a real bitch to Ari and her sisters.
None of them liked her. Still, Ariella had to admit Cornelia was good at her job. Even if she only landed her clients by sleeping with them. Rumors could be nasty things, but these were more like what people called open secrets.
“She gives us all a bad name,” Toni mumbled as they exited the conference room.
“Why? Because she’d rather gain clients on her knees than with her brains?” Adrianna snarled loudly, and Ari pinched her arm.
Talk like that would only bring Cornelia herself over their way to flaunt her achievements in their faces. The woman loved to brag, and unscrupulous or not, she had the numbers to back it up.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the Golden girls,” she said and gave an unfriendly smirk. “Say that show was about a group of old women with no men in their lives, right? Like you four?”
“No, I don’t think that’s right. After all, one was rather promiscuous,” Toni said.
“That means she was a slut, Corny. Kinda like some females we know,” Annabeth hissed.
“Oh, so one of them was getting some,” replied Cornelia with her perfect upturned nose in the air, making Ari want to gag. “I guess those girls weren’t like you four, after all? Seeing as how none of you can get a man, unless you count a canary.”
“Watch it,” snarled Annabeth, but Toni held her back.
“Anyway, Ariella, I wanted to congratulate you on your attempt to win the quarterly contest. It is too bad, though.”
“What’s too bad?” Ari asked.
“Well, let’s see, this will be my fifth win in a row, and you never even won once, have you? In fact, none of you have, right?”
“Yeah, we know how you won, Corny,” murmured Annabeth, but Toni elbowed her to shush up.
“You know, I have to say so far, the new laptop was my favorite prize. Of course, the deluxe premium smart phone package was great too. The year-long spa treatments went very well. I mean, we all know those are amazing,” she said, and looked at the four sisters scathingly.
“Then again, maybe we don’t do we, ladies? Anyway, I am really going to enjoy winning this year. The week-long vacation for two sounds divine,” Cornelia finished and tossed her perfectly flat-ironed blond locks over one slender shoulder.
Skinny beyotch.
“You haven’t won it yet,” Ariella responded, eyes narrowed and rising to the bait like a freaking amateur.
“Haven’t I?” she crinkled her nose and Ari wondered for a moment how she would look with blood gushing out of it.
Rawrrrr.
“You know, I was going to stop by that little Wolf motorcycle bar for dinner tonight,” she taunted.
“I wonder what, or should I say who, I might find there. Maybe someone looking for a woman with a little experience under her belt. Maybe my next client,” Cornelia said, pursing her lips and winking at Ari before she walked away.
Of course, she didn’t get far before Annabeth reached out with her exceptionally long legs and tripped her. Ariella bit her lip to stop her laughter from exploding out of her mouth.
“Hey!”
“Oops, my bad,” Annabeth said, fake smile just innocent enough to not raise suspicion.
Ari knew that one was for her, and she was grateful to Annabeth. Shit. She was positively dying on the inside. She couldn’t compete against Cornelia’s sexual prowess. After all, what if the woman was right?
What if her virginity was just another, even bigger, obstacle between her and Brock? Cornelia had just poked at an open wound, and Ariella did not know if she would recover. Anger, fear, determination warred within her. Should Ariella just give up now? Hand over the prize to Cornelia and slink away with her tail between her legs.
Fuck. No. Rawrrrr.