The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates

The Pack: Rule Number 1- No Mates Chapter Two Hundred Sixty-Seven PAUL "Let's chat for a moment. Upstairs, Rainier whispers my way, before tuning toward the beautiful female locked batting bark. 1 going to get your paperwork sorted, he tells her before steeringback onto the elevator Her indigo eyes linger onfor a moment, the sweet scent of honey barreting my way again the way it did what stepped off the elevator and nearly trapping my soul there in her gaze. I don't know why I volunteered to escort her out of town. 1 6oet wually word her to leave. But I couldn't think of any other way to get more twith her at first. I lied when I said that Rainier wundert alert stay another night in jail. He probably would have been totally fine with that, but I wouldn't be I follow despite my body's initial reaction which is to stay. I know what he's going to ask me. At least 1 think 16 di alley. don't need to leave the lovely creature on her own while he does, but allow it because I'm still resting from just the vision of beer. Sdespite that my instincts are tellingnever to let that lovely creature out of my sight again.

Anastacia is gorgeous. She's like every dark, lust filled thought I've had ver had, poured into one glass and made it was just fur 1. me.

Even her voice incites pleasure in me. The soft, barely identifiable dravd of an accent, hidden somewhere in its deg Her hair is a bounce of the tightest black curls that fall midway down her back, and her skin is the color of baby seated offer hinting toward an obvious Creole heritage. Impossibly full lips, the color of ripened plums that beg to be Kissed coupled with the thicken plads lashes that smile across two of the darkest purple moons I have ever seen.

And the moment I laid eyes on her one word whispered through me.

Mine.

I can remember how I felt the first tI saw Draven. There was just something about her. Something that almost connectedto ser and at first, I admit, I thought maybe she could be my mate at first. For one, I was insanely attracted to her the moment she stepper inside the bar. Two, there was a fiber of something there that seemed to latch onto my soul and pulltoward her. However, I've se realize, I felt all of that not because she was my mate, but because she was destined to be my Luna. To be fair, I think we all-with the exception of Domonic - felt the very spull toward her in that regard.

This pull was different. I could feel it like a sparkling thread tying the pair of us together. There was something else in the air as well, although I couldn't say what, but it had no bearing onwhatsoever. It was almost as if I could see it. Like a dance of purple mist glimmering in the air. Barely visible and highly potent, but for sreason, unable to touch me.

The moment the elevator doors close, Rainier whirls on me. "Are you crazy? There is something so fucking werd about that bad. Every single one of my deputies is enamored by her. I don't get it. It is fucking strange and it givesthe damned creeps." First of all, dipshit, don't call her a broad. I swallow my snarl in favor of not looking like a lovesick lapdog and ignoring his mark. For the moment.

"You don't get it?" I laugh. "She's blow your mind beautiful! That's why they're enamored with her Mister Big Words. Not a goddamned thing creepy about that." "Garret is happily married, jerk off. Yet he looks at her like he wants to get down on his knees and feed the bitch grapes." "Hey!" I growl before I can stop myself. "Enough of that shit." He squints atas we step off the elevator and onto the main floor of the station, but shakes off my little outburst as he goes aroun warily at the eyes of the normies standing around. "She ran for miles - Paul. From a pack of fucking wild dogs Yeah, okay. So that part is weird.

1/3 Chapter Two Hundred Sixty-Seven "Not just any dogs either," I add in a whisper as he guidesinto his fice and closes the door. "They're hounds, Shifters." "Fuck! No way," he gasps, dropping into the chair behind his desk as if his legs have just been cut from beneath him. "Yikes. You think they wanted her for=" "Reproduction? Yeah. Probably." "Holy shit," he replies with a cringe. Then he shrugs it off, lifting his eyes to mine, "Well they're gone by now then. It's already been half a day. Hounds are wandering gigolos. Surely-" "No," I say matter-of-factly, and I can practically, feel my eyes darkening "They're still out there, I could smell them and hear them." "Shit, Rainier says, suddenly worried. Tll alert the rangers." "Already asked Gordon to." "Ahaha," Rainier says with a smirk. "Are you sure you don't want my job. Sheriff Paul?" I giggle, "Nah. You can keep it. I'm not into uniforms." He rolls his eyes. "Might make you sexier." "Not possible. Besides, it wouldn't be fair. I'm already the best looking of all of us. I'd hate to leave the rest of you floundering in the dirt." "You fucking wish. If you're so much sexler than how cI have the hottest mate?" I chortle. 'I'll be sure to relay that opinion of yours to our Luna." "Don't you fucking dare," he says in a cold voice that I know is deadly serious. Then he stands and opens his blinds and we both stare out into the woods around the station. "I wonder if any of Gio's guys have sighted them. These... hounds..." "Probably wouldn't hurt to find out. And we could also use a pair of cat eyes to take up scouting, because I don't know where that girl cfrom, but I have a hunch that she's been running a long goddamned time, I observe thoughtfully.

Rainier inhales a sharply, before cursing under his breath about never having enough tto get his mate pregnant. "Fuck. I guess I can head to the island, then bring the cats back with me." I smirk, sending him a knowing smile. "Ahhh. Does that mean you'll be on duty tonight after all, sheriff?" He flipsoff. "Fuck you to the depths of your little black soul." "Not with your 'poetic dick' I hope."

Again, he rolls his eyes. "You wish." Powering on his computer, he takes a seat and pulls a few things up on the screen. Well.. they finally got back toon the origins of one Miss Anastacia Bordeaux. And they are very, very, interesting indeed." Without glancing at the screen, I say, "Letguess. She was born in Louisiana." His eyes shoot my way. "How did you know?"

Ngrin. "The hounds. They're not from around here. They almost repugnant sma darkern One I've only ever encountered one tin my life. During my brief stay in New Orleans."

His eyes go wide. "That tyou went chasing after that ter that Haitian girl? The one you were so sure was your mate?" Rainier begins to giggle. 2/3 Chapter Two Hundred Sixty-Seven I laugh darkly. "Fuck you. I was only sixteen. I didn't know any better." "Do you know better now though?" Rainier guffaws.

For sreason my mind goes straight for the girl downstairs. The beauty that smells like eyes. “Yeah. I think I do." honeycomb and wields purple sparkles in her "But why in the fuck would hounds from Louisiana want one girl bad enough to chase her all the way here? My eyes catch on a glint of something deep in the woods and I swallow back a growl. "With any luck... I'll find that out tonight! Chapter Comments