The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates

Chapter Three Hundred Nine

TIMMONS

| hear it the moment | step out the door. The unmistakable sound of a body tumbling to the ground. A viselike

pain coils around my chest and as | take my next steps and | tell myself that sound wasn’t her. She didn’t fall. It

wasn't her.

| didn’t just throw her onto the go***n table like a f***ng I***tic and threaten to take her a***to jail. Nah, that

wasn’t me. | wouldn't

do that. Not to her.

But | did though.

What the f***k?

“SHIT!” | scream up into the sky, my body shaking, my hand on the door to my Charger.

Sof the locals meandering down the sidewalk senda startled look, pausing in their steps to see what |

do next. But | could give a f**k about that part. None of them would dare to approach me. Even after what they

may or may not have seendo to their sweet little bartender, | know | won't get any shit about it. That's just

the way things are.

My head swivels and | glance behind me, toward the windows on the side of the bar and through them. I should

be able to see her standing there, or moving around the space, or sitting down in the booth.

But | can’t.

Forkkl

Where is she?

A clawing pain scratches into my center, like nails trying to dig into my heart. Poison burrowing deep within me

as | wait, and | wait. Hoping that any moment now I'll see her tawny blonde head bobbing around behind the

heavily tinted glass. But | don’t.

With the speed of a cheetah on ***k, | race back into the bar and nearly stumble over her body on the ground.

My breath stutters, gliding over her still form and having the f***ked up thought that I'd finally done it. I'd finally

made her feel something forso ruthlessly that it

sent her barreling into the ground.

She’s your mate Timmons, of course she feels for you.

A quick scan of my surroundings shows Charlie has no idea. That little f***er is still outside turning away patrons

and jibing with them as they laugh and walk away.

Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt

“F**k Chuck,” | say to myself as | drop toward the ground and give Kendall the once over.

My heart is pounding in my ears, the sway it has been from the moment | saw her traipsing down from

Charlie's apartment. The sound is so loud I can’t discern anything else beyond it. So | take couple deep, calming

breaths and lean in close, tuning myself into her vitals. The thump thump thumping of her heart is barely

distinguishable behind my own and | have to labor for it, telling myself to calm my emotions, to listen like a wolf

and not a man.

And that’s when | hear it.

What the f***k?

Does she have an arrhythmia that I've never noticed before or...

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Chapter Three Hundred Nine

Why does it sound like her heart is jumping over itself?

Almost as if it is doubled?

F*+xk. This could be the reason she passed out.

What the f**k did | do?

03/79%

“Shit,” | mumble, sliding my arms beneath her as carefully as | can and gnoring the thousand watt voltage that

passes throughevery t| touch her. Just as | lift her up and off of the floor, Charlie stumbles back inside

and | hear his outraged gasp harp from the front of

the bar.

“No!” Charlie moans out, rocketing towardon his clumsy clown legs. “Why?”

“I didn’t hurt her!” I lie, lifting her body gingerly from the ground and being as careful as | can with her head. As |

study her angelic profile, regret climbs into my throat and her words cfloating back to me.

“God how | hate you! | hate you so much...”

Again. F**k!

She doesn’t appear to have any lumps, or any bleeding. Lucky for her, she landed on one of the new plush

runners that Bartlett added to prevent drunken sailors from busting their teeth on the hardwood floor Not having

anywhere else to go with her, | draw her up close, cradling her intoas | face Charlie. “Call an ambulance! |

think there’s something wrong with her heart. Maybe she has Tachyarrhythmia. Maybe | just scared her into

having a panic attack or

“Tachyarr-what?” Charlie sputters, reaching out to pet Kendall's forehead.

| growl, jerking her away from him. “Don’t!” snarl, flashing my fangs.

Charlie's hands go up in surrender and he backs up a step, shaking his head. “She doesn’t have-”

“Did you **ing here me, idiot? | said, call her an ambulance! Her heart rate is crazy weird and | may have just-"

“She’s pregnant, Tim!” he spits. “Not panicked!”

0

My entire body rocks up as if it has just been covered in ice and the cold | feel lathers over my heart, sealing it

behind frigid steel claws, then clamoring up my throat like liquid nitrogen. “What?” My voice cracks out, a chip of

glacier ice.

Charlie shakes his head. “It's what I've been trying to tell you, but she...she didn’t want anyone to know.”

I can feel

it when my eyes bulge and burn and | know that my gaze just becferal. “Pregnant?” My voice sounds like

I'm juggling gravel in the back of my tonsils. “By WHO?"

E

Suddenly my head is full of all manner of thoughts. Questions that shouldn't be questions. Facts that might have

been lies we were taught as children that becthe laws in which we shifters have always simply seen as

truths.

Could we have been wrong?

Could Bartlett have marked her as his?

Could she be of shifter blood?

But I don’t scent him.

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Chapter Three Hundred Nine

It can’t be.

It wouldn't be.

Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm

No!!!

0K 79%

My fiery gaze goes straight for her throat. Flashing across the soft peach of her skin like | might find a mark

there. A crescent shaped scar that | never deigned to look for because | thought she was mine. Something that

will tellI've been wrong all along and that she isn’t

my one.

| don’t find it and thank God | don’t, because things between Bartlett and | were just about to becway more

complicated.

| make for the door, telling myself she needs to see a doctor and that all of my self loathing can wait.

“Where are you going?!” Charlie sputters in alarm.

“I'm taking her to see Doc Rhodes,” | hiss, pausing minutely near the back exit. “She needs to see a doctor and |

happen to know he’s at htoday.”

“N-no! Wait” Charlie protests. “Sh-she doesn’t want a-anyone to know about the b-baby!” Charlie claims, right on

my heels.

“Well, | guess that’s too bad Charlie! Because right now | don’t give a f**k! Open it.” | snap, motioning him

toward the door. | don’t want to jostle her any more than | have already.

Charlie yanks on his hair like a frustrated weirdo then does as | said.

And lucky for him that he does because | was three seconds from pointing my taser his way and hitting that

magic button.

Charlie followsout to my Charger and | click the locks carefully then have him open the front passenger side

of the car. The seat doesn’t go back much, but it reclines enough forto settle her so that she doesn’t fall

forward.

| can drive carefully.

| can BE careful.

Once she is situated and buckled in, | close the door and race to the other side, throwing Charlie one last glance

as | ask, “Why doesn’t she want anyone to know about it, Chuck? Why? Is it because of who the daddy is?”

Maybe he did mark her...or maybe the father is simply someone | know. I'll ip him apart. Whoever he is, I'll take

his f**ing balls and wear them next to my heart for the rest of my days. “Who's the father Charlie? You tell me

and you tellright now!”

“I don’t know...” He sighs, kicking a few pebbles into the lot at my back. And she doesn't either.”

What?

What the f**k?