The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates

Chapter Seventeen

DOMONIC

Gathered around the bar are all twelve members of the Red Wolf Pack. We are the last of the wolf shifters on the North Washington Coast. Sheriff Rainier, Deputy Koda, Deputy Lief, Fire Chief Timmons, Fire Deputy Logan, Fire Deputy Grant, Bartlett, Andrew, Quinn, James, Paul, and myself.

My father was Alpha before me, as his father was before him, and so forth. He now resides in Canada. A deserter, if you will. But he wasn’t the only one. The rest of our pack went with him. They wanted the twelve of us to join them, but we refused.

There is one reason why the twelve of us remain here, refusing to leave. We have one major thing in common. The deaths of our human mothers.

In the middle of the night, five years ago, a fire started in our packhouse, high up on the mountainside. All males of the pack being forced to shift into our wolf forms on the night of the full moon were nowhere in the vicinity when it began. Our mothers were left alone and unprotected. When the fire began, we were on the other side of the moutain. When we scented the smoke we raced back, but still in our wolf forms, we were helpless to stop the flames. The entire place was an inferno. There was nothing left of them by the time we were able to shift back. We were left to watch from the shadows of the trees as the human fire fighters put out the remainder of the embers. Every female human mate that resided there that night died.

That is when the twelve of us decided a packhouse was too much like an anthill and instead of cohabitating, we spread across the town. Each of us watching over a separate part of it. Each of us responsible for a different sector of its citizens.

But the rest of our pack, opted to leave. The pain of what we lost was too much for most to bear.

The twelve of us refused to leave the memories of our mothers behind the way our fathers and other pack members did. To this day we are determined to catch the murderer or murderers that started that fire all those nights ago.

When they left and we stayed out here, in Port Orchard, was when the twelve of us decided, we would be the last of our pack. We came up with twelve rules we vowed to live by from that day forth.

Rule number one being no mates.

None of us wanted to experience the devastation our father’s had. I heard that most of our old pack is now divided. That the mated wolves broke off from the mateless. Traveling East and away from the bad memories and faulty leadership. Leaving the twelve to die on their own they way they left us to die on ours.

We didn’t want to have to experience anything like the heartbreak our fathers went through when they lost their mates. The emptiness, the guilt. It changed them. They are lifeless now. Not fit to lead, not fit to fight. They had to go and so they did. They gave up the fight and disgraced the memories of our mothers by leaving things the way they were. Unforgivable if you ask me. The future of our pack was no more. We never even talked to them about it. They simply sauntered into the night without looking back.

It became clear to me on that day – that those twelve mateless wolf shifters our fathers – never deserved to lead anyway.

not meant to

are many different types of shifters in the world, but only two kinds out here in in this part of Washington. Wolves and Lions. Lion shifters are predominantly female. And females of any species are not as likely to commit mass murder,

No… something m

more sinister and

secret lay behind the fire. And the twelve of

wolf shifters as far as we know, are male. There are rumors of a female wolf shifter on the East coast, but fairytales are told every day.

of lion shifte

is the entire reason behind our needing a human

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Chapter Seventeen

been breaking into the bar in search of something we have no knowledge of. And

lucky. None of us had found a mate. All of us, with the exception of Rainier, had opted to remain single. Rainier met and married Angie over a year ago, a local girl that he claimed he was in love with. But she wasn’t his mate, so no babies

with their mates. We can fall in love, sure. But any bond we might have with that person is severed once a

course, from the moment I met Draven, I have known that she was going to have

keeping her is against the number one rule with have set in

your mate,” Paul says, voicing the one thing I

“She is.”

silent. Each one of my brothers with sadness in their eyes. Then, just as suddenly, everyone begins talking

been a long time since we’ve had someone

way you’ve been acting. But I had no idea that was what

his head. “She

my eyes. “What do you

been saying.

“That girl needs you. She’s helpless. How can you just-”

Rainier interrupts. “This has been decided for

fist down on the table in anger, his eyes full of fury, don’t give a fuck what we promised each other! That girl’s been through enough already! We can’t just toss her out