The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates

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The Pack: Rule Number 1 – No Mates

Chapter One Hundred–Sixteen

DRAVEN

Five minutes after I called him, Dart was strolling through the front doors like an avenging angel. His stride was steady and unhurried, his eyes scanning the perimeter through the windows. Ever vigilant up until the point that he realized Taedora and I were baking biscuits in the kitchen. Brows furrowed in confusion, he asks, “What kind of emergency calls for biscuits and gravy?”

I grin, tossing my oven mitts up on the counter as I leap into his arms for a warm welcoming hug. “We’re making breakfast for everyone.”

“Everyone?” Bart asks. “Who is everyone?”

I smile bouncing back on my heels. “Emily, Koda, and you.”

“Emily and Koda? Are you sure they’re going to make it?”

I laugh, my eyes sparkling as I nod toward the driveway and the silver SUV pulling in behind Bart’s truck. “Yup.”

An hour later the five of us are gathered in the living room when I pull out the jewelry box and flip the lid open for all to see. A chorus of gasps and curses follow. Koda tenses, his arms guing so tight around Emily that she yelps.

“When did Domonic give that to you?” Bart asks, reaching forward to take it in his hands.

“This morning,” I say. Just before he left. He told me to keep it until my answer was yes and then… just that 1 should put it on and he would know.” I smile, my eyes watering at the memory. “When I saw what he did to the guestroom – how he made it into a nursery‘–I swallow-“I opened it to put it on and-”

That message was there instead of the ring,” Koda hisses. “Have you asked Domonic about it?”

I shake my head. “No.”

Any particular reason why?” Bart asks.

“You know why,” I say simply.

He and Koda both nod. “Right,” Bait acknowledges. “You don’t want him to send you away again.”

Koda growls, “Excuse me for a minute.” The rest of us watch as Koda settles Emily on the seat next to him and steps out front.

“Where the hell is he going?” Taedora quips, hopping out of her seat to peer out the front door.

“Not far,” Emily says. “He won’t leave me. This is the farthest his been from me since we got back here.”

“He’s on the phone,” Bart says, meeting my gaze. “Calling Rainier.”

“What?” I snap. “Why Rainier? What does he have to do with a

of it

the fact that he’s the one who Domonic had retrieve the ring in the

something nags at me, gnawing at the back of

that message in the box for me to read? Or for Domonic to see and once again decide

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Chapter One Hundred–Sixteen

to do is confront him about it and find

Roda comes back in the front. His eyes go

bar and the

eyes going vivid and catlike as she purrs, “I did. Why

of the Sheriff Station. One of the places we

if there’s no one on the

only one other

meet over the tabletop. “And Rainier is

finds and bring it over afterward,” Koda

gale surrows at him warily. “So you don’t think Rainier had something to

at that,

the first glimpse of anger I’ve seen since Emily woke up from her coma. “Rainier is

I have to smile upding the way he relaxes once he snuggles into her neck. Is

I

used to seeing from Koda, his eyes heat

his ryes focused on the pair of them as they cuddle and I notice

too, Bart. I promise.” I whisper and his eyes

nice thought kiddo.

hand. “It’s true. I

squawks. Because that

placing it back inside my

stare out at the yard. “Who

gaze lowering with a shake

a deep breath,

they re almost hard to hear, “Rainier’s human

a mata??” I yelp. “Why didn’t I know that?”

head, granting me

mate. But she

someone who was not his

in unison, their eyes locking from across the room.

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One Hundred Sixteen

wife Angle is now

I dont know he