The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates

Chapter One Hundred–Forty–Nine

DREAM SEQUENCE

I’m running through the woods, wearing nothing but an inversized button ap shirt that I’m fairly a

doesn’t belong to me. Although my (feet are bare, I somehow don’t feel the sharp rocks when I land on them or the thorny bushes as barrel through them um laughing and playing. Iraping nimbly from tree to tree as hide. Each time I hear a brunch break, or catch a whisper in the wind, I move on. Slowly but surely making my way deeper and deeper into the kingdom of Evergreens. The further in Ign, the higher the ground becomes and soon I am climbing. over boulders and shattered tree stumps. Hurding my way toward the sover hala of light that beckons beyond a tight circle of redwoods. I must there. I have to find him. He is searching for me. I know it. No matter what it takes. I have to make it to that point so that I can fully meet Him. My guardian in the woods, my wolf I havent heard him howling for me but in my heart I can feel him calling. He waits at the highest point. Minding his secrets and my own at the top of this grueling hill.

Suddenly, I catch my foot on something and look down. At first, 1

the streets of LA Except

ether you might

slivers of

In woods so brevity beced

what is staring back at me. It just appears to be a face, like any

forest, on a mountainside rodilled with spikes of green and “there is a part who uta atop this peak smoking a cheroot and dressing the

trees in curfs of smoke.

This face ducunt belong here. As I pert closer, Enota

sht about the neck that I didn t before, it appears to be torn. A long gash has (the first tattered and uneven. I pop en my eyes curch on the letters written’ulong the chin and

“are ubu mumbers circling the evelib, hed etched along

ripped the onær soft skin of the thereket over the forehead. They mean some the jawline that end just at the aman

of the

I fall to my needs a pot of the face o Tinije”

meuth any bat bytt

and the terribly dead eyes burn incu ime and follow my movement. The ground

arway from the face. A rumble bus sturted behind me. An

from the dark of the trees. Soon I

throbbing thrums at the base

of the

the

poodles, his powerful body almost wraithicke under

in Font of me. Freach and for

he can’t understand any words

bady before settling in the side

neck and shoulders

I

the

forward, plunging the points at his fangs into the side of my

OF DREAM SEQUENCE

panting

I guow

• the fud.”

meal beling

Bartlett

Chapter One Hundred–Forty–Nine

yacht. Then a lingering scent

surfaces. My mind is still Hazy, and the events of the morning mill fogo, bet atsto where I am. “Shit, I say to myself, my eyes welling

whispering in my head won’t let me release my tears. Bly neck on the tight side tingles and burns for a moment and I gasp as the sensation quickly becomes soothing Chasing away the melancholy in my heart of the events of the day

little studio is coming from the windows and a tiny lamp near the front door. Looking down at my hands, I realize I’ve been clutching something to my chest. It’s a dark, navy blue shirt that smells just like Heaven and I hold it closer as I stand up. Flipping on the nearest lightswitch, the apartment is suddenly flooded with yellow light. I frown as I realize Rainier isn’t here and that I am well and truly alone.

When did he leave?

he had to let me go. The instant anguish… the panic. Then his loss

To his wife. You know the one

tilt my head to inspect my neck. It doesn’t long to find what I’m looking for, but when I do my eyes widen like saubers and the ending of my dream resurfaces. “Oh my God! 1 hiss, shifting closer to the mirror to get a better look. My throat is covered in hickles and even though the sight of them causes me to blush furiously and my core to start dripping with heat, they are not what

Just at the junction of my neck and my shoulder- there is a mark

He

le bit m

punched right through my flesh. Studying it, I notice

the first

memory surfaces. I hold up the shirt and realize for the first time that it is ripped beyond repai “Did that shit really happen?” I whisper, closing my eyes as the image of Rainier hovering over me on the couch

way I can’t afford to turn reality y

to Hector for his debt – I relied on my intuition. I was hurt, certainly. Ashamed, definitely. But there was also this little voice inside my head that said my sacrifice would not go unrewarded. That somehow one day, the

I was right wasn’t

right,” I scolded myself.