The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates

Chapter One Hundred–Sixty–Three

DELILAH

My life hasn’t been a very good one up until this point. I never realized just how empty and meaningless it was until today. There is no one in my life that I even care about, other than my ding dong brother,) mean, I used to love my mom with all of my heart and then some, but I suppose all children do at first. When you’re small, you don’t really know any better. Your love with your whole heart and simply assume that the feeling is mutual, And I guess, in some cases it might be. Well, at least I hope it is. But in my case, it wasn’t. In my case… it was never going to be. It’s kind of funny if you think about it. spent six years of my life in blissful ignorance after I was born, under the illusion that families love each other unconditionally. I spent the next six trying to make sense out of the way my parents treated me, Or rather, the way they did. My dad was alright most of the time. I’m even pretty sure that he actually did love me. But my mother? Oh… no. That woman was – is – a cold piece of work, I was twelve when I started catching on to the little things she did to make me feel worthless. The lies she would whisper in may dad’s ear. In Caned For a long time I thought I’d done something horrible to her, That I’d somehow made an unforgivable error that lund caused her to stop loving me. So naturally, I set out to fix it. Just to find out that my mother’s distaste for me, it didn’t stem from anything 1 did, It didn’t even really have anything to do with we. It was all about her. I guess the first six years of my life fooled me into thinking that she care were simply peaceful because I didn’t present a threat to her. I was her to make the other ladies in my dad’s club jealous, Or when she needed me then she had to her chihuahua. Well, then again, I think she actually loved her dog.

about me and that she loved me. In actuality, those first six years laughter, I was new… I was her toy to play with when she needed cute kid on the Christmas card. She had no more attachmwot to

By the time I hit puberty and I started changing… so did she. I would get complimented on how pretty I was, or how amazing my eyes were and she always made sure that I knew that people only said those things to me because they felt bad for me. Because according to her. I was the exact opposite of beautiful and no one was ever going to truly love me. Her words, not mine.

You see, my mother loved herself above all else and she still does to this day. She was the Prom Queen and the town beauty. She married the most handsome guy in her high school and was the most coveted fe in town. With all of that you’d think she would be the picture of confidence. But no. She is not. She is jealous and hateful. She is Snow White’s stepmother come to life.

It takes a long time to accept the truth about a person. To this day I still have a hard time believing that she truly doesn’t care about me or my brother. But the proof is in the pudding and when my dad died… she even stopped referring to us as her kids.

But enough of that, I’m over it. Cart you tell?

As I was saying before my rant… my life is empty and meaningless. And 1 only just realized this because the damn thing just flashed before my eyes. All thanks to an angry mountain lion.

My life was crap, and now it’s over, I won’t even get my

my Twinkies, Sob,

y eyes off this

My heart is beating so wildly that I’m pretty sure 1 could see it if I looked down at my chest, but I’m not going to take my beast until she rips them from my head.

The lion is crouching with its ears back and fangs showing. I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that it means the beast is about to pounce. I close my eyes, hoping that it might make this next part less scary, but Im wrong.

When I hear a loud splash, I let out a scream to wake the dead and brace myself for claws across my chest and fangs along my jugular.

What

at I get

instead… is wet.

wet. When nothing attacks me, I open my eyes and nearly scream again. The lion is

don’t tell

as 1 surrender myself to the circle of life. I’m about to be eaten by two fucking lions and they better not

1/3

Chapter One Hundred–Sixty–Three

behind me,” the bringer of the breath says and II takes use a minute to understand that there is

I start. “Th–no, I don’t

and my spine tingles as

the voice says. Then I’ll get in front of you, but you have to close

W

I ask as I begin

“Fine. Then don’t.”

upon the boulders right over my own. I am pretty short, only five feet and one point five inches. My brother always laughs when I add the point five because he thinks I’m being extra when I say it, but I’m not. I need every point five inches I can get.

the fuck kind of shit is this? Gasping in shock as he takes his place in front of me, my eyes

in high school, I took anatomy and I had to memorize all the different muscles of the human body. We even had live models that came in one day wearing only speedos and we were made to labuļ

and dry pair of panties.

words. Gluteus

be this guy’s

I breathe out before I can stop myself.

he’s reprimanding a toddler. The lion lets out a sound that is half bark and half meow before spinning in a circle on the rock, If I didn’t know better, I would say this animal is having a tantrum and it is the

and like a warning and it did not come from the lion on the rock. Holy shit bubbles. Right at that moment is when I decide that I am never going back to that cabin in the woods ever again. Sony Wolfe Guess I won’t be seeing you

lion’s chest, then it hisses before

water, I am so relieved.

wasting no time darting past Maximus and onto the shore on the other side of the creek. I bend over and take a few deep breaths. My heartrate is still way too high for my liking and I need to

youre not from around here,” Maximus says, the thick, corded muscles of his