The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates

Chapter One Hundred Eighty–Three

QUINN

Flick

Damn it Charlie…

I feel Delilah tense behind me the moment the bell over the restaurant door sings with Charlie’s arrival.

“Charlie! We’ve been looking everywhere for you, ma boy, the old man says, his voice dripping with phony cheer.

Charlie’s face is a mask of fear. I can see him trying to control his reaction to the two men now carefully converging on him, but despite his valiant efforts to appear unfazed, he looks frightened as hell.

The dumbfuck, Elder Matthew’s son, smiles wide and fake, his teeth damn near twinkling in the sunlight, “The council has had a change of heart, Charlie.”

Fidgeting with his freshly bandaged forearms and holding a roll of gauze in his hands, he starts to back away until he stumbles, barely catching himself along the wall of the restaurant.

“Quinn,” Delilah whispers behind me.

Do they know how well you know Charlie?” I ask her as quietly as I can, my eyes trained on the father and son duo as they approach trembling Charlie.

“T–I don’t know,” she says. “Maybe not.”

“Stay in the car and unlock the backdoor for Charlie. Il take care of this,” I whisper.

“W–what do you m–mean?” Charlie stammers, the sweat on his brow easily visible with my enhanced eyesight.

“No!” Delilah growls. “They’re probably armed! Those weirdos always have some kind of weapon on them.”

I spin around to face her, still keeping my cars tuned into Charlie, as amile slightly at the worry in her gaze. “Try and trust me, Lilac,” I say, grabbing the back of her head and pulling her face in for a quick kiss, before I save her little admirer’s life.

Oh shut. That’s delicious.

Her breath hitches when our lips meet, and although it’s the quickest kiss shell ever get from me, that doesn’t make it any less powerful. The warm energy that sparks against my lips when they touch hers sends a pulsing awareness through me and I groan. Backing away from her, I gasp in amazement. So that’s what it feels Me… That’s how you know… Is it even possible to love someone you’ve just met? I’w think!–

yes, yes it is.

confused as she watches me. She touches her hand to her mouth in wonder

felt it too.

know it… and soon… she’ll

the backdoor,” I mouth and she nods.

the hunters and their movements, grimacing when I see that Delilah is correct. Young dumbfuck has a firearm in his waist band. I can see its outline and the way his hand hovers over the area doesn’t bode well for Charlie. I approach them as silently as I can from behind, praying that Charlie doesn’t

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One Hundred Eighty–Three

dumbfuck says smoothly, it’s such an

Chulle says, and for a moment I’m proud of the little jerk. “You guys are crazy!

closing his hand over Charlie’s shoulder. “We’re still gonna need you to come with us though. We have a few things we need

feet behind them and meet Chulle’s terrified eyes. “Get in

whirls on

I guess the fact that I was a little hunched over when sitting in the car never factored in for him until, just now. It’s almost as if

car,” I repeat, my gaze steady on the little man in front of me. The one who thinks he can threaten to breed my mate and keep all his teeth. The moment he said those words to me, I knew I was going to shake a few rocks from his mouth. Delilah distracted me from it for a moment, but I still intended to touch him up before we

shoving Elder Matthew hard enough to steal his son’s attention for a

races

shouts, reaching for

his shirt and spinning him around like a ballerina before I send the full throttle of my fist into his grill. Now… the fact that I didn’t let go of the idiot’s shirt when I sent my knuckles into his mouth, probably made it quite a bit more painful, both for him and me, but I didn’t mind. The satisfying crack that I heard as two of his front teeth broke free of his gums was worth some ragged skin over my knuckles. Dumbfuck dropped like five hundred pound gorilla, his face splattered with blood and

lean in close and say, “That’s for thinking you will ever touch my girl. And, just so you’re aware… If I ever see you anywhere near her, ever again you’ll lose more than

Matthew hollers and I hear a gun cock behind me, but I keep walking. “Til kill

sound behind me, but I pay them no mind. Keeping a straight face, I leap inside my vehicle and

my God!” Charlie screeches from the back

of them. “I’ll tell you when you can get up.” Then, I dial

et the call

loudspeaker as it

me,” Rainier

moment. The pain of my body as it attempts to push out the three bullets I was hit with,

suddenly alert. “What’s wrong?

hear my ragged breathing, even though I know the two humans in my

town on the Washington Oregon border,” I say as calmly as possible. “I need you to run interference with

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Nov