The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates

Chapter One Hundred Ninety–Seven

QUINN

As the sound of the air ambulance scattered into the night, I turned my attention back to the task at hand. Any moment now, the cops will be here and we can’t have Tedly Gherkin running his mouth about wolves that don’t die and lions attacking men, now can we? Racing into the trees at shifter speed, I smile seeing that he is exactly where I left him. Crying like a bitch while Taedora snarls in his face, her thick paws keeping him pinned to the ground. Even though we’re pressed for time, I can’t help but kneel and fix him with an exhausted look

“Just had to come looking for trouble, didn’t you? I taunt, with a shake of my head. “I would have thought you learned your lesson when you lost those teeth,”

His frightened blue eyes flare. “What the fuck, man?” he whispers, too afraid to raise his voice with a full grown lioness drooling on his lovely black jacket, “Is this thing yours or what? Call it off! Please

I meet Tar’s eyes, trying to signal to her that we don’t have much time We need to get him to her den and fast. Now that I’ve recognized their jackets, it’s not quite time for him to die yet. I want to find out which of these crazies have been breaking into the bar and stealing dirty panties. The sound of screeching tires in the distance snags my attention and after a quick glance around I decide. There’s only one way to communicate with The around Ted and that’s with him unconscious.

1 take a deep breath then gesture for Tae to get off him. When she does, not only is he in shock, but he’s a thousand times more frightened of me than before.

“Get up.” I snapped.

He simply stares at me from the ground. “W–why do you have a pet lion

At the sound of the word pet, I laugh and The snarls. “I wouldn’t call he that if I were you. Now get the fuck up. We don’t have time for this.”

“N–no! I won’t. You’re just going to pretend to let me go and then have her chase me. Fuck you! Give me my rifle, then I’ll get up!” Ted argues, his arrogance surging forth as if he wasn’t just handed his ass by the cat pacing next to him.

WHOOSH, WHOOSH, WHOOSH, WHOOSH

The sound of at least four sets of tires racing up the street sparks me into action. We’re going to have to run with him through the hills to avoid the brigade of law enforcement that’s about to crash this party. It were just going to be the cops, I wouldn’t be worried. But the girl was taken in after an animal attack and it won’t just be Timmons showing up. It will be forest rangers too, and then Fish and Wildlife

officers.

“Fuck this,” I say, straddling him.

“What the hell are you doing?” he shouts. “Get the fuck off of me Maxim

CRACK!

I slug him across the face and knock him out cold. Fuck,” I say. “Silence truly is golden.”

Taedora shifts back into herself, her eyes darting back and forth warily. Why didn’t you just kill him?”

I shake my head, reaching down to toss him over one shoulder. “Because we need answers from this little bastard. We’re going to have to stow him at your place. Quick, what’s the fastest way to your den?”

I don’t think-”

1/4

08:58

One Hundred Ninety–Seven

We’re about two minates from being

having you store my ass while we climb

but no need to worry about that. Haven’t you heard? I found

smirks, “I’ll pray for

DOMONIC

to the bar, just in time to hear the call come through on Rainier’s two–way radio, which is presently resting on Bartlett’s desk. Rainier doesn’t normally bring it inside when he’s not on duty, but it’s there and the very first thing we hear when we stroll inside is the out of county call for all Wildlife Officers,

Rainier snaps, picking

radio to listen in while he gets dressed.

on the lookout for an adult cougar, possibly seven feet in length and weighing up to two hundred pounds. Orders are to subdue and contain, not destroy Requesting additional assistance to canvas the area. Eye witnesses reported multiple wolf sightings and shots fired on site. All volunteers are

“Possible minor? Fuck Dom. What if they were just

myself for not handling this night a little differently. But what’s done is done and there’s no way of going back in time, so… “I don’t fucking

stood a chance and we pretty

them off.”

at me before I took him down. The intent was there and when I picture his face, I know he had to be about my age. He might have even been a little okler. “That fucker that came after me had beer on his breath, a mustache, and a goatee. So I’m pretty confident that he was old enough to read too. The Warning No Hunting Zone – You Shoot We Shidor sign is pretty fucking big when you drive up. So I

–

his hands as he says,

Fuck!”

all over that portion of the forest. They couldn’t kill us, no, but they

relents, shaking it off as he begins to tie up his boots. But it kind of makes me sick that now I have to play Hunter Hero and join the search for the missing persons that

job and because it would not do for outsiders

Gayle, I forgot. You think she’s the one

on

one of them was female, I know better than to touch her. Draven would have skewered my balls

Laughs. “I think

2/4

Hundred Ninety–Seven

mothers killer, but I won’t risk losing my child over it. No. No way. The hunters have to be dealt with harshly. I want them afraid to even look in this direction. “Look at it this way. Two years from now my pop could be racing through the woods

the sudden worry that I feel. “We won’t let that happen. We’re

that came in about twenty minutes ago.

he finishes putting on the rest of his

This uniform.

of shifter knowledge.” My jaw clenches with what I’m about to say, because I

sneers. “Fuck