The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates

Chapter One Hundred Ninety–Eight

GRYFFIN

with the little bland man–child chained up in the After Quinn left I made à point of staying upstairs where I couldn’t be tempted to loy basement. I need to gather myself first and maybe even pat ingether at of questions to ask him when he finally comes to. It may sound stupid, but the truth is Ive never had one in my care that I didn’t outright minder. There have only been a handful of times that Gayle or I have been fortunate enough to take one of them alive, and each of these times my anger got the better of me. I ended up shifting and tearing them to hits. However, I can’t shift these days, so this time will different. This time, maybe I’ll get a few answers that I need and finally figure out which hunter it was that killed my mother.

Whoever he was, he took her body before we could retrieve it. I want it lock.

I’m not stupid. I know what the fucker probably did with it. It turns my stomach to imagine her that way, but what kind of son would I be if I let some bastard keep her like a stuffed trophy. Passing her down from generation to generation as if she wasn’t someone’s mother,

She was a queen, but we never treated her like one. We should have. We took the fact that we were shifters for granted. Thinking we wer safe. Thinking we were invincible. Well, we’re not. We’re just a lot harder to kill.

She asked me to help her that day. She said she needed me to help her track some hunter because there was something different about him. I blew her off thinking she was paranoid..

There was this girl, her name was Amber, she was a cheerleader at my high school. I wanted her for my mate. I even pretended she was my mate just so my mom would let me bring her around, but deep down I knew she wasn’t much more than a human girl with a bangin body. I was young, stupid, and horny. My mother was killed while I was out fucking the ditzy bimbo in an abandoned parking lot.

Believe it or not, I felt it when she died. The sad shame is, once I was finished fucking Amber, I didn’t want her anymore. Dumped her that same day. She cried and called me an asshole and I langhed as i rode off on my bike. In the next few moments, I felt it. The loss. The dread. The acute realization that something had gone terribly wrong and nothing would ever be the same again.

Back at the den everyone was in tears and right away, I knew, Goose had been with her. I guess when I refused to help her, she asked him to join her instead. According to Goose, she saved his life. He was just as young as I was, but with less training and ended up making some rookie mistake that put him right in the hunter’s path. Gouse said my mother yowled in warning, signaling that the hunter was in the trees, but by the time he spotted the guy it was too late. So my mother, forever the protective lioness, stepped in the line of fire like the queen that she was.

It should have been me

Gayle was her baby. I was her protector! Her oldest! I failed her.

She deserves a proper

burial.

Shaking off the ghosts of the past, the sound of a helicopter overhead catches my

attention.

I “Gryff!” Goose screams from downstairs and I race out of my ro

of my room as fast as my non shifting legs will carry me.

mask of panic. “What? What happened?

his head

she had her by the throat, trying to make the girl suffer. For whatever reason, Bartlett stepped

throwing open the front door and stalking into the

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Hundred Ninety–Eight

if moment as a helicopter hovers overhead Fuck. That’s not our regular

voice could be heard coming from the ginnt

a no hunting zone and all violators will be detained. We are searching for a large adult conger. Assured to be near seven

the fuck?”

idling up next to me. Duys from all over. My eyes rip toward him, and he shakes his head. “They’re hunting for Gayle.”

about the wolves?” I ask, knowing they’ve got more than a few guys on the

were with me taking care of the threat in the forest. There was a lot of commotion at the

all Gayle. They’re going to

yeah, Taedora says from behind me. “But she’s not stupid and she’s not deaf. She’s not going to head back toward

to risk it, so I forbade her from trying to track him. I am the king of this den, but that doesn’t mean she’ll listen. Good thing she doesn’t know where to start looking for the prick. I turn to Tae and Goose and say, “Well it’s not safe for either of your to go

We wait.”

DELILAH

where I am. Sitting up in bed and seeing that I’m naked, I suddenly remember. My cheeks flame with heat and I can’t help but smile like an idiot. Quinn. I’m at Quinn’s place.

is he?

the bed, I see it remains untouched. He must not have come to bed yet. The clock

to run at night

TAT, TAT.

my left grabs my attention and I listen

TAT,

what is making that sound.

TAT, TAT, TAT.

need to check

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Hundred