The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates

Chapter Two Hundred Eight

BARTLETT

I can hear Timmons arguing with that jerk off Matthew while Doc Rhodes and Nurse Patty discuss the Nano Pads at the nurses station. To my relief, Rhodes insists that they’re not needed and sends Patty off to make the rounds. As I pace back and forth in front of Rose’s bed I

start to worry.

What if Rhodes doesn’t want to cooperate? It’s bad enough he’s going to think I’m crazy when I ask him to print up her discharge papers. This is a step above and beyond overlooking the rules. This is flat out breaking the law. I can’t ask him to put his career on the line for me, but maybe I can get him to assist without actually signing off on my scheme.

Rainier and Timmons are busy, hut Koda and Dom are out in the parking lot and I suddenly have a crazy idea.

As quickly as I can, I text Koda and Dom telling them what I need them to do. When their only answer is a winky face and thumbs up, I take it to mean that they re on their way in. I listen at the door, smiling to myself when I hear Timmons escorting Matthew back toward the elevators. Good. Perfect Get that fucker out of here. He had to threaten the old man with his handcuffs to get him to comply. Christ, such a nosey old bird

At the very same time Matthew disappears behind the elevator doors, another set opens up to reveal Koda. Smiling to myself, I watch as he approaches Doc Rhodes to explain that Rose needs to be reassigned to a different floor in order to prevent her family from interfering with her eventual arrest. Rhodes argues for a moment, then picks up the phone and makes a call. With a hefty sigh, Rhodes and Koda head my way. I barely have enough time to toss my ass back down in my seat before they’re standing in front of me.

“Bartlett?” Rhodes barely looks up from the chart hes scribbling on. “They’re prepping a room on 2088. You can head on down ahead of her and I’ll have a small team transport her there shortly.”

the second floor for Ms. Gruber. Room

I nod my head and stretch my arms upward, yawning to appear as exhausted as possible. “Okay, Rhodes. Im gonna go home and get an hour or two of shut–eye. Just call me if something happens before I rehim.”

“Will do,” Rhodes says happily.

Meeting Koda’s eyes briefly, I exit the room and head toward the elevators, only ducking into the stairwell at the very last minute. Then, I race toward the first floor back exit, sighing with relief when I spot Quinn waiting exactly where he said he would be.

“What happened? Quian asks, confused. “Where’s the girl?”

“Give it a moment,” I say smoothly, my eyes on the parking lot and the security guards rolling by on

their golf

f carts.

on. The moment I hear the fire alarm go off I face my truck and open the back door, making sure the back seat is completely empty and turning around just in time to see Koda exit with Rose’s body slung over his shoulder. He passes her to me without a word and then disappears back into the hospital. With inhuman speed, I jump into the back of my truck with her in my arms, closing both doors in the same movement. Quinn drives off at a slow and normal pace, only Speeding up

Rose more comfortably on my lap. “Ive

-Where

to

are on Bose as I attempt to rub the chill from her bones. Wearing

check the security footage, it won’t be jug Rainier who

be taking care of the cameras, but you’re right. I would feel more

1/3

Two Hundred

she and

until she regains consciousness. There’s somewhere I need to be and I have an excitable little humain that I need someone to watch while I’m gone. If he’s left with only Timmons to deal with, he might not live past tonight. The guy is obsessed with the existence of shifters and I’m afraid he might do

chuckle. “Wait a

a little road trip

I reply, thinking it over. “If you’re sure you don’t

“Just don’t fuck her on

to get my dick

driveway to make it look like you’re at home and race

good. But why in the world did your mate leave with Gayle? Didn’t Gayle attack her in the river?” He stares at me pull into his driveway and that’s when I remember. The brother. “I see.

pointedly as we

The

to place. All I have to go on is a goddamned cell tower and a fucking ache in my chest that started the moment Timmons told me she was

gone.”

can’t call her because you have her phone, surmise, lifting Rose into my arms and following Quinn around

sliding open his bedroom

at her now fully healed wounds. Although we were always taught what our venom does for our mates, it’s still a shock to see the proof of it with my very own eyes. Checking her pulse as a precaution, I’m pleased to see her

says, coming back down the stairs with a

out, I stop him.

“Yup?”

“You might not be able to call her when