The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates

Chapter Two Hundred Eleven

GAYLE

The night I first saw him, before he shot me, I watched from the trees Delilah, Cane, and some other human male interacted in the cabin. I didn’t know he was my mate yet, but I did know he wasn t dressed in all that gear to go trick–or–treating. Anger burned inside of me as I waited there, perched in the arms of the trees and guarded by boughs of shadow. After Cane and his friend had loaded their hunting rifles, he stepped up to the open window to scan the trees. Then I remember thinking that it was a real shame he was going to die that night, because he was the first human male Ed ever found even remotely attractive.

Cane had an intense focus in the blue of his eyes that drew me in and the few times he smiled, I noticed he had an incredibly expressive mouth. It seemed to possess different mechanics than most lips did. The majority of people only have maybe a couple of different smiles, a quirk, a grin, a frown, but Cane appeared to have a thousand different curls of his lip. Up ways and sideways and both ways each more adorable than the last. It was a disconcerting thing to notice about myone, but I brushed it off, attributing it to the fact that he had the first baby face I’d ever come across. Besides, he was lumen and a huster, and his presence was not welcome. So, I set off from the trees to ready for battle and stepped right into one of his stupid steel traps,

When

the first bullet pierced me. I wasn’t afraid, I knew I would undoubtedly survive. He and his friend had the wrong ammunition to kil a creature like me and I contemplated toying with him a bit first before I ripped the flesh of his neck open. But then the second bullet hit me and I cant rightly explain what I felt. Sorrow, despair, loss, disappointment. They were just a few of the myriad of emotions that rushed over my heart. It was confusing and for a moment I thought maybe I’d been struck somewhere vital, or poisoned somehow by the bullet. I lay there in the leaves as he and his friend approached, simply trying to navigate my head and the sudden chaos of my emotions.

Then, he touched me and it happened. The connection. The bond. Every species of shifter has their own identification process. As tions, we aren’t lucky enough to scent our mates the way that wolves can. Nope. We have to touch them. Skin to skin contact is theonly way to know. So you can imagine how much more difficult it can be for us to find a mate. No one goes around just touching other people when they finally decide it’s time to find their mate. It’s ridiculous and not to mention, who the hell wants to???

So yeah, I was completely unprepared for my body to Shift into my human form right there in his arms. But the very moment I did, I leapt from his hold without so much as a look in his direction. And other than the quick glance back that I gave him once I was two miles fua his cabin, I’d never thought to see him again.

Most of the time, I only y ever viewed humans as weak. Especially if they were male. I didn’t think they had anything to offer a never saw the appeal.

agal like me. I

But now… I do. I do…

When Delilah turns to me and motions me forward, my first thoughts are to remind myself that Cane was wearing night goggles when he watched me shift in the woods. He shouldn’t be able to recognize me. Not by my face, at least. Those night vision gadgets hunters use are probably great for humans that desire to know what’s alive in the woods, but beyond that they don’t gamer much else.

fine! He saw you for half a second and when he did

finally step

timbre that I’ve

charm that was born with is zapped from my body when I’m this close to him again and all I am able to do is stand there as he stares

grab a pair of shoes out

regarding

he is. My mate. My attacker. And all he is wearing is

1/2

Hundred Eleven

quirks of the

dressed first? Why did she let him open the door in a TOWEL777

Drinking him in as I only glimpsed him fully dressed before now. Considering that Cane’s human, I wasn’t expecting much in terms of physical attraction and was fully prepared to whip him into shape. But… it appears someone else already

his sister must come from good stock, because they were both rather

ends of his dark blond hair and then trail down over his lickable

toes.

the vein in my neck, pulsing visibly

seems to have a similar reaction the moment his attention settles on my face, and I blush, thinking that he likes

he might