The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates

Chapter Two Hundred Thirteen

CANE

She knows him.

Pretending not to notice Gayle’s abnormal reaction to the simple mention of Roman’s name, I head toward the dresser to pull on a pair of gym shorts. The bureau stands to the left of my bedroom door and just put of eyesight for anyone who isn’t actually standing on the threshold. “Something came up,” I yell toward my sister, hanging back in my room for a moment just to see if she tries to get more information out of me. “He should be back tomorrow.”

Rolling out a few of my drawers, I bury my hands inside the top one and shuffle the contents around a little bit. With my ears trained on the hall, I begin loading and unloading a 9mm clip I keep stashed inside, just so that I can look preoccupied. As I expected, it doesn’t take much longer than a minute for the scuffle of bare feet to sound as the two girls head my way. And why in the hell aren’t either of them wearing any shoes?

This room remains dark throughout the entire day, which is just how take it. The walls are painted a matte navy blue and the blackout shades are top of the line. They don’t even allow for an outline of sunshine that would suggest the weather. Delilah loves a bright room, which is exactly how the other one is decorated. So I know she won’t choose to spend much time here at all, even if her friend does.

I start closing my drawers as she enters with Gayle on her heels. As predicted, the first thing she does is sigh and flip on the lights. When the low wattage lamp goes on above my bed, it hardly changes a thing. The soft amber lightbulb I chose for the space, emits more of a glow than an illumination and I hide my smile when she doesn’t come any further than the threshold.

“Seriously, Cane?” Delilah grumbles. “You are so damn weird. Get a fucken lightbulb put in. A real one.”

“Is that one fake?” I ask curiously, leaning my forearms along the dresser and looking her way. I’m not at all serious, but she thinks I am and the pity in her gaze never fails to amuse me.

“I like it,” Gayle says, walking all the way into the room to take a seat on the bed. “I can see just fine.”

I just bet you can, gorgeous.

Gayle leans back on my bed, elegantly crossing her legs as she balances back on her elbows, causing her boobs to jut forward with a bounce. She doesn’t do it to gain my notice – ford Anows she already has that it was just a complication brought on by the complete fullness of her breasts. For whatever reason, I find that to be both adorable and a little disappointing all at the same time. I want her to want to get my attention, but I love that she does it so naturally.

It’s obvious to me that she and my sister are utterly and completely in cahoots. It’s not really surprising to me that Delilah’s first real friend would be a girl that isn’t entirely human. My sister was born with such a deep love for animals that I almost felt sorry for her. Being a part of the Elder Few life that my dad was devoted to, had to be torture for a girl with her heart. When he died, I hoped we could put it past us for the most part and I tried to make a living in other ways. Sure, I enjoy hunting. After all, I was raised to. But I saw what it did to her. She went from being my dad’s greatest treasure, to my dad’s only daughter. A commodity in the eyes of the Elder Few–Aprize that lot of those idiots have had their eye on from the time she is puberty and blossomed into womanhood, to now My mother was no help. That woman lived only for her boys. If Delilah was gaining too much attention from either of us, she would find a way to snag it back. She was jealous of Delilah to a disgusting degree she still is. The way Delilah alienated herself from my father and me made her isolated. She couldn’t seem to trust anyone and as a result, she never made any friends.

There is a reason I joined the Elder Few and it’s not the one that she thinks. Sure, they provide pretty damn well for their own, but they also have some pretty archaic beliefs so I’d just as soon say no thanks. But a couple of weeks ago, I found out something horrible that is sure to break Delilah’s heart.

There are stipulations to the trust that was left to us by my father. Requirements, that if left unmet, will grant my mother ownership. So 1 knew I had to get Charlie and Delilah away from me so that I could see the provisions were filled.

mother… the

the day that my father died. There is close to no time left to the obligations, but I refuse to

To fulfill

1/3

Two Hundred

is a shifter, and there’s no way Clayle doesn’t realize that I’m the one who shot her. She may not even truly like me. She might be trying to get me alone so that she can repay the favor behind Delilah’s back. But I don’t think that’s what

about the way that Gayle locks at

had a permanent hard on. The woman is so

comes

apart by Delilah’s neverending crusade to find someone she deemed worthy of me, or the girl ended up feeling sorry for me because she thought I was an incapable virgin. I can’t really complain, because the whole virgin‘ thing actually got me quite a bit of pussy.

Gayle’s kively gilded gaze slides up over my body toward my eyes, I suck in my bottom lip and turn back

he tell you

to do? Delilah asks me

Elder Few business, D. You know I can’t say anything. Not that I really give

part

meeting Gayle’s gaze over my shoulder in silent communication. Boy, aren’t they precious?

asked me to invite you. In fact, he was planning to take me to pick you up the moment he got back,” I inform her, watching her face carefully. He seems to really want to help us. I don’t know why you don’t like him.” I throw that last part out there just to see what reaction I get. I dolike Roman, he knows a lot about hunting and survival. | don’t like some of the things he’s had me do. Killing those bikers for instance. That was a test and I knew it was. If I didn’t happen to know for a fact that the particular crew he had me target were a bunch of kidnapping rapists, I probably would have failed that one. But 1 did know, so I passed. I might not get so lucky next time. He says he never targets

a creep, Cane, just trust me,”

around, refusing to even look at Gayle. So I straighten, watching Gayle from the corner of my

he do something to you? Something you’re not telling me

I

drop it, Cane,” Delilah growls, growing immediately frustrated and standoffish.

a girl that’s easily traumatized. She’s more likely to get mad than she is to get sad and the fact that she looks steaming pissed tells me that he probably did do something. “Did he touch you, D?” I ask, in as

relax for a while! I didn’t come