The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates

Chapter Two Hundred Twenty–Five

GAYLE

“I can’t believe I’m sitting on the back of the very same creature that tried to eat me only a couple of days ago,” Delilah says from above

me

I almost yowl a laugh at that, but I don’t want to scare her into falling off so I keep quite. Delilah has a death grip on my fur and 1 probably should have spent a little more time explaining the how to’s and the don’t dos of riding a lion before I allowed her to hop on but I just wanted to be back at the cottage already.

Heading in the direction my brother went, I silently cursed my brother and his practical thinking. He must have kept to the creek, which means that I dont have a trail to follow. If the creek forks at any point down into the valley, there’s always a chance that I might head in the wrong direction. I had no idea Quinn was planning to crash Cane’s suicide mission, so I didn’t really pay much attention to any landmarks on our way out

Not to mention I was a little preoccupied with my shattered knee caps stitching themselves back together and all.

Fortunately, I see something up ahe I that is not only familiar, but gives me a better idea of the Land Layout. The rickety bridge sits about a mile out. We must already be on the north side of it.

My paws begin to pound the earth with a bit more confidence, my step only faltering when Delilah starts to sing. Actually, I’m not sure sky is the word I should be using, but I’m not certain there is a word for the tuneless ear splitting treble coming out of her mouth. My nick jerks, my head twitching dramatically each time she fucks up a note. I mean – holy shut shes pretty bad. If she gets any louder were going to be dodging dead birds as they fall from the sky.

“I can tell

(where you ennind, it s wayyy ermuuuh I start. Know there is ann urthhha hurt errr uhhh–king in my hay–art. Ohhh, ohhh, uh I’m in the rubble my body needs a duh uh uhhip if you CAYYY HAYYY INNN

“RAAAIVIVEKER?” I our and the screams then I shake her before she can belt out any more sonic abuse. For fuck’s sake, she may have already weaponized my molecular stru are. The vibrato alone has my fangs pulsing. Had she been allowed to finish that verse of tinny medieval torture, something in my brain would have certainly snapped. In fact, I think my atoms are buzzing.

wrong with you? Delilah snups.

toss her ass into the creek and shift back into human form just to

instead, I

in the car on

joy. In fact, I’m about to, but… something happens. A churning begins in my gut, sending waves of unease through my

the hard packed earth. My steps quicken and I lengthen my stride significantly. Instead of using my

huddling close to my neck like a jockey on the last stretch, I know she must feel it

Something is wrong.

logs while dodging trees and trying to keep to level ground. My mind is racing nearly as fast as my legs as I tumble

of Blackjack Creek, I have always been the fastest. Ben the older lionesses, the ones that

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Two Hundred Twenty–Five

for me, Gryffin actually

close second, just

is pretty surprising considering he is

more than likely be the swiftest of us if he werent, bat he it, so her bigger than I am and thick with so much muscl that it weighs him down after only a few hundred feet of a sprint. Male lion shifters arent bom with the same traits that females are. are built to hunt, stalk prey, and protect our young. They are built to defend a pride from within that pride. Should Gryffin ever be challenged by another male shifter for leadership, it would be his

honor bound to follow new leadership. Even if that new leadership took us away from the weaker of the two and the our homeland. But that isnt likely to happen because we are the only pride of lion shifters in all of Washington. That we know of. There are a few prides in California that we know of

out there, it just means that

probably should-

Delilah shouts from above me, breaking me out