The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates

Chapter Two Hundred Twenty–Six

CANE

There’s this moment that passes when you’re about to die. An instant of complete clarity. It is almost as if there is a layer of fog lifted

the colors seem brighter. Detalls are more acute and so are intentions. In fact, right then, when you realize whe

you know there is any way around it, you move toward it without fear, For that half a second, time stretches, the

acceptance lakes over. You brain says, Chi, so das in it then. This is low? And, you

Drun it

to get the bullets. Or Griffin.

1 knew better, I never should have taken my eyes off of him. I should have sent Quinn to get

There was never any y way they were going to watch over him the way I would, because they are not human. They can heal

1, however, cannot,

Gayle.

I should have listened to her when she asked me to go with them. I should have said, “Fuck this asshole. Let him come for me and the spent as much time as I could noticing every single one of Gayle’s smiles in the way that she apparently noticed mine.

Now… I’ll never know them. Those precious couple of hours with her in roy arms is all i will ever get.

dry didn’t 1997

I mean… why

Why was I so obsessed with playing the hero?

But I know what the answer is. Of course I do.

could protect her. To know that just because I was human and weaker than her in some ways, that I

for heroics if I’d

not her request… she was begging. She begged me. And what do I do? Shoot her

me yet, and she

one of those stupid, arrogant, pricks – and then I s her outside of the cottage, disabling her and taking her right to choose away

know me for. That’s

Pain.

sorry Kitty Cat

Goddamn it

shool

1/3

Hundred

that. I felt it and it felt so good. I wanted it. Wanted

you get.

reason he kept talking so much shit. He wanted one of us to lose our temper and attack him so he’d have an excuse for moving.

a wolf bleeding out from his abdomen attracts my attention and 1

at Roman. His big orange–brown eyes are angry as he watches me, blood coloring the dark brown fur of his underside. As far as wolves go, he’s fucking ugly and

than a majestic wolf.

2

too asshole. See you

of my forearm and as deep as my whole hand, along my torso, I play back the last

on the ground, I heard it. The snap, crackle, and pop of bones shitting into something otherworldly. By the time I was able to lift my chin, Roman was already half wolf and his fully shifted paw was flying toward my mid–section. It is safe to say that a wolf’s claws are pretty goddamned sharp. I never even felt the blow. But

when I did it. That’s when I

emptied the chamber into his stomach. At that point, I no longer cared that they wanted him alive, because I wanted him dear. Looks like I’ll get

A deep, frantic voice sounds above me, panic more

that it’s Gryffin, and not Quinn, that is carrying on up above me like some frightened mother hen as he surveys my injuries. For a moment, he looks

gaze going from me to Roman then back

glare and give him the middle finger. “Give this to my dad, will you?” I say, because I’m pretty

picture Cayle’s face when she

Gryffin snarls. “I won’t let this happen!” Then Gryffiny disappears into my

blanket.