The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates

Chapter Two Hundred Thirty–Six

GAYLE

Did he say… Non?

He didn’t, right? He couldn’t have. My mind has been playing tricks on me all day so why wouldn’t my ears be too?

“I’m sorry,” I begin, my voice sounding threaded and rasped. “I thought you said lion.”

Gios jaw clenches, his chin tipping upward despite that he gazes down at me. “I did,” he answers.

My breath hitches, the sound of my heartbeat like a sudden drumming of the death march as it bangs against my chest. “But that’s impossible, I reply objectively. “And if it is your idea of a joke, It isn’t at all funny. Somewhere in the back of my brain, I am allowed to get excited and the pure, bubbling bliss that threatens to erupt inside of me burns behind my eyes.

is such a thing even done?

“I never joke about the law,” Gio informs me quietly. “The law is what took my Blanca from me.”

“Draven’s mom?” I ask him.

He nods sadly, his jaw going tight. “In the old world, in Italy, the five families ruled – in fact they still do, but now we are much lenient than before-

“We I interrupt, thinking of Draven and the sort of regal beauty that she possesses.

He smiles. “Yes. We. My father was Lord Angelo Piccoli and when he sent me to America, it was to broaden my knowledge as well as to help hunt a few rogues that had escaped vindication. That had escaped him. Also so that I might familiarize myself with the rest of the world’s shifters and learn their weaknesses.” Gio’s eyes water, the left side of his mouth quirking up as if in remembrance. “I met Bianca on my very last day in Miami. The day I was supposed to leave on a cruise back to Italy.” He shakes himself as if fighting against emotions he isn’t used to displaying in front of strangers like myself.

“And did you love her immediately?” I ask, turning my gaze away from him to stare down at Cane’s perfect features.

“Immediately,” he confirms, his eyes a bit wistful. “She w

on. The fact that she was human was disappointing, but not a deal breaker

I whisper, thinking

memorize everything about her. Because at that time, my plan was to go home, convince my father to let me accept her and then return for her, but as the horn and whistle blew to signal that we were boarding, she looked up at me and it was like she knot. As if he was aware of me the entire time Id been standing there and knew the moment that hom blared that I might be gone forever.” He swallows thickly. “Her green eyes sparkled Jike emeralds the moment our gazes clashed. She offered me her last fish sandwich free of charge and I couldn’t help but take it. When our fingers touched it was over. I knew I couldn’t leave her there. Not for any reason. So I sent word to my father that I was staying a bit longer to enjoy the beach. In the coming weeks I fell so deeply in love with her that I decided to leave everything else behind. All of it. My lordship, my money, my father…” he shudders, stepping away from me to stare out the window and into the newly fading sun. “I only had a few years with my Bianca before my father sent his assassins after us. I thought could protect her from him. I thought I could protect them both. Draven and her mother. Isabel was Blanca’s only surviving family. So I met with a few of my people who were loyal to me and nor my father, leaving two of them with Bianca while Sophia and I convinced Isabel to pretend Draven was hers. She and her sister were close back then, both of them were struggling when we met. With the money I paid Isabel, I thought I could ensure Draven would be looked

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Two Hundred

paid her aunt?”

For years. Even after…he trails, going silent

prompt

away from the window to meet

footsteps brany with lons. “When 1

her soul. Her

it was going to be to share the good news. Isabel would keep her

chokes up, clearing his throat before he continues. “I felt her de from ten miles phantom kiss upon my cheek as she left this world. I didnt want to believe it was her, but in my heart I knew that here in this world, alone. Even still, when I returned home to see Blanc body, I had the crazy thought to change bes. The Lords of the five families are always trained in the secrets of Shifter Knowledge. The elders of the Transyhania Count came in and trained i

hard for me to accept. My men were dead too. When I got thenk, all that remained were my father’s assassins and

don’t know when I started crying, but I did. My heart wrenched when I thought of those moments in the jeep, when golden glow. That… energy. The way it wrapped around me, like a warm hag. I felt him… Cone. Was it his ghost? Was the

sining near me

us,” I whisper and Gio’s eyes, now clear and curious, study

I was crazy for steering

of dirt and rocks?” Gio

eyes.

exact same anatomizing eyes that he gifted his daughter. I sure, they differ in color, with Draven’s brightening a moss green and Gio’s glowing with liquid gold, but the relativity is not in the irises. No. It is in the potent, watchful, stare that pierces armor and assesses your soul. Striking straight through the outer surface of a person’s facade and driving toward the edge

a dirt road, you are supposed to tum the wheel in the opposite direction

but smile. “It was him. I know it. And a few minutes ago, when Tandora begged me to let him go, because