The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates

Chapter Two Hundred Eighty–Three

ANASTACIA

Taul? What is going on? Why is he in here?” With a whimper, I stumble back into the wall. Paul’s head snaps around, his eyes flashing gold and circling the blue when he spies me on the landing. “You don’t know what you have done!” I cry, shaking.

“Anastacia,” Paul shouts. “Get back in the room!”

If Jarl is inside, it’s only a matter of time before Draco’s magic crawls through the walls and finds me. I should have done something to make certain this place was guarded before I fell asleep. Why didn’t I place wards around the house? And cast a sleeping spell on the grounds?

I am an idiot.

“Get him out of here! I screech. “Please!!!”

Fuck! I have to hide.

How did that fuck even get in here?

Why did the shifters not stop him?

With a deep breath, I scramble back into Paul’s room and linger haplessly next to the bed, pacing like an agitated prisoner. I don’t want to leave here. I don’t want to leave Paul. But Draco’s poison is in his house and now it’s only a matter of time before Draco’s shadow seeks

me out.

A voice like a whisper, floats between my ears, “Hell try to suck your will Into his, the way he did before… you must be bonded to stop him

from it

That thought comes out of nowhere and I clutch my chest, gazing up at the ceiling as if I can see through it into heaven.

Gran, is that you?

Attempting to block out everything else I can hear, I focus on my heartbeat until the sounds fade away.

Gran? I call out with my mind. Gran are you there?

I wait… nothing happens.

Gran, what do you mean I need to be bonded? Bonded how? To what? Grat?!

“Bonded?” Paul’s voice cuts through my meditation so loudly I startle. “Anastacia? Who are you talking to? Your grandmother?”

Spinning around, my eyes jolt upward in shock, “1-1 wasn’t speaking, I whisper, stuttering.

heard me! He heard….

Goddess. He really is

a second, and before can stop myself, I jump into

fades away hs he watches me, his eyes narrowing, pupils batting back and forth as he searches my gaze for only heaven knows what. The flex of his muscles are like bands of molten steel as his arms close around me, drawing me forward until my chest is pressed against his. Jarl is long

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Two Hundred Eighty–Three

the cotton of my shirt, just below Paul’s deliciously prominent

he’s so perfect.

fangs elongating. “Stop this,” he commands halfheartedly, pulling me closer

skin of his powerfully built chest. “Why?” I hum, with a bite of my lip, my eyes heating as they draw over the chiseled lines draped in slightly bronzed flesh. “I like this.

things. J don’t like it,” he snaps with an angry growl before stepping back

“And I’m not trying to

te doing

clenches as he steps closer once again. He glares down at me. “You

rears back as if he’s slapped me. “Doing it? Doing what? What the

it.” He spins around the room, waving his arms in the air like an idiot.

devil

space, watching the untethered magic as he plucks and pinches at different portions of

purple mist shit! He

all around you

he say? Purple

and seeing nothing but my magic. I suppose it does

disbelief. “You know that I can. The same way I can see the purple

Paul, but you shouldn’t

couldn’t move

I tried to keep the door closed. It’s because he’s my mate! The Gifted cannot cast ir mates. It’s against the rules of the universe. Because he is my true mate, my magic will not affect him. It cannot touch

Just tell him baby. Tell him how it

turn my hurt into rage. I was never good at listening anyhow. I’ve always been much better at fucking up my life than accepting sound advice

face. “With all six of you down there? How did that fucker get inside?

Staring down at me, a muscle

mind for a moment. My hand races up toward his face so quickly that I can almost hear it crack against his skin, but I don’t because it never makes it. He snatches my wrist right before I can

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Two Hundred

me I cry out, tearfully. “Why

“You spoke

said that we should wash him in the ocean water at dawn. So when we heard of the root, I sent someone out to snatch him

I

Somewhere deep inside of me, I