The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates

Chapter Two Hundred Eighty–Six

ANASTACIA

The ride to the beach is faster than 1 expected it would be. For the first time, I allow myself to take note of the picturesque landscape that surrounds me. The woods, the beach, the houses… Port Orchard is a town festooned in a magic of its very own. It’s charming and carries a mystique that is subtle, yet powerful. The dark of the morning is draped in heavy curls of fog which send a shiver of foreboding up my spine, In New Orleans, the fog is different. It’s whole and cloudlike and can sometimes last for days. This fog is so thick and so dense, it almost feels alive. Like arms reaching out to me and welcoming me home.

Home, And? Really?

But wouldn’t it be? If Paul were to mark me, as he calls it, would this not be home? I very much doubt he and his pack are planning to follow me to New Orleans, Would I ever sleep another night in Gran’s house again?

Shit. For the first time, I’m starting to see a problem with this bood thing. I grew up in Louisiana. It’s all I know. Festivals and fairs. Hurricanes and electric storms. Magic and masquerades. Everything that I love is there. The swampland, the marshes, the bayou

My sister, Chelsea” is there.

A sudden sadness takes hold of me as my gaze lifts to the side. I study Paul’s face. The firm set of his jaw, his prominent cheekbones, delicate, yet masculine slope of his perfect nose. He is handsome beyond imagination, and the way his lips seem to always quirk up on the left side before the right.

I want him. Yes, I most definitely. But could he be my home? Could I let go of the hot muggy summers and the warm breath of a Louisiana fall? Could I trade at for this place? This beach town?

Would his loving me simply dissolve my need of everything else that has been my life since a child?

And what if he doesn’t ever love me? What if, despite all the Gran claimed during our visit, Paul never truly accepts my heritage? What if all I’m really meant to give him is a baby? A future Alpha… A half Mystic half Wolf Shifter.

From schat I remember of Gran’s stories, Alphas are terribly important in a pack. When I look at Paul, I see it in him, but something tells me he’s not their leader. No… but he’s close to one. The Beta, maybe. That much is clear. There’s no way he would be convinced to leave

all this behind.

I would ask him t

advantage of his position as we rac down the street, but his deputies do too.

car slows down and we’re at the bottom of the hill. The black of the ocean is barely visible beneath a rolling curtain of fog.

I anticipated we were headed to, we end up at the docks. And before I know it, Paul

honestly complaining. Paul’s embrace is

slightly ridiculous,” I chuckle with a bite of my lip. N favorite place to

upon

he says, “You wanted to come with us and truth be told, I like the

his mouth full way it feels when I grab you. I love it,

him to know how much he affects me. Not yet. Because should he choose not to mark me, I don’t want him knowing how terribly heartbroken

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Two Hundred

me. I retufe his pity, it will be his loss anyway. However, it will

things like

them?” he whispers, looking away with a smile. “I know that,

Because I seem to

what you recall me saying, goddamnit. It was stupid and it was said

out, my eyes fluttering upward: “Of

“yes, of you.”

never hurt you with magic Paul.