The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates

The Pack: Rule Number 1 – No Mates

Chapter Two Hundred Ninety–Three

PAUL

Coasting down the street in my jeep, I’m acutely aware of the fact that Anastacia still does not have any shoes. The stores on the main drag don’t open for an hour, so I decide to take her to breakfast instead

Watching her face as she gazes out the window, her eyes lighting up with glee as we pass through the older neighborhoods, I can’t help but smile. She may be used to swamps and marshlands, but she likes this place, I can tell.

Good. Maybe she won’t hate me so much when I tell her she can’t go back to Louisiana,

What about her sister Paul?

She mentioned a sister didn’t she?

My phone chirps on the dash and I read a short message from Koda saying they’ve scouted the woods. It appears the hounds have taken off into the mountains heading toward Blackjack. Knowing Cane and Gryffin will be on the lookout for them is only mildly comforting because lion’s can’t scent other shifters the way wolves can, save for Cane. And being as how Cane is a new somewhat made shifter, who knows how long that will last.

“What are we doing?” Anastacia asks as we pull into a space at the ‘Land Ho Diner’.

The diner is a landmark out here. Set along the coastline, right next to the docks, it has an incredible view of the sea and the harbor. It’s also the one place in town you might come across every local inhabitant of the city. This is where law enforcement have coffee and the dockworkers have lunch, the rangers often stop in for dinner and the old biddies in town spread gossip like wildfire. It’s the heartbeat of this place that we love. Cozy and cute, homey and warm.

“We are going to have breakfast,” I tell her, snapping up my phone. “The shops don’t open for an hour at least.”

“Oh.” Her mouth falls open in a perfect oval, her full lips puckering up all plump and juicy as if waiting for my kiss.

“Would you like me to carry you inside?” I tease her, my gaze falling over the front of her sweater where I can see that her nipples are still as hard as little stone pebbles.

God, I can’t wait for the stores to open. I know exactly what color I want to see her in.

She smiles, her long black curls draping forward over her chest. “Are they going to let me in without my shoes?”

“They will.”

“Then I’ll walk in my socks,” she says smartly.

“The ground is wet,” I point out.

She shoves backward, falling against the seat in resignation. “Shit. Then you’ll carry me.”

4

“You say it like it’s a bad thing,” I whisper, my eyes falling toward her lap, traces of honeycomb floating my way.

I fucking love how aroused she gets whenever she’s in my arms.

With a chuckle, I step out of the vehicle and walk around to her side. Once I’m holding her again, I notice I breathe a little easier and a little deeper. The warmth and the weight of her, the feel of her heart beating next to mine… it’s all so soothing.

Stepping inside of the diner, every head in the place turns our way. Most of them smile brightly, waving or greeting me by name, but then

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Chapter Two Hundred Ninety–Three

there’s Charlotte Bodega, a waitress I once bent over the trunk of a Honda Civic, and she doesn’t look happy at all.

I smile at her anyway.

With a toss of her long brown hair and a flash of her dark brown eyes, she eyes Anastacia and then disappears into the kitchen.

“Well hello,” Kendall says, walking up from the back of the restaurant. Her hazel eyes glitter with mischief when she spies Anastacia in my arms and for a moment I almost turn around.

Pulling Anastacia’s soft body in a little tighter, I send Kendall a warning glare. Don’t fuck with me, K. Not today. “What are you doing here, Kendall? You’re working at the bar now. I happen to know just the tips you get there make your paycheck here look like chump change.” Anastacia swats my chest and I simply grin down at her.

looking for the worst table she can find. “Hmm… how about I put you in Charlotte’s section. Nice table, in the center

you.”

smile. “Don’t you

not?” Anastacia asks, her eyes slanting suspiciously. “Who

scramble out of my arms. “Anastacia,” I hiss in warning. “What

snipes, pushing against my chest until I

some air,” Kendall giggles, smirking

the floor and toward a booth in the

seat us in Charlotte’s section, she sat us

in

hers.

across, smiling when she gazes at me warily. There’s a reason I want her

menus,” Kendall says smoothly, accidentally swatting me in the

my menu. “I

“Oh, my bad. So sorry

she opens hers and surreptitiously Much like she

further away from me, closer to

pressing my

own.

low to her ear,

hold them back. When she turns her head to bat her lashes in my direction, the sweet scent of honeycomb nearly drowns

from her, I say, “I’ll have the steak and eggs benedict, How about you, precious?”

on the draw of her smile, but smile she

a tiny thing like you, Kendall remarks, retrieving Anastacia’s menu.

Anastacia answers with a blush.

stop. The cocoa of her skin just below her

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Two Hundred Ninety–Three

this place I’d taste

then disappears, much

starts, looking away. “Did you have a thing with that girl or something? There’s tension there.

my neck snapping back. Absolutely fucking not. One of my brother’s used to date her. She cheated on

have sworn all that barking you were doing at her was some twisted form of flirting that you decided I

huh?” I murmur. “Does that mean you want me all for

on me and when she leans in her scent almost has me panting. So entranced am I that I don’t even notice when her hand creeps up the top of my thigh. Not until one fingernail strokes over the front of

licking her lips. “You already know the answer to that, Paul.”

in my cock, but I’m way bigger than most guys in this place and I know if anyone decides to

know. But facts,

they won’t see me if

public eatery and not lose complete control? Can I stop myself from

not, but that’s not going

clack down on the table so sharply I know who is there even

are you? Long

shut and I

fucking

Charlotte. It is. I know

Chapter Comments

Rule Number

Hundred Ninety–Four

ANASTACIA

the place over his shoulder where a tall, voluptuous female sneers down at me. The look she gives me is haughty, and as she takes in my sweatsuit that is twenty times too big for me, I get the feeling she finds me insubstantial. I am short where she is tall and in this get up I probably resemble a child. Especially sitting

to like me,

resembles that of a horse. The wide open maw, the big teeth, long legs, knobby knees. The whole of her reeks Kentucky Derby and I don’t find her nearly as pretty as she apparently finds herself. Her lips are painted a bright, glossy red that is thick with the taint of whore when applied this early in the morning, and I’m willing to bet she puts it to better use come sundown. Yeah, I know

off my magic. The air is crackling with animosity and when I meet her glare with one of my own she abruptly smiles, pouring

ass grin. She’s lucky she

returns her attention to the back of Paul’s head. “We had so much fun

to only care for him and refuses to fill my mug, I suppose she can refill his then. Taking a deep sip