The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates

Chapter Two Hundred Ninety–Nine

GRYFFIN

After hanging up the phone with Paul, the sound of Gayle’s bed slamming against the wall upstairs drives me out of the house. The moment Cane returned from Tacoma, my sister pounced on him and not in a good way. But it would seem, he was able to turn her anger around for his benefit.

Fuck. They need their own place.

It’s unheard of, though. A lion pride sticks together and, as I am their lender, it is my duty to keep them safe. However, Cane is turning out to be so powerful in his own rite that building a little house behind the villa just for the two of them to enjoy might not be the worst idea.

Stepping out onto the porch, I saunter down the long winding driveway to light up a cigarette and gaze out at the openly darkened sky. Winter is here, and the rain will be getting heavier, bringing back memories of times I’d prefer not to revisit.

But as the drizzle begins, wetting my smoke enough to deliver the wrap from its filter, I gaze down at the tiny scar on my hand. The cut I made once with a particularly ancient silver blade. One that my father carries on him at all times. One marked with runes for banishment and stained with the blood of regret.

With a deep breath, I welcome the sudden rain drops on my head, closing my eyes and tipping my head up toward the sky. They are like tears of the past and I fucking deserve to drown in them.

Sometimes I wish they could wash me away and take me somewhere that I might find what I gave up.

But they never do, and despite my yearning for a second chance, I know it will never be with the girl that I long for. The one I threw away.

Everyone keeps telling me that I need to get out there and find a mate, but they don’t understand. They just don’t get it.

I don’t deserve one.

Because… I had one. And I let my father rule me. I let him control me.

I never even really got the chance to get to know her, but at the same time, I did.

She was that pair of eyes on me in the hall. The silent cheerleader that watched me from afar. The one being in this world that would have forgiven me anything and everything and loved me just for me. No matter what.

I be the same for

probably would have given her life for mine just for a shot to be with me, and as

I had a lot of chicks. Humans, all of them. My father was always bitching about my playing around with them. He said there had to be something wrong with me for having that

I was destined to be

guessed it was going to be her.

Adelle.

and never spoke to a single soul that wasn’t her

but he played sports and so did 1. He was one of the few humans that was any good at them. All of us shifters played back then. Dom, Quinn, Goose… The fact that

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Two Hundred Ninety–Nine

was never something we chose to hide. We reveled in it, loved being the center of attention. But sometimes, when all you can see is

that. Not

All times.

in my case, I didn’t just lose something.

No one speaks about the pain you will endure with

that my father

out to be?

the jokes on you dad because it’s been five whole damn

can’t get her heartbroken face out

her ice blue eyes, the quiver of her sweet heart–shaped lips.

for me to take it all back. To make all the pain I’d just

after she thought I’d left… as if waiting for me… pretending I hadn’t really done such a thing

the mountainside. Steeling my heart and wondering when the torment of rejection would stop and recovery would begin. Thinking for sure that any minute it would stop. That in a moment, she’d

stomp away.

she never did. Instead, she’d called my sister because I’d left her standing all alone in the middle of the woods and not only was she