The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates

The Pack: Rule Number 1 – No Mates

Chapter Three Hundred Four

PAUL

Marie Monet’s voice sang into the phone, thick with mirth and heavy with the drawl of wisdom that one can only gain by seeing too much death. Or by conjuring darkness too often. “Hello little wolf. It’s been a long time. You have need of something, no?”

With Anastacia still so close to me, it’s hard to focus. Her right hand is lutching the top of my right thigh and her left hand strokes my scalp as she drags her fingers through my hair over and over again. It’s bliss, but I know better than to keep Marie waiting, so I answer as best I can, “I do, Marie. You know, I still remember what you said that day…” A dark chuckle sounds and I snort. “You knew then, didn’t

you?”

“Mmhmm… I hope you have been good to her, despite your fears,” she chuckles and I swear my pulse jumps at just the power in her tone. “It is time, no?”

“It is,” I acknowledged, countering Anastacia’s confused expression with an adoring smile.

“Then I will see you when you get here. Do nothing until you do, I will see you soon,” Marie says and I can practically see her finger posed to end the call already.

“Wait! What do you mean, do nothing? And I need your help with something before I get there.”

“Do you think I do not know that? Silly little dog. Of course I do, I have known for much longer than you have what this night would bring and so long as the girl does not leave her home tonight, she will be protected. I saw to it years ago. On the day you left. The shadows will not find her, so long as she remains indoors.”

“How do you know which girl I’m-”

“Paul, need I demonstrate the extent of my gifts for you again when you get here? I am short a few of my stock, perhaps you would like to become one of them after all.”

“N–no. Absolutely not. Please don’t.”

A loud cackling laugh reverberates through the phone. “Then understand it is done. You bring your love here, the moment you arrive. Do not attempt to search for him do not fear that he will follow you, but she must come directly here. She will need something that I possess to achieve her goals. The Shadow will not go quietly. And… you must not mark her until after we have met.”

“Wait?! What? But she says that my bonding her will protect her. Why wouldn’t I-”

“Paul. There are things you do not understand. You let a shadow loose at dawn, no?”

“Let it loose? We destroyed it.”

did do something right. You bound him to the ocean and a shadow cannot find a host there, so until a suitable

Well, fuck.

know that?” I hiss,

so. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I will see you tonight, poochie.

claws my

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Three Hundred

You know her?”

of her. She practices blood magic. Gran never messed around with that shit and always bade me steer clear of her daughter. How do you know you

When she and her father stopped here in the

“You WHAT?”

I know,

you’re alive.”

destiny at the time, she had such a draw

eyes. “And you had the balls to accuse me!”

I carry on, “-as I said, I thought she was mine at the time, but Marie knew that she wasn’t. The very first thing Marie said to me when I arrived on her doorstep was ‘You are in the right place and the wrong place at the same time‘. She knew I was there for a reason, and she knew what that reason was. On the day I left she told me not to worry… that my mate would find me when the time was right. Of so I pretty much lived in fear course, she tortured me for a good week before she released me to my dad – who had come looking for me of witches after that. But… I didn’t know the significance of a lot of the

–

–

“Until?”

squeeze her hand on my leg “-they make sense.”

eyes brighten as if a huge weight has been delivered from her. As if something that has been troubling her heart has, at long last, been

Anastacia and my breath stutters. “It’s not that I didn’t believe you, so much as I was afraid of the power you would have over me. But when I saw you out there on the deck… and you couldn’t breathe, I thought I might lose you and… I realize now that I could have lost my chance. That if you had died right there… you would never know how much I wanted it to be true. You would never know how perfect I think you are for me. I wouldn’t be able to tell you that the very first time I laid eyes on you, when the elevator doors opened and I got my first real look at you, I thought… Please, let her be mine. I want that. I want her…” Shaking my head

I thought… if anyone could keep the hounds off my back, it might be wolf shifters. So yeah, I tried to charm your buddy, but it didn’t work on him because his heart is protected by the mate bond.” She swallows thickly and T search her eyes as they deepen in color, going from indigo to ocean blue. “The moment you stepped off

to my house and I tried to go outside? I saw it come for me. I saw you reach out. It looked like a fucken phantom hand made from purple fog.

you from going outside… but

you.”

my porch. I could see that she wanted me, and right then, she could have had me no questions asked. I eye her lips

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Three Hundred Four

little damn

fingers through my hair again. “My