The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates

Chapter One Hundred-Fifty-Seven

DELILAHI

| wake up in the cold of a foggy morning to the crazy sounds of my brother Cane and his dumbass friend Charlie

packing up the pickup truck so we can head back to Oregon.

“If we get there now and tell them what we saw, they have to let us in Cane is saying as | drag my ass up off the

couch.

“What the hell? | snap, noticing that the pair of them are covered in blond and scratches. That's when |

remember the wolf from last night and | have to wonder what it is they caught last night.

“D! We have to head hto TEF Headquarters. The cabin is paid for a week, so you'll have to stay here until

we get back,” Cane says, grabbing his keys off the table.

“What?” | screech. Fuck that! “Oh hello no! No! I'm not staying here! And what did you guys catch last night?

When did you cback?”

Cane takes a deep stupefying breath and sits next to me, his face deadly serious. “What we caught last night, we

can’t talk about to you. Not here. Not yet. We have to take our discovery to The Elite Few. They're gonna wanna

know about this shit.”

| snort. “You're fucking loopy. They don’t give a fuck about you idiot! They hardly gave a fuck about dad! And

what the hell do you mean, discovery? You two falling into a bramble is hardly breaking news. Letguess, you

thought you caught a wolf, but it turned into a fairy and snaked right out of your grasp.”

He shakes his head, his eyes lighting with excitement. “We caught a lion he hisses, and Charlie whoops into the

air. “But it wasn’t a lion when we got to her. She turned into a woman.”

Where's a can of soup when you need one?

“You better hope you're lying, Cane. Because what it sounds like to me, is you set an illegal trap and caught a

human, | grumble, leaping, up from my place on the couch.

“I swear to God, D! We saw her! She was a lion! And then we shot her and... she was a girl!” Charlie says and |

simply hold my hand up in his face.

“Shut up!” | scream, closing my eyes. My mind is whirling with images of my brother being carted off to prison

for murder and thenright afterward for killing his idiot best friend. “Where’s the body, Cane

“What?” Cane snaps. “That’s what I'm trying to tell you, D. She got away! After we shot the lion It.... | dunno...

shifted into a naked girl! Then, when we released the trap, her eyes popped open and she ran away!”

“Cane,” | begin, manic laughter bubbling from my throat. “Just how much did you drink last night before you

headed out?”

“Nothing!” he and Charlie snap at the stime. “We just had scoffee, that’s all.”

“Yeah right, coffee,” | say in disbelief. So there is nobody, then. No lion. No imaginary female. Good. Okay, okay.”

“What happened to o you, D?” Cane says suddenly, his eyes on the front of my shirt.

Looking down I notice for the first tthat I'm covered in blood. Oh shit. The wolfpled all over me. “It’s nothing.

| just... | spilled my soup.*

“Oh,” his dumb ass says, not thinking anymore about it. “Crazy. It looks The blood.”

“Doesn't it?” | chirp, racing for the bathroom with a clean outfit from my bag. “Don’t you idiots dare leave

without me! And we're not

1/2

Chapter One Hundred-Fifty-Seven

going to the Headquarters with your crary story. They'll have you committed for sure!”

“You're wrong,” Cane says to my back. “Dad and the Great Earl used to tellstories about Shifters in these

woods. Why did you think it was thuit 1 always wanted to hunt here? 1. knew they were here!”

| spin around and glare at him. “Dad and the Great Earl said lots of things to your child's brain! You can’t believe

everything they've ever said to you!”

My brother gasps, his eyes falling sad and | instantly feel like a complete bitch. “I know you think I'm stupid, D.

But I'm not. | know what the fuck | saw and I'm coming back for it! That Shifter is my ticket into The Elder Few,

like dad wanted.”

The Elder Few is made up of a bunch of rich psychopaths that have nothing better to do for fun than skin

defenseless animals!” | shout. “You are my brother and I'll be damned if you becone of them!”

He flinches, gazing away fromand out toward the window. “You just don’t understand. You weren't part of it.

You just don’t know.”

“Well I know this,” | hiss. “We're heading htoday and I'm going to go and see that lawyer about our trust.

We have to see if we can find a way to get it released early, because we can't live like this anymore. And mom's

not helping. She doesn’t give a fuck about us since her newest boyfriend cinto the picture.”

“Yeah,” Cane says in agreement, “I know.”

“Good,” | say, relieved. “Now just letshower and we'll head out.”

“Okay”

| shower faster than | ever have,

running a brush through my long red

hair and then throwing on my faded

denim jeans and Hee? se&ldd

green carro itttout even putting on

)

my undergarments. I'm eager to get

: )

the fuck away from this place. I've

got to keep my brother from going to

that fanatical camp of Elder idiots

) .

and I've got to find a way for us to

make ends meet. The content is on

novelenglish.net! Read the latest

chapter there!

) nny q q

As I'm sitting on the toilet and putting

on my boots is whey l@ptice The

apie, The coitent is on

novelenglish.net! Read the latest

chapter there!

It's too damn get out there.

50 | step o

out of the bathroom and what | see

P q

(or rather who | dri) (13s @&radihg

/ =

t:the fRon€dorin a rage. The

content is on novelenglish.net! Read

the latest chapter there!

“Cane!” | shout to the empty yard. “Goddamn it! Cane!” | yell again.

The truck is gone and so is my dumbass brother.

Chapter Comments