The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates

Chapter Seventeen

DOMONIC

Gathered around the bar are all twelve members of the Red Wolf Pack. We are the last of the wolf shifters on the

North Washington Coast. Sheriff Rainier, Deputy Koda, Deputy Lief, Fire Chief Timmons, Fire Deputy Logan, Fire

Deputy Grant, Bartlett, Andrew, Quinn, James, Paul, and myself.

My father was Alpha before me, as his father was before him, and so forth. He now resides in Canada. A

deserter, if you will. But he wasn’t the only one. The rest of our pack went with him. They wanted the twelve of

us to join them, but we refused.

There is one reason why the twelve of us remain here, refusing to leave. We have one major thing in common.

The deaths of our human mothers.

In the middle of the night, five years ago, a fire started in our packhouse, high up on the mountainside. All males

of the pack being forced to shift into our wolf forms on the night of the full moon were nowhere in the vicinity

when it began. Our mothers were left alone and unprotected. When the fire began, we were on the other side of

the moutain. When we scented the smoke we raced back, but still in our wolf forms, we were helpless to stop the

flames. The entire place was an inferno. There was nothing left of them by the twe were able to shift back.

We were left to watch from the shadows of the trees as the human fire fighters put out the remainder of the

embers. Every female human mate that resided there that night died.

That is when the twelve of us decided a packhouse was too much like an anthill and instead of cohabitating, we

spread across the town. Each of us watching over a separate part of it. Each of us responsible for a different

sector of its citizens.

But the rest of our pack, opted to leave. The pain of what we lost was too much for most to bear.

The twelve of us refused to leave the memories of our mothers behind the way our fathers and other pack

members did. To this day we are determined to catch the murderer or murderers that started that fire all those

nights ago.

When they left and we stayed out here, in Port Orchard, was when the twelve of us decided, we would be the last

of our pack. We cup with twelve rules we vowed to live by from that day forth.

Rule number one being no mates.

None of us wanted to experience the devastation our father’s had. | heard that most of our old pack is now

divided. That the mated wolves broke off from the mateless. Traveling East and away from the bad memories

and faulty leadership. Leaving the twelve to die on their own they way they left us to die on ours.

We didn’t want to have to experience anything like the heartbreak our fathers went through when they lost their

mates. The emptiness, the guilt. It changed them. They are lifeless now. Not fit to lead, not fit to fight. They had

to go and so they did. They gave up the fight and disgraced the memories of our mothers by leaving things the

way they were. Unforgivable if you ask me. The future of our pack was no more. We never even talked to them

about it. They simply sauntered into the night without looking back.

It becclear toon that day - that those twelve mateless wolf shifters our fathers - never deserved to lead

anyway.

Shifters were not meant to be weak.

There are many different types of shifters in the world, but only two kinds out here in in this part of Washington.

Wolves and Lions. Lion shifters are predominantly female. And females of any species are not as likely to commit

mass murder, so we didn’t think it had been them, despite their hatred for us.

No... something m

more sinister and

1 secret lay behind the fire. And the twelve of us were determined to figure out what.

All wolf shifters as far as we know, are male. There are rumors of a female wolf shifter on the East coast, but

fairytales are told every day.

The pride of lion shifte

that we've been feuding with, is the entire reason behind our needing a human male to watch over the bar in the

1/3

Chapter Seventeen

first place. Because every month on the night of the full moon, we as wolves, are compelled to change and roam

the woods from sundown to sunup. On each full moon for the last few months someone has been breaking into

the bar in search of something we have no knowledge of. And that someone must know we are unavailable’ on

that particular evening. So of course, we put out a nationwide search for a capable human caretaker who we

could entrust with the bar so that we as a group might catch whoever has been breaking in.

Then for sreason, fate decided it might be funny to send Draven our way. Until now, we had all been lucky.

None of us had found a mate. All of us, with the exception of Rainier, had opted to remain single. Rainier met

and married Angie over a year ago, a local girl that he claimed he was in love with. But she wasn’t his mate, so

no babies would be coming from their union.

Shifters can only reproduce with their mates. We can fall in love, sure. But any bond we might have with that

person is severed once a mate is introduced into the equation.

So, of course, from the moment | met Draven, | have known that she was going to have to leave.

Because keeping her is against the number one rule with have set in place for ourselves.

“She’s your mate,” Paul says, voicing the one thing | had hoped to keep secret.

I nod, “She is.”

The entire bar falls silent. Each one of my brothers with sadness in their eyes. Then, just as suddenly, everyone

begins talking at once.

Logan was the first to speak. “It’s been a long tsince we've had someone to protect.”

“Damn it,” Rainier snaps. “I knew there was something strange about the way you've been acting. But | had no

idea that was what it was.

He shakes his head. “She has to leave.”

“I know,” | hiss, closing my eyes. “What do you think Live

been saying.

“That's fucked up Dom, Bartlett complains. “That girl needs you. She’s helpless. How can you just-"

“Oh con B,” Rainier interrupts. “This has been decided for years. We promised each other.”

Bartlett pounds a fist down on the table in anger, his eyes full of fury, don’t give a fuck what we promised each

other! That girl's been through enough already! We can’t just toss her out when-"

“What do you mean, been through enough?” Koda chimes in, eyes going dark.

I I )

This is so fucked up. | don't want to

go through anything ik thet aidfit

AD

Gye poRORn whispers. “But how

can you just make her The content is

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chapter there!

leave, Dom? Are you sure she’s you mate?”

“Fuck that promise, Timmons declares. “And fuck that rule.”

“Does she know?” James asks

“What does it feel like? Finding your mate?” - Andrew.

“Where is she now?” - Lief.

“I want to meet her.” - Grant.

“ . : »

Quiet, please just-" | start, but am

interrupted by the buzg pf Dy phohe

inn pbeket he content is on

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chapter there!

Lifting the damn thing up to my face,

my heart goes cold. A coil of fear

snakes up inside Rmepndthe Entire

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rom fas Gh again. Suddenly I'm

thinking of the black sedans we

passed on our way here. Suddenly...

they are all | can see. The content is

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chapter there!

“Draven?” | answer. “What's wrong?”