The Pack Rule Number 1 No Mates

Chapter One-Hundred-Forty-Three RAINIER

Shit! Shit!, shit, shit! When I stepped out of the shower on the yacht, my pants were folded neatly on the bed. At the time, I know Felix must have been the one to place them there and I was actually a little touched that she had even bothered. Never once did it occur to me that she might have searched my pockets. I wonder what she was looking for. Money? Was she planning to leave?

thed be

In truth, she didn't really seem too thrilled about the job at the bar, not the apartment that came with it. I would have thought sh happier about the opportunity. Not that bartending was a glamorous career, but it was way more respectable than the one she had before we met. I almost felt like I was forcing her into it when I left her at the bar. Fuck. The more I think about it, the uneasier I feel

She didn't even mention finding the ring, which probably means that she has already written me off. She's going to leave.

Well... she's going to try. I'm not going to let her. Tonight during the shift, I'll be more animal than man, and I may not be entirely connected to the human side of my life. But one thing's for certain, I will know she is mine when I see her. So if I can just stick to the wooded area closest to the bar, Fcan watch over her through the night. At least I hope.

The problem is, during the forced shift, we as wolves are overcome with a rush of primal instincts. Everything about our human lives will fade into the background and all we will know is the beast on the other side. During a normal shift, we are in complete control of both Identities. We maintain our human nature while in beast form. We know exactly who and what we are. During a forced shift, we simply become wolves. Every human thought and memory falls into the darkness and we spend the entire night racing through the forests. We may go into the shift intent on being present and planning to keep watch over our loved ones, but it never ever happens that way. Not for any of us. At least, not yet. Often times we shift back into ourselves miles from town and end up having to shift back into our wolves to face home. So as much as I hope I'll be able to stick around and watch Felix, I know it's not likely to happen.

Maybe nothing has been important enough to me yet. Maybe Felix could be the one thin to bridge the gap for me.

I sigh, my eyes back on the front door as I bite the bullet and take a step inside.

"Angie?" I call out, hoping she's not still sleeping. I'd hate to have to wake her up to deliver this kind of news,

"Well, look who's home," she teases, coming out of the kitchen with a martini in her hands.

It smells like she's been drinking all night, her breath is literally a hundred proof as she walks up to me, her eyes slightly glazed over.

"You've been up all night," I say flatly, suddenly curious as to what might have motivated her to drink away the night.

Angie is used to me not coming home, and I very rarely am here at night. I have been known to sleep more in my office, or in my SUV, than I ever have in my bed. More or less because she is always in it, but also because I like to be ready for action when I'm needed. So I know right off, Angie's concern for my whereabouts is not what prompted her latest binge.

"I have," she giggles, pushing up onto me and attempting to grab my dick.

"Hey! Whoa!" I complain, grabbing her wrist in my hand and steering her toward the sofa. "Settle down for a moment," I suggest, taking a seat across from her in my arm chair. The one piece of furniture that I might actually miss.

She eyes me warily, her normally pretty face suddenly pinched with irritation. It's as if the vodka Gods have just whispered in her ear of what is coming as she begins to shake her head at me. "I knew it. I fucking knew it!" she hisses, tossing back the rest of her drink as she glares out the window. "You ve been cheating on me."

She's not wrong. Well not exactly... Only because, I don't personally consider being with one's mate cheating. Ironically enough, in the eyes of a Shifter, Angle is the other woman. Regardless of who I met first.

When I don't deny her accusation this time around, she goes completely still for a moment, her face growing so red, I can't tell if she's angry or just surprised.

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Chapter One-Hundred-Forty-Three.

"Angie," I say softly, folding my hands in front of me and propping my arms up on my knees so that I can lower my harad wwen ) spevar have something to tell you."

She begins to cackle angrily, shaking her head as her face twists into a cowl. "Oh yeah? Do you, but? You fucking bestand it you leaving me? You want a divorce? You don't love me anymore? Tell me, please do. Tell me which of these things brought to your attention, knowing that you were unhappy with me, only for you to insist that I was being paranoid and for you to that I was wrong - tell me which of them you ate about to confess to. Please!"

I sigh, rubbig my temples as the beginning of a headache begins to form, I look at her, at the anger in her dark brown eyes and what I und up saying is, "I never meant to hurt you."

Again she freezes, as if she really and truly expected me in deny these things again. "I cheated on you, she says suddenly. A haughty inte smirk forming on her lips. "I met this guy, and he is-she closes her eyes so fucking amazing Her eyes flare back open. He doesn't keep things from me like you do. He doesn't lie and pretend and he loves me He said sou,"

absorbed ber new, I might

She watches me intently for a reaction, but I remain stoic. Because should I move at all, or speak before 1 accidentally break out in song and dance and that simply would not do God, I hope that's true," I say instead.

I can see her imploding, her anger bubbling to the surface before she murs, "You HOPE that's true? Are you fuckes kidding that I've been fucking around on you?"

God yes, I shake my head, silently grateful that she gave me an easy way out of here. Because now, with her confession, I no longer fuck of hurt her feelings or not. Now, I can be as cold and as straightforward as a mortician when I say, "I want a divorce. I'm thing in the moming. Her jaw drops, but she doesn't move an inch, so I continue, Tm giving you the house, the bank accor You can have everything. I don't want any of it."

She's sputtering now as I head for the door, shaking her head in disbelief. "You never loved me! Did you? You're just as cold-hearted your father!"

I no longer wish to lie. Not to myself or anyone else, so I say, "No, Angle. I'm sorry, I didn't love you, but I did care for you. When you were helpless and... lost. Without a soul in the world and I wanted to take care of you. I thought that would be enough for me. And might have been if...

"T?" she hissed. "If what?"

If I hadn't been the one to answer the call that day. If it had been a different town or a different club that Hector decided to visit. "If I didn't know for sure that there was someone out there for you. Someone who will see everything you do as special and will notice the littlest things about you that are beautiful."

You'd think she would have smiled at that, but no. "That is NOT what you were about to say RAINIER RIOTTE!"

Yeah, well, prove it bitch. "Maybe that guy you were telling me about is the one. For my sake, I hope that he is. And just so you know, 1 never cheated on you. Not in the way that you think I did. I was faithful until I was sure it was over. If you're honest with yourself, I'm sure you'll find that you never loved me either." I turn around, leaving the wedding band on the shelf next to the closes, then head for the door and open it.

"You're horrible! I hate you so much! I will never forgive you!" she screams. Then, her voice Junkers almost menacingly. "Is there someone else?" she asks, and I suddenly have a flashback of Felix on the yacht, when she pretty much asked the same thing. Without turning around, I smile and I say, "No. There's not someone else. But... there is someone."

"Do you love her?" she cries out as 1 step over the threshold.

This time I turn around, if only to study Angie's face as I leave. To make sure she doesn't look like she's going to blow something up or else use the hairdryer in the bathtub. Thankfully, she appears to be calm. Almost too calm. I meet her eyes. "I'm pretty sure I do... Yeah." Her face twists into an angry frown and I race toward the driveway to get back into my SUV, ripping up the asphalt as I fly down the

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08:47 FTI, NOV 15

Chapter One-Hundred-Forty-Three

street toward the bar. Time for Snother, terribly uncomfortable conversation. When I pull into the lot, I park next to Hector's Caddy. Then, glancing up, I spy Felix's surprised, slightly hopeful, slightly sud, face in the window of the apartment above and I mentally prepare myself for the groveling I'm about to do. Then I realized... my situation would probably be a lot easier for her to understand if she knew I was a

wolf.

Not yet... After the shift maybe, not not yet.

As I replay the conversation I had with Angie in my head and trudge upstairs to the apartment, I freeze.

I can't believe I missed it. I cannot believe I didn't catch what she said Wille I was there. She slipped right in front of me and my brain was too fucked up to even notice.

But now, her words replay in my head, taunting me. She said, "You never loved me! Did you? You're just as cold-hearted as your father!"

Such a strange thing for her to say when she's never even met him...

Chapter Comments

KKN

hmmmm.......very weird indeed. what does she know about his father?

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