The Pack: Rule Number 1 – No Mates
Chapter Three Hundred Two
ANASTACIA
The phone in my hand suddenly rings and my eyebrows arch upward hightily. Paul’s jaw clenches on the end of a hiss, his hands white knuckling over the steering wheel as he releases a frustrated growl of defeat.
With a satisfied smirk, I press the answer button without looking at the name. Paul’s eye flare bright with anger, but he makes no move to stop me, so I proceed.
Good boy. I would have fucking killed you.
Without taking my eyes off of him I say, “Hello, Pretty Paul’s answering service, Bitch speaking. How can I help you?”
Paul’s head jerks back in confusion, but as we’ve just reached the ferryman, he says nothing, turning his attention instead to the man at the booth to purchase passage.
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” A female’s voice shrieks over the line and my neck instantly snaps to attention. “Let me speak to Paul.”
The voice is vaguely familiar and when I search my memory for a face the whopping two of them that I have stored in my brain – the one my mind settles on is not one I’d prefer it to be. Not that either of them is really an option, but still. Pulling the phone away from my ear for a moment, I check the screen for a name just in case. There’s only a number on display, no name. A local area code of course. Kentucky Derby kind of local I’ll bet. “He’s busy at the moment. May I ask who is calling?”
“Busy. I don’t buy that. Really?”
My hackles go up, rage swirling inside of me at the incredulous tone of the female on the other end of the line. “Yes really. Now are you going to give me a name or am I gonna die happy never knowing it, with Paul’s head between my legs and his mouth full of my clit?”
Paul chuckles, his chest shaking with laughter as the ferryman hoots his sympathy for Paul out into the open air. Paul drives the jeep onto the roll–on barge then parks, shutting off the engine before giving me his undivided attention. Leaning his head back and running a hand over his jaw in a gesture that is altogether too infuriatingly sexy, he waits.
I shoot him an unamused frown, but deep inside, I’m secretly pleased that he’s not angry with me for answering his phone like I owned the damn thing. Could he honestly have been worried that I wanted to call one of his pack mates? Does he really believe that I would do something that scandalous? That disrespectful?
Probably, Ana. He thought you were trying to charm the dick from his pants, don’t forget.
“Fuck you, bitch. There’s your name!”
Oh shit, that’s right. I forgot for a moment that I was on the phone.
Kentucky’s words bring a smile to my face and I coat my voice in sugar when I say, “Aww, how sweet of you to offer, but fucking me is Paul’s job now. Better luck next time. Byeeee!” Then I hang up and pitch the phone straight into Paul’s chest, crossing my arms in anger. “Unlock it,” I tell him. “Now.”
His laughter dies in his throat, but the smirk he’s still wearing burns a trail of heat right through me.
If he, in fact, has a girl he is hiding from me, that one is not it. Not that it would matter one way or the other. Any girl who thinks she lays claim to Paul is going to meet with seven years of bad juju and that is a promise.
‘Who do you need to call, baby?”
I huff, looking away from him. “Someone to deflate your ego, for one, but you won’t find out who it is until you unlock your phone and
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hand it over.”
“Deflate my ego? What? Anastacia-
“No!” I snap, glaring at him with what I know are damn near glowing vialet eyes. “You called me a bitch. And furthermore, don’t be going around telling people that I’m your girl if you can’t even give me your pass code to your phone. Because if that’s the way you want things, I can get out now and be on my merry little way.”
Paul’s eyes darken and he averts his gaze staring down at his locked phone as if it betrayed him. “But you are my girl. And those were your words, not mine.”
My mouth drops open in shock and I’m so abruptly filled with frantic anger that I seriously think I may be in danger of sinking this whole damn ship. “Are you fucking kidding me?” I snap my eyes shut against the heat that is suddenly boiling in them in favor of counting to ten. Or twenty, or five thousand two hundred and sixty–five.
“You said I was your true mate. Am I lying?”
Goddess… I beg you. Just one zap, please? Can’t I just tase him a tiny little bit with my magic?
“You are my true mate Paul! You are. But if you ever call me a bitch again…” I trail off, sizing him up with all the fury of the queen that raised me.
Paul’s throat bobs as he unlocks his phone, his eyes raising to mine with a softness that I can almost feel on my skin. “I’m sorry. You’re right. i should never have called you that. To be honest… I think I just said it because you refused to tell me who you wanted to call and…” he sighs, “I just didn’t want you to see some of the things my brothers texted me about.
My shoulders stiffen. “Texted you? About what? About me?”
“Sort of… yeah.”
“Bad things?” They probably think I’m too much trouble. They probably want him to get rid of me. Shit. Maybe I should go… They don’t owe me their allegiance. In fact, neither does Paul.
“Not bad things… not really. Just… things.”
Right. As if I believe that.
Chelsea, Ana. Chelsea!
With a frustrated sigh, I reach for the phone. “Do you mind if I use it now? I promise not to look at your texts.”
Paul swallows thickly, handing me the phone, but then, using my grip on it to tug me forward, he yanks me toward him until his lips are only an inch away from mine. The heat in then beckons me and if I had time, I’d definitely dive forward and fall into his kiss, but…
“Whoever you’re calling better not be coming here to get you, Anastacia, because I’m telling you right now, I won’t let you leave. Is that
understood?”
Sucking in a stuttering breath, I nod. “Yes. Understood.”
His eyes flicker toward my mouth and his tongue fold over his bottom lip for a moment. “And like I said at the restaurant, you’re not my girl. you are much more than that.”
“Okay,” I whisper, retreating before I succumb to the pull of what feels like a siren’s song. Ripping my eyes from his is difficult, but I do it. Then I dial Chelsea’s cell and wait. When she answers sounding like her usual happy self, I almost die of relief.
“Hello? Who am I speaking with?” My sister asks, probably because she doesn’t recognize the number. She’s never so cordial. Not my baby
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sister. No.
Chelsea, it’s me! Can you talk?
The sound of a crowd buzzing in the background tells me she’s on Bonation Street, It’s her about favorite place to be, hade from the fact that it’s also where she works, it’s the place she spends all her time when she’s not at home.
Anst Where the fuck are you? You were supposed to be here! You promised me you would be here! My sister’s teary voice nos na through my heart and as much as I wish I had time to be gentle, I know that I don’t.
“Chelsea, I’m going to need you to stop crying for a moment and listen to me very carefully
“No! Damn it Ana! You swore you would be here to help me handle everything with Gran and you’re not! All you give a fuck about is the punk ass man of yours and
***CHELSEA-*
“NO, ANA! You listen to me! I HATE you, okay? I HATE YOU!
“CHELSEA! Gran was right about him! She was right about Draco!”
Her sudden silence tells me that she’s finally ready to hear me. “Oh–oh my! Oh shit. Sh–she was?”
“Yes! She was. H–he tried to… to…” Finally, the tears come. Sobs wrack my entire body as my mind swirls with the terror of that night.
‘There’s someone I want you to meet, sweetheart. Actually, a few someones. But I don’t want you to be scared. I need you to understand that no matter what you end up as… I always considered you mine.
1 shake off the sudden memory of Draco’s smooth, cold voice… the strange lull of it. The pull he used when he spoke. It was… dark and prickling. Like the drag of sharpened ice across my soul. It was the very same voice he used to call on his shadow right before I–stabbed him with a potato peeler, right before I ran.
“It’s okay, Ana, it’s okay,” she whispers, her voice significantly lower. “Just tell me where you are and I’ll come and get you. Are you alright? Did h–he manage t–to-”
“No!” I say, on the end of a sob, only half aware of the tormented swirl that has become Paul’s eyes. “I didn’t give him the chance. But, damn him, he tried. I thought I was done for, Chels. I really thought I was going to die. He chased me for a goddessdamned week! The bastard! He and his pack did. But… I got away and now… I need you to do the same.”
“Wait a minute, what? What do you mean, Ana? I’m not like you, I’m safe. Draco wouldn’t even want me. He-
“Chelsea! Listen to me for a minute. Please! Is there anybody you can stay with? Anyone at all?”
My sister sighs heavily, as if she has simply decided to humor me. “Mike”
Mike? Mike! Oh yeah. Her very human, completely boring boyfriend Mike.
“Do you think he’ll let you stay there? With him? At least until I can get to you?”
“You’re not leaving,” Paul hisses the reminder.”
I ignore him.
“Yes, of course. But Ana… I don’t know what you’re worried about. Draco would have no reason to take me and, just FYI, you’re really starting to sound as paranoid as Gran.”
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“Okay first of all, Gran was NOT paranoid and it would do you well to remember that,” I say vehemently, willing my panicked words to reach her through the phone. “Second, if he were to take you, it wouldn’t be for the same reason he wanted me. But he does have a reason, and since he’s suddenly disappeared from here, I’m pretty sure I know what that reason would be.”
Oh?‘ she chuckles and I suddenly wish I was there so I could slap her. And what reason is that, oh mystic one?”
‘Because I found my true mate, Chels… and I think he knows it.”
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