The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates

Chapter Two Hundred Thirty-Five ROSE Staring at the creamy, unmarred length of my neck, the pulsepoint beneath the scar seems to throb in the light. The mark that rides over it isn't nearly as devastating as I would have imagined it to be. I thought for sure I was going to have a few jagged rises along both sides of my throat. Instead, what I'm left with looks almost like a vampire bit me. Or an animal with a much smaller mouth than a lion has.

Could I have been mistaken somehow? Could the lion that bithave actually been a much smaller version of the beast I remember? Then again, even a smaller version would have left a larger mark than this.

On top of that - I felt my throat rip front and back! Felt the blood flow down beneath my hair and behind my ears. The trickling of it as it poured from my nape! I felt all of that! But where is the evidence??? Maybe I was in a coma and while they were waiting forto wake up, my parents decided to have plastic surgery done on me. Or skin grafting. But then that would mean I was out for a long twouldn't it? And would Bartlett have really been by my side if my recovery took two or three months? I doubt it. Wouldn't 1 be weak as fuck if I'd been unconscious that long? Bartlett will have the information. Just the fact that he broughtanywhere, tellshe must have been at the hospital a good deal of the time, right? No, no. Not right. It is possible that he heard about my warrant from an outside source, I suppose. Maybe that's what happened and that's why he decided to boost me. There's only one way to know for sure.

I'll simply have to ask him.

With a hefty sigh of resignation, I turn away from the mirror and open the rain glass doors of the eight by ten foot shower. Holy Moly, that's a lot of space. It's almost as big as my bedroom it home. Elegant onyx walls surround me, gilded with golden accents and radiating with heavy yellow lights. Concave shelves line the walls, stocked with an array of different products in a variety of different scents. There: even a long stone bench that presses out of the back wall that is wide enough for two people to lie upon, should they be so inclined.

I've never seen anything like it and for a moment I simply stand there shivering and taking it all in. These people obviously have money My family's pretty well off, but we could never afford a bathroom as extravagant as this one. It makescurious about what line of work these people are in. They're definitely not hunters, that much was clear just with Delilah's little speech.

I wonder what kind of shower Bartlett has at home. And... where is his home? Turning on the overhead rainshower and adjusting the temperature so that steam begins to rise in clouds all around me, I turn toward the shelves. Scanning the selection of bottles that appear to be brand new, settle on a couple of hygiene items that are so deliciously scented that I outright moan in delight. Something about stepping under the hot spray of this stranger's shower, that much was obvious. I can't say I really blher, but Bartlett must be a pretty close friend of theirs if he's allowed to walk his felonies right through the front door and plant them in the masters bed.

My teeth skim my bottom lip as I picture it what Bartlett must have looked like sneakingout of the hospital. Did he tossover his shoulder like a sack of potatoes? Or carryclasped against his chest bridal style? Maybe he simply seatedin a wheelchair and rolledout the front exit. Or cin disguised as a doctor and placedon a gurney to wheelaway from danger.

The fact that he deemsimportant enough to risk something as outrageous as kidnapping floors me. The man is staggering and I have to wonder how old he might be. Judging by his face alone, I'd say he doesn't look much older than twenty, but his body screams of a virile male that has spent years honing his body to perfection.

Did he cradlein those deliciously muscled arms of his when he finally hadhere? When he broughtinside? God, I hope so.

He must have, right? An image of myself in that paper thin hospital gown that opens at the back, being crushed against the wide expanse 1/3 Chapter Two Hundred Thirty-Five of his powerful chest flashes acfoss my eyes and my clit pulses with a throbbing hunger. When I think about the fact that my bare ass had to have felt the warm shift of his skin at least once while he held me, I'm suddenly flushed with embarrassment.

Did he even notice when it happened? And if so, did he like it when it did?" Abruptly driven to replay the dreamlike scenaand imagine what I might have felt like to him, I slide an arm behind myself. Then, imagining that I am Bartlett, I close my eyes and push my forearm against the globe of one ass cheek, trying to recreate a moment I'm not even certain existed. The plump, buoyant resistance that I meet with is surprisingly arousing.

I have a bit of a bubble butt that my brother Rosen always teasedabout it. It used to getupset when he did that and just like anyone else might think, I believed it was his way of tellingthat I was fat. For a long tI thought that was exactly what it was. But then one day while Ted was over to the house, I walked in on Rosen with his hands white knuckled around Ted's throat. He said, "You don't ever talk about my sister's ass again, do you got that? III fucken kill you if you so much as look at it agate?" A fearful Ted had frightfully agreed, swearing that he had only been trying to compliment me, but my brother would hear none of it. He shoved Ted up against the wall, whispering something to him that I wasn't able to catch and causing Ted to go from peach tone to gray tone in a matter of seconds.

Until that day, I always thought Rosen was ashamed of me. He would forbid his friends from interacting withat school and everywhere else. I was so sure it was because he was embarrassed of his fatass sister. It turned out that I was wrong. Rosen had been protecting me. He made sure that every single male that I ever cin contact with treatedwith respect. Rosen is also the one that taughthow to handle a rifle. I had always wanted to learn, but my father had forbiddenfrom it. Rosen could see how much I wanted to be included by my dad so he taughthow to aim for rather how not too and how to shoot. Working within secret, against my father's wishes, he helpedget comfortable with various firearms. According to Rosen, I was a natural and ten times more of a hunter than he would ever be. I would cry sometimes when he would go off to meetings with my dad and Rosen would always hugtight, whispering that I only needed to be patient and that he was going to pave the way for me.

One night my dad, Rosen, and I were gathered in the field behind our house, on the empty acre of land that we used for a training ground and Rosen finally announced that he had gotten a full ride scholarship to a University. He admitted that the Elder Few was not what he wanted and my father threatened to disown him. Dad began to yell and scream, but through it all Rosen remained calm. Eventually, my dad realized he wasn't getting through to my brother and as he raised his arm to strike him, Rosen gavethe signal. The next five minutes were filled withsharing my father every fattle thing that oven had taught me. Needless to say, my father was more than impressed. I was pledged the very next day. The very first female ever to be accepted Before then, Rosen was the big man on campus. He was the football star, the hockey star, the fucking Prom King for God's sakes! Everyone adored him. Delilah even went out with him once. Most of all though, he was my big brother and I miss him every single day that he is away. He helpedsee my worth So now, as I stand here under the heated rain, I lay down along the bench beneath the spray to give in to a daydream. Pretending I'm still unconscious, I imagine what might have happened when Bartlett kidnapped me. The fantasy has my hands sliding all over my body greedily and before I know it I'm touching myself, stroking my sex with a feverish touch as I chase the sensations that ride across my flesh.

I begin to moan, loud and uncontrolled. My fingers circle my clit and my hips buck with every swirl of pleasure. I don't even hear it when ve the door to the bathroom opens because that is when I explode into a madness. My arousal pours fromin a waterfall of pleasure and I tremble and whimper, my body shuddering as I bless myself with back to back orgasms. "Holy fuck," a deep voice says, and it sounds like the bearer is in pain.

I scream, shooting up straight along the bench and closing my arms around myself before turning off the water. I'm barely able to make out Bartlett's distorted form behind the rain glass doors and when I realize what's just happened I want to die. God, no! He just heard all that Oh my G "What are you doing?" I shout, embarrassed. "Why are you here?"

He walks forward, closing the bathroom door behind him as he om does and my heart burns inside my chest. "I thought I heard you screaming for me. I thought... I heard you call my name."