The Mating Rules
Chapter 26

Caden’s POV

‘Alpha’ came one of the gate guards voices in my head, ‘Beta Jamie-Lee left the pack grounds about fifteen minutes ago, umm I don’t want to sound like I’m questioning you or anything but you are OK with that?’

I frown in surprise, I didn’t know she had a date with Carrington tonight, normally she tells us when she’s going somewhere with the other so everyone knows what’s going on. It also means that we can make sure that both of us get equal time with her and won’t turn up at her room to replace she’s not there, worrying our wolves.

‘She was in Carrington’s truck?’ I send back, swallowing my annoyance that neither of them told me.

‘No sir, she’s in warrior Dexter’s car’ comes the reply.

OK that’s even weirder, where is Dexter taking her.

‘Dexter is with her?’ I snap, slightly harsher than I meant to as I try to keep Cobalt in check. He is pacing back and forth in my mind, growling angrily at the thought of another wolf being around our mate alone. At least Dexter is mated, an unmated male taking Jamie-Lee out of the pack territory would have my wolf forcing a shift and chasing her down.

‘Dexter is on guard duty at the south border’ the gate guard replies quickly, ‘Warrior Ashleigh was driving, she said you were aware of their plans. I let them go but something was nagging at me, and I thought I better contact you, just to verify.’

s**t, ‘was anyone else in the car?’ I ask, rubbing my hand down my face in frustration.

‘Yes sir’ the warrior replies, sounding worried, ‘Beta Bailee was also in the car, by the looks of their outfits I’m pretty sure they were going dancing or something.’ I can feel his panic through the mind link as he mutters, ‘you didn’t know did you?’

‘No warrior, I didn’t know’ I retort angrily, cutting off the link and scrambling off my bed so I can search out some shoes.

Ashleigh, I growl to myself, that damn she wolf is trouble incarnate, whatever she’s talked my mate into is not going to be a good idea.

Stomping around my room, I pull off the sweatpants I’m wearing, throwing on some clean jeans and a dark blue button down and pulling on my shoes before grabbing my keys and heading out of the door to my room.

Taking the stairs two at a time, I storm out of the pack house and toward my truck, sliding in before gunning the engine, swearing under my breath.

Throwing it in to gear, I back out of my space before hesitating briefly, my heart is telling me to get my a*s on the highway and track down my mate but my head is reminding me that I’m not her only mate and that if the roles were reversed, I’d expect Carrington to let me know what was going on.

Growling loudly, I pull away from the pack house, heading down the road and turning left toward the warrior housing rather than right toward the pack gates.

Pulling up outside of Carrington’s house minutes later, I cut the engine and climb out, stalking up his pathway and rapping my knuckles on the door.

Seconds later, the door opens to reveal the a*****e I loathe, ‘Star’ he drawls, my own dislike mirrored in his gaze as he looks me over.

‘Carrington’ I reply, holding his stare until he looks away.

‘What are you doing here, it’s not like you to slum it with the lower ranks’ he mutters, getting my back up.

‘I’m not here to shoot the s**t, I need to talk to you’ I snap back, ‘so are you going to continue to be a d**k or are you going to let me in?’

Studying me for a split second, Carrington takes a step back, giving me room to enter.

Walking through the door, I move aside so he can close it behind me, waiting until he jerks his head and leads the way toward his living room.

‘Take a seat’ he offers, waving a hand toward one of the plush chairs that sit across from a couch, a coffee table between them.

Picking one, I sit, Carrington sitting across from me, crossing his arms over his chest as he stares me down.

‘Why are you here?’ he asks finally, ‘I doubt it’s a social call.’

I shake my head, ‘it’s about Jamie-Lee’ I reply, noticing the stiffening of his body at her ame.

‘I’m not rejecting her so you can f**k off if you came to ask me too’ the warrior snarls testily.

I scoff, ‘that’s not why I’m here’ I growls back, ‘she’s left the territory with her sister and friend. As she’s your mate too, I figured you’d want to know.’

Carrington’s eyes widen in surprise, ‘you came to tell me she left the pack lands’ he repeated, ‘you sent her with warriors I assume, so why tell me.’

I rub my chin wearily, ‘because she doesn’t have any warriors with her’ I admit, ‘I didn’t know she was going anywhere, the guard contacted me. Ashleigh convinced him that they had my permission, i***t didn’t think to check until they were gone.’

Across from me Carrington pales, ‘she’s out of the pack, alone’ he murmured.

I nod, ‘yeah, I’m going to get her, but I thought you’d want to come along, we can start in the hot clubs and work our way out.’

The warrior jumps to his feet, his eyes wild as he stares at me, ‘why are you so damn calm?’ he hisses, ‘she’s out there alone Star!’

I nod, ‘yes, I just told you that a*****e’ I growled back, ‘I said I’m going to get her.’

Carrington laughs harshly, ‘what if you get there and it’s too damn late?’ he snaps.

Frowning, I stand up, suddenly nervous, ‘what do you mean’ I ask.

The warrior throws his hands in the air, ‘she’s unmarked a*****e!’ he roars, ‘she’s over twenty one! If any wolf realises her age, they could take her, hold her until the full moon and forcefully mark her!’

I stumble back slightly at his words, ‘no-one would do that, she’s our mate, everyone knows that’ I reply hoarsely.

Carrington glares at me, ‘yeah, our pack knows that, but no other pack does.’ He started to pace in front of me, ‘does she even smell like you? An Alpha scent would act as a deterrent at least.’

I shook my head, ‘I haven’t seen her since this morning and I assume if she was going out she would have showered anyway.’ My gut is churning, Cobalt is now on edge at the thought of something happening to our mate.

‘This is why she was only supposed to leave the pack with one of us’ Carrington is raging, ‘to protect her. The only place she went alone was to work and that’s because the building is guarded as well as the pack is.’ He pulls at his hair in frustration, ‘I was prepared for the thought of losing her to you, but I’m not accepting some other a*****e taking her from me, no f*****g way.’

I nod, fishing my keys out of my pocket, ‘get yourself ready, you have three minutes before I leave’ I snap, heading toward the door.

Carrington races up the stairs, and I hear the banging of drawers and doors before he reappears beside me two minutes later tucking in a shirt to his jeans, shoes in his hand.

‘let’s go’ he orders, opening the door and waving me out of it.

Nodding, I move my a*s, climbing into my car, the warrior sliding into the passenger seat, pulling his shoes on as I slam the truck into gear and tear away from his house toward the pack border.

I don’t even slow for the entrance guards, choosing to mind link them instead to stay the hell out of my way. They obviously heard the order in my voice as I didn’t even see them as we flew past the boundary heading toward the town.

‘Where do we start?’ Carrington asks beside me, his knee bouncing with anxiety.

‘We will start at Knox’ I decide, ‘it’s the biggest club and the owner does work with my dad, so we won’t have any problems getting in.’ I kept to myself that it was also a wolf only club so the place with the most risk to an unmated she wolf.

The tightening of Carrington’s fists around his pant legs gave me the feeling that he was also aware of just how many werewolves attended that particular venue.

Wordlessly, I pushed my foot further to the floor, urging the truck forward, closer to our mate. I couldn’t bare to lose her to some bastard mutt who took a liking to her. Jamie-Lee was beautiful, she’d attract attention without even trying. As much as I hated to admit it, Carrington was right, I’d also reluctantly come to terms with the fact that my mate might not choose me when the time came, and had semi made peace with the fact that I may have to feel the pain of rejection and watch her walk away with the warrior beside me. The thought of another wolf claiming her? That was something I couldn’t begin to accept, in my mind Cobalt was growling menacingly, clawing at my mind, itching to get out and hunt his mate down, protect her.

Ahead, the bright lights of the night club came into view and I slowed the truck down as I pulled into the parking lot looking for a space.

‘Over there’ Carrington growled beside me, pointing to a gap to the right.

Nodding, I made my way toward it, slipping between the two vehicles either side and cutting the engine, climbing out quickly, the warrior beside me.

‘Let’s go’ I muttered, striding toward the entrance, the warrior a step behind me. For the first time I was thankful for him being here, if someone had her, things would go south fast and having an equally strong warrior beside me would keep odds in my favour.