The Mating Rules
Book 2 – Chapter 38

Unknown POV

My pawns have been watching the prize for a couple of days now but one of the idiots has just contacted me, they almost got caught. The damn Alpha spotted something in the bushes where they were hiding, got nervous and bustled my little wolf into the office of that stupid human.

I have no choice now, even though they evaded detection this time, it is only a matter of time before someone sees them.

The downside of having to align myself with the plagues of the world, expendable also means incompetent when you come down to it.

‘Take down the Alpha’ I order into the phone to the general on the other end who is stationed outside of the Motel that my wolf is hiding in. ‘Three times the wolfsbane dosage’ I add as an afterthought, after hearing about how the warrior fought back, I’m not taking any chances with this one.’

‘Yes sir’ the hybrid at the other end of the line replies curtly before it falls dead.

I sigh, placing my own phone on to my desk, and clasp my hands together in front of me as I close my eyes and try to relax. These imbeciles always make me stressed, I hate them all, they are like a plague on the world. Shaking my head, I turn toward better thoughts, soon, soon, I will have my desire and I can rid myself of these annoying ants that scurry around me.

I close my eyes, a smile flickering at the corners of my lips, so close I can almost taste her, come to me my angel, it’s almost time for us to meet again.

Caden’s POV

The old man’s words are rattling around in my head, he was talking about apocalypse type stuff. Surely that can’t be right. I can feel that Jamie-Lee is spooked by the owner’s story so I play it off, pretending that I believe it’s more just an old story handed down rather than something to worry about.

My words seem to calm her and she relaxes as we walk back to our room together.

Reaching our room, we replace Melanie sitting in a chair, blocking access. I’m pleased to see that Mark did take Jamie-lee’s advice and took himself off for some shut eye. The man was almost dead on his feet and I need him on his A game. The guys didn’t replace anything when they searched the bushes, were sure it was a reflection off a wrapper, but Cobalt is on edge and it’s causing me to be nervous too.

Melanie jumps up and bows her head, moving the chair aside so we can enter before placing it back in front of the door and sitting down again. I can’t blame the woman, it’s hot as hades out here and standing outside a door all day isn’t fun in the slightest. I know even in the relaxed state she’s giving off, the warrior is on alert, her eyes sweeping the area constantly looking for trouble.

Closing the door behind us, I g***n inwardly as my phone vibrates in my pocket before the familiar ringtone emanates from it and I pull it out to see my father’s number lighting up the screen.

Jamie-Lee has moved toward the table, taking her seat in front of her tablet, glancing back at me curiously as I hold up the phone. ‘I’ll take this outside so as not to disturb you’ I mutter before opening the door again, Melanie jumping up and moving the chair to the side of the door and sitting down again as I close my mate inside securely.

‘I’ll just stay here Alpha’ the warrior says, indicating her new spot beside the doorframe, ‘save me getting up again when you come back.’

I roll my eyes playfully, I’ve known Mel since we were pups and she was one of the few people who treated me like a real person. I had been a bit put out when she joined my father’s team but it had always been in the cards, her mother was an elite warrior too, she had always dreamed of following in the woman’s footsteps.

‘Keep an eye on Jamie-Lee’ I say quietly, glancing back at the closed door nervously. In my mind Cobalt is still pacing, his ears perked as he whimpers.

Heading away from the door, I turn the phone up to face me, it’s already stopped ringing but just as I’m about to pull up my father’s contact details to return the call, the phone rings again.

Pressing accept, I hold the phone to my ear, ‘Dad’ I sigh in way of a greeting, if the man is ringing me then it must be important, it’s just whether it’s good news or bad news.

‘Caden’ my father replies gruffly, ‘where are you now? Mark tells me that you have moved locations.’

I roll my eyes to the sky, silently asking the Goddess for strength, ‘I can’t tell you that over the phone dad’ I reply evenly, ‘we don’t know who or what we are dealing with right now or how far his reach is.’

My father growls angrily on the other end, ‘no one has infiltrated my pack’ he snarls, ‘or are you accusing me of being aligned against Lee?’ he adds brusquely.

‘No dad’ I reply tiredly, rubbing at my temples as a headache starts to form behind my eyes. ‘But we don’t know if he can hack into a phone call or if he knows exactly where we are and has this whole damn motel rigged with microphones.’

I hear the derisive snort despite my father’s every attempt to cover it and I bite down on my tongue not to snap at him. ‘You watch to many cop shows’ he mutters under his breath, though I’m sure he wanted me to hear him.

‘It is possi . . ‘ I snap my mouth shut, arguing isn’t going to help me here. Taking a deep breath, I start again, ‘I’m just trying to keep my mate safe’ I mutter, ‘I’m sure if it was mum, you would be overly cautious too.’

The Alpha is silent for a beat on the other end and I pull the phone from my ear to check we haven’t been disconnected. ‘True’ my dad admits grudgingly, ‘well I want it known that I do not like the thought of you and Lee at the Capital in an unknown location to the pack.’

I nod, ‘noted’ I reply, ‘and if I can figure out a safe way to let you know where we are, I’ll be sure to use it, but right now I think it’s better we stay off the radar to as many people as possible.’

‘Fine’ my father grunts, effectively ending that portion of our conversation, ‘well the reason I rang . .’

I straighten up, my feet pacing back and forth as I press the phone to my ear harder, please be good news, please be good news.

‘. . . Greg and I have been talking and we are thinking that maybe it’s time for you all to return to the pack.’ My fingers tighten around the phone instinctively as my father’s words hit me hard. He wants me to walk back into that room and tell Jamie-Lee that we are leaving Hadley behind!

‘I don’t think . . ‘ start, but my old man cuts me off immediately.

‘You have mated wolves there Caden’ my father growls in annoyance, ‘and keeping them outside of the pack like this is putting them in danger. You cannot help the warrior right now so you may as well come home until we have more intel.’

A snarl reverberates around my head, Cobalt is standing rigid in my mind, hackles up. ‘And how long do you expect it to take to get more intel on Hadley?’ I spit out angrily.

My father hesitates and the answer crashes down on me, he doesn’t, and by Hadley being out of the way like this, the pack can pretend that Jamie-Lee isn’t double mated and maybe gain favour with the Council again.

‘I’m not leaving my mate’s other mate here dad’ I snap, ‘if the warriors want to go home then I won’t stop them, but Jamie-Lee and I stay here until Hadley is released.’

‘Caden, be reasonable, stop thinking with your c**k for once in your life’ my dad snaps back, all pretence of being the calm caring father is now long gone.

‘I am being reasonable’ I growl back, ‘my mate is hurting because the other part of her soul has been taken from her on a bullshit charge! I can feel her pain dad and I will not add to it by telling her that we are going to leave her mate to rot and come back to the pack to play happy families.’

‘Caden’ my father starts again and I can hear that he’s trying to control his temper, ‘think about the pack son, you need an heir, and with the warrior currently . . . indisposed . . it would be a good . .’

‘What? Good what dad?’ I shout, rage pumping through my veins, ‘Good for the pack to impregnate my mate whilst she worries herself to death about what is happening to her other mate? Yeah that sounds like a brilliant plan because even with the disgustingness of that idea, on a purely selfish level, being pregnant with that kind of stress hanging over her is a recipe for disaster.’

‘Caden’ my father growls and I can hear the order in his tone but I don’t even wait for him to complete the command.

‘We are staying’ I growl right back, putting my own aura into my voice and throwing it down the phone at him. ‘My Luna and I will return when the third member of our family is back with us.’

I pull the phone away from my ear and slam my thumb on the red end call button, swearing bitterly as the screen cracks under the force of the pressure.

Taking a deep breath, I close my eyes for a second, trying to ease the rage from my body, not wanting Jamie-lee to worry as she’ll feel my anger if I don’t get it under control.

Opening my eyes, I look around me and realise that whilst I was pacing, I’ve moved further and further from the Motel packing lot and am actually now standing to the side of the building, hidden amongst the foliage. I curse to myself at my own stupidity, I know better than to walk off alone even with my Alpha strength. I straighten my shoulders and look through the bushes and trees around me, trying to decide what way to go to get back to the car pack. Glancing down, I pot my own footprints and step forward to follow them back just as a rustle of leaves behind me catches me off guard.

I start to turn toward the noise when something pierces my skin and pain flames through my body making me gasp, my hand going up to my neck as a needle is slid out of my skin.

My eyes immediately go heavy and my knees buckle underneath me as I fall to the ground, fighting to remain conscious, I need to get back to Jamie-Lee.

‘Boss was right’ a voice mutters above me, ‘he’s fighting this triple dose, any less and he wouldn’t have gone down.’

‘We need to get him out of here before his guards realise’ a second voice replies gruffly as two arms hook under my armpits and start to drag me deeper into the shrubbery.

The first voice laughs caustically, ‘don’t worry dude, Spencer and Finch have got it covered.’

The two men laugh as I’m dragged across the ground, deeper and deeper until we are spat out on the other side on a small dirt road. I try to open my eyes, finally managing on the third attempt to have hazy faces glaring down at me, slipping in and out of focus.

The first blurry face gets closer, studying me, ‘you’re a strong bastard I’ll give you that’ he huffs before he straightens up and a boot connects with my face over and over until everything around me turns black.