“I don’t have a plan,” Lucas said. “Dad wants me to keep on trying to bombard her with my company. I don’t know how to let him down gently that won’t work.” He frowned, thinking about what his father said before he left. “Do you guys know anything about a loophole within being mated? My dad said I needed to win Mabel before she figured it out.”
His friends looked confused.
Seconds passed, then Rupert clicked his fingers. “Yes, that’s it, now I remember. It has to do with mates. Under law, you’re mates. Everyone in the pack knows you are so all prospective males must bow out of the competition, right?”
“That’s not a loophole.”
“Yeah, but there is a vague mention in pack law that states if a mate on either party isn’t satisfied with their other half, then they can make some kind of declaration that will sever any potential tie. If seen to be true that as a mated couple they were not right for each other, the Alpha of the pack has no choice but to declare you to be separated, and under pack law, his word is well, the law. You’d have to follow it until eventually, you believed it?” Rupert said, shrugging. “It has never been done.”
Lucas ran a hand down his face. “She knows. If not now, she will find out. After today. Fuck!”
“Dude, don’t you want this?” Ben asked.
“No!” He glared at his friends. “You guys don’t feel this. You don’t know what it means to … she’s right fucking there. Okay. I know how important she is. I want her and severing that connection isn’t going to work.” It couldn’t work. He refused to believe it was that easy.
“Well, the good news is I happen to ace at pack law,” Rupert said. “Where there is one loophole to help one, there is always another for the opposite party.”
Chapter Two
“Sweetheart, you know you don’t need to come to the pack meeting,” Eliza said.
Mabel smiled at her mother. After the last few days she’d just experienced, she had to do this. The only way for her to come back home for good was to take matters into her own hands. She hadn’t told her parents, but this was the only way. “I want to. It’ll be good. I haven’t been to a pack meeting in like forever. I want to know what I’m missing out on.”
The lies kept on rolling off her tongue, and she hated them.
This wasn’t fun for her, and she didn’t know if this was fun for Lucas. Then again, from what she’d been subjected to in town, she doubted he cared. To everyone around them, he was a victim.
A precious fucking victim.
She shook her head, irritated by the fact so many people felt sorry for him. He didn’t deserve it, but then again, who was she to tell anyone how they should or shouldn’t feel?
She was the last person to be giving advice. She’d tried to run away from her problems, and that hadn’t solved anything.
Following her parents into town, she kept her head bowed and went over the speech she had planned in her head. It was all logical. She’d tried to find other ways, but Lucas had arrived at her parents’ front door every single morning, and she couldn’t do this with him anymore. There had to be a way to sever whatever connection he had.
So, the fates had been cruel in putting them together. Clearly pack law had dealt with this kind of cruelty before, which was why she intended to demand to be severed. The town hated her right now, anyway. Might as well give them something to really talk about.
She tried not to panic as she entered the large town hall. She had no idea how they were able to keep the civilians out of pack matters, but Duke had his ways.
She took a seat in the back with her parents.
People kept turning toward her, glaring in her direction. Up on the stage, she spotted Duke at the podium, glasses perched on his nose as he looked through paperwork. His wife, children, and there was Lucas.
His gaze was on her, and she quickly averted her gaze.
You can do this. You can do this.
When everyone was there, the doors were shut and Duke stood up. He went through all the necessary notifications and complaints that usually came around. He helped to keep the entire pack from killing each other.
“Right, does anyone have any other order of business?” Duke asked.
Her heart pounded, and she stood up as did many others. She kept her gaze away from Lucas, not wanting to look at him. The wolf inside her wanted to go see Lucas, but she couldn’t allow herself to give in to him. Even her wolf was conflicted at times. She wanted Lucas, and at the same time, she didn’t.