Patience
Forbes
Mates, Book 2
Dreamspinner
Press
Cover
by Reese Dante
Release
date: 3/7/2016
230
pages
Blurb:
Jamie Ryan was almost ready to accept he’d never find his
destined mate. They’re uncommon to begin with and same-sex versions downright
rare. Since his gay best friend found a destined mate, Jamie figured he was out
of luck. Until end of semester stress forces him to go through the full-moon
shift early. Stuck in wolf form, he runs into none other than his destined
mate. Who’s human.
Chad Sutton has always had good instincts. They served him well
as a detective and continued on when he went private. Those instincts tell him
there’s something about the dog that comes up to him while running away from
animal control that isn’t quite right. He works to put the pieces together, but
is unsuccessful until his dog turns into a human before his eyes.
Jamie has no idea what
a shifter mate bite will do to a human. He’s terrified to try—and possibly kill
his mate. They hunt together for answers while working together on a case for
Chad. It’s easy to see they belong together, but Jamie fears the gods gave him
someone he can’t keep.
Excerpt:
Jamie threw back another shot and set the glass on the bar. It was days
like this that made him wish to hell his metabolism wasn’t so damned fast.
Thanks to his wolf, there wasn’t much he could do. His body processed alcohol almost
as fast as he could drink it.
It didn’t help that he’d been feeling out of sorts the
whole day. After his last final, he’d loaded the rest of his things from his
dorm room into his car. All through it, he’d felt just… off. He couldn’t
wait until he got back out to pack lands and Tanner and Finley’s house. They
both insisted he take one of the spare rooms when he wasn’t on campus.
He hadn’t wanted to at first. He wasn’t sure he wanted to
sit around and watch Tanner and Finley be loving and physical. It wasn’t so
much that he still had feelings for Finley. He didn’t, thank the gods. It was
more of a different sort of jealousy. Now that he’d seen what it was to have a
mate, he wanted one of his own—badly.
Tanner and Finley had tried to set him up with their friend
the pack doctor, Miles. While Jamie could admit Miles was most definitely hot,
with his long red hair and lean physique, Miles wasn’t his destined
mate. And they got along well enough, but he didn’t even feel the interest with
Miles he had with Finley. Luckily for both of them, Miles felt the same. They’d
been able to occasionally fuck and be good friends, but that’s as far as it had
gone.
Thankfully, Tanner and Finley weren’t as bad as he’d
expected. They kept most of their physical stuff to their bedroom, with the
occasional touch and kiss in front of him. So going back there for holidays and
breaks wasn’t as bad as he’d been afraid it would be.
And now he wanted nothing more than to get on the road and
make the hour-and-a-half-in-traffic trip back. His wolf had been prodding him
for a while, and he needed to shift and run, let him loose.
Jamie tried to think of the last time he’d shifted outside
of the full moon. When he realized he wasn’t sure, it made sense that he was so
antsy. He was rather surprised he hadn’t started chasing the mailman down the
street or chewing on his roommate’s slippers. Their kind had an unfortunate
tendency to display horribly doglike behaviors—in human form—when they didn’t
shift often enough. The worst of the side effects included full-blown attention
deficit issues. Considering he was at the tail end of his junior year in
college and squeaking through finals, Jamie counted himself lucky he’d managed
to keep from any of that.
The prodding was undoubtedly the reason he was feeling out
of sorts. His wolf prowled just under the surface, and he wondered if he
shouldn’t just tell his friends good-bye and head home.
“Come on, man! You’re being a lightweight tonight,” his
roommate, Dwayne, said, shoving another shot at him. “You usually drink all of
us under the table.”
“I gotta drive home, dude,” Jamie said. He wasn’t about to
explain that it didn’t matter how many shots he had, he could sober up in no
time and still drive.
“You can crash on my couch,” Troy offered.
Jamie turned to his other friend and shook his head. “Naw,
it’s okay. I guess I can do a couple more.” He picked up another glass and
lifted it to his lips, then stopped when he realized the fine hairs on the back
of his hand weren’t quite so fine. He blinked, confused, since his vision was
still normal.
Right then, the colors faded to grays. Jamie downed the
shot quickly and closed his eyes, pretending to struggle to swallow the liquor,
trying to fight his wolf back into its place.
Not yet. Just a little longer.
When he opened his eyes, the color was back, but his wolf
was even closer to the surface. He glanced at his watch—a digital with the moon
phases on it, just in case—but the full moon was still more than two days away.
The date didn’t seem to matter, though. Jamie was losing the fight against his
wolf, and he needed to get out of there—fast.
“Dude, you okay?” Troy asked, peering at him.
Dwayne was grinning from the other side. “I think he
finally had one too many.”
Jamie jumped on the excuse. “Uh, yeah. Something with that
last shot. Need some air. Sorry.” With that, he hurried out to the street and
took a deep breath. Unfortunately, Forbes Avenue in the heart of
Oakland—Pittsburgh’s college district—wasn’t the best place for fresh air. All
he got for his trouble was two lungs full of exhaust and a burning nose. He
knew better—he’d been fighting the stench of city for most of the last two
years—and he cursed himself for doing it anyway.
Shaking his head at himself, he darted past the Dunkin’
Donuts and the door to The O, then around the corner, looking for a quick place
to hide. His vision turned gray again, and he struggled to hold his wolf back
at least until he could get hidden. He ducked into the alley just beyond the
building and let out a breath.
Before he could think of how to handle this, his wolf broke
through, and Jamie found himself forced through the shift. His gums itched as
his teeth dropped, his claws extended, and fur erupted over his skin. His bones
and muscles realigned, and seconds later, he landed on four paws.
He shook himself hard and gave himself just a moment to
savor being in his fur again. But this was not the place for him to be in wolf
form. He was too far away from Schenley Park, or any other park, for
that matter. Never mind the fact that wolves didn’t wander around in city
parks. They weren’t even truly native to this region, much less would they be
found in a park completely surrounded by city.
He prodded his wolf, trying to nudge him back so he could
take his human form again. However, his wolf refused to relinquish control.
Jamie struggled, trying to internally reason with his wolf—if he could go back
to human, he could get home to the forest and shift for a while. His wolf
wouldn’t listen. He was getting truly worried now, when his human side couldn’t
pull the lupine side back.
No matter what he did, he couldn’t seem to get control.
Huffing, Jamie sat and considered his options, though there were very few. He
could keep trying to shift, but he suspected that would be an exercise in futility.
He could try to get to his car… except there was no way he could get the door
open, even if he could get down the street and through the garage unseen.
He turned to his clothes and nosed through the pile of
denim scraps that used to be his jeans. He managed to pull his phone out with
his mouth, but the screen wouldn’t recognize the touch of his paw. Not that he
knew what he’d do anyway. Call Finley, maybe. But that obviously wasn’t an
option.
He looked toward the street but knew that was a bad idea,
no matter how much he wanted to get away. Until he was human again, he didn’t
dare risk venturing out of the alley. That left the other direction.
Jamie looked down at his clothes, then left them to explore
the short distance to the back wall. He found milk crates, a huge trash
compactor, the currently raised bottom of a fire escape, a couple of recycling
bins, and not much else. A door that presumably led into the kitchen of The O
sat in the wall to his right. At the end of the alley, it turned in an L-shape
into a tiny parking lot Jamie hadn’t known was there.
It was dark enough no one should be able to see him, so he
figured his best bet at this point was find a spot in the corner and wait.
Hopefully, after some rest and time in his fur, his wolf would let go and he
could get back into his human skin.
He nosed open one of the recycling bins first. It took a
couple of trips, but he got his clothes, shoes, watch, phone, and wallet into
the bin. Even if they ended up in a dump somewhere, he didn’t want them just
lying out on the ground where someone could steal them. Once he was human
again, he could fish them out, but until then at least they were out of sight.
He found a quiet spot under the fire escape and behind the
door to settle in. With a sigh, he lay down and rested his head on his paws to
wait.
*
* *
If you haven’t read it yet, now would be a great time to check out Devotion, Forbes Mates #1 and where you
get to meet Jamie first. Find out more
about Devotion and see how you can
get Tanner and Finley’s story here: http://www.grace-duncan.com/devotion
.
About the Author:
Grace Duncan grew up with a wild imagination. She
told stories from an early age – many of which got her into trouble.
Eventually, she learned to channel that imagination into less troublesome
areas, including fanfiction, which is what has led her to writing male/male
erotica.
A gypsy in her own right, Grace has lived all
over the United States. She has currently set up camp in East Texas with
her husband and children – both the human and furry kind.
As one of those rare creatures who loves
research, Grace can get lost for hours on the internet, reading up on any
number of strange and different topics. She can also be found writing
fanfiction, reading fantasy, crime, suspense, romance and other erotica or even
dabbling in art.
Find
Grace here:
No comments:
Post a Comment