“Usually most everyone goes in one big group, and enough alphas
stay behind here to make sure the houses remain safe.”
“Okay, sure. I’d like to go with you.”
74 Marcy Jacks
Did he sound so easy about it because there would be other people there and he wouldn’t have to worry about being alone with him? Granted, Chris was alone with Eli all the time whenever they were in his cabin together, but that wasn’t the same as being alone at the pond, with no one else in a shouting distance. Here, there would always be other people still wandering about. Omegas who did their chores, alphas exercising, and the pups who chased each other around.
The sun was setting. The sky was transforming into a light shade of lavender. Eli had always liked the sunsets. Eric had once accused him of being romantic like that, and he’d punched his brother in the eye for the offense.
He’d been right.
“It’s going to be a nice night,” he said. The crickets were already chirping, and a few lightning bugs were already making their
appearance.
“Yes,” Chris agreed. “There’s Venus.”
“What?”
Chris pointed. “That star right there. That’s Venus.”
There was only one star out right now, so it was easy to find.
“Huh, didn’t know that.”
The moon was already up in the sky as well, full and majestic, but not glowing so brightly since the sun was still up.
Just the sight of that moon made Eli want to howl. It also made him want to mate.
“Maybe I should pack it in, call it an early night,” Eli said, getting up from his rocker. The pull of that full moon called to his blood, and with Chris standing so close, it was gonna be torture before the end of the night.
“Oh, uh, you want me to head back?”
Of course not. I want to fuck you. “I just…no, it’s the moon, is all.”
Chris looked mildly alarmed. “I thought the full moon didn’t
affect you.”
Eli’s Reluctant Mate 75
“I won’t shift or anything like that. That usually just happens to new wolves. But I haven’t mated with you yet, and, well…” He decided to let Chris fill in the rest for himself.
Chris’s face turned a pretty shade of red right before he looked away. “Oh.”
“Yeah. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Eli hurried inside, shut the door, and was pulling his shirt off in an attempt to stall the heat he felt coming on. It was going to be a long night.
* * * *
Chris got up from the comfortable rocker he’d been sitting in and started back for the cabin where he was staying.
He wasn’t exactly naive enough to think that Eli was just going to be taking a cold shower and that would be the end of it for him. He was going to be touching himself, and he was going to be thinking about Chris as he did it.
The thought made him blush, and not for the first time in the last five days, he really wished he wasn’t such a coward.
“Oh, hey, Chris.”
Chris stopped and turned. The sudden sharp thumping in his chest calmed and returned to a normal beat once he saw Andrew.
The alpha was leaning on the side of one of the cabins, his bent leg up and foot resting against the siding. He had his hand, and the soda he was holding, resting on his upturned knee.
Chris smiled at the sight of him. He turned and walked over to the other man. “Hi, Andrew.”
Andrew had a cooler beside him, and he reached down and pulled out another soda, lifting it from the sloshing ice, and handed it to Chris. “Calling it a night?”
“Yeah, soon I guess,” Chris said, flipping open the tab. He’d just had something sugary with Eli, but he was still trying to make friends here.
76 Marcy Jacks
Andrew nodded and took a swig from his can. “Yeah, full moons can get a little crazy around here.”
As though accenting the man’s point, there was a long and loud moan that sounded from one of the cabins. Chris didn’t know where it
came from or recognize the voice.
He lifted the can to his mouth for a drink, hoping to hide the rush
of heat to his cheeks.
If Andrew noticed, he didn’t say anything.
“You don’t seem affected,” Chris said, suddenly realizing that
Andrew was out here with a cooler of cold drinks, and not inside with
a mate.
Andrew shrugged. “Don’t have a mate.”
Chris didn’t know the other werewolves very well, but he had hung out with Andrew a time or two when he wasn’t with Eli. From what he’d learned, Andrew wasn’t exactly a man of many words. For the most part.
He hadn’t said a lot, but the tone of his voice suggested how unhappy the fact that he had no mate made him.
Now Chris felt kind of bad. “Don’t you…I mean, doesn’t it bother you that you don’t have a choice. That someday someone will come along and that will be the end of it for you?”
Andrew took another drink from his soda can. He stared at it when
he responded. “No. I’m looking forward to it. For the most part.”
“The most part?”
Now Andrew did look at him. The other man smiled a little, and
when a howl and a moan sounded from another one of the cabins, he
even laughed. “A little nervous to be honest. I think it’s great that so many of our gay or bi males are finding mates with other males. My only worry is that I won’t be among them.”
“You’re worried you won’t find a mate?”
Andrew sighed, looking up at the coming stars. “It’ll happen eventually, so I’m told, but I’m not bisexual or just curious about it. I
am gay. Now that I see all the guys finding mates with their own sex,
Eli’s Reluctant Mate 77
I want that, too. I don’t want to be mated to a woman. Up until recently, I thought that was going to happen no matter what. Now…” He trailed off.
“I just think the others are really lucky to have what they have.”
Chris shouldn’t feel as bad as he did. Even though
