Patience Page 11

  “You could always go to Denver,” Miles suggested.

  Jamie looked over at Chad when he felt the confusion. “The main headquarters for the American wolf packs.”

  “Ah,” Chad said, nodding. “That makes sense. Well, we should look here first, though, right?” He paused. “Do they have anything online?”

  It was Tanner who answered. “No. They’re still too concerned that the wrong person could get ahold of the information. There are too many people who are just too good at accessing things we really do not need to get out.”

  “I can understand that,” Chad said, nodding. “In fact, I deal with a good chunk of that kind of information.”

  Tanner raised an eyebrow.

  Jamie chuckled. “You know my major? That’s what he does.”

  “Wow,” Finley said, drawing Jamie’s attention. “That would be creepy if I didn’t believe in the gods.”

  “I know, me too,” Jamie replied.

  Carol returned with coffee cups and set them down on the table. “Sorry it took so long. I had to make more.” She considered the two of them. “You haven’t claimed him yet?”

  Jamie shook his head. “I’m not sure yet what my bite will do to him. We need to research it.”

  She inclined her head. “Of course. When you do, we’d love to have a party at the clearing for you.”

  Jamie blushed, glancing at Chad. “Even though he’s not a wolf?”

  She simply blinked at him. “He’s still your mate and part of the pack, isn’t he? All matings—especially destined—should be celebrated.”

  Jamie winced when he realized the hurt he felt was coming from Chad again. He turned to Chad, ducking his head. “I’m sorry. I keep sticking my foot in my mouth.”

  The hurt eased a little and Chad kissed his temple. “It’s okay, baby. This is new to both of us.”

  “And us,” Noah added.

  “Right,” Jamie said, sitting back up. “So, uh, if it’s okay with Chad, then, yes. Wait….” He frowned. “It’s only alphas and future alphas who—”

  “Gods, yes,” Tanner muttered.

  Jamie let out a sigh of relief.

  Chad leaned in to him. “What am I missing?”

  “Tell you that one later.” He had no wish to explain public claiming to Chad right then. To the rest of the room, he said, “So… could we look at your library? And Miles, Tanner, and Finley, would you be able to help us?” He ignored the small spike of jealousy, knowing Chad couldn’t help it.

  “Of course,” Tanner said, standing.

  “First,” Finley said, reaching for him, “we need to talk. I need to borrow your mate for a moment, Chad, but don’t worry. Tanner would kill me if I so much as looked at him with a leer.”

  Tanner snorted and Chad laughed, which Jamie knew was what Finley was going for.

  Noah stood. “Let me show you the library and see what we can find.”

  Finley waited until the rest of the room had emptied, then rounded on Jamie. “What’s wrong?”

  Jamie frowned, then sighed and flopped back onto the love seat. He knew better than to try to lie—Finley would smell it. And really, he needed his friend. He was about to go crazy. “He asked me to move my things into his apartment this morning.”

  “Okay, so, you need to get the rest of your stuff from our place, then, right? But… wait, why are you frowning?”

  Jamie blinked at him. “Fin, he just found out I was human yesterday. Or, well, not a dog.”

  “Yeah, and?”

  “And? Isn’t it a bit fast for that?”

  Finley scrunched his forehead. “What? What is?”

  “Moving in!” Jamie sighed and dropped his head back.

  “Why would that be fast?”

  Jamie looked over at Finley, who looked completely lost. Jamie frowned, kicking at the leg of the coffee table. “He’s human, Fin. What if he doesn’t want me?” He didn’t see Finley move, so the smack to the back of his head shocked him. “What the fuck?”

  “Really? I thought you trusted the gods, Jamie.”

  Jamie stared at him. “I do, but—”

  “But. If Chad had been a wolf, you wouldn’t have hesitated, would you? You’d have unloaded your car yesterday, bitten him last night, and be fully mated this morning, wouldn’t you?”

  Jamie had no argument for that because Finley was right and they both knew it.

  “Why does him being human change that?”

  Jamie took a moment to answer so he was sure he worded it right. “What happens to a human mate if they decide to break the bond?” He looked up at Finley when he finished, so he didn’t miss the eye roll.

  “Why is everyone so fucking convinced people are going to break the bond?”

  Jamie winced. That had been Tanner’s very problem between the two of them, convinced Finley would get antsy, feel trapped, and want to go experience things if they mated while Finley had been so young. Tanner had been the unfortunate witness to his best friend’s mate bond being broken. Except Eric’s mate had been a chosen, not destined, but Tanner hadn’t realized the difference.

  And now, Jamie realized, he was behaving just like Tanner had. He was expecting because Chad was different—human instead of young, yes, but otherwise the same thing—that he’d end up breaking the bond.

  Jamie sighed, closed his eyes, and tried to sort through the jumble of thoughts in his head.

  “If you trust your wolf and the gods, Jamie, this should be a no-brainer.” Finley sighed. “Part of this is my fault, isn’t it?”

  Jamie’s head snapped up and he frowned at his friend. Yet again, though, he knew better than to try to lie. “I… shit. It’s not….” He sighed. “In a way. Not… this is not going to come out right, okay?”

  Finley nodded.

  “I didn’t love you. But… I had really hoped we would end up together. I told you then I wasn’t a nice person, Fin. To a degree, I’d hoped he wouldn’t come for you.”

  Finley shocked him again. “I know that, dork.”

  Jamie blinked. “You did?”

  “Well, yeah. I mean, okay, I didn’t know that. But it was a pretty safe bet. But I still chose Tanner over you.”

  “Yeah, you did.”

  “I’m sorry, Jamie. I shouldn’t have even suggested dating you.” Finley frowned. “Not because I wouldn’t have wanted you. But because you deserve a lot better than that. But… try to think of it this way. My trip to Oregon? My reaction to the phone call? Tanner going after me and claiming me—finally? I’d bet the cost of our house that the gods did all that for a reason.”

  “You think so?” Jamie asked.

  Finley nodded. “Yeah, I do. Would you have ever come out to Pittsburgh if you hadn’t met me?”

  Jamie didn’t bother to answer. Yet again, they both knew what it would be.

  “There’s a really good chance Chad may never have ended up in your path otherwise.”

  Jamie chewed on his lip as he thought it through. “You’re right.” He sighed and dropped his head back again. “I think I love him already.”

  “Not surprising, Jamie. He’s a great guy. And hot.”

  Jamie couldn’t stop the surge of jealousy. He blushed, abashed. “Chad’s going to wonder about that,” he muttered.

  “What?”

  Jamie laughed. “I just got jealous over that.”

  Finley grinned. “Good. Trust in the gods, Jamie. Trust in your bond. Trust your wolf. And give Chad some credit. He seems like an intelligent guy. I’d think if he didn’t believe in it, he wouldn’t be here.”

  Jamie swallowed. Fear he couldn’t quite contain flared. He wanted to believe it would work out.

  Right then, he felt Chad’s worry. A moment later, Chad stood in the doorway. “Is everything okay?”

  Jamie stared at Chad, who’d followed the mate bond and come looking for him because of what had come across that link. He got up, crossed the room, and stopped right in front of his mate. He reached up and cupped a cheek. “Think we
could stop by their place—” He tossed his head toward Finley. “—and pick up the rest of my stuff? It should fit in the Challenger.”

  He was nearly blasted by happiness across their connection.

  Chad yanked him in and kissed him hard.

  Jamie let the relief flow to Chad, returning the kiss with everything he had rioting through him, giving over all his worry, fear, and, yes, love.

  When they broke apart, Chad stared at him. “You do?”

  Jamie didn’t even pretend to not know what he was asking. He swallowed. “I’m afraid, Chad. But yes. I know it’s fast, I know you pr—”

  Chad cut him off with another kiss. They broke apart, and Chad cupped his face in a palm. “I love you too. I can’t do anything about the fear, not yet. We’ll figure this out—the bite and claiming—but I know it. Deep down, I feel it. I may not have a wolf, but I feel the bond, I felt the pull, and I know in my core that you’re for me.” He brushed a thumb over Jamie’s cheekbone. “The rest will just take time, but I can be a patient man. I’ll show you.”

  Jamie swallowed, took a deep breath, and nodded. “Thank you. You’re amazing.”

  Chad flashed him a grin. “Remind yourself of that the next time you get mad at me.”

  Jamie laughed. “Right. You can remind me.”

  “Oh, I will. Come on. Let’s see if we can find something about human mates.”

  THEY COMBED through the library, which was larger than Chad had expected it to be. He didn’t realize how much had been written about the shifters. It still wasn’t huge by any stretch of the imagination. But there’d been a respectable number of books on religion, law, medicine, and history. Chad would have loved to read through every one of them, but he wanted the answers to the human-mate thing first.

  Miles dug through the medical books, but apparently they didn’t have anything he hadn’t already read before. There was a bit of information on the differences in physiology, but not much more. And nothing at all about human mating bites or claiming.

  None of the religion texts touched on human mates. Tanner had gone through those, but after reading enough to make his eyes cross—as he put it—he’d had to conclude they were, as far as humans went, useless. The only references to humans involved the rules on how to and how not to treat them.

  The law books weren’t any better. All they talked about was the need for secrecy, what kinds of punishments were involved in talking about shifters to humans, and what exceptions were allowed. The only reference anywhere in those books to human mates were that they were one of the few exceptions to those rules.

  Jamie went through the history books, with Finley’s help. They were relieved to find a few references to human mates. Unfortunately, that was all they found, and nothing more about those particular figures. The few times the human’s wolf mate was mentioned elsewhere was only about what they were otherwise known for—like a particularly interesting battle, the passing of a law, or something to that effect.

  Chad was quite frustrated with the whole thing. But by the time the sun was setting and Carol was serving thick hamburgers, they had to concede defeat.

  As they were getting ready to eat, Chad’s phone rang. He groaned when he glanced at the caller ID. “Hi, Mom.”

  “Well, that sounded happy.”

  “Sorry, doing some research and not coming up with the information I need. What’s up?”

  “Well, since you can’t be bothered to call your mother, I have to be the one to dial the phone.”

  Chad snorted. “I replied to your e-mail yesterday. I sent you a text this morning. You’re hilarious.”

  She laughed. “I can’t pull off Jewish Mother?”

  “Not very well. Did you want something?”

  She gave a long-suffering sigh. “Doesn’t even take time to chat.”

  “Stop talking to Remus. He isn’t going to answer,” Chad said, chuckling. Then he glanced at Jamie, who smirked at him. Mom’s dog, he mouthed and Jamie laughed.

  “Who is that?” his mom asked.

  “That is my… boyfriend, Mom,” Chad said, stumbling over the word. He didn’t think she’d get “mate.”

  “Your boyfriend? When did this happen? Who is it? What’s he like? Where did you meet him? When are you bringing him for dinner?”

  Chad let her fire off more questions, waiting until she took a breath, then cut in. “I’ll answer all of them, just not all now. His name is Jamie. I’ll be happy to bring him to dinner, soon. I promise, okay?”

  “When? I didn’t even know you were dating.”

  “It’s a fairly recent thing, Mom. How about I e-mail you about dinner, okay? We were about to sit down to some now.”

  “Okay. Just so you don’t wait until next month, hmm?”

  Chad looked over at Jamie again, who nodded. “I promise. I’ll e-mail tomorrow morning.”

  “How soon is she going to push for us to go?” Jamie asked when Chad had taken his seat again.

  Chad laughed. “I’ll be surprised if we make it to Friday.”

  Jamie paled a little and Chad felt the anxiety. “Uh… what if—”

  “She’ll love you. Now, eat your burgers. You need to put some meat on those bones.” He kissed Jamie’s cheek, then picked up his own.

  “You two already act like you’re mated, you know that?” Tanner asked, chuckling.

  “What? We do?” Jamie asked, looking up.

  Finley grinned. “Yeah. I swear he can read your mind.”

  Chad flashed them a smile. “I just get him, I think.”

  Jamie looked over at him, blinking. “You do, don’t you?”

  “Yeah. And you get me. So you know I’m hungry, right?”

  Jamie snorted and threw his napkin. “If you’re not working, you’re hungry.”

  “Exactly,” Chad agreed.

  “How long did you say you stayed with him, Jamie?” Noah asked.

  Jamie looked at Chad. “Um… help me out. I don’t keep track of time well in wolf form.”

  “Four days,” Chad said, when he finished chewing. “Well, three and a half, sort of. We met on Saturday, early.”

  Jamie nodded. “That sounds about right. I’d been pulled through the shift on Friday.” He took a bite and chewed thoughtfully. “It’s an interesting thing, being in wolf form around humans. You can pick up on more than in human form. Like… I was pretty sure I could smell anxiety and the like better. I know I can hear quieter sounds better. And despite the gray scale to everything, I think I can pick up on details better.”

  “That makes sense. We go much more on instinct then, focus less on so much of the stuff humans get caught up in,” Finley pointed out.

  “We’re also taught young how to filter a lot of stuff out, when it comes to sound and smell,” Tanner added. “We get so used to that, it takes effort not to ignore it.”

  Chad nodded. “That makes a lot of sense.” He chuckled, looking over at Jamie. “I ought to take you with me in wolf form on jobs more often.”

  Jamie raised his eyebrows. “You know… that’s not a half-bad idea.”

  “Uh…,” Noah said, drawing their attention. “Do you really think you can do that without being obvious?”

  “He’s really good at hiding things,” Chad said, smiling when Jamie looked over. He knew he was broadcasting his pride and wanted Jamie to feel it. Jamie smiled and blushed. “We met a contact I have on the force, and he totally had the guy believing he was a pet dog.”

  Miles actually laughed at this. “There are some wolves out there that would take so much offense. My old pack was bad about that. It was all about image for some of them.”

  “I licked my balls,” Jamie said, making everyone laugh. “Scratched myself, sniffed his crotch, the whole thing.”

  “He was awesome,” Chad said, grinning again. “Then he got me out of an awkward conversation. I still owe you one for that.” He leaned over and kissed Jamie’s red cheek.

  Noah looked over with an eyebrow raised, then shook his hea
d. “Don’t get caught,” he warned. “Otherwise… I’d love to see that.”

  Jamie blushed brighter. “Well, I’m not sure I could pull it off in front of my alpha. Sorry.” He ended it with a mumble.

  Noah just laughed, though. “It’s all right.”

  They all fell silent for a while as they ate, focusing on the thick, juicy burgers Carol had made. As they were finishing up, Miles spoke. “I wonder if you couldn’t call Denver. If they don’t have anything, it’d be an awful big waste of time and money to drive all the way out there.”

  “Drive?” Chad asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “Well, it’s that or train,” Finley replied. “Wolves don’t do well in planes. Between the air pressure and being trapped in a little metal tube thousands of feet above the ground….” He shuddered.

  “I’ve flown once,” Tanner said, looking slightly green just at the thought. “I flew out to get Finley when he tried to run to Pennsylvania from Oregon.”

  “There’s a story there,” Chad remarked.

  Jamie grinned. “A good one, too.”

  Tanner and Finley both looked uncomfortable. “Anyway,” Tanner said, shaking his head. “Flying is generally not something we do. If there’s another way to go, we’ll take it.”

  Chad nodded. “I’m actually not that much of a flier myself. It’s not bad. I just prefer to stay on the ground.”

  “I think calling is a good idea,” Noah said. “Why don’t we do that after we finish here?”

  UNFORTUNATELY—THOUGH somehow Chad hadn’t expected otherwise—the national library didn’t know of anything. They had many of the same books Noah did and quite a few more, but according to their calator—their head scholar and cleric—very little had been written about human mates. As a rule, it simply wasn’t done, and he’d never heard of one as a destined mate either.

  “You could call Rome,” he suggested as the call wrapped up.

  “Rome?” Jamie asked, glancing around.

  Noah looked thoughtful, but Tanner and Finley looked as confused as Chad was. Noah nodded as he answered. “The international wolf home. Our alpha magnus is there, along with pretty much everything ever written about us.”