His Perfect Mate [Nehalem Pack 6] (Siren Publishing Classic ManLove) by AJ Jarrett (if you give a mouse a cookie read aloud txt) 📕

Jake pulled his hand from his face to look at him. “Shit!” He quickly shifted to prop up on his elbows. “I didn’t mean for it to come out like that. It’s just you took me by surprise and now you’ve gone and bitten me.” Jake stopped to take a deep breath. “I’m doing this all wrong.”

Carl held Jake’s gaze as he tried to wrap his brain around what he had just confessed. Early that evening Jake talked about how having a mate was a real thing not some made up nonsense like Tobias had told him. He tried to remember exactly what Jake had said.

Someone you love without reason, someone you would die for. Mates share an undeniable pull that can’t be explained. Love.

His mind began to race. He thought back to the first time he met Jake and even while he had a gun pointed at the man’s chest something inside him screamed for him to stop.

Then when Jake came back for him all Carl longed to do was hold the man close and tell him everything would be all right. And then there was the explainable jealousy that sparked his anger every time Holden got close to Jake. He didn’t know why he hadn’t put it all together earlier. Jake practically told him but Carl had been too pissed off to see the truth.

Once again he made a fool out of himself. “No, I’ve done everything wrong,” Carl admitted. “I’m not sure what being a mate means or how we should have done this but I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bite you. I was just”—he could feel heat rush up his neck to settle in his cheeks—“I was having a dream and got carried away, I guess.” He tried to turn away from Jake’s questioning eyes but Jake held him down with one hand.

“You were having a dream about me?” The corner of Jake’s lip quirked up and Carl wanted to find a hole to bury himself in.

“Yes!” he snapped. “Now will you please let go of me.” He pushed against Jake’s unrelenting hand.

“Wait a minute.” Jake moved closer. “Was this a sexy kind of dream?” Carl cringed as Jake started to laugh softly.

“Yes.” Carl smacked Jake’s hand away and climbed out of the sleeping bag. “Stop laughing at me. I don’t like to be made fun of.” Carl didn’t look back as he stormed off into the darkness. Tobias had spent years making him look like a fool and he didn’t want Jake to think it was okay to treat him that way.

* * * *

Jake rolled to his stomach and watched as Carl took off into the woods. His mind said to get up and give chase but his body was dwelling in the afterglow of becoming someone’s mate. He never noticed how incomplete he had been until now. A bond had been cemented between him and Carl and he felt light-headed as if he had drunk too much. The grin on his face would probably never leave.

“Hey, asshole.” Jake turned in the direction of Holden’s voice. “Maybe you should go after your mate now that the cat’s out of the bag.”

“More like wolf,” Seth said in a sleepy tone.

“Shut the fuck up.” Jake heard a muffled grunt. “Jake, go after him. He’s been hurt before and you need to show him how love should be. And I don’t want that little shit getting caught by his old pack.”

Crap! Jake never thought of that. He hopped up and headed in the direction his mate had left. Most of the trees were bare and the moonlight rained down around him, but he still found it rather hard to locate his mate. He stopped walking and listened. A few snapping twigs and heavy breathing had him turning to the left. He let his feet carry him closer to his mate.

In the distance he made out a silhouette of a person sitting on the ground. The sound of soft sobbing met his ears.

Jake felt like a complete dick for causing his mate pain. He didn’t laugh to be cruel. He was just so overwhelmed with happiness he couldn’t fight back a fit of the giggles. It had nothing to do with Carl not knowing they were mates.

Easing carefully over the rough terrain of the forest floor he stepped closer to his mate. As he got nearer Carl looked up.

“What do you want?” Carl’s voice hitched as he glared at Jake.

“I came to check on you.” Jake sat down next to Carl on the cold hard ground. “And to apologize.” He reached for Carl’s hand and breathed a sigh of relief when the man didn’t pull away. “I wasn’t laughing at you. I was just so excited that you knew the truth and that you were having a dream about me.”

“How can you be happy about that? You have a loser with a crush on you.” Carl belittled himself.

“Hey.” Jake squeezed Carl’s hand tight. He didn’t like to hear his mate talk down about himself. “You’re not a loser. You didn’t even know that mates existed until I told you a few hours ago. So you shouldn’t beat yourself up over that.”

“I should have realized then that we were mates.” Carl tried to tug his hand free but Jake refused to let go. “But instead of listening to you and letting what you said sink in I flew off the handle and got mad at you.” Carl let his head fall forward to rest on his raised knees.

Jake scooted closer and turned to where he could wrap his arms around Carl. The position was awkward but he wanted the man to know that he wasn’t alone. That he would always be there for him, good times and bad.

“You’re under a lot of stress right now. Your brother has been kidnapped by your psycho alpha and you still need to heal from the time you