A Prideful Mate Read online

  A Prideful Mate

  Amber Kell

  A Prideful Mate

  Amber Kell

  Copyright by Amber Kell June 2014

  2nd edition March 2017

  Smashwords Edition

  * * *

  Cover design: Meredith Russell

  Editors: Beany Sparks, Jason Bradley

  * * *

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission. This book cannot be copied in any format, sold, or otherwise transferred from your computer to another through upload to a file sharing peer to peer program, for free or for a fee. Such action is illegal and in violation of Copyright Law.

  Contents

  Book 2 in Supernatural Mates

  Supernatural Mates series

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  My Man Declan (Sample)

  About the Author

  Book 2 in Supernatural Mates

  When a lion and a jaguar shifter fall in love, the fur flies.

  * * *

  After having two boys of his own, Kevin, a werelion, is ready to find his mate. Searching on a shifter online dating service he finds Payce the werejaguar of his dreams. When someone tries to hurt the man who would be his mate, Kevin shows his new lover what he's willing to do to keep the supernatural mate of his dreams.

  Supernatural Mates series

  From Pack to Pride (Book One)

  A Prideful Mate (Book Two)

  A Prideless Man(Book Three)

  Nothing To Do With Pride (Book Four)

  Talan’s Treasure (Book Five)

  More Than Pride (Book Six)

  Protecting His Pride (Book Seven)

  Overcoming His Pride (Book Eight)

  Dedication

  For my fans who enjoy shifters as much as me.

  Chapter 1

  Kevin looked out the window at the pride of lions sunning on the porch, and released the sigh building in his chest. Leaning against the window frame, he thought over his life. As much as he loved the ladies, the addition of Adrian, the alpha’s mate, brought back feelings he’d long suppressed. The craving for the touch of another man burned through him each time he saw Talan stroke Adrian’s skin.

  Kevin didn’t want Adrian for himself, he wasn’t suicidal, but the glances exchanged between the mated pair reminded Kevin how good it could be with another man.

  Equal.

  As much as he loved the lush feel of a woman’s body, he’d always known it was the hard form of a man he preferred. Now that he had two cubs of his own, it was time to find his mate.

  “Thinking about leaving us?” Tia, the mother of his little boys, wrapped her arms around his waist and settled her chin against his shoulder. Kevin knew she was asking more for curiosity than because she cared if he left the pride. Tia was more than capable of raising their boys, but she was his friend and loved him in her own offhanded lion way.

  Kevin sighed again. “Not really.” He nodded toward the couch where Adrian was curled up beside Talan. For a lone wolf, the smaller man was a cuddler.

  “Just wishin’ for a mate of my own, I want what they have.”

  Tia tilted her head. “Extremely loud sex?”

  Kevin threw back his head and laughed. “No. Well, I wouldn’t object to that either, but I meant a relationship.”

  “Pickings are a little lean on the mountain, big guy,” Tia said, releasing him and giving him an affectionate pat on his back. “Maybe you should ask Adrian if he knows anyone.”

  Kevin shook his head. “I don’t think I could go for a wolf. Don’t get me wrong”—he held up his hands to ward off a blow—“there’s nothin’ wrong with Adrian. I just have a feeling my mate will be feline.” He took a careful step away from Tia in case she decided to attack anyway. The females were psychotically attached to Adrian, mostly because he made them chocolate treats. They all purred whenever he stepped foot in the kitchen. Kevin suspected Adrian laced his brownies with catnip, but he hadn’t been able to catch the wolf at it.

  Tia frowned. “There aren’t any other prides nearby. Oh!” Tia’s face lit up. “What about that new dating service?”

  Kevin let his expression show his opinion of that idea. “I’m not signin’ up with Werekin Wanted. I don’t care if they guarantee a match or your money back.”

  “Hah!” Tia pointed an accusatory finger at him. “You checked them out.”

  Kevin blushed. He hated to admit it. He had considered the site. Shit, he was getting desperate, but as Tia said, there weren’t a lot of choices up on the mountain.

  “I might have, but I don’t think I can go through with it. I mean how pathetic is a guy who finds someone through an online dating service?”

  “About as pathetic as a guy who’s afraid to try because he might fail,” Tia said. She nudged him with her shoulder. “The boys are old enough that you don’t need to be here all the time anymore. They aren’t babies.”

  “I know.” How could he explain that for a lion he had an unnatural attachment to his children? Most lions would’ve moved on after his babies were born, but Kevin adored his five and seven-year-olds and couldn’t bear to leave them.

  “I’m not saying you have to go,” she said, as if reading his mind. “We all love having you here, we just want you to be happy.”

  “I know, darlin’.” He gave the female lion an affectionate smile. “You’re sweet on me.”

  Tia gave a snort. “You may be great in bed, darlin’,” she said, mimicking his accent, “but we both know it isn’t a love connection.”

  Kevin smiled back. “But we’ve had some fun.”

  “Yes, we have.” Tia grabbed his wrist. “Now come with me.”

  “Hey, Adrian, can I borrow one of your computers?” Tia called across the room.

  Adrian lifted his head from Talan’s lap. “No problem. Use the laptop with the green case.”

  “Okay.”

  Adrian was weird about his computers, but since they contained his livelihood, Kevin didn’t hold it against him.

  Kevin didn’t speak while Tia dragged him into Adrian’s new office. The wolf’s digs were amazing. There was a wall of glass with special coating that darkened when it was bright outside, which allowed them to view their forested property. The furniture was comfortable leather, and his work desk covered an entire wall with a multitude of computers.

  Interspersed through the room were display cabinets, encasing limited edition paraphernalia from video games Adrian had worked on, including a full reproduction of an ogre axe with a real blade.

  Shaking his head at the wolf’s outlandish collection, Kevin watched Tia grab the green laptop and open the case.

  “Come sit here,” she said, pointing to the chair beside her.

  Sighing, Kevin plopped down onto the spot indicated. He knew better than to argue.

  It only took her a moment to get to the site. The dating home page showed a bunch of people gazing with disgusting adoration into each other’s eyes.

  “I bet they used actors,” Kevin grumbled. Even as he said it, he doubted they did. The pairs had the same expression in their eyes Adrian and Talan did when they saw each other.

  “Stop it.” Tia nudged Kevin in the shoulder. “Let’s do a little shopping, shall we?”

  “Don’t we have to sign up for this?”

  “Nope, see.” She pointed to the note in the corner of the screen. It stated viewing was free. He would only have to sign up if he wanted to communicate with one of their members.
>
  “Fair enough, but once we’re done lookin’ over these losers, I’m gonna have a big lunch and a nap, and if you’re good, I’ll let you fix it for me.”

  “And if I’m bad?” Tia asked with a smile.

  “Then you can fix me dinner too.”

  The lioness laughed. “Lucky me.”

  They sat in companionable silence as they clicked through the pictures.

  “He’s cute,” Tia said about a gold-haired man with brown eyes.

  “He’s straight.”

  “It says here he likes guys.”

  Kevin shrugged. “Maybe he’s confused.”

  Tia laughed. “What about that one?”

  “Too short. I like ‘em taller.”

  “Adrian’s short.”

  “Adrian’s prettier.”

  “True.”

  Tia clicked through several screens. They laughed over the goofier pictures and sighed at the romantic ones, but neither of them showed any interest in a particular member. Tia sped through the next three.

  “Stop.”

  “What? Did you see something?”

  Tia clicked back a couple of times before Kevin had her stop again.

  “Him?”

  “Yeah.” Kevin set his chin on his hand and gazed longingly at the screen.

  “Hmmm. Really?”

  Kevin nodded. “He’s the one.”

  “Like, the one?”

  “Yep, my mate.”

  “How can you tell from a photo?”

  “Talan could tell from Adrian’s photo,” Kevin pointed out.

  “True.”

  They both stared at the screen for a moment.

  “Want to sign up and send him a note?”

  “No, I want to hunt ‘im down, strip ‘im, and lick ‘im like a lollipop.”

  “Eww.” Tia laughed. “That’s way more information than I need.”

  Kevin shrugged. “I’ll settle for an email.”

  “How generous of you.”

  A few screens later, Kevin was signed up and ready to send his first email to his mate.

  Payce arrived at his apartment bruised and tired. He was going to find a new job any day now. If he had to take any more crap from that foreman, he was going to rip the man’s arm off and beat him with it. Bastard wasn’t watching earlier and nailed Payce in the head with a two by four. If he weren’t a werejaguar, he’d be dead.

  As it was, the jaguar inside him was restless. It was getting close to his mating time. At twenty-five years old, his mother was already pregnant with her second litter. Payce didn’t long for children of his own. He had no interest in knocking some woman up, but he wouldn’t say no to sharing his life with a man.

  The right man.

  Payce wasn’t even particularly picky. The guy didn’t have to be gorgeous or rich, or any of those things normally coveted by people hunting for a life mate. Payce was seeking a nice guy, a man who wouldn’t scream or yell or punch him in the face if he didn’t offer his ass to his friends when he brought them over.

  Luckily Fred and his friends had been too drunk to remember what really went on. The jaguar had completely come out and scared the crap out of everyone. Payce had quickly packed his belongings and left.

  The story of his life.

  To this day, Fred still didn’t understand why Payce left him nor touch another drop of alcohol. Apparently when Fred was drunk, he had hallucinations.

  The truth was, Payce had poor control over his jaguar half. He always had. Whenever he was stressed or surprised, he shifted into his jaguar form. The pissy kitty half always got him into trouble and probably would continue to if he lived to see his thirties.

  As the only surviving cub of his litter, Payce was truly alone in the world. In the cat world, you didn’t get to move back in with mommy and daddy if things got rough. You sucked it up and tried not to get your ass killed.

  Groaning as he settled on his couch, Payce grabbed his laptop from the coffee table and logged into his Werekin Wanted account.

  “Let’s see what kind of loser wants to get to know me today.” Ever since he joined the matchmaking site, he’d been besieged by emails from prospective mates. None of which he’d piss on if they were on fire. Checking his inbox, he wasn’t surprised to see there were thirty-five new emails.

  He deleted the first five that were from men he’d heard from previously. He opened the next ten, deleting them as he viewed their pictures. He wasn’t going to waste time replying to men who weren’t what he was searching for.

  Randomly opening the next email, his mouth dropped open when he saw the picture.

  “Must be touched up. No one’s that beautiful.”

  The picture showed a man with golden hair, gold eyes, and lightly golden skin. He checked the species. “Figures,” he said with a snort.

  He moved to delete the email, but something stopped him. The guy had a nice smile. Not the kind of ‘look I’m handsome’ smile some of the pictures had. There was a kindness in his eyes, as if he sincerely wanted to find his mate. Reading his portfolio made Payce laugh. It listed that Kevin was seeking someone to sleep with, eat with, and go for long romantic walks in the forest so they could fuck against trees, because he was “a man who appreciated nature.”

  A quick check proved the man lived a few hours away from Seattle in the Cascade Mountains.

  “A mountain man, huh?”

  Payce clicked on the email to respond. He wanted to meet this one.

  His email pinged seconds later with an invitation to come to Kevin’s home for the weekend.

  “Shit, I have to work.” The idea of spending a weekend in the mountains appealed to Payce, but they were on a tight deadline to get this building up and he couldn’t take time off for a few more weeks.

  Payce emailed back.

  Have to work this weekend. Call me.

  He included his phone number and sent his reply. Payce waited, and waited. Shaking his head at his stupidity, he stood up to get a beer. It’s not like the guy was waiting by his email for Payce’s response.

  Two steps toward the kitchen, his cell phone rang.

  Payce snatched it off the clip on his belt.

  “Hello.”

  “Hello there, darlin’.” A deep, sexy, Southern drawl rolled across the line and straight to his cock. “This is Kevin.”

  “Umm, hi.”

  “I’m sorry to hear you have to work. What is it you do, and when are you gettin’ off?”

  If the guy kept talking to him like that, Payce would be getting off in a few minutes. His cock was harder than the marble he was installing at work.

  “I work in construction.” Payce hoped the man wasn’t one of those snobs who sneered at blue-collar workers.

  “I bet you have all kinds of interestin’ calluses,” the Southerner purred.

  For the first time in his life, Payce wanted to toss his responsibilities out the window and go play a little. “I suppose so. What do you do?” he continued into the kitchen to get his beer as the smooth voice continued talking in his ear.

  “I don’t want to talk about me. I want to talk about you. Are you as pretty as your picture?”

  Payce choked on the beer he’d just opened. “Me! What about you, Mr. Golden Cat?”

  “Yep, I’m just as pretty as my picture,” the man said. Payce could hear the smile in his voice. “We need to get together and make a pretty two-headed cat.”

  Laughing, Payce set down his beer before he spilled it all over the kitchen. “I’d love to do that, but like I said, it will be a few weeks.”

  “I’m not the patient sort. What if I came to you? Do ya have a few hours to spare for lunch?”

  “You take a long lunch,” Payce teased.

  “Sometimes it’s hard to get the mayo jar open.”

  “Is that what they’re calling it these days?”

  “I don’t care what you call it. You fuck me, I fuck you, but somehow one of us is fuckin’ the other one. I’ve been hard since I saw your pi
cture, and from what I can tell, you’re interested.”

  He really should just tell the guy off, but there was something irresistible about that voice.

  “I’m not a jump-into-bed-with-a-stranger kind of guy.”

  “Well, honey, I’m willin’ to woo you if it’ll make you feel better, but we both know your goin’ to be ass up beneath me.” The man’s voice was confident without sounding smarmy.

  Payce couldn’t believe he was doing this. “I’m off Sunday,” he blurted out. “My boss is too cheap to pay extra to work on Sunday.”

  “I’ll be there. Give me an address.” The man lost some of his twang when he was in commanding mode…good to know.

  Payce blurted out his address to the confident lion on the other end of the phone. He was torn about meeting the stranger, but his body had other ideas. Payce rubbed his erection through his jeans. Shit, never had three days felt like an eternity.

  The lion’s voice gentled as if he could feel Payce’s sudden attack of nerves over the telephone.

  “We don’t have to do anythin’ but have lunch, hon. Don’t let me pressure ya into doin’ something you’re not ready for.”

  With that one sentence, Payce felt the tight knot of tension in his stomach dissolve.

  “Thanks, Kevin. I’ll see you Sunday.”

  Smiling like a loon, Payce disconnected the phone call before he begged his Southern-sounding lion to come visit him sooner. He had a feeling he’d need his full energy to deal with Kevin.

  Chapter 2

  Kevin’s nerves rattled as much as his truck while he drove down to meet his mate in Seattle. He couldn’t remember ever feeling this nervous, even at the birth of his sons.

  He hoped the clothes Tia had picked out would do the trick. She assured him that the stretchy blue shirt brought out his gold eyes, but Kevin thought it wasn’t him. He wore it, though, because Tia told him torn concert T-shirts from high school weren’t a fashion statement he wanted to share with his new mate.