The Mountain Man's Mate(17)

       
           



       

Uncertain what all bonding entailed, Jason just shrugged. He knew it'd   been mentioned a couple of times, but with all the information dumped on   him, he wasn't completely sure how to answer that.

Growling, Sean glared at him for a second. Evidently, he correctly read   Jason's silence, for he snapped, "Look. A shifter bonds with his mate  by  sharing both his seed and his saliva. The bite on your neck mixed   Michel's saliva with your blood. Did you use a condom?"

The blunt words and question caused embarrassed heat to flow up his neck   and through his cheeks. At Sean's frustrated growl, Jason managed to   unstick his tongue. "N-no. He said he was clean and since I'd never-" He   bit off the rest of his words.

"Shit," Sean mumbled. He gulped the rest of his beer, put the bottle   down, then turned and captured Jason's gaze. "Look, Jason. Whatever you   think you saw, you really didn't see."

Jason opened his mouth, ready to fire off an angry and indignant   response. Sean wasn't there, so how dare he tell Jason what he did and   didn't see.

Sean held up his hand. "Let me explain."

Crossing his arms over his chest, Jason arched one brow. This oughta be good.

"Okay," Sean murmured. He huffed a sigh, then claimed, "Once a shifter   is mated, he can't be turned on by anyone other than his mate. You're a   cute guy, but you could dance naked on the porch railing and I wouldn't   get hard," Sean claimed.

Jason flushed, once again embarrassed, at that image. He had no   intention of testing that particular theory. He remembered Michel   turning around, naked, shocked, and hard. "But I saw him. He was hard."

Sean rolled his eyes. "Did you forget what I told you about a shifter's   heightened senses? He was responding to you, not his buddies. You were   near. You're his mate. He hadn't seen you in days. You turned him on."

Frowning, Jason grabbed another beer and popped the cap. After taking a   drink to wet his throat, he asked, "Then how come he didn't tell me   that?"

"Did you give him a chance?"

Jason curled a lip at the other man's exasperated tone. "He was naked,   rolling around with three other men! Why the hell would I give him a   chance? Why would I think it was anything other than what it looked   like?"

"Point taken," Sean replied slowly. "But he's a shifter. We don't really   care too much about things like nudity. We're not a modest bunch since   we have to get naked to shift, otherwise we'll get tangled in our   clothes." Sean grimaced. "It happens to most of us at least once as an   adolescent while learning to control our shift. We learn pretty damn   fast that it's not comfortable."

Sucking in a breath, Jason felt his blood heat at the idea of a naked   Michel. He rubbed his forefinger across his brow a couple times, trying   to get his thoughts in order and ease the ache caused by stress behind   his eyes.

Sean, Raul, Jared, and Carson had taken him running a couple times over   the past few days. He'd turned his back each time the men undressed and   shifted. Those few runs had taught him that shifters weren't wild   animals while in their wolf form, being able to reason, understand, and   even interact with others. Their hierarchy remained intact regardless  of  whether human or wolf.

Jason hated to admit it, but Sean made sense. Shifting with clothes on   would be a problem. Still, that didn't explain why Michel was wrestling   with three other men. He remembered Carson and Sean wrestle in wolf   form. Would they do the same as humans?

Michel had said he was old, did that mean he had kids? Could those have   been his sons? Jason felt the blood drain from his face. There was a   sobering thought. Would he have to act as a parent? He knew he wasn't   ready for that.

Groaning, Jason grabbed a fresh beer and held the cool bottle to his   temple. Tears of frustration threatened the backs of his eyes. "Do you   have any idea how frustrating it is to not understand your culture?"

"You'll get it," Sean assured, patting him on the back, then he helped himself to another beer and lounged back.

"Guess I'll have to eat crow, huh?" he mused.

Sean snorted. "Michel will probably just be so damn happy you're willing   to talk to him after such a misunderstanding you won't even need to   apologize."

Although that heartened Jason, he didn't think that'd be fair. He knew   they both had things to apologize for as well as a lot to discuss.   "Guess I know what I'm doing tomorrow."

Sean just grunted.                       
       
           



       



Jason palmed his phone and tapped it against his shorts-clad leg. He   didn't feel right about just dropping in on Michel … not after what had   happened the last time. Unfortunately, he couldn't seem to gather enough   courage to call the man either. Would Michel return a text, maybe? But   how should he start? Who were those men and why were you naked with   them?

He watched Uncle Raul scramble eggs and fry potatoes while Sean handled   the bacon. They touched each time they passed, a hand on a hip here, a   trail of fingers over a shoulder there. It was innocent and sweet, and   Jason's heart ached with longing. He wanted that.

Screwing up his courage, Jason grabbed his mug of coffee and headed onto   the back porch. He set his coffee on the porch railing and sucked in a   deep lungful of crisp, morning, mountain air. Letting it out slowly,  he  hit send. The symbol for a call connecting showed up on his screen.  He  lifted the speaker to his ear and waited with bated breath.

It went to voicemail. Disappointment flooded him, instantly replaced by longing as he listened to Michel's deep, gruff voice.

"Convince me to call ye back."

Jason almost snorted at the curt command. Licking his lips, he opened   his mouth to say something … anything. Jason snapped his mouth shut just   as quickly as three wolves prowled out of the trees into the clearing.

He didn't recognize them.

Dropping his phone, Jason heard the plastic clatter on the deck's   boards. He ignored it, slowly backing away. A furtive look backward told   him the door was three steps to the left. The door opened and Uncle   Raul stepped out. His uncle paused, frowning.

"I know I've seen you all around, but I'm not sure I know you," Uncle   Raul stated, confirming that they were local shifters. "What's up?"

Just then, a fourth wolf padded out of the forest. He growled at the   other three, then started to shift. Jason frowned. Did he recognize this   one? To his shock, after about fifteen seconds of listening to sinew   pop and bones crack-which made Jason cringe-Michel stood in the   clearing … in the buff.

Saliva pooled in Jason's mouth and his pulse sped up, flooding his groin   with blood, even as jealousy ripped through him. How the hell did  other  humans get used to their significant others parading around naked  in  front of others?

Michel looked over his shoulder at the three wolves, who now sat in a   semi-circle behind him. "What the hell are the three of ye doing here?"   he snarled, before turning back to Jason's uncle. "I came to see me   mate." Michel then fixed his piercing dark-eyed focus on Jason. "We need   to talk, Jason."

"You need to put some clothes on." Jason blurted the first thing that came into his head.

Smirking, Michel ignored everyone else as he stalked toward him. "What's the matter, sweetheart? Don't ye like the view?"

Michel's deep voice rumbled through Jason, making his balls throb and   his fingers tingle with the need to touch all that hard muscle and   course hair on display.

"Were you expecting a guest?" Uncle Raul asked, his dry tone cutting into Jason's lust-glazed thoughts.

Jason snapped back to the present, remembering their location. "Others   shouldn't see your naked ass," he hissed. After a heartbeat, Jason   remembered Sean's words the prior evening about modesty, not to mention   how Sean and Carson stripped in front of everyone to shift. Jason   quickly added, "At least, not for more than a minute before or after   shifting."

Michel's brows shot up. "I didn't really have time to grab clothes. Me   buddies-" He glared over his shoulder at the three wolves, who were all   in various stages of shifting-"took off, threatening to bring ye to me.  I  guess they didn't believe me when I told them I'd planned to swing  over  here later."