Kelan's Pursuit Read Free Page A

sure he hadn’t had that much to drink, and drinking never made him sad—it usually just made him angry. Angry with his parents for getting themselves killed in a wreck when he was only eight. Angry with his grandparents for not being there for him when he’d needed them. Angry with Matt, his first and only love, for screwing his roommate and leaving him. In the end, everyone left.
    Now, Jake didn’t let anyone close enough to hurt him. He had learnt a long time ago how to put up a barrier to keep people at a distance, and it had served him well for the last ten years. Kelan was the first person Jake had met that he actually wanted to get past his barriers…and that was as scary as hell. Jake had to walk away before he did something he would later regret.
     
    Kelan watched the man he had waited his whole life for walk away from him. It was all he could do to not to throw himself at Jake’s feet and beg him not to go. Kelan’s heart ached at the loss. He was sure without Jake in his life he would never be happy again. How could he? If his own mate—the person that was destined to be with him—didn’t want him, who would? Not that he wanted anyone else anyway. Kelan couldn’t imagine ever being turned on by another man now that he knew Jake existed.
    He just couldn’t figure it out. What the hell was wrong with him? Why didn’t Jake want him? He couldn’t understand what had gone wrong. One minute they’d been getting on like a house on fire, and the next there wasn’t so much as a burning ember. Kelan was confused, upset—worse, he was angry. Jake had offered him no explanation and Kelan damn well deserved one. With each moment that passed, Kelan’s anger grew more pronounced. He would not let it end like this. He was an alpha wolf, damn it, not some timid little cub. Mind made up, Kelan stormed down the street in search of his mate.
    He caught sight of Jake a few hundred yards down. He watched as Jake crossed the road and let himself into a large brownstone apartment. Crap . What the hell was he going to do now? He couldn’t just stand there in the damn street. He felt like a freaking stalker. He thought about going home to Cody’s, giving up, but he couldn’t let things end like this, could he?
    Kelan would never forgive himself if he left without even trying to talk to his mate to find out what was wrong. He’d seen Cody nearly throw away his relationship with Stefan when he’d discovered Stefan had a wife and son. Kelan couldn’t blame Cody, of course—the discovery had been a harsh one. Kelan might have done the same thing. But the fact of the matter was, the drama might have been avoided if Cody had only talked to his mate first, found out his side of the story.
    If Cody were here now, Kelan knew what he would say. He’d tell him to stop over-thinking things. He’d tell him to swallow his pride and knock on Jake’s door, tell him everything. Honesty was always the best policy. But then, Cody had always been the brave one. His brother had never been anything but honest. And then there was Luke. His youngest brother wasn’t even gay, and yet when he’d found out he had a man for a mate, the thought of hiding that fact or denying it hadn’t even occurred to him.
    Kelan was an alpha wolf. He was supposed to be strong, the strongest of his brothers—hell the strongest in his pack. And yet here he was, lurking on a street corner, afraid to knock on a man’s door for fear of getting hurt. Kelan shook his head. Time to grow a pair. He pulled in a deep, calming breath and crossed the street to talk to his mate.
     
    Jake let himself into his apartment and, after pouring himself a scotch, he flopped down onto his custom-made, black leather sofa. He had never felt like this before—so alone . He felt like he could never be happy again. Christ, he hadn’t even known Kelan for an hour but already the loss felt like a physical blow. Jake felt exhausted. Maybe he was coming down with something. Yeah,