Story Excerpt
Julian's Happy Place

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TDjal slipped around the side of the house then pressed his large body back against the wooden building. He closed his eyes and prayed when he heard the quick patter of feet running past his hiding position. He opened his eyes and held his breath as he watched Julian hurry past him as if he was invisible.

And he wished he was.

This thing with Julian was really getting out of hand. If the man wasn’t trying to chase Djal down, he was staring mooneyes at him. Djal had barely had a minute to himself in two weeks. If something didn’t change soon, Djal was going to strangle the little guy.

It wasn’t that he didn’t like Julian, because he did. Julian was cute, and he made Djal laugh. But every time Julian looked at him, he had daydreams in his eyes, and that just wasn’t who Djal was. He didn’t sleep with every Tom, Dick, and Harry that came around but he liked keeping his options open.

Julian wanted commitment. He wanted a mate and he wanted Djal to be that mate. Everyone knew it. Djal felt like he had become the butt of everyone’s laughter over the last two weeks. And just because he had tried to comfort the guy after he had been kidnapped and attacked by his ex.

Djal knew he made a mistake when he offered comfort to the man. He knew it when he did it. It should have simply been the beta of the pack–Djal–comforting a pack member–Julian–as was his duty.

It had turned into far more and now Djal was paying the price. It had gotten to the point where Djal was avoiding pack gatherings just so that he wouldn’t run into Julian. The guy was sweet, maybe too sweet. There was a gentle nature about Julian that called to every protective instinct Djal had and maybe a few he didn’t even know he had.

Djal wanted to wrap Julian up in bubble wrap so the world couldn’t hurt him. And that was dangerous–to Djal, to Julian, and to the pack. Djal had no doubt that if he gave into the crawling need that ate away at him every time he smelled Julian’s alluring scent, he would forsake everything in order to keep Julia safe, even his duty to his alpha and their pack.

And in all of the years that he knew Iben Khenti, Djal had never let the man down. He wasn’t about to start now, and that meant staying as far away from his cute little pack mate as he possibly could–no matter how much he wanted to taste Julian’s sweetness again.

When the sounds of Julian’s footsteps faded, Djal blew out a frustrated breath and pushed himself away from the side of the house. He cast a quick glance down the path Julian had taken and then hurried it into the alpha house.

Djal wanted to sink into a hole the moment he closed the door and realized that Iben and his mate Zack were in the great room, staring right at him with a good deal of amusement on their faces.

“Problems, Djal?” Iben’s eyebrow quirked as the man asked a question he already knew the answer to.

Djal curled back his upper lip as he growled at his alpha. He was probably one of the few people in the world that could get away with such an action without losing his head. Iben had befriended Djal and his siblings, Sissy and Rory, when they were toddlers. They had stood side by side in support of the man ever since.

“I swear to god, Iben,” Djal grumbled as he pushed a hand through his long hair in frustration and stalked into the great room, “if something isn’t done about Julian pretty soon, I’m going to flip the hell out.”

Iben laughed. “He likes you.”

“He’s obsessed!” What part of that didn’t Iben get? Taking a deep, unsteady breath, he stepped back from his alpha and lowered his tone. Iben would have his butt in a sling if he was disrespectful. “He won’t leave me alone, Iben. He follows me everywhere. I can’t get a moment alone.”

“Would it be so bad to be with Julian? He’s actually a pretty great guy.”

Djal’s eyes snapped to Zackary Evans, the mate to Alpha Ibenré Khenti. Zack was crazy about Iben, and protective as hell. He saw his duty to the alpha to keep him safe and happy. He would never understand the need Djal had to keep all of his pack safe. It was ingrained in him, part of his very DNA. He could no more deny his need than he could deny his pack or an order from his alpha.

“My duty is to Iben and this pack,” Djal replied. “I don’t have time for a mate.”

“Maybe you should have thought of that before you slept with Julian.”

Djal’s eyes narrowed. While he hadn’t come right and said he slept with Julian, pretty much everyone knew he had. Djal wasn’t proud of that fact simply because he had been trying to comfort the guy, not fuck him into the mattress.

But one thing had let to another and things happened.

“It was a onetime thing,” Djal insisted.

“Does Julian know?” Zack asked.

“I told him.” And he still felt the weight of his guilt at the tears that had sprung to Julian’s eyes when he did. But, no matter how he felt, Djal couldn’t back down. He couldn’t, and wouldn’t, be the mate that Julian was dreaming of.

There was just no way.