With Abandon: With or Without, Book 4

and—”
    “What?”
    Matt froze at the open knife drawer. He slapped a hand to his mouth. His shoulders shook, but he
    effectively muffled the laugh.
    “He—”
    “Peed on Jase’s house. Yes, I heard you. Put him on the phone.” Pinching the bridge of his nose,
    Aubrey shook his head, unable to decide between laughing and crying.
    “Tell him we’re wolves, not dogs,” Matt whispered. His cheeks tinged bright red from holding back
    his mirth.
    Exactly. Aubrey groaned. “Just shoot me.”
    Matt’s shoulders shook harder.
    “Umm…hello?” Corde sounded like a repentant child.
    “Peeing outside? What are you, six?” Aubrey asked.
    The dam broke, figuratively speaking. Matt threw down the knife and ran into the guestroom,
    slamming the door. Loud belly laughs followed.
    Aubrey bit his bottom lip to keep from joining in. “Dude. No. Just no. What were you thinking?”
    26
    www.samhainpublishing.com

    With Abandon
    “Me? Why is Jase acting like such an ass? This is ridiculous. I can’t believe he’s mad. He was as
    drunk as I was. It’s not like—”
    “Like you marked your territory on his house?”
    There was silence.
    “Well?”
    “Shit! I didn’t think of that.”
    Tanner laughed in the background almost as loudly as Matt.
    Aubrey let the smirk slide into place, fairly confident he could hold back his laughter now. “Go
    apologize.”
    “Yes, sir.” Corde hung up.
    Aubrey tossed the phone back onto the counter and picked up on making sandwiches where Matt left
    off.
    The guestroom door cracked open, and Matt peeked out.
    His joy was infectious and called to something deep inside Aubrey. “You can come out now.”
    “Did he really do that?” Matt perched himself on the barstool and watched the food preparation.
    “Someone needs to go back to werewolf school. How is it that some wolves are in tune to their natures
    while others are oblivious?”
    “Corde’s a made wolf. He survived an attack up in Montana a few years ago.”
    “Yeah? That’s pretty rare. Remi and Sterling are the only made wolves I know.”
    Aubrey nodded. Chay’s best friend, Remi, had a hard time learning to be a wolf. “I think it’s different for made wolves.”
    “Don’t they have the same urges and instincts? Remi seems to and I know Sterling does.” Matt
    propped his elbow on the bar and rested his chin in his hand. His face scrunched in thought.
    “I think so, but they can ignore it easier. Being a wolf to us is ingrained. We grew up knowing what
    we are, they didn’t. We accept our instincts and trust in them, they fight them.”
    The contradiction of the statement didn’t escape Aubrey. Being a wolf was a proud heritage, yet here
    he was fighting the innate attraction to his mate.

    www.samhainpublishing.com
    27
    Chapter Four
    Matt woke the next morning to silence. Weird. There were no squabbling boys, no slamming doors or a parental unit yelling for everyone to quiet down—which he’d never understood anyway. Shouting did not beget peace—it spawned pointed fingers and a shifting of blame.
    Sitting up in bed, he stretched. He could get used to this. He glanced at the door to his private
    bathroom. No waiting in line, no hoping the water was warm by the time he managed to get a shower, no
    toothpaste in the sink. With a smile on his face, he lay back down and listened to absolutely nothing.
    Actually, now that he concentrated, there was a vague sound of cars. But it was distant enough he
    figured if he wasn’t a wolf and wasn’t straining to hear, he wouldn’t. In fact, it was so quiet that he doubted Aubrey was even up yet. Maybe he could surprise his mate with some homemade cinnamon rolls.
    Assuming he could find the ingredients. It didn’t matter. Surely there was something in the kitchen he could cook.
    Throwing the covers off, he swung his legs out of bed and staggered to the adjoining bathroom. He
    grinned at himself in the mirror on his way to the toilet, not even caring that he was a goof. The fact that his mate couldn’t be his mate in truth didn’t seem so bad at the moment. The only thing standing in their way was Aubrey’s sexual preference. And Matt was pretty sure with time he could overcome that.
    After brushing his teeth and splashing water on his face, he put on some jeans and a T-shirt. He
    sniffed, expecting his mate’s scent to be close. It wasn’t. Aubrey was definitely still in the apartment, but he wasn’t in the bedroom next door where he should be.
    Matt