With Abandon: With or Without, Book 4

anything.
    Aubrey’s phone chimed, indicating a new text. He pulled his reading glasses from his jacket pocket
    and put them on before taking his phone out.
    The text read, OMFG! He’s gorgeous.
    “Tara.” Aubrey had no idea what Matt looked like, but odds were good that since he was from
    Aubrey’s brother-in-law’s former pack Matt was Apache.
    “Are you really going to marry her?”
    “What?” Aubrey lowered his phone and gave Carson his full attention.
    “Every time you mention her you get this huge grin on your face.”
    He did? Aubrey shrugged. “Tara and I—”
    His phone chirped again. He pulled it up and read it.
    I really really like him. He’s a sweetheart. Which Aubrey had already figured out from the texts and Keaton’s glowing praise.

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    13
    J.L. Langley
    Aubrey rolled his eyes. “I have to go rescue Matt from Tee. She thinks he’s gorgeous.” He stuffed his
    phone back in his pocket and took his glasses off, doing the same with them.
    Carson followed. “Ah. Don’t want someone honing in on your girl, eh?”
    No, that wasn’t it at all. Aubrey waved to Carrie at the front desk and headed out the automatic doors.
    He wasn’t jealous. Was he? He didn’t think he was. What if Tee and Matt dated? It wouldn’t mean they
    wouldn’t want him around. “No seriously, I need to rescue Matt.”
    Carson shrugged. “Oh, so it’s the other way around. Don’t want her honing in.” His voice held a hint of amusement.
    Aubrey gawked at him.
    Laughing, Carson smacked him on the shoulder. “I’m kidding. Oh man, you should see your face.”
    Aubrey groaned. “Asshole.”
    Carson laughed harder.
    Stopping at the trunk of a black Jetta, Carson fished in his jacket pocket. The trunk of the car opened, and he turned his back to Aubrey to stow his laptop case. He shut the trunk and stepped closer to Aubrey.
    “Have fun with your friends. Maybe we can get together next time you’re in town.”
    “Yeah, sure.” Aubrey waved and headed to his car. Jealous of Tee? Aubrey snorted. That was
    ridiculous. He didn’t even know Matt. He had an odd affinity with Matt, but they’d only talked through text messages. Aubrey couldn’t pick Matt out of a lineup or recognize his voice. Just because a person clicked with someone didn’t mean they knew them. Technically, he and Matt weren’t even actually friends yet. Not really…

    “If you don’t fuck her, I swear I’m disowning you.”
    Clutching the phone to his ear, Matt stared out the bedroom window at the city below. He had the
    urge to bang his head against the glass. Here he was, way out of his element, in an apartment that cost more than his dad made in a year, with a woman who was his newly discovered mate, and the one person he’d
    called for help couldn’t be serious. “Logan—”
    “She’s fucking hot. I’m looking at a picture of her when she was Miss Georgia on the internet right
    now and—”
    Sterling, Logan’s best friend, said in the background, “You’re an idiot, Logan. Give me my phone
    back and stop surfing the net on it. He’s gay for crying out loud. It goes against his nature.”
    “Nature? What’re you talking about? It has nothing to do with— That is fucked reasoning. He’s a
    wolf, and his nature is to be with his mate. The whole wolf-mate thing overrides the gay thing.” Logan
    groaned like he was put out at having to explain it to Sterling. “Matt? Listen, just go with it, okay? I mean, if she’s your mate, then she’s your mate, what can you do about it?”
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    With Abandon
    Matt nodded, before realizing his brother couldn’t see him. “Yeah, I know it’s just—” Now he wasn’t
    sure. He had an inkling his situation may be a lot more complicated than he’d first thought.
    When he’d walked into the apartment, the scent of his mate knocked his breath out of him. His eyes
    blurred for a moment, threatening to change, but he blinked the shift away. Why did his reaction to her keep fading and strengthening? Any time he was in an enclosed space with her his reaction to her scent intensified.
    “No, no, no,” Sterling interrupted again. “That isn’t right. He’s gay. Period. End. Of. Story. He should have a guy for a mate.”
    A horn honked in the distance and Logan let out a long, dramatic sigh. “That doesn’t mean anything.
    It doesn’t work that way. We don’t get to choose. And believe me, I’m not exactly thrilled with that