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Patience
By Grace R. Duncan
Forbes Mates: Book Two
Jamie Ryan was almost ready to accept he’d never find his destined mate. They’re
uncommon to begin with, and same-sex versions are downright rare. Since his gay best
friend found a destined mate, Jamie figured he was out of luck. Until end-of-semester
stress forces him to go through the full-moon shift early. Stuck in wolf form, he runs into
none other than his destined mate. Who’s human.
Chad Sutton has always had good instincts. They served him well as a detective and
continued on when he went private. Those instincts tell him there’s something about the
dog that comes up to him while running away from animal control that isn’t quite right.
He works to put the pieces together, but is unsuccessful until his dog turns into a human
before his eyes.
Jamie has no idea what the mate bite of a shifter will do to a human. He’s terrified to
try—and possibly kill his mate. They hunt for answers while working together on one of
Chad’s cases. It’s easy to see they belong together, but Jamie fears the gods gave him
someone he can’t keep.
To my readers who demanded Jamie’s story, thank you. I hope he and Chad live up to
your expectations.
Chapter 1
JAMIE THREW back another shot and set the glass on the bar. It was days like this that
made him wish to hell his metabolism wasn’t so damned fast. Thanks to his wolf, there
wasn’t much he could do. His body processed alcohol almost as fast as he could drink it.
It didn’t help that he’d been feeling out of sorts the whole day. After his last final,
he’d loaded the rest of his things from his dorm room into his car. All through it, he’d felt
just… off. He couldn’t wait until he got back out to pack lands and Tanner and Finley’s
house. They both insisted he take one of the spare rooms when he wasn’t on campus.
He hadn’t wanted to at first. He wasn’t sure he wanted to sit around and watch Tanner
and Finley be loving and physical. It wasn’t so much that he still had feelings for Finley.
He didn’t, thank the gods. It was more of a different sort of jealousy. Now that he’d seen
what it was to have a mate, he wanted one of his own—badly.
Tanner and Finley had tried to set him up with their friend the pack doctor, Miles.
While Jamie could admit Miles was most definitely hot, with his long red hair and lean
physique, Miles wasn’t his destined mate. And they got along well enough, but he didn’t
even feel the interest with Miles he had with Finley. Luckily for both of them, Miles felt
the same. They’d been able to occasionally fuck and be good friends, but that’s as far as it
had gone.
Thankfully, Tanner and Finley weren’t as bad as he’d expected. They kept most of
their physical stuff to their bedroom, with the occasional touch and kiss in front of him. So
going back there for holidays and breaks wasn’t as bad as he’d been afraid it would be.
And now he wanted nothing more than to get on the road and make the hour-and-a-
half-in-traffic trip back. His wolf had been prodding him for a while, and he needed to
shift and run, let him loose.
Jamie tried to think of the last time he’d shifted outside of the full moon. When he
realized he wasn’t sure, it made sense that he was so antsy. He was rather surprised he
hadn’t started chasing the mailman down the street or chewing on his roommate’s slippers.
Their kind had an unfortunate tendency to display horribly doglike behaviors—in human
form—when they didn’t shift often enough. The worst of the side effects included full-
blown attention deficit issues. Considering he was at the tail end of his junior year in
college and squeaking through finals, Jamie counted himself lucky he’d managed to keep
from any of that.
The prodding was undoubtedly the reason he was feeling out of sorts. His wolf
prowled just under the surface, and he wondered if he shouldn’t just tell his friends good-
bye and head home.
“Come on, man! You’re being a lightweight tonight,” his roommate, Dwayne, said,
shoving another shot at him. “You usually drink all of us under the table.”
“I gotta drive home, dude,” Jamie said. He wasn’t about to explain that it didn’t
matter how many shots he had, he could sober up in no time and still drive.
“You can crash on my couch,” Troy offered.
Jamie turned to his other friend and shook his head. “Naw, it’s okay. I guess I can do
a couple more.” He picked up another glass and lifted it to his lips, then stopped when he
realized the fine hairs on the back of his hand weren’t quite so fine. He blinked, confused,
since his vision was still normal.
Right then, the colors faded to grays. Jamie downed the shot quickly and closed his
eyes, pretending to struggle to swallow the liquor, trying to fight his wolf back into its
place.
Not yet. Just a little longer.
When he opened his eyes, the color was back, but his wolf was even closer to the
surface. He glanced at his watch—a digital with the moon phases on it, just in case—but
the full moon was still more than two days away. The date didn’t seem to matter, though.
Jamie was losing the fight against his wolf, and he needed to get out of there—fast.
“Dude, you okay?” Troy asked, peering at him.
Dwayne was grinning from the other side. “I think he finally had one too many.”
Jamie jumped on the excuse. “Uh, yeah. Something with that last shot. Need some
air. Sorry.” With that, he hurried out to the street and took a deep breath. Unfortunately,
Forbes Avenue in the heart of Oakland—Pittsburgh’s college district—wasn’t the best
place for fresh air. All he got for his trouble was two lungs full of exhaust and a burning
nose. He knew better—he’d been fighting the stench of city for most of the last two years
—and he cursed himself for doing it anyway.
Shaking his head at himself, he darted past the Dunkin’ Donuts and the door to The
O, then around the corner, looking for a quick place to hide. His vision turned gray again,
and he struggled to hold his wolf back at least until he could get hidden. He ducked into
the alley just beyond the building and let out a breath.
Before he could think of how to handle this, his wolf broke through, and Jamie found
himself forced through the shift. His gums itched as his teeth dropped, his claws extended,
and fur erupted over his skin. His bones and muscles realigned, and seconds later, he
landed on four paws.
He shook himself hard and gave himself just a moment to savor being in his fur
again. But this was not the place for him to be in wolf form. He was too far away from
Schenley Park, or any other park, for that matter. Never mind the fact that wolves didn’t
wander around in city parks. They weren’t even truly native to this region, much less
would they be found in a park completely surrounded by city.
He prodded his wolf, trying to nudge him back so he could take his human form
again. However, his wolf refused to relinquish control. Jamie struggled, trying to
internally reason with his wolf—if he could go back to human, he could get home to the

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