Jacks, Marcy - Eli's Reluctant Mate [DeWitt's Pack 5] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove) by Marcy Jacks (best ereader under 100 .txt) 📗

give it a chance. Eli was trying, and he was good looking. Chris had never been able to convince  himself that he wasn’t a little attracted to him. He did have the body lots of people spent hard gym time to get.

“It’s fine. It’ll give us a chance to get to know each other.”

Eli smiled at him, a reluctant thing that was still filled with gratitude.

He had a nice smile, Chris realized. And good teeth.

Chris picked up the broom. “I’ll start over here.”

Eli’s Reluctant Mate                       71

Chapter Nine

Eli thought they were making great progress. Slow, but still great.  Eli had gone from being the scourge of the pack, dirty, loud, depressing, to the envy of all the single men and women who lived under James’s care.

Eli felt great, too. It had been only five days, but he was clean and sober, with a gorgeous mate who was slowly coming out of his shell.

Chris had let Eli hold his hand the other day. Eli had a better idea of where he wanted Chris to put that hand, but they were doing baby steps here. Even if those baby steps left him grasping his cock in the shower by the end of the night, it was still well worth it.

Five days was hardly enough to go from being a full-on alcoholic to sober and trustworthy, however, so he didn’t complain when James told him he would have to sit in meditation with Old Maggie for one hour three times a week.

It had been something he’d been hesitant to let Chris know about, even though the first time they’d met, Chris had seen him out of the bag.

It was one thing to be drunk, but he didn’t want his mate to be afraid that Eli had a problem with it, too.

Of course, Chris was smart enough to figure it out on his own andhad apparently known it from the time they’d met. He was good about it, too, and if anything, it brought them a little closer.

“I drank a lot when I was a kid after my parents died. I know it can make things easier for a little while. Not hard to get sucked in, though.”

They were both lounging on Eli’s porch. He’d pulled out the

72                          Marcy Jacks

wicker rockers that he and Eric had once used when they were feeling  like soaking up the sun. Now, instead of shooting the shit with his  brother, Eli relaxed next to his mate.

There was something nice about this, if a little strange. They were both essentially grounded, and neither was allowed to leave pack territory for the next little while. Eli for being a drunk and needing to recover, and Chris because James still wanted to make sure that he

wouldn’t turn into a psycho hunter like his brother had been.

Eli had no doubt in his mind that Chris was nothing like his  brother. He and Eric had always been similar, but it wasn’t just blood  that did that.

“Can I ask you how they died?” Eli asked, taking a swig of his  Diet Pepsi. Even now he was thinking about how much better it  would be if there was something a little stronger inside of it, but he  was still doing his baby steps thing.

Chris sighed. “Animal attack. Wolves.”

“Oh.  Oh,” Eli said, realizing what kind of wolves Chris was  referring to. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I didn’t even put it together myself until after James  spoke to me,” he said. “It was the only thing I could think of that  would make Dean turn to something so violent. He figured out it was  werewolves that killed our family, and I guess he went insane over  it.”

Eli didn’t want to agree or disagree on that subject. Psychotic killer or not, the man was still Chris’s brother, and Chris, although accepting of the fact that Dean  had to die or else he would have killed everyone here, was still hurting over the loss.

Eli struggled to think of something else to talk about, anything to lift their spirits.

The fun part about being put under arrest like they were was that  Eli didn’t have to do any of his chores. His entire purpose was to watch over Chris, and Eli still thought that James did that on purpose.  A nice way of making them spend time with each other.

Eli’s Reluctant Mate                       73

However, today was the day that Eli was going to make his move.  He wanted to  set the right mood.

“I know we’ve been kind of stuck here for the last couple of days.”

“I’m not complaining,” Chris said with a shake of his head. Eli knew he was thinking about the attack when he ran away.

“I know, but I was thinking that I might ask James if I could take you to our pond.”

“Pond?” Chris looked at him curiously now, and Eli wanted to fall into those mesmerizing eyes.

“Yeah. There’s a pond here. It’s just on the edge of James’s land, and he and another alpha were fighting over it for a little while―”  With good reason, considering the healing powers the water had.  “Drinking the water can heal us faster, sometimes, and that’s why that other alpha wanted it so much. But he’s gone in hiding now, and  James owns all the land. The alphas take the pups out there once in a while to play around. No one can really go by themselves anymore.  It’s really nice.”

Chris smiled at him. “That does sound nice. The others will be

there, too?”

They had to be. Although the healing pond was, and always had been, within the pack’s territory, it was now too dangerous for anyone to go alone, even with the alphas that James had positioned to guard the water.

Those wolves were to stay hidden, changing up shifts with other alphas every eight hours or so just in case Deacon ever came back and tried to get at some of the water himself. That water was the only reason why that pain in the ass was still alive and creating wild werewolves who killed Eli’s brother and were