A Prideful Mate by Amber Kell Page B

restless. It was getting close to his mating time. By age twenty-five his mother was already pregnant with her second litter. Payce didn’t long for children of his own. He had no interest in knocking some woman up, but he wouldn’t say no to sharing his life with a man.
    The right man.
    Payce wasn’t even particularly picky. The guy didn’t have to be gorgeous or rich, or any of those things normally coveted. Payce was looking for a nice guy, a man who wouldn’t scream, or yell or punch him in the face if he didn’t offer his ass to his friends when he brought them over.
    Luckily, Fred and his friends were too drunk to remember what really went on. The jaguar had completely come out and scared the hell out of everyone. Payce quickly packed his crap and left.
    The story of his life.
    To this day Fred still didn’t understand why Payce left him, nor did he touch another drop of alcohol. Apparently when he was drunk he had hallucinations.
    The truth was, Payce had poor control over his jaguar half. He always had. Whenever he was stressed or surprised, he shifted into his jaguar form. The pissy kitty half always got him into trouble and probably would continue to if he lived to enter his thirties.
    As the only surviving cub of his litter, Payce was truly alone in the world. In the cat world you didn’t get to move back in with Mommy and Daddy if things got rough. You sucked it up and tried not to get your ass killed.
    Groaning as he settled on his couch, Payce grabbed his laptop from the coffee table and logged into his Were Wanted account.
    “Let’s see what kind of loser wants to get to know me today.” Ever since he’d joined the matchmaking site he’d been besieged by emails from prospective mates. None of which he’d A PRIDEFUL MATE
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    piss on if they were on fire. Checking his inbox, he wasn’t surprised to see there were thirty-five new emails.
    He deleted the first five that were from men he’d heard from previously. He opened the next ten, deleting them as he viewed their pictures. He wasn’t going to waste time replying to men who weren’t what he was looking for.
    Randomly opening the next email, his mouth dropped open when he saw the picture.
    “Must be touched up. No one’s that beautiful.” The picture showed a man with golden hair, gold eyes and lightly golden skin. He checked the species. “Figures,” he said with a snort.
    He moved to delete the email, but something stopped him. The guy had a nice smile.
    Not the kind of ‘look, I’m handsome’ smile some of the pictures had. There was a kindness in his eyes, as if he sincerely wanted to find his mate.
    Reading his portfolio made Payce laugh. It listed that Kevin was looking for someone to sleep with, eat with and go for long romantic walks in the forest so they could fuck against trees, because he was ‘a man who appreciated nature’.
    A quick check showed the man lived a few hours away from Seattle in the Cascade Mountains.
    “A mountain man, huh?”
    Payce clicked on the email to respond. He wanted to meet the man.
    His email pinged seconds later with an invitation to come to Kevin’s home for the weekend.
    “Shit, I have to work.” The idea of spending a weekend in the mountains appealed to Payce, but they were on a tight deadline to get this building up and he couldn’t take time off for a few more weeks.
    Payce emailed back.
    Have to work this weekend. Call me.
    He included his phone number and sent his reply. Payce waited, and waited. Shaking his head at his stupidity, he stood up to get a beer. It’s not like the guy was waiting by his email for Payce’s response.
    Two steps towards the kitchen, his cell phone rang.
    Payce snatched it off the clip on his belt.
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    “Hello.”
    “Hello there, darlin’.” A deep, sexy, southern drawl rolled across the line and straight to his cock. “This is Kevin.”
    “Umm, hi.”
    “I’m sorry to hear you have to work, what is it you