by DJ Bryce
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
The Alpha’s Forbidden Mate
Brothers of the Heart, book 3
DJ Bryce
Copyright © 2017 by DJ Bryce
Cover by Makeready Designs
Proofreading by KMS Freelance Editing
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Created with Vellum
Contents
1. Mateo
2. Brick
3. Mateo
4. Brick
5. Mateo
6. Brick
7. Mateo
8. Brick
9. Mateo
10. Brick
11. Mateo
12. Brick
13. Mateo
14. Brick
15. Mateo
16. Brick
17. Mateo
18. Brick
19. Mateo
20. Brick
21. Mateo
Also by DJ Bryce
About the Author
Chapter 1
Mateo
I always knew I was different.
I knew I was a shifter. I knew I was destined to be Alpha of my pack one day. And, I knew I was gay.
I also knew, I could never come out. No, I’d have to suppress that side of me. Because, Alpha’s couldn’t be gay. Hell, no one in our pack had ever come out, and I knew they’d have a hard time following a gay Alpha.
And, as Alpha, my pack had to come first in all things.
I thought everything would be perfect, when I met Gillian. She was a girl raised to be an Alpha’s mate, but she didn’t want to leave our pack and be wed to a stranger. So, we’d made a pact when we were kids, to pretend to be each other’s mates, so we could both get what we wanted.
Neither of us had ever expected her to find her mate in my Bravo, Maximus, but that’s exactly what happened. And, since they were my best friends, I couldn’t stand in their way of happiness, so Gilly and I had to come clean about our lie.
The problem? Now that I was eligible and supposedly looking for my mate, all of the available women in the pack were now coming up with reasons to interact with me, in hopes that one of them would be my mate.
Only I knew that would never happen.
Well, me and one other… Brick, the man who was my mate.
Brick was the youngest sibling of Gilly and Natasha. Apparently, Brick was also intended to be the mate to an Alpha, just like his sisters, his family just didn’t realize it.
The first time Gillian had brought me home to meet her family, after we’d agreed to announce to the pack that she was my mate, I’d met Brick.
“I’m just going to run to my room really quick and change,” Gilly had told me.
“Sounds good,” I’d said, then proceeded to wander around her living room and look at the photos along the mantel while I waited.
“Hey.” I turned to see a guy a couple years younger, with black hair and blue eyes that matched Gillian’s. “Hi, you must be Gilly’s brother, I’m Mateo.”
I’d walked toward him, my hand outstretched. He’d looked at it for a moment, like no one had ever offered to shake his hand before, and he wasn’t quite sure what to do. Then, he took my offered hand and said, “Brick.”
That’s when it happened.
Like an electric shock, followed by a current that ran up my arm, straight to my heart. It was like a meeting of souls, a recognition, and I’d know instinctively that he was my mate.
I’d snatched my hand back like I’d been singed, which, I guess I had, while Brick watched me carefully with those striking eyes.
“Oh, hey, Brick, you met Mateo? He’s my boyfriend,” Gilly announced as she came back into the room.
Brick just raised an eyebrow at me and asked, “Oh, yeah?”
“Yes,” I’d replied somewhat forcefully, and had vowed to stay as far away from Brick as possible.
As it turned out, that hadn’t been too hard. For the most part, Gilly and I hung out together, and didn’t spend a lot of time at her house, because she didn’t have the best relationship with her parents.
Then, once we were older, Brick came out to his parents and they’d kicked him out.
I’d been amazed at how brave he was, and had felt guilty knowing that he’d gone through that on his own. Sure, his sisters stood by him, but even though I denied what was between us, and kept my distance, there was an invisible string holding us together, and a constant ache within me because we were apart.
He’d left to go away to school, and although it was easier not to have to bump into him, I felt a loss at his absence.
I’d grown used to it, filling the void with my pack, but now that Max and Gilly were together, and we’d made the announcement to the pack, Brick was back.
Gilly had left to go stay with him after I’d accidentally found out about her and Max, and we’d figured it would be easiest for us to explain things first to the council, then to the pack, and give Gilly distance just in case there was any backlash.
Of course, Gilly being Gilly, had changed her mind and decided to face the reckoning alongside of us, and had brought her brother back with her. Apparently, they’d made a pit stop at their parents, to inform them that she would no longer be with me, but with Max, and had been disowned along with her brother.
The meeting with the pack had gone better than I’d expected, which made my not only relieved, but proud of their reaction. One look at Max and Gilly together and it had been obvious to everyone that they belonged together.
Now, we were heading to my house for an impromptu barbecue, which I knew Brick would be attending. This would be our first time in close quarters together in years, and the first time ever that I was not in a fake relationship with his sister, and I was worried about what might happen.
I didn’t have to wait long to find out, because when I stepped into my house, Brick was sitting on the couch, watching me with those eyes, which seemed to look into my very soul and find me lacking.
“We need to talk,” he said, rising and stepping toward me. “Max and Logan are in the backyard,” Logan, a friend, bear shifter and Chief of his Clan, was here to learn about growing crops and sustainable living, “But they have beer and are in the middle of a conversation, so we have time.”
I nodded, moving toward him without realizing it, like we were being controlled by a magnetic force.
Having him that near, closer than I’d allowed us to be since that first meeting, I felt my wolf stir and my body’s answering response. The need to touch him was great, almost impossible to deny.
As if of its own volition, my hand reached out to grab him by the shoulder, then I pulled him in close. Without a word, or thought, I touched my lips to his, needing to see how it felt. An explosion of lust and longing hit, and when he parted his lips beneath mine, I accepted the invitation and delved inside.
I’d only ever kissed Gilly in my life, and we’d done that for show more than anything else.
This was completely different.
I felt his muscles bunch beneath my hands, felt his heart pounding in tandem to mine, and felt the hard length of his cock against mine.
I gasped, pulling back as I realized what I’d done, and the fact that Logan or Max could have walked in and saw us, Hell, anyone member of the council coming to the barbecue could have walked in the front door and gotten the shock of a lifetime.
I placed my hand over my mouth and stared at Brick. His eyes were dark with arousal, his lips plump and wet from my kiss, and his dick was straining against his jeans.
“I’m sorry,” I managed, tying to ignore the disappointment on Brick’s face. “This can’t happen.”
I turned to go to my room, needing some time to gather myself and splash some water on my face. Before I could fully escape behind the safety of my bedroom door, I heard Brick’s gravelly voice call, “You can’t keep running from this, Mateo. We’re going to happen. It’s inevitable.”
But I ignored him and quietly shut the door, before falling back against it and closing my eyes.
I was terrified he was right.
Chapter 2
Brick
Holy Shit.
I stood there, staring at Mateo’s closed door, heart pounding, and lips tingling.
I couldn’t believe he’d actually kissed me.
Fighting our attraction, our fate, had been something Mateo had excelled at over the years. While I’d yearned for him, living in agony whenever he was near, Mateo had always seemed unaffected.
At least, on the outside.
But I’d known, deep down, that he’d felt as miserable as me. He had to. Fate couldn’t be so cruel as to have me living miserably if my mate wasn’t feeling the same, right?
His denial, and easy dismissal of our connection had always stung. More so than my parents’ disownment, or the teasing of ignorant assholes at college. Mateo was my mate. He was supposed to be my other half, the person who understood me above all others, and he avoided me like I had the plague.
I wanted to hate him for it. Spent nights, in fact, trying to talk myself into finding someone else, but it was no use. Mateo was it for me, even if I had to spend a lifetime of loneliness and abstinence, I couldn’t make myself so much as kiss another human being.
No, that kiss that I’d just had with Mateo, had been my first, and I hoped like hell, it wouldn’t be my last.
I’d felt the quickening of his pulse, the length of his hard cock straining against mine, and had heard him panting as heavily as I.
I’d watched him for years making out with my sister, wanting to tear her hair out, while at the same time feeling sorry that she was with a man who could never truly love her. But now that we’d had a taste of each other, I was hopeful it would be enough for his wolf to take over, for instinct to prevail, and for us to finally be together.
The slamming of his door wasn’t a good sign. But, now that I had his taste on my lips, I wasn’t letting go.
Knowing I wouldn’t get any further with him that night, not with Logan and Max already there, and the entire council coming over to barbecue, I left Mateo to freak out in private, and joined the men in the backyard.
I was halfway done with my beer when Bryan, Calin, Gregory, and Kevin arrived. They were all members of the pack and part of the council, which meant they not only made most of the decisions for the pack, oversaw the crops, and kept the pack safe, but were the men closest to Mateo.
Maximus was the Bravo to Mateo’s Alpha, and to all of our surprise, was Gilly’s mate, which meant the farce that she and Mateo had been projecting to the pack was now over, and Mateo was free to be with his one true mate.
Me.
I just wish he saw it that way.
I knew he was worried, since there’d never been an openly gay wolf in the pack, let alone a gay Alpha. But I believed the pack loved him enough that it wouldn’t matter. Now, I just needed to make Mateo see that.
“How’s it going, Brick? How’s college?” Calin, Mateo’s younger brother, and my friend, asked.
Calin and I were the same age and had gone to school together.
“It’s going pretty good,” I said, accepting the fresh beer he handed me, “But, I’m happy to be back.”
“Good to have you back,” he said, then we both tuned in to what Mateo and Logan were talking about.
“It’s really worked out great so far,” Mateo said, and I knew he was talking about the crops that kept our pack afloat. Howlers, the bar in town where my sisters worked, had been run by our pack since our grandparents were young, but when Mateo took over and saw the financial state of the pack, he’d had the idea to start growing and harvesting corn on the land.
The first two years had been difficult, but in the third year they’d turned a profit, and now his brainchild gave the pack some financial stability again. I was so proud of him, and it frustrated the shit out of me that he wouldn’t let me show it.
“It takes a couple years to get going, but I think you’ll be happy with the results,” Mateo was telling Logan, who was there because he was interested in doing something similar for his clan.
“So, Logan,” I began, the combination of frustration and beer giving me courage, even though I felt Mateo’s eyes on me. “I’ve never been around a clan, or any bear-shifters for that matter, are ya’ll an equal opportunity bunch, or are you like our wolf pack?”
“Brick,” Mateo said, his tone low and warning, but I ignored him.
“I don’t follow,” Logan replied, looking between the two of us.
“Does your clan find value in more than just the token male shifter… You know, women, humans, or homosexuals?” I asked, whispering the last like it was a dirty word.
Logan seemed unfazed, but I could feel the tension radiating off of Mateo.
“We find value in all members of the clan. I’ll admit that most of our shifters are men, that’s just the way it is, but we do have a female panther shifter who is mated to one of our men, as well as a lesbian couple who moved to be with our clan when they adopted two boy cubs. And, the youngest of our clan is gay, although he hasn’t found his mate yet.”
“Interesting,” I replied, turning my eyes to Mateo.
“What are you getting at, Brick?” Max asked. “Has someone in the pack said something to you, other than your parents, I mean.”
I turned to Max and gave him a sad smile. He really was a good dude, and I was really happy for Gilly.
“No, nothing like that, Max, everyone has treated me the same as they always have, it’s just… Well, even if I wanted to move back to be with the pack, it’s not like I’d ever be able to find love here. I was just wondering what it’s like in other breeds.”
“You know that you and whoever you start a life with are welcome here, anytime. You don’t have to fall for a member of the pack or our community, we will welcome the person you love into our pack with open arms,” Maximus said confidently.
If only he knew…
“I know, Max, thanks,” I replied, biting back my anger when Gilly and Natasha arrived, causing Logan to jump to his feet to help them, and Mateo to change the subject.
Chapter 3
Mateo
I couldn’t believe Brick.
How could he be so reckless, bringing up tolerance and gay relationships in front of the pack like that?
No one had ever treated Brick any differently after he came out, well, other than his useless parents, but didn’t he get that it was different for me? I was the Alpha for crying out loud. The leader of the pack. The one everyone turned to when things went wrong.
The last thing I needed him to do was raise suspicion about us.
When the crowd started to thin out, I saw Brick saying his goodbyes to Maximus and Logan, and stepped inside so I could talk to him before he left.
I watched him walk into the room, his head tilted down, a frown on his face, and I felt a tug of remorse. I hated that I made him feel this way, like he was
somehow less, and that was why I couldn’t be with him.
We needed to sit down and have a real talk at some point, one where I could explain where I was coming from. But, it couldn’t be when I had people over.
He was almost to me when I reached out and grabbed his arm. His head came up in surprise, but he didn’t try to stop me from pulling him into my room where I shut the door behind us.
“What were you thinking?” I asked, dropping his arm as soon as we were safely inside.
Just that one touch was enough to have my body responding.
Brick frowned deeper and replied, “You know exactly what I was thinking. I’m trying to get you to see that coming out wouldn’t be the end of life as you know it. If you’d just give them a chance, I think you’d be surprised.”
I scoffed and shook my head.
“We don’t have time to talk now, but we need to sit down and have a serious conversation.”
“I agree,” Brick said. “When?”
“Maybe tomorrow. When are you going back to school?”
“I don’t know if I am,” he replied, causing me to frown.
“What do you mean, of course you’re going back,” I said, and not just because I couldn’t bear to have him this close to me all the time, but because I knew from Gilly that he was doing well in school and was almost finished. “You’re about to graduate.”
Brick shrugged, then dropped his arms to his sides and took a step toward me.
“What are you doing?” I asked, taking a step back for self-preservation.
“You kissed me,” he said, and although I was a good four inches taller than him, the look on his face made my palms sweat and my heart race.