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his lips and glared. Nischal was right, though.
    “Anyway, that was for being a big emo dummy. You and Paul wouldn’t be mates if it wasn’t going to work. You two need each other. It just might take you both a while to figure it out. Have some faith in yourself.” And with that, Nischal jogged over to the truck.
    Justice turned away and went to his own vehicle. He was kind of glad he wasn’t in the truck with Paul. When Nischal opened the door, raised voices spilt out. Justice hadn’t heard them when he’d been speaking to Nischal, probably because he’d been so focused on himself and the conversation. Maybe, too, Paul and Preston hadn’t been yelling then.
    Justice wished he could revel in the joy of having found his mate, but it wasn’t that simple. Maybe Nischal was right, and the Fates hadn’t fucked up by pairing him with Paul. But it still wouldn’t be easy. Paul had problems, justifiably so. Justice didn’t want to do anything to make them worse.
    Even then as he sat in his car contemplating what had happened in such a short period of time, Justice yearned for Paul. Not just sexually, though his dick was still trying to poke a hole in his jeans. No, he wanted to hold Paul, to comfort him and be there for him. To help him through the healing process.
    He had a feeling that them being mates was going to test the mate bond in ways that might never have occurred before.
    Justice thought about his cousins, many of whom had found their mate in the past couple of years. It was like once they knew about the possibility of it, they began finding that one special person. Not all of his cousins, of course, because damn, he had dozens of them. They were a large, prolific family. But still, it’d started with Levi, then several of the male cousins had got their happily ever after.
    That was something Justice had thought about on occasion, but the closer he got to thirty, the more he’d dwelled on it. And moped, too, if he were honest. He’d come home from the military and missed the camaraderie of it. Ten years—it was all he knew, really, in his adult life. Then he’d moved back to Phoenix and got an apartment with Viv, determined to help her out in any way he could.
    His friends were scattered all over the world, and he had lost touch with many of them. Only Asher and Tuck, his two best buds, were still on his contacts list. He was going to be a pathetic twit if he didn’t watch out.
    Justice shook himself like a cat doused with water. He wasn’t a kid, and he’d lived a lot in his twenty-nine years. If he wanted to be what Paul needed, then he had better stop being a whiny shit and man the fuck up.
    Viv would laugh at that and tell him if he was going to toughen up, he should woman the fuck up, but whatever. It was time that he put his best foot forward.

Chapter Five
     
     
     
    Paul buried his head in his hands. “No!” There wasn’t much else he could shout at Preston then, and even that was futile.
    A shifter. A goddamned shifter! And I still want him, so much I want to jump out of the truck and chase him down! “Fuck!” Paul began rocking, the seatbelt cutting into him as he tried to calm his rising panic.
    Except it wasn’t just panic, and he hated to acknowledge that. Desire was burning in him, chasing away everything but the need to feel that big, hard body against his.
    “He won’t touch you again—” Preston began.
    Nischal slammed his door. “Yeah, he will—”
    “He won’t!” Preston yelled, drowning out Nischal’s voice. “I’ll kill him if he tries!”
    Paul’s ears rang in the silence that followed that. Preston started the engine and Nischal remained silent, but Paul knew something had passed between them in that weird way they had of reading each other’s mind. It was something that happened between destined mates, Preston had said.
    It sounded like hell to Paul, having to share the darkness in his mind with someone else. He couldn’t imagine being so exposed, or