Cooper Davis - Bound by Nature

It doesn’t take Hayden Garrett’s college degree to figure out why Officer Josh Peterson is the last man alive he wants to face. Not because of the council’s harebrained idea to broker peace between their clans.
It’s the sweaty palms that prove Hayden never got over his embarrassing attraction to his alpha rival. Mate with him? Nothing fills Hayden with more desire—or dread. Josh doesn’t have a gay hair in his fur. At least not one he owns up to.
Despite Josh’s reputation for being a connoisseur of female flesh, he’s always cared about Hayden. In a different world, they might have been friends. Now, face to face after five years, the bitterness in Hayden’s eyes fills Josh with regret for what could have been—should have been.
As Hayden and Josh journey through rituals—and intimacies—that will knit their souls for life, passion and anger flares, revealing a powerful secret. The truth about a long-ago sharing of hearts, bodies and souls that ended in tragedy…

Comment: This book tells us the story of Hayden and Josh, two rival alpha werewolves. We get glimpses from the time where they were young and images from years later. Hayden is openly gay but Josh is straight, which is kind of a problem for Hayden because he has a crush on Josh since...forever.
One day, when Hayden returns from college to spend the holidays, he meets Josh and they agree to have a run in that week.
Throughout the book we see what happened after that run and what is happening now, to both of them, when they meet again. And things aren't simple between them anymore.

I enjoyed the story, it was hot at times, sad at others but in the end it has a HEA I've enjoyed seeing.
At first I didn't particularly like the jumps between past and present, because usually it can be tiresome to always change pace and time like that but the things in the past didn't occupy much space, so it didn't get too boring. I think the best asst of this story - apart from the wonderful mate thing I looove in shapeshifter novels - is the feelings. They seemed real and true. Good for the author to know how to draw them in the story.