~Summer of Awakenings~
Sandrine Gasq-Dion
~Dedication~
To my family.
Jenjo, Kim and Jen
My readers at LRO
Many thanks to my cover models: Jacob&Julia Hogan, Taylor Klahn and Skott Fisher.
©Copyright 2012
This is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or business establishments, events or locales is coincidental. All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. WARNING: This book contains material that maybe offensive to some: Violence, graphic language, homosexual relations, adult situations.
~CHAPTER ONE~
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
*EPILOGUE*
~Chapter One~
Will Cooper threw one more look around his dorm room, making sure he had everything he needed. He, Kory Maguire, Sebastian Stevens, Wyatt Dalton, Olivia Stetson and Colin Greystone were going to be counselors at Caden Fournier’s Pride Camp for gay teens. When he and Kory had ‘joined forces’ at the insistence of cops Tucker Storm and Wesley Foster, it had worked out well for all of them. He and Kory shared a desire to help outcast gay teens and Wyatt had helped make it happen by introducing them to corporate magnates Riley Flynn-Esposito, Caden Fournier and Wayne Maccon. The men had jumped on board immediately, donating millions of dollars not only to camps around the United States, but to outreach centers where children and teenagers could go if they were kicked out of their homes for being gay. The men had also spared no expense in having the counselors trained by professionals so they were prepared to handle everything from just listening to finding help for especially difficult cases, such as instances of abuse.
A knock on his door brought him out of his thoughts and he opened it, smiling at Colin Greystone.
“You ready?” Colin peered around the room.
“Yep, just grabbing my iPod and headphones.”
“Dammit!” Colin laughed. “I knew I was forgetting something!”
“Well, we’ll stop by your room on our way out. Are the buses here yet?”
“You mean the hotels on wheels?” Colin laughed loudly.
Will smiled. Caden Fournier wanted the kids to feel loved and wanted. Caden, Riley and Wayne had spared no expense. The guys made their way down the hall and ran into Kory hauling his own bag.
“Hey, guys,” Kory grinned. “Time for summer camp at Camp Itchitteecheepookie!”
Colin exploded in laughter. “Dude, it’s Camp Pride.”
“Oh, I know.” Kory threw his bag over his shoulder with a grin. “I’ve been a camp counselor before. The kids used to come up with outrageous names for the camp.”
Will tilted his head, regarding Kory. “Dude, it’s still kinda orange.” He had to chuckle. Kory had wanted a change and dyed his hair from dirty blond to black. When the change was made, Kory wasn’t happy with it and had tried to dye it back - resulting in orange hair.
Colin stifled a laugh. “If I had my Sharpie, I could draw eyes and a mouth on you, and then we could have a jack-o-lantern.”
“Oh ha, ha. Save it for Halloween,” Kory grinned.
“Where are Olivia and Wyatt?” Colin looked around, unlocking the door to his room.
“They’re coming. Sebastian is waiting for us by the monster tour bus.” Kory stood in Colin’s doorway as his friend grabbed last minute items.
“See?” Colin looked out the window and nudged Will in the ribs. “Told ya they look like hotels on wheels.” Colin shut and locked his door and followed Kory and Will down the stairs
“I heard a rumor.” Will headed down the steps.
“Yeah? What rumor?” Colin asked, curiously.
“Seems Wayne Maccon wants a self-defense class at the camp. He got two ex-Navy SEALs to run it.”
Kory stopped and Colin ran into his back.
“Excuse me?” Kory spluttered.
Will turned at the bottom of the steps. “What?” Will studied his friend’s face. “You don’t think it’s that Navy SEAL do you?”
“As small as this world is?” Kory shook his head. “I don’t put anything past anyone anymore.” Kory followed his friends outside. He’d let it slip to Will one night that he’d been attracted to former Navy SEAL Jacob Steele, whom he had met by chance and hadn’t seen in weeks. It was driving him nuts.
“Yeah?” Will grinned at Colin. “I heard they wanted Nikolai Markov, but he was already on an assignment.”
Colin grimaced. “Don’t mention that man-ho’s name. God, he’s so annoying!”
“Yeah? But he’s fucking hottttt!” Will laughed, running from Colin.
The three of them exited the dorms into the blistering heat. Seattle’s summer was in full swing. Kory smiled as his eyes met with Wyatt’s. His friend was married to Preston Dalton, one hell of a hot fireman. Sebastian’s husband was a cop, and a gorgeous one at that. Kory grinned, putting his hand out to Wyatt.
“Hey, Wyatt, how’s married life?”
Wyatt shook Kory’s hand and relieved him of his bag, setting it in the baggage compartment of the bus.
“It’s like dating, except better,” he smiled broadly.
Will looked over the gigantic bus. “So where will the bus pick up the campers?”
“Downtown. Caden arranged for all of them to be picked up close to home. But before that, we have two weeks to get the camp up and running.” Wyatt looked behind Kory and Will and smiled; his back-up team was making its way over. “And here are the rest of our guys.”
Kory turned to see Brock Holloway, Travis Rhoades and Jordy Crain making their way over. He turned his attention back to Wyatt. “The football players?”
“Yes. Lance is meeting us out there,” Wyatt said.
“You did warn Brock not to date the campers, right?” Sebastian chuckled.
“I heard that, Stevens!” Brock laughed, making his way to the bus. “Yes, I was told no touchy feely with the campers.”
“Travis,” Sebastian extended his hand to the police chief’s son.
“Hey, Bas,” Travis grinned. “Thanks for getting me out of Police School 101 for the summer.”
“But, you’re not gay.” Will looked at Travis Rhoades.
“Neither am I,” Jordy chuckled. “Doesn’t mean we can’t help.”
“Oh, I know…I didn’t mean…” Will felt his cheeks flush.
“Hey, it’s cool,” Jordy mussed Will’s hair.
“Can we get a move on?” Olivia huffed, making her way to the bus.
“Hey, Liv,” Wyatt grabbed her bag from her and got a slap on his hand.
“I can carry my own bag, Wyatt Dalton!”
“Ow.” Brock covered his ears.
“I know,” Sebastian grinned. “It’s like a screeching car.” Sebastian laughed and felt a smack to his head. “Hey!” Sebastian rubbed his head. “What was that for?”
Olivia tapped her foot at Sebastian. “Just because Wyatt forgave you doesn’t mean that I have. You still haven’t given me a good reason as to why you were such an abusive ass to him last year.”
Sebastian glanced over at Wyatt. “Can I tell her?”
Wyatt shrugged. “I suppose. I’m going to hear it when you’re done, though.” Wyatt took a long look at the group. “Well, let’s get this show on the road. We’ve got the big guns coming in three days to see our progress.”
“Three days?” Will repeated.
“Oh, don’t worry,” Sebastian grinned. “We have more help coming.”
Kory settled into the cushi
oned bus bench and reclined it back, closing his eyes. They had quite a few hours on the road and he was going to use that time to think about how much his life had changed. For weeks he hadn’t seen Jacob; it’d been pure hell. He had taken a class on human sexuality at school and was still no closer to understanding his feelings for the ex-Navy SEAL. Okay, so he found a man attractive, but it was a far cry from kissing one, or having sex. Kory sighed, stretching his legs out. He hadn’t even had sex with a girl yet. Who was he kidding? He hadn’t even been kissed yet.
Kory opened one eye and peeked at Olivia. She was pretty, no doubt about that, but he didn’t get that feeling in his gut that he did with Jacob. In fact, he hadn’t even dated anyone at school. He spent his spare time hanging out with Will - who wasn’t dating, either. They preferred watching stupid TV shows to going out to frat parties and getting drunk. Kory was going to school on his brother’s dime - well, and Kurt’s husband, Wesley’s, dime. He couldn’t afford to let them down by screwing up.
It was weird to know that his previously straight brother was now married to a man. Not to mention that they were both werewolves. Kory had been allowed in on the secret; they’d really had no choice since he’d seen his brother shift into a wolf with his own eyes.
Wayne Maccon, a created werewolf and the alpha of the Denali pack, had explained it all.
Wayne’s werewolf line was created by Artemis and Gaea. Artemis was the god of light and the vulnerable; Gaea, the goddess of Mother Earth. Together with the fates they created werewolves. Half man, half wolf they moved between both worlds. As the first of their kind, the created ones were meant to rule all other werewolves.
Kory had also found out how his good friends – all government assassins – had come to be part of the close group. When he’d first heard ‘assassin,’ he’d about shit himself.
Then he’d met Mateo, Troy, Sam and Josh and their husbands. James Pruitt Jacobs had come into the picture with his husband, retired general Derek Jacobs, when wealthy businessman Caden Fournier had been attacked and changed into a werewolf by a violent and outcast Carson Drake. Caden had met his EMT/werewolf husband, Kellan, at the scene of an accident in which Caden had been involved. They’d fallen in love and the Skull Blasters (Mateo, Sam, Troy and Josh) felt that their bosses, James and Derek, needed to be in on the secret since they were all working together so often and so closely.
If that hadn’t confused him enough, Kory had then met sweet FBI agent Keegan and his formerly vicious killer husband, Vince Markov. Kory shuddered at that thought. Vince Markov was one hell of an intimidating man, but he’d put Kory at ease right away with his sense of humor. Nikolai was the same as his father, albeit more of a slut. Kory grinned thinking about Nik Markov. The big, bad assassin had a huge crush on Colin Greystone.
Then, just as he was getting used to the werewolves, the warlock came into the picture. Meeting Chance Christianson was definitely the kicker. The guy had shrunk him to an inch tall. It was freaky. Chance was really sweet, though, even if he had fried his ex-boyfriend to protect the man he loved. Pierce Barnes had been Chance’s ex, and - unbeknownst to Chance - a rogue wolf, murderer and rapist. When Chance had been kidnapped by Pierce, Logan MacLeod moved heaven and Earth to get him back. They’d almost died together, but Chance’s magic had saved them both when he incinerated Pierce.
Kory sighed. How he wished he had that kind of love in his life.
The werewolves and humans lived and fought together side by side, with mutual respect. Kory had never seen a rogue and he hoped he never would. Olivia’s loud shriek brought him out of his thoughts.
“Wyatt Dalton!” Olivia stood up and turned to find Wyatt.
Kory shrunk down in his seat; he did not want to be part of that argument. Although Sean Knight (Olivia’s boyfriend) was well aware of Preston and Wyatt’s werewolf counterparts, Olivia had been kept in the dark. Sebastian Price - now Stevens - had been a werewolf his whole life. He just hadn’t known it because the female werewolf gene had remained dormant in him until he met his mate, detective Nicholas Stevens. When Sebastian had begun dating Wyatt, his lupine side recognized Wyatt’s, which caused Sebastian to act irrationally. He’d been aggressive with Wyatt when he normally was not a violent guy. It hadn’t made sense to anyone until Sebastian and Nicholas came together and the shift was completed.
Wyatt and Preston’s story was one for the books. Preston had been thirteen when the mate bond had bitch-slapped him in the head. The problem? Wyatt was seven at the time. Preston had explained to Kory that because Wyatt was so young, he and Wyatt’s family had decided to keep the truth from him until he was older. That hadn’t gone over well with Wyatt once he found out. In the end, Preston and Wyatt were together for good.
“How dare you keep that from me?” Olivia stalked to the back of the bus.
“What’s going on?” Will slid into the seat next to Kory.
Kory had been getting to know Will for a while. “Um, not sure,” Kory smiled moving his bag to the empty seat in front of him.
Will Cooper knew Tucker and Wesley; they’d arrested him on his 21st birthday for driving drunk. Will had had a bad night and as luck would have it, Officers Storm and Foster had pulled him over and taken him in. When he’d come back to the precinct one day to thank Tucker and Wesley for their concern that night, they’d told him about Kory, the younger brother of a friend of theirs. The two had hit it off and were becoming good friends. Now Will had met the rest of the packs - he just didn’t know that they were werewolves.
Kory had noticed that Will was skittish, and seemed to look over his shoulder a lot. He didn’t talk about his past much and Kory was trying to get him to open up. There was a story there, he just needed Will to trust him enough to tell him. They stopped in Spokane for snacks and then continued the last forty minutes to the camp.
Camp Pride was right next to Deer Lake. When the idea for the camp for gay children and teens had come up, Caden, Riley and Wayne had started buying property. With help from James Jacobs, they cut through red tape and years of waiting. Now, the first camp in Washington was built and they were taking it through a test run. The original camp had been put up near Fairbanks, Alaska, and they had already had a successful run-through the previous summer.
The camp came into view and Kory whistled softly.
“Wow, look at that.”
Will looked out the bus window and his eyes widened. Camp Pride looked like a resort. Log cabins stretched out for what looked like miles and a larger structure sat right in the middle of it all. There were log picnic tables and benches spread out around the massive mess hall/main building. The bus stopped in front of the main building and the group got out, taking their first look at the camp that had finally come to fruition.
“Holy shit,” Brock whispered.
“Wayne said all the wood they used was from the trees they cut down to build the camp, and they planted new ones for every one that was cut down.” Wyatt walked towards the main building.
Kory walked towards the building, studying the signs that were pointing in different directions. One said ‘archery range’ and another ‘stables.’
“They have horses?”
“Yes, Stuart Macavoie is the vet here at the camp,” Sebastian answered. “He’s been here for a few weeks, just making sure the horses are adapting and getting to know the land.” Sebastian grinned as Stuart made his way out of the main building. “Hey, Stuart!”
Stuart smiled at the group of kids. “Hi, how was the trip?”
“It was fine,” Sebastian put his hand out to Stuart. The guy had been bitten and forced into being one of Pierce Barnes’ flunkies, but hadn’t gone fully rogue. It took Wayne’s blood - and bite - to cure the man. He knew something was up with Stuart and Ross Collins, one of the werewolves from the Oregon pack, but the two of them hadn’t spoken in a while. Ross had been sent to Turkey with Hayden and Noah with the Delta Force to stop a group of human traffickers.
“Well, as you can see, all the com
forts of home. There is one bathroom per cabin and plenty of outdoor commodes.”
Sebastian laughed. “You mean toilets?”
“Yes, there are shower cabins that have toilets in them,” Stuart smiled at Sebastian. “It’s good to see you.”
“You, too.”
The group split up and started setting up camp. The lake had canoes, as well as flat-bottomed boats for fishing. The men in charge had spared no expense. The kitchen was as big as a cafeteria. The cooks would be arriving in the next few days, as well as delivery trucks full of food. Will walked around the cabin where he would be in charge. Twin bunk sets covered the walls. The damn cabin was a small house.
Will located his bed and dropped his bag on the floor. He walked through the cabin, noting how many kids he’d be in charge of. The camp registration had filled quickly as most of the kids from the outreach center had signed up.
He took the path towards the lake and noticed horses running free. One was all black. Will got a little closer but stayed behind the gate of the enclosure. The stables were right near the lake and the horses bent to drink from the cold water. He’d never been a fan of horses; they scared him. He’d been thrown from one when he was ten and had never gotten back on.
“They are beautiful, aren’t they?”
Will turned to see Stuart smiling.
“Yes, how many are there in all?”
“Twenty, the kids will have to take turns riding. We have miles of paths to cover. So we’ll split the time between that, the archery range and making crafts.”
“Crafts?” Will raised a brow.
“Yes, crafts. Riley’s idea.”
Well that made sense. Riley Esposito hadn’t really had a childhood and he took great pleasure in having one now. His husband, Mateo, pretended to endure his husband’s goofy side but Will could tell the man was head over heels in love. They had been recently told that their surrogate was pregnant, and Will couldn’t wait to see how Mateo Esposito would react to a baby. He grinned just thinking about it.
“Is that an Arabian?” Will asked, looking at the black horse frolicking in the grass.
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