by Maggie Walsh
The Angel Pack 2
Secrets
Secrets from Gabriel's past haunt him and hold him back from claiming his mate. His internal struggle has always caused him to keep to himself. But this struggle is giving Taylor mixed signals, and a whole lot of pain. Gabriel won't tell Taylor that they are mates, but he doesn't know that Taylor already knows.
The pain from his mate's rejection causes Taylor to spin out of control and in return he lashes out at everyone, including his best friend Jesse.
Taylor holds a big secret that he tries to deal with alone. With new friends, late night parties and a lot of alcohol, he decides to leave the pack, Jesse, and Gabriel behind to keep his secret hidden. But by keeping his secret from the ones he loves, it will cause them to lose him forever.
Can Gabriel face his demons in time to save Taylor? Or will he be too late and spend eternity alone?
Genre: Alternative (M/M or F/F), Contemporary, Paranormal, Shape-shifter, Vampires/Werewolves
Length: 58,259 words
SECRETS
The Angel Pack 2
Maggie Walsh
EROTIC ROMANCE
MANLOVE
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Erotic Romance ManLove
SECRETS
Copyright © 2014 by Maggie Walsh
E-book ISBN: 978-1-63258-300-0
First E-book Publication: September 2014
Cover design by Harris Channing
All art and logo copyright © 2014 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Letter to Readers
Dear Readers,
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DEDICATION
To my children, for their ever-present love and support. You are truly in every breath I take. I live for you.
To my sisters, Eileen, Peggy, Mala, and Davida, for all their encouragement, understanding, support, and love. You help me through the dark times and celebrate with me in the light.
To A.L., your words encouraged me to take a chance on myself. To finally believe in me. I felt like a sleepwalker until you said, “Don’t let anybody pull you down. Don’t let anybody say you’re not allowed. Just remember, you are not alone.” Thank you.
A special thank-you to Richie. You helped make all this possible. Without all your love and support, as well as all the technical help you give me, I wouldn’t be doing this today.
To anyone out there who feels lost and alone, who is afraid to take that step and change their life, or is afraid to ask for help, just remember, “You are not alone.”
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
About the Author
SECRETS
The Angel Pack 2
MAGGIE WALSH
Copyright © 2014
Prologue
Taylor and Jesse grew up together. They had been best friends since the first grade. They had always stood by each other and had always had each other’s backs. On the day they graduated from high school Jesse told Taylor that now that he was an adult, that it was time to start acting like one. He was finally going to be honest with his family and tell his parents he was gay. He was going to do it the next day so it didn’t get in the way of graduation.
Taylor loved Jesse more than anything in the world, except for his parents. They were great, they always encouraged him to follow his dreams and to be the best him he could be. To work on his weaknesses, but to focus on his strengths, and help them grow.
Taylor was always good at entertaining people, and he loved it. He wanted to grow up and go off to Hollywood to be an actor. He was in every school play since the seventh grade. He could dance, act, do comedy, and even sing a little. Nothing like Jesse of course. Jesse could sing like the love child of Adam Lambert and Beyoncé. Wouldn’t that be a sight? King of the yummies, Adam Lambert, now there’s a man I could get under. Tall, dark, and vampirely hot. So, so, so damn hot.” Taylor shivered at the thought.
Jesse was in all the plays at school, too, the drama teachers loved him so much that they always went after him, and, he never had to audition once. He had such an incredible voice, and he was hot as hell to boot. See, lucky bitch. But I love him.
So anyway, I figured that Jesse was right, it was time to grow up. Time to take that step into adulthood and be who I truly was. If Jesse could do it, and be out and proud, then so could I. I was gay and I was going to tell my parents. I mean come on, they had to have a clue already. At sixteen I was five foot nine, hundred and twenty-five pounds, golden-blond hair that I kept long, and I loved clothes and Broadway musicals. So that was it, I was going to tell them. They would be cool about it. They loved me, they supported me all the time. We had a great relationship. It was gonna be okay.
Jesse showed up at my bedroom window in the middle of the night crying, so of course I let him in. We
cuddled together in my bed all night as Jesse cried, telling me about how he told his parents he was gay and they told him he had five minutes to pack a bag and never come back. He wasn’t their son anymore. They didn’t have a son.
I couldn’t believe it. Jesse’s parents weren’t as great as my parents but they were okay, they weren’t abusive or anything. They just never had time for Jesse. Their careers always came first. Jesse spent most of his time alone, even at night. When he wasn’t with me he was home alone. There were times Jesse’s parents would go away for a week or two on business and leave Jesse home alone. They started doing that when Jesse was ten and his grandma died and his parents didn’t have anyone else to leave him with. That’s when Jesse started to teach himself how to cook, and he would sing and dance around the kitchen as he did it. By the time we were twelve, Jesse could already cook better than anyone we knew, even my mom. I was always so grateful I had the parents I had. They were always there for me.
So I held Jesse all night, and the next day when I told him that I was going to tell my parents I was gay, Jesse tried to talk me out of it, but I wouldn’t listen. I knew everything would be okay and my parents would even let Jesse move in with us till we went off to college. Jesse left, telling me he was going to the bank to take out all the money he had, which was about a hundred bucks.
After Jesse left, I showered and got dressed, then went downstairs for breakfast. When we were almost done eating I decided it was time.
“Mom, Dad, can I talk to you guys about something?”
“Sure, sweetie,” his mother answered with a smile.
“Jesse came over last night and he was really upset.”
“Is he okay son?” his dad asked with concern.
“I let him stay over. He just left before I came down, but no, he’s not okay. His parents threw him out. They told him he could never come back. That he wasn’t their son anymore,” Taylor explained as he tried to hold his tears in. His parents exchanged a knowing look. “What? What do you know?” Taylor asked.
“Well, sweetie, is it because Jesse may be different?” his mother asked.
“What do you mean different?” Taylor asked, confused.
“He’s more like a girl than a boy, Taylor,” his father huffed.
“So?”
“We’ve always been worried that he might be…well…you know?” his mother stammered.
“No, what?” Taylor asked, still confused and now worried for his friend.
“Gay, Taylor,” his father blurted out.
Taylor was so shocked at the way his parents were acting. They always welcomed Jesse into their home. They had never treated him bad. What was going on here? “So what if he is? That’s no big deal.” Taylor defended his friend.
“Of course it’s a big deal, Taylor. It’s wrong. It’s against God’s will,” his mother huffed, shocked at him.
“But he’s still Jesse, the same Jesse he has always been. He’s a good person. It shouldn’t matter who he’s attracted to.”
“Is that why his parents tossed him out?” his father asked with disgust in his voice.
Taylor made the mistake of thinking that the disgust his father showed was for Jesse’s parents. Boy was he wrong. “Yes, he told them yesterday that he was gay and they threw him out,” he answered in an angry tone.
After a few moments of his dad staring at him, his father broke the silence. “It’s a good thing school’s over and college starts in the fall. People naturally move apart because of college.”
“What does that mean?” Taylor asked, confused.
“So now when you stop spending time with him it’s because of naturally growing up. Not because you can’t hang out with him anymore,” his father answered then sipped his coffee.
“Why wouldn’t I hang out with him anymore? He’s my best friend.”
“Because you don’t want that filth to rub off on you, Taylor,” his mother said.
“You can’t catch gay, Mom. It’s not a disease.” Taylor sneered at her.
“It’s a choice that people make that’s disgusting and depraved. He may try to force his disgusting ways on you.” His mom’s voice started getting louder.
“Being gay isn’t a choice, Mom. It’s how someone is born. It’s how God made us.” Taylor was getting angrier.
“What do you mean how God made us?” His father’s eyes narrowed at Taylor, his jaw clenching.
“Has he touched you, Taylor? Has he tried to force you to do his dirty business?”
“No, Mom!” Taylor looked at her like he didn’t even know her. “Jesse has never touched me like that, and he would never try to force anything on anyone. You know him. He’s one of the sweetest people around. How could you even think that?”
“How long have you known about this Taylor?” his father asked.
“He told me he was gay when we were thirteen and he had a crush on Rob Wilkes.”
“You’ve known all this time and you are still spending time with him? You’ve let that child molester into my house?” His mother was yelling now.
“Whoa! Child molester? He’s not a child molester. Just because he’s gay doesn’t mean he’s a child molester. Just because he’s attracted to men doesn’t mean he’s attracted to little boys. Just because you’re attracted to men does that mean you’re attracted to little boys!” Taylor was yelling now.
“I’m not perverted or depraved. Everyone knows that gay people are child molesters. You see it on the news all the time. Cub Scout leaders, teachers, coaches, even priests. It’s always gay men with little boys.”
“It’s not always gay men with little boys, most of those men are married, with children of their own even. Those men are the scum of the earth. They’re sick individuals who deserve to hang for hurting a child, but just because you’re gay doesn’t mean you’re attracted to children,” Taylor huffed out.
“Are you gay, Taylor?” his father asked in a voice so cold it made Taylor shiver.
Taylor looked his father right in the eye. “Yes, Dad, I’m gay.”
His mother gasped in shock as she put a hand to her chest. “We have to call Father Murphy. He can come over and talk some sense into you,” she said as she jumped up and ran out of the room.
“I don’t need Father Murphy, Mom. There’s nothing wrong with me,” Taylor said, still looking his father in the eye.
“So is this the life you choose, Taylor? Is it something we did? Something we didn’t do? I thought we were always good parents. Loving, supportive, and this is how you repay us?” His father started to yell at the end.
“You are great parents. It has nothing to do with that. It’s not something I chose, it’s what I am, it’s how I was made.”
“This is your final decision? This gay lifestyle?” His father sneered at him.
“It wasn’t a decision, Dad. It’s who I have always been. It’s who I will always be,” Taylor answered, pleading with his voice and his eyes for his father to understand and support him like he always did.
“Get out,” his father said in a cold whisper.
“What? Dad, no…” Taylor started in shock and heartache, but his father cut him off.
“Get out of my house! If this is the life you are choosing, then you can do it on your own. I will not have this in my house!”
“But, Dad…” Taylor’s dad moved around the table and grabbed Taylor by the arms and started dragging him to the kitchen door. Taylor tried to fight him, to talk sense into him, but his dad was too strong and wouldn’t listen. His father opened the back door. “No son of mine will be a depraved, disgusting homosexual! You are not my son! Get out of my house and don’t ever come back!” his dad yelled as he threw Taylor out the door with all his strength. Taylor went flying down the two steps and held his hands out to catch himself, but he fell hard onto the concrete walkway. Taylor screamed out in pain and grabbed his wrist. His father slammed the door shut. Taylor sat up, holding his wrist to his chest and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. Cryi
ng, he called Jesse.
“Hey, Tay,” Jesse answered.
Crying into the phone, Taylor managed to talk. “Can you come and get me?”
“Oh shit, Taylor. You did it, didn’t you? You told them.”
“Yes, I told them.” He hiccupped.
“I’m on my way. Hang on, Taylor,” Jesse said and hung up.
Taylor stood up and took one last look at his home. It was no longer his home. He hung his head low, crying as he walked to the front of the house to wait at the curb for Jesse.
* * * *
Taylor let out a sigh as he wiped a stray tear from his cheek. The memories still hurt, but he was done crying over it. Crying over them. They didn’t want him. Nobody but Jesse wanted him. Now Jesse was going to be mated to a wonderful, gorgeous, Adonis Alpha and where would that leave Taylor? Oh, he was over-the-moon happy for Jesse. He deserved to find happiness, especially after everything he’d been through, but Taylor had gone through it, too, right along with him. “Don’t I deserve a little happiness, too?” Taylor whispered. He turned the knob and pushed the door open to Micah’s room.
Chapter 1
“Lord, I hope they finally mate. This is starting to get redundant, and I’m not even in this relationship.” Taylor was standing in the middle of Micah’s lavish bedroom. Micah Angel, Alpha of a pack of gay Timber wolves in Nowhere, Pennsylvania. “How the hell did I end up here? We left small-town Ohio and found our way to small-town Pennsylvania. Woo woo. Now I’m living the life. Well, I guess I should get to this, I promised Micah I would get his room ready for a night of debauchery.” Taylor walked over to Micah’s huge bed and started to untie the sashes to the curtain hanging at the headboard. “I can’t believe how friggin’ big this bed is. You can probably fit about fifteen average guys in this bed. Micah’s so big you could probably only fit about seven or eight of him in here. Hmmm, fifteen men at once, yum. Yeah, right, Taylor, you can’t even get the one guy destined to be yours. God I’m such a loser. Nobody wants me. I’m in a mansion full of huge hot wolves and I’m totally alone. Even Jesse is too busy lately with his mate that I’m not even a blip on his radar. Jesse is so fucking lucky, he gets the big beautiful Alpha for a mate, and I get a mate who doesn’t want anything to do with me.” He grabbed the loose curtain and started to pull it around the bed. “Damn, this bed could hold one hell of an orgy.” Taylor laughed. “Eight Micahs and one Jesse. That would be some picture. Micah is no pipsqueak, at six foot ten inches, two hundred and eighty pounds of all yummy muscle.” Taylor fanned himself just thinking about how lucky his best friend was.
