by Marcy Jacks
Mason had been excited for him and saddened with the thought that he would never be able to go to places like that. Being a werewolf in a city was never a good thing.
Derek shrugged. “I guess I decided that I liked it here better.”
Mason Returns to His Mate 45
Mason nodded. He wet his lips and had to push the mug of coffee away from himself before he gripped it too hard and shattered it. “There’s something I need to talk to you about.”
Derek took another mouthful of coffee and nodded. “Yeah, I
figured as much.”
Mason stiffened. “Uh, you did?”
Derek glared at him sharply again. “Do you have any idea how
many gay couples I’ve seen since I got here?”
“Uh ”…
“A whole lot considering the size of this place. I swear, I think the gays outnumber the straights at this point. Granted, one guy seemed to be talking to himself, but that’s not what this is about.”
Mason couldn’t figure out where this was going. “Is that bad?”
“It is when your brother was the one who told me you left because you were ashamed of me.”
“What?”
“You just disappeared without saying anything. Your whole family here was avoiding me, too, and that’s fine, I got that with the secrecy thing you all did, but when I finally got up the nerve to ask James what had happened the next time I saw him in town, he told me you left because you were ashamed.”
This had clearly been eating away at Derek for the last ten years. He was definitely suppressing his memories of what had happened that night, too.
Mason opened his mouth to tell him the truth, that he didn’t leave because of anything Derek did, that it was entirely his fault.
Instead, only the half-truth came out.
“He didn’t tell you I was ashamed of you, and I never said that to him either.”
Derek didn’t stop frowning, and when he looked like he was getting ready to argue some more, Mason cut him off.
“I was shamed, Derek. I challenged my brother for the right to lead the pack, and I failed. The loser in a challenge like that is
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required to leave.”
Derek’s face was wide open with stunned revelation, but it was clear he still didn’t understand. “Why leave?”
Mason shrugged. “To teach humility. Can’t have an alpha who’s sore from losing around the pack. They can leave and either start a pack of their own, or come back after the shame is lifted.”
Mason just left out the part where he was only required to leave for twelve months. He wasn’t quite ready to tell Derek about that.
Derek, instead of being relieved or grateful for the explanation, got up from his chair, the legs scratching against the hardwood floor before he paced around the kitchen.
“You fuck…you complete fucking idiot.”
“For what?” Mason asked.
“For not telling me!” Derek exploded, rounding on him. “You were gone for ten years, you stupid shit! You could’ve told me you were leaving or where you were going. You could’ve called, written, anything.”
“I wasn’t aware that a three-day fling required that kind of
commitment,” Mason deadpanned.
Derek’s face drained of all color. He grabbed both the mugs in the table and dumped the contents down the sink, then gripped the counter edges hard. “Get out of here, now.”
Mason didn’t move, and Derek didn’t turn back to look at him.
This was wrong. This was not the right reason for Derek to be angry with him, and Mason purposely embarrassing and pissing the man off was the coward’s way out.
He got up from his chair and moved to where Derek was standing. When he put his hands on the other man’s shoulder’s, Derek rounded on him and pushed him away.
“Don’t touch me!” he yelled.
Like Mason could obey a command like that. He surged forward and wrapped his arms around Derek’s shoulders, holding on tight even when he struggled in his grasp.
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Derek was more muscled and stronger now, but he could never get out of a full-fledged wolf-hug.
After a solid minute, he stopped fighting, but he didn’t hold Mason back. He did let his head rest on Mason’s shoulder, however.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that,” Mason said.
“Yes, you did. Dick,” Derek muttered.
Mason sighed, but Derek spoke first.
“You’re right, though. We weren’t together long for me to have waited for you like this. I don’t want to come off as a stalker or anything. I don’t know why I never let you go.”
Mason knew why, because they were mated. He wouldn’t burden Derek with that information, however. Not when he was going to
have let Derek go so soon.
Never mind Derek letting him go. Derek was never going to want to see Mason’s face when his memories of that night returned.
“Derek, there’s something I need to ask you.”
Derek pulled away and looked at him.
“I need to ask if you remember―”
He didn’t get the chance to finish when Derek reached his hands up, holding on tightly to Mason’s shoulders, and then pressed his mouth to Mason’s.
The touch of Derek’s lips on his was like having a really strong alcohol in his system for the first time. It was like a tiny, pleasurable jolt sizzled through his body that he couldn’t contain.
No. No. This was all fucked up. He knew what Derek was doing, and if he allowed it to go on, the other man was going to hate him even more after he found out the truth.
It nearly killed him to do it, but he pushed Derek away from him.
“We can’t do this.”
Derek’s eyes turned into kicked-puppy sad. “Why not?”
“Because …because of what I did to you.”
Derek’s eyes squinted in the way that people’s eyes did when they were thinking. “What did you do? Leave?”
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“No. I… ” God, he didn’t even want to say the word. “What do you remember about that last night we were together?”
Derek shook his head. He didn’t get it.
“Derek, you won’t want to be with me if you remember that. What I did…and I’m so sorry that I did it. I didn’t mean to, I swear to God I didn’t.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I … ” Mason had to extract himself from Derek’s arms. He
couldn’t admit to something like this when Derek held onto him for dear life. “I raped you.”
He whispered the words, but Derek’s head flew back like he’d been punched. “You what?”
His yelled words made Mason cringe. He could face down hunters, take out a fully grown moose with his claws and teeth alone, but the emotional stuff, terrible confessions, he apparently couldn’t
do.
That was why he looked away from Derek’s face and stared at the
counter and sink behind him instead.
“It was right after I’d lost the challenge to James. My wolf was still mostly in my head, and we were both angry for the loss. I went to you to take it out on, and I knew what I was doing, but I just couldn’t make myself stop. It didn’t seem to matter. When I came back to my regular self, you were unconscious beneath me.”
Then there had been the way Derek’s rented house had been trashed and the blood between his legs, which was enough to tell Mason just how rough he’d been.
“I know none of that’s an excuse, but I just thought you should know.”
“Why?”
Why? Why did he do it? Why was he coming clean? “I don’t―”
“Why come to me with this now? After all these years? I remember what happened that night, Mason. I’m starting to think that you don’t.”
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Every image he could remember was fuzzy, but there was no
mistaking what it had been. At least not to him.
“Derek ”—
“Mason,” Derek cut him off, mocking his voice. “I wasn’t exactly fighting to get away. I remember you coming to me that day, practically knocking down my door before I could answer it. The second you saw me, you picked me up and tossed me on the couch, and I’ve never been fucked so good in my life.”
“What?”
“Then we went into the bathroom, and then the kitchen, and then
my bedroom, and long after I thought I couldn’t come again, you wrung another one out of me. I remember waking up to my house trashed, yes. My ass was killing me, but you were gone, Mason. That was the worst feeling in the world, waking up to find your almostboyfriend had just taken off after spending the night. Then I went to James, and you have no idea how much I’ve been torturing myself with this the last ten years.”
Derek’s eyes were swimming, but simply because he was able to hold back his tears didn’t mean that Mason felt any less shitty for having caused them.
“Derek, I’m sorry. I―”
Derek grabbed him and held on tight. Mason allowed himself the luxury of hugging him back.
All these years. All these years of sleepless nights and guilt, and he hadn’t done what he thought he’d done. Derek had wanted him, even when he was at his most wild. It made Mason want to sing.
That feeling was sidetracked by the realization that he’d been unintentionally hurting his mate in other ways, and he held Derek back as tightly as he was able, allowing himself the freedom to take in the other man’s scent, to enjoy their bodies pressing together.
“Please don’t leave again,” Derek begged.
“I won’t,” Mason said, pressing his lips to the softness of Derek’s hair. Then his lips found Derek’s earlobe, then his neck, and when
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Derek turned into him, their mouths met.
That wonderful electric feeling returned, and Mason’s fingers clenched around the muscles of Derek’s abdomen.
Derek pressed himself against Mason’s body. Their breathing became hitched and raspy incredibly fast.
“I missed you so much,” Derek said.
“Missed you, too,” Mason said, grabbing Derek’s jaw and putting their mouths together again.
It was hard to take it slow enough that their teeth wouldn’t clash while they wanted to keep the frantic pace they’d set for themselves.
When Derek’s tongue touched Mason’s lips, he opened his mouth and allowed that wonderful tongue to slide inside. Derek tasted like coffee. He tasted wonderful.
Mason gripped the fabric of the Spider-Man T-shirt and began pulling at it, stretching the material until Derek took the hint and lifted his arms above his head, allowing Mason to remove it, exposing his gorgeous chest.
He bent down and took one of those budding nipples into his mouth. Derek gripped his shaved head with one hand and held onto the counter with the other. The gasps he made were the sweetest sound Mason had ever heard.
He was a fool. What an idiot he’d been for all these years, punishing himself for something he hadn’t even done, denying them both this pleasure.
The thought was like a punch in the gut. They’d lost ten years because of him.
He only hoped Derek would forgive him for that as well, but for now, he wasn’t thinking entirely with his brain.
There was only one thing he wanted, and his wolf wanted it, too.
“Fuck me right now, Mason,” Derek demanded. “Right here.”
His mate wouldn’t be denied this time.
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Chapter Five
Derek dragged Mason down onto the floor with him, putting the other man on top of him, luxuriating in the feel of their bodies pressed together.
They were actually going to do this. Mason wasn’t going to run away from him again, and Derek wasn’t about to let himself get put off.
His jeans were way too tight. He wished he’d been able to borrow a pair from someone a little bigger because right now these ones were way too uncomfortable.
Still felt pretty damn good when Mason humped against him, creating the best kind of friction for the still-clothed swells of their cocks. He did it again, and then again, until Derek thought he would come from that stimulation alone.
“Stop, wait.” He pushed Mason off him and undid the button of his jeans pulling down his fly. “You need to return the favor first,” he said, pressing his hand down on Mason’s shoulder.
The man grinned, wolfishly was probably the most appropriate way to describe it all things considered, and then sank down between Derek’s legs.
He grabbed him by the base of his heavy cock, stroked it lovingly, and his too-blue eyes looked up at Derek for every little reaction he might have. Then he pressed his mouth down on the head of Derek’s prick, kissing it and then hardening his tongue into a point and pressing that into the slit.
Derek moaned. “Holy shit! Oh fuck, that’s nice.”
Of the few people who’d given him head since Mason had left,
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none of them had done that. Derek couldn’t imagine a reason why they hadn’t or why he hadn’t thought to do it. It was amazing.
He didn’t just want Mason to kiss his dick. He wanted that whole warm mouth around his cock, sucking it, pulling back and forth with his lips, and swirling his tongue.
“Suck it, Mason. Put my cock in your mouth, right now.”
“Love the way you talk,” Mason said, and then thankfully, he did as he was told.
Derek’s body went as tight as a bow string, his head pressing back against the tiled floor of the kitchen as Mason gripped his hips and tightened his mouth around Derek’s penis, and then pulled up and down, sucking back leisurely, like he had all the time in the world.
He supposed that right now he did.
Derek moaned low, trying to keep himself from being too loud as he pressed his hands to his mouth. He tried to pump his hips in time with Mason’s mouth, but Mason’s strong hands on him were too much, and he could barely move. It was a form of sweet torture in of itself.
He suddenly didn’t care if he came with Mason’s cock in his ass or with Derek’s cock in Mason’s mouth. Right now, everything was good so long as he reached the end.
The pulsing in his body grew worse, and Derek reached his hand down to grip the back of Mason’s head, trying to push him farther down, to take all of him in.
Mason let him do it. He deep-throated Derek easily, and Derek pulled his hands away and gripped his hair. He was losing it, he really
was.
“Fuck, you’re good at that. Your mouth looks so pretty wrapped around my dick. I love it,” he said.
When Mason’s eyes met his, and the other man winked, Derek’s body responded and everything inside him tightened, preparing for release.
He pumped his hips hard until Mason was forced to release him
Mason Returns to His Mate 53
and just let him do it. So close, his balls became tight between his legs, he was so. Fucking. Close.
Mason halted that by grabbing onto the base of Derek’s penis, squeezing tightly enough to almost cause pain but in reality just stalling the release of his orgasm.
Derek shouted his despair. “No, no! What are you doing?” he demanded, desperately.
“You’re not coming yet. Not until I put my cock in your gorgeous ass,” Mason said, keeping his grip on the base of Derek’s prick just as tight as they stared at each other.
Mason meant it. There would be no coming for Derek until Mason could enjoy himself with him.
Already Mason’s hand was moving up and down the exposed flesh of Derek’s thighs, tickling him as they moved down and around, touching his crack. His fingers went in, finding the sensitive hole, and they circled.
Derek gasped and lifted his hips as much as he was able to allow those wicked fingers a chance to really move.
&nb
sp; Mason’s eyes were no less wolfish as he watched Derek. They watched each other, really.
“I’m gonna put my heavy dick in your ass, and I’m gonna fuck it until you pass out.”
Just like the last time, Derek realized, and he shivered with
anticipation.
“Oh, yes, Daddy,” Derek moaned.
Mason’s eyes quirked a little, but that was probably because he’d never heard Derek say that before.
Well, he was going to get used to it.
Derek shimmied out of the jeans and tossed them someplace where they wouldn’t get ruined. It was bad enough that he was going to have to find another black Spider-Man T-shirt for Tristan. He didn’t want to be ruining the jeans he’d borrowed from Corey.
Mason didn’t undress. He grabbed Derek by the hips and pulled
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him up, positioning him on his hands and knees. Derek was a mess of excitement. This was happening. This was finally happening.
He heard the zipper come down roughly from Mason’s jeans, but then he stalled with his hands on Derek’s hips.
Derek looked behind him to the utter despair on Mason’s face.
“What is it?” he asked, hardly able to contain his impatience.
Mason shook his head a little. “We don’t have any lube.”
Derek’s eyes widened. Christ, he’d forgotten about that too. It wasn’t like he came to this pack prepared for sex.
He got to his feet and rushed bare assed to the bathroom.
“Derek―”
“Stay right there, I’ll be back,” Derek said. There was no way he was putting this off. No way in hell.
He looked in the medicine cabinet and found something that could be useful. Hand lotion for dry skin. It would have to do, and Derek was going to make sure it worked.
He went back into the kitchen with the small bottle in hand and a
grin on his face.
Mason returned it at the sight of him. “What do you have there?”
“Something to ease the way. Here,” Derek said, tossing the bottle at him. He couldn’t help but notice his cock when Mason caught the bottle. It was thick and heavy. He nearly winced at the color. Poor guy had some serious blue balls there.
