by Marcy Jacks
“Like what?” Derek snapped, suddenly liking Corey a whole lot less. He didn’t particularly enjoy being told what he could and could not do.
“It’s just complicated,” Corey said, glancing around.
Suddenly Derek noticed that there were a couple of people attempting to inconspicuously look over at them, some inching closer as they did their chores or watched the pups.
They were either spying because gossip was as much of a temptation with werewolves as it was with any other species, or they
were concerned about the well-being of their leader’s partner.
Derek made an effort to keep his anger down a low simmer.
“There’s nothing complicated about this. I have a life I built for myself. Eventually I want to go and pick it back up again.”
“We’re not kidnapping you,” Corey said.
Derek pressed his lips together. No, technically they hadn’t done that. Not in the legal sense, he was sure, even if he didn’t know squat
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about the law. They were keeping him here for his protection, there were people out there who did want to see Derek dead for what he’d done at the pawn shop, and Derek was more than happy to avoid those people for a while.
Still, Corey was basically telling him that this problem would never be solved, and that he would never be able to leave. He didn’t
want to be stuck here.
“James told me about you,” Corey said, lifting his hand. “See this? This is what happens to humans who support werewolves. I’ve been shot, too, and I’m lucky to be alive.”
Derek shivered.
“The pack’s been avoiding you for your own protection, but now that you’re mated to Mason, you’re as connected to us as it gets without turning you into a werewolf.”
Mated? He and Mason had only just reconnected. It was a little early to be using that kind of wording, wasn’t it?
He still had to fight this. “I have people who will miss where I
am.”
If his landlord and the general public who came to his store counted, which they didn’t.
Corey had that look on his face that said he knew Derek was full of shit. He had no one who loved him on the outside and no one who
would care that he’d vanished from the face of the earth.
Derek suddenly felt sick.
“When these hunters are taken care of, it’ll be safer for you to go back out into town. We’ll make up a story that you can tell the police. Isaac has a lot of money, and he’ll make sure you get a good lawyer.”
“And how long will that be?” Derek asked.
Corey’s eyes were pitying again. “I don’t know. Honestly, I don’t,” he added quickly when Derek was about to argue some more. “Hunters are dangerous, and you said yourself that these guys likely have your ID. If we can’t kill them before they show your picture off to other hunters…” Corey trailed off and shrugged helplessly.
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And he’d wondered about his hand. Now he knew. For the first
time, Derek saw the darker side of this pack. These were nice people from what he saw on the outside, but realistically, they were part of the paranormal. They had hunters to deal with and occasionally had to kill in order to survive. They would kill the men who were after Derek as well, but that was only because those hunters were also after the pack. Would they kill Derek if he threatened them, too? Even in this small way?
He was hardly the kind of man who had issues with death and killing, so long as it was done in self-defense, but to hear it talked about so openly and casually was surreal.
Derek got up from the picnic table.
“Where are you going?” Corey asked.
Was this why the other man had been so nice and inviting to him before? Because he was charged with keeping an eye on him?
“Back to the guest house to think,” Derek muttered, stuffing his hands into his pockets and not looking back.
Corey didn’t say anything to him as he left.
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Chapter Seven
James clenched his jaw when his younger brother finished telling him the story. “You stayed away for ten years over that? I should kick your ass right now.”
Considering the lazy life Mason had been leading ever since his self-exile, not having to worry about hunters and all, James didn’t doubt he could do it.
“I know. It seems pretty stupid when I think about it.”
“It is stupid,” James said. “Jesus Christ, you mean to tell me that I lost my brother for ten years because you had too much fun one night with your mate?”
“Didn’t exactly work out like that,” Mason muttered.
“Whatever.” James was in the mood to fight something now, and since fighting his brother would be counterproductive, he was really hoping one of the wild werewolves prowling the area would jump out at them or something.
They were still around, he knew that much. Their scent was faint, but it was still in the area. They were being oddly quiet lately. Maybe their human sides were starting to come to? Who knew?
James and Mason were only out here because they were hunting them. Not to kill them, but to bring them in.
James had decided that increasing the pack right about now with some more alpha wolves might be a good move, and since most of the wild wolves out here were transformed against their will by Deacon, and with Deacon being dead and all―sort of―they might be willing to come in and learn to be more civil. He just had to catch them first before he could convince them that letting out their more human sides
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wasn’t exactly a bad thing.
Nick was still out there with Mickey. Their area to search was wide and farther out than James’s, so maybe they were having better luck than James was.
“Well, thank God you decided to come back and finally talk to him. Otherwise I might still not have you,” James said. He could hardly look at his brother right now for how angry he was.
“Yes, but now his shop is gone,” Mason said.
James was about to hit him over the head with a whole lot of shut-
the-hell-up-with-that-self-pity-shit before Mason started speaking
again.
“We need to kill those hunters and fast. The longer he’s away from the human world, the harder it’ll be for him when he goes back.”
James lifted a scraggly brow at him. “You don’t want him to stay with the pack?”
“I do, I mean, it would be preferable, but the second he finds out he can’t leave, he’ll flip out. He’s human, James. He won’t want to have the pack forced on him.”
“I haven’t forgotten that he’s human. Isaac is human, too, and he’s fine staying with the pack.”
“Yes, but he can leave anytime he wants. He’s not in hiding.”
His brother had a good point, but he refused to let Mason beat himself up over it. The last thing he needed was for his little brother with the guilt complex a mile long to go running away again for another ten years.
James decided to drop it, but the conversation wasn’t over. He would be bringing this up again.
They kept on the vague trails of the wild werewolves for another couple of hours, only deciding to come in when the sunlight, the little of it that there was streaming down through the canopy of trees, turned orange and the air started to cool for the night.
The end of the day had arrived. James was starving and desperately wanted to get into bed with his mate. He wanted to get
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into his mate, period. He still had a lot of frustration to get out of him, and sex tended to help with that.
Too bad Mason had all the sexual knowledge of a blushing virgin or he would have known that ten years ago.
They arrived back at the pack. Nick and Mickey must’ve been thinking along the same lines as James and Mason because they appeared like shadowy ghosts through the
thicket of trees and shrubs at just about the same time as he and Mason did.
From the look of them, they’d clearly not had any luck finding any of the wild werewolves either.
That was disappointing, and James tried not to let that show on his face.
It wasn’t just that he was looking to increase his pack size—his pack was big enough as it was—but with hunters out there, he wanted to keep as many werewolves out of their path as possible. Not all wild werewolves were angry and vicious, after all. Some were scared, slowly losing their rational thinking minds to the wolves inside of them.
They headed for their respective cottages. James could smell the steak cooking for him a mile away, and his mouth watered.
Corey couldn’t cook for shit, and neither could James, outside of using a barbecue. Likely that meant that Old Maggie was the one doing the cooking.
Nick and his mate Adam tended to take turns doing the cooking depending on who was out on rotation that day or who was out for the longest. That tended to work for them. Mick and Jason had a pretty good go of it, too. Jason enjoyed cooking, and Mick enjoyed eating.
It took a second for James to notice that there were no smells
coming from the cabin where his brother’s mate was situated. The human might’ve already eaten. James was pretty sure that neither he, nor Mason, had told the man when they were going to return. That didn’t stop the bad feeling from settling into his gut that Mason was going to have a bad night tonight.
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“I’ll see you tomorrow?” James said.
God, he wished it hadn’t come out sounding like a question. Of course he was going to see his brother tomorrow. The man was not going to leave on him again. James wouldn’t allow it.
“Yeah, sure,” Mason said, already moving toward the cabin.
James hoped everything would be okay between those two. He really did.
* * * *
Mason fought the urge to say the standard “honey, I’m home” line when he opened the door. He was still over the moon about having Derek in his life, but he didn’t want to be too silly about it.
It wouldn’t have mattered anyway since Derek was sitting at the kitchen table, apparently waiting for him with a single beer in front of him.
Mason smiled at him and shut the door. “Hey.”
Derek nodded. “Hi.”
Okay. Mason stepped into the kitchen and looked around. Everything looked pretty clean, and he didn’t catch any lingering scents. “You haven’t eaten yet?”
Derek shook his head. “Nope.”
His mate wasn’t in a good mood. Mason pulled out a chair and sat down. “How about we order pizza or something. I haven’t had that in forever. You’re still a meat-lovers guy, right?”
At least, Mason hoped he was.
Derek suddenly turned his hazel eyes onto Mason, and Mason froze up.
“Would I be able to go into town with you and pick it up?”
Shit. “Derek, I was going to tell you. I was just waiting.”
“For what? For me to make plans on reopening my store just to have everyone give me the poor-idiot look?”
“No, I was waiting until we found the hunters,” Mason said,
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trying to hold onto his patience, but his inner alpha didn’t enjoy the challenge he heard in Derek’s voice.
“According to Corey, that could be years,” Derek countered.
Well, had it been another alpha to spill the beans, Mason could’ve gone and kicked his ass. The omega mate of his brother, not so much. “It won’t be years. James and I are going out to search for the wild werewolves to bring up our numbers. We’re not finding them, so that can only mean they’re being scared away by the hunters. They’re close, and when they attack us, we will kill them and you can go on your way.”
Derek looked at him sharply. “Go on my way? Just like that?”
Mason rubbed his face. “Derek, you’re purposely being difficult.”
That had apparently been another wrong thing to say. Derek’s face went beet red. Mason had never seen anyone go that shade in anger before. It was surreal.
Derek got up and left the table, knocking the chair he’d been sitting in over. Mason sat there and listened to the slam of his door echo through the small cottage.
He couldn’t help it. His own anger started to bubble up inside him. They were trying their best, Goddamnit. Derek needed to stay here for the safety of the pack. It was a damn miracle the police hadn’t found this location and come to ask questions yet, and unless Derek wanted a slow death, then hiding here was the best option.
Mason got up from his own chair, the legs scraping across the floor harshly as he pushed away from the table and went for the door leading outside.
He slammed the door much the same way Derek did, hearing the crack in the new wood as he went.
Shit. Back only a couple of days and already he was destroying
his brother’s stuff.
Looking over to the cabin that belonged to the leading alpha, Mason was mortified to see James looking at him from his deck.
Mason didn’t know what the man had heard, but clearly, he’d
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heard enough. Mason wanted to tell him that he was sorry, but nothing left his throat. He made for the tree line.
He was nearly there when he heard the door he’d just destroyed fall completely off the hinges.
“Mason, wait!”
Derek. Mason didn’t want to talk to him right now. He ran into the trees and quickly got out of his clothes. He transformed just as he heard Derek stepping into the thicket of shrubs and trees, and then Mason went on a cleansing run.
* * * *
Derek nearly ran after Mason, but the sudden darkness in the sky and the black shadows that made it impossible for him to see through all the trees, had him turning back.
James had come down from his deck and met Derek halfway. Derek never felt so small in all his life as he did before the brother of
the man he’d just chewed out.
“Will he come back?” Derek asked.
James wet his lips and looked toward the trees. “Don’t know. He’s a grown man, and he’s been away too long to still be considered part of this pack. Unless he counts you, there’s nothing to tie him to this place anymore if he chooses to go wandering for the rest of his life.
Derek’s fists clenched at that comment. “It was just a fight.” And not even a very big one at that. Mason wouldn’t leave him again over one heated argument, would he?
The fact that he didn’t know was something that scared Derek more than anything. He and Mason didn’t know each other anymore. They barely knew each other ten years ago.
James didn’t say anything. He merely sighed, turned, and went back to his cabin where his partner was waiting for him on the deck
stairs.
“Aren’t you going to help me look for him?” Derek demanded,
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shocked that Mason’s own brother could just go back home after something like this.
James turned to look at him. “I told you, it’s his choice to come back or not. I won’t force him if that’s not what he wants. I will tell
you that it would be an incredibly bad idea for you to go into those woods during the night by yourself.”
“I don’t care. I’ll go anyway,” Derek said, already backing up toward the black forest.
James clenched his jaw at him, and his hands became fists.
Whatever, alpha boy. I’m not part of your pack. You don’t order me around.
“I would be willing to escort him.”
Derek jumped at the pale figure that appeared at his side from seemingly nowhere. The man had the lightest blond hair Derek had ever seen. It was so light he doubted it was natural. On top of that, the man had red eyes.
And fangs.
Derek backed away a step. Was this guy another sort of werew
olf, or were those fangs and eyes part of what Derek suspected them to
be?
“You sure about that, Ivan?” James asked.
Ivan nodded. “I have Eric with me. We will be fine. Back within
the hour.”
Ivan started walking toward the trees without even waiting for
Derek.
Derek looked between both men, trying to figure out what was going on, when he gave up and just followed the other man.
He was glad for the company, but now that he had a good look at this guy, Derek was pretty sure that Ivan was the man he’d seen talking to himself on the rare occasion when he happened to be outside at night.
Red eyes, fangs, and outside only during the night.
“Please don’t be offended if I ask you a potentially awkward
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question,” Derek said.
“Ask away,” Ivan replied as they entered the darkness of the
woods.
“Are you a vampire?”
Ivan stopped and turned around to look at him. Derek froze up at the sight of those glowing red eyes. It was all he could see. Like the man was a ghost or something.
“I am,” Ivan replied. “But you have nothing to fear. I find the act of putting my lips onto a strange man’s neck to be repulsive. I prefer to drink my blood from a glass or, failing that alternative, to hunt for it in these woods.”
Derek couldn’t help himself. “You’d rather put your mouth on a wild animal than on a person?”
“I find most wild animals to be far clearer than most humans.”
Just the sound of Ivan’s voice gave Derek the impression that
the…vampire was cringing as he made the comparison.
Like when Derek first found himself welcomed into the pack, he had a thousand questions, but now was not the time to be asking them, not when Mason might be attempting to take off on him again.
There were some things he did need to ask. “How will we find him? Can you smell him? Is Mason even still in the area?”
“Vampires are hunters by nature,” Ivan said. “But, admittedly, the hunting capabilities of the werewolf are far superior.”
