Jacks, Marcy - Mason Returns to His Mate [DeWitt's Pack 8] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove)

by Marcy Jacks

  Derek opened his mouth to reply again then shut it as he remembered the way he’d pushed away the gun the old man was holding and then shoved him.

  He only saw that one man, Billy, chasing after him when he turned around, not the other two, and that older man had been crying pretty loudly.

  Mason Returns to His Mate 35

  Derek paled as the thought came to him that he might’ve accidentally killed someone. “It was self-defense. They were pointing a gun at me,” he said.

  Mason gripped him by the shoulders. “And I’m glad you did everything you were supposed to, to get out of there. Believe me, but there is a dead man in there and way too much shit going on with those hunters for the police to come now.”

  Mason then looked up at the other man. “James?”

  It took a second before it clicked with Derek. James? As in

  Mason’s brother James?

  “He’ll have to come with us at this point. You’ll be the one to

  watch over him.”

  Mason nodded. “Got it. Come on, Derek.”

  Mason put his arm back around Derek’s shoulder and began leading him away, like he was a helpless invalid or something.

  Derek didn’t mind. His brain was having some off time anyway. He could hardly think about where they were going.

  He did know that, when they got there, it would be the first time in his life that he’d ever stepped foot inside of DeWitt’s pack.

  36 Marcy Jacks

  Chapter Four

  Tom held onto his son and cried when Alan’s mouth opened and closed like a suffocating fish. His boy was trying to say something to his old man, but he couldn’t speak because of all the blood that was getting into his lungs, drowning him from the inside.

  “I’m here. Alan, your dad’s here,” he said, his eyes blurring as Alan’s twitching got to be weaker and weaker.

  Then he was gone.

  Tom stroked his boy’s hair, rocked him, and wailed. He could still hear the banging and screaming coming from the back as Billy fought to open the door that―

  Tom’s rage suddenly spiked. Everything in the shop, every image, every scent, became sharp and crystal clear.

  He put his boy down on the floor, closed his eyes, and then went to find Billy.

  The stupid idiot was still banging against the metal door with a stool, not so much as making a dent in it, favoring one hand, and screaming through the door.

  “I’m gonna get you, you fucking shit-faced coward!” He hurled the wooden stool at the door, shattering it. “Get out here, now!”

  His hand looked fucked up and mangled. Tom was going to have to see to that.

  He came up behind Billy and put his hand on the other man’s shoulder. Billy practically jumped out of his skin.

  “We need to go,” he said.

  Billy’s eyes went as wide as golf balls. “That piece of shit! Look what he did to my hand! I’m going to kill him!”

  Mason Returns to His Mate 37

  No, Tom was going to kill him. “We will, but we need to leave right now. There was too much noise, and someone might be on their way. We can’t be seen here.”

  Though the town sat on the highway, the houses where the inhabitants of the town lived were all scattered around. The likelihood

  of someone being out here this late, hearing them, was slim, but Tom

  didn’t want to risk it.

  He didn’t want to be seen in the next half hour either.

  “We’ll get him,” Tom said. “He’s stuck in there, so we’ll get

  him.”

  Tom led Billy back to the front of the store. Once the adrenaline wore out, the stupid kid held his injured hand and started sniffling at the pain.

  He had no idea what pain was.

  Tom picked up the body of his son and brought him outside to their van.

  “We’re taking him with us?” Billy asked.

  Tom glared at him, and for a minute he considered shooting him, too. Billy swallowed and took a step back, and Tom decided he would keep him around for a little while longer, if only to have the extra hand to help him.

  There were gas canisters in the back of the van. Tom picked up one and gave the other to Billy. The kid had trouble opening it with one hand, but that wasn’t Tom’s problem. They sprayed the floors inside and the walls outside with the fuel. Then they put the red canisters back into the van, took a step back, and Tom lit a match.

  He would prefer to watch that goddamn prick burn as he sent him to hell, but this would have to do. Revenge could not always be short and sweet. Sometimes it had to be quick to suit the situation.

  The fire burned hot for only a minute before the alarm inside went off. The sprinklers came on, but they were hardly a match for a gas fire.

  If anything, maybe that guy in the back would die from inhaling

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  the smoke fumes that were suddenly building up. Heavy black clouds billowed up and out of the store, rising into the night sky.

  “Let’s go, before the fire trucks get here,” Tom said.

  Billy obediently followed.

  “What are we going to do now?” he asked when the burning store was just a vanishing image in the rearview mirror.

  It occurred to Tom that this was the first time someone other than

  Alan sat in the passenger seat beside him. He was pretty sure he didn’t like that.

  He looked at the way the kid was still clutching his hand and decided to show some mercy. “We’ll take care of your fingers first. Set them and cast them. Then we bury my son. Then we find the pack that wolf came from, and we skin every single one of them alive.”

  * * * *

  Mason could hardly believe his eyes the first time he saw his brother again after ten years apart. The man had massive scars on his face and neck, apparently from being shot in the chest with a shotgun loaded with silver pellets.

  Mason wasn’t going to have that problem. For one, he hadn’t been hit with as many pellets as James had, and they weren’t silver. His wounds still itched from where Old Maggie had picked the little metal pellets out with a pair of tweezers, but they would eventually heal.

  Right now his face was still scabbing up. He hardly looked good enough to go and see Derek. The man had no choice but to stay with them until these new hunters could be dealt with. Mason was just glad

  James decided to let them stay.

  “Thanks again for all this.”

  “For the last time, you’re my brother. You don’t have to thank me for wanting you here.”

  “I’m no longer part of your pack though. You didn’t have to take on my problems.” Problems that only existed because he’d come

  Mason Returns to His Mate 39

  back.

  After James had come in to see him and the shock on both of their

  faces had worn off, Mason had to explain why he was injured and who he had seen first before coming here.

  James had suggested they go back to the pawn shop, if only to make sure the hunters hadn’t backtracked to where Mason had been

  before their encounter.

  Of course, somehow those bastards knew. For humans, hunters

  made pretty good trackers. It was annoying to admit, but it was the only way it was possible for them to have put together that he and Derek were connected even though they hadn’t seen Mason’s human face.

  That is, until Derek had mentioned something about his tire tracks after he’d driven away from the attack and the hunters had apparentlytried to get into the store when Mason and Derek had been in the back.

  He fought against the warmth in his face at the reminder of what he and Derek had been doing.

  “What’s the matter?” James asked.

  Mason shook his head. “Nothing, just angry about all this.”

  Finding out that the pawn shop and everything inside of it had been burned to the ground the next day, with a warrant out for Derek’s arrest for the insurance fraud he was suppose
dly attempting by lighting up his own business, had just been the cherry on top. It made Mason want to show his face to Derek less and less.

  “You don’t have to be angry, and you are a part of this pack. You didn’t have to stay away. You could’ve come back.”

  “I know,” Mason said, wetting his lips as he and James walked around the trees immediately surrounding the clearing of cottages. With new hunters in the area, James didn’t want to be far from either

  his home base or his mate.

  “Then why did you stay away for so long?”

  “Because … ” Mason could never tell his brother about what he

  40 Marcy Jacks

  did. It was bad enough he’d shamed himself out of the pack, but telling him that he’d raped his own mate was something else entirely. He’d been lucky to have been received so well by his brother and the rest of the pack, and he didn’t want those curious looks to change into disgust and horror.

  “I was ashamed,” Mason said. It wasn’t a lie.

  James listed a crooked brow at him. “For losing?”

  “Yeah.”

  James stopped walking. “Are you saying that if I’d lost to you, you would’ve expected me to stay away in shame for ten years?”

  “What? No!”

  “Then why did you stay away? The law says that if a challenger loses the battle for the rights to alpha, he only has to stay away for twelve months―”

  “I know.”

  “Ten years, Mason. Are you serious? And you haven’t even started your own pack in all that time. I was beginning to think you’d died.”

  “I know! Okay? I get it,” Mason snapped. Wolf law stated that the loser of the challenge only had to be away in shame for the twelve months so that they would be more submissive when they returned. If they didn’t return, it was expected that it was because they’d started another pack.

  Mason hadn’t started another pack, and he hadn’t died. Sometimes he wished he had, however. He hadn’t really done anything except go through the motions of living, trying to forget the people he’d left behind.

  Mason rubbed his face with his palms. “Look, I can’t explain this right now, but I stayed away for a reason. Can you just leave it at that for now?”

  How about forever?

  James looked at him. “Is it something to do with that human?”

  “James,” Mason growled in warning.

  Mason Returns to His Mate 41

  “Because in case you hadn’t noticed, a lot of the guys around here are mated to other men. It’s not exactly uncommon anymore, at least not in this pack.”

  Mason had noticed that, and he thought it was strange as hell and completely unfair that he had his mate in his sights, was now able to see Derek whenever he wanted, but had fucked up so totally and utterly that any kind of relationship was out of the question.

  The second Derek remembered what happened that night, if he really was repressing the memory, Mason was going to have a lot of explaining to do.

  He was still considering the option of just asking Derek if he remembered or not so that he could apologize now.

  That was going to be an awkward conversation.

  “Mason? Are you listening to me?” James growled. Clearly the leading alpha didn’t like to be ignored when he was speaking.

  Mason came out of his thoughts and remembered where he was. “Yeah, sorry. Look, just please let me handle this with him. It’s something I need to deal with on my own.”

  James looked at him in that sharp way Mason recalled their father doing whenever he was trying to get information out of his sons. James was so much older than Mason was, but he’d always been a kid in their father’s eyes, and always treated as such whenever they’d gotten into mischief together. Usually that was because Mason wanted to be troublesome, and James had been humoring him by going along with whatever stupid little plans he’d come up with.

  “For now. I’ll leave it alone for now and only because I have other things to worry about. I don’t want you vanishing for another ten years on me, Mason.”

  “I won’t,” Mason promised, knowing it was probably a lie. If, or rather when, the pack found out what he’d done to his mate, their disgust in him would be so strong that they wouldn’t need the law of the pack behind them to state that he had to go.

  Anyone who could rape their own mate was considered a danger

  42 Marcy Jacks

  to the other omegas and was not to be tolerated.

  Mason turned to leave, but James’s hand on his arms stopped him.

  It was mostly his own shock that allowed him to be pulled against his brother’s chest. He felt James’s hands behind his shoulders and

  neck as they hugged.

  Mason hadn’t realized how much he’d missed this warmth, this

  loving embrace of family, until just now, and he held his brother back as tightly as he could.

  “You’re all grown up now. You look so different,” James said.

  He did? Well, he supposed so. There was still a major difference between twenty and thirty. The last of his boyish looks were gone, that was for sure.

  “I think you’ve changed more,” Mason said, referring to all the

  scars on James’s face.

  James just snorted. “Yeah, probably.”

  They were silent for all of three seconds before James’s grip on him became tighter, if that was possible. “I’m serious, Mason. Don’t leave us again. You go see that human now, and you and I are going to talk later,” James said, releasing him and stepping away.

  Mason wished he could make himself look his brother in the eyes as he left, but he didn’t. He made his way over to the cabin where his mate was staying. It was one of the newer but smaller ones. Mason had noted that not so many wolves bunked up with each other anymore with all the added space. Some even kept cabins to themselves and their families instead of having to share.

  Mason was going to have to ask James when all these new renovations had started, but he didn’t want to be nosey about it.

  He inhaled a heavy breath at the door, fighting to keep from fidgeting on his feet too much. He finally stopped being such a pussy and just knocked on the door.

  Derek answered. His blond brows lifted slightly at the sight of him, and he stepped aside, holding the door open for Mason to enter.

  “Didn’t think I’d be seeing you,” Derek admitted.

  Mason Returns to His Mate 43

  I didn’t think you’d want to see me. “Sorry, was just catching up on a couple things with my brother.”

  He looked around at the small kitchen they were in. There was a mug of coffee on the table, but it was still full, and no steam wafted out of it. Cold.

  “How’ve you been feeling?” Mason asked then cringed inwardly at the stupid question.

  Derek’s jaw clenched. “Fine, fine, aside from the fact that my life is ruined.”

  “I’m sorry about the pawn shop,” Mason said.

  Derek flopped back into his seat with a scowl on his face. He grabbed the mug between his hands and glared at his dark reflection in the liquid. “Thanks,” he muttered.

  Mason stood there for a minute before Derek sighed. “Sit down. You’re making me uncomfortable standing there like that.”

  Mason did as he was told, somewhat shocked by the command. He had to remind himself that this was not the same Derek he knew

  ten years ago. That was plenty of time for personalities to change.

  He cast an appreciative glance at Derek’s body as the other man got up to fix another mug of coffee.

  His personality wasn’t the only thing to have changed.

  His jeans fit him perfectly. Tight enough to give Mason a good view without being indecently skintight. He wore a borrowed black Tshirt with the Spider-Man logo on the front.

  There was no coffee machine in here, so Derek had to rely on the tea kettle on the stove and some instant mix. It took only a minute before the thing was screaming and Derek w
as lifting it off the burner and pouring Mason a cup.

  “Do you still take it with four sugars?” Derek asked, reaching for the half-full sugar dispenser.

  Mason couldn’t believe there was ever a time when he drank

  coffee like that. He couldn’t believe Derek remembered it either.

  “One sugar is fine. A little milk, too, if there is any.”

  44 Marcy Jacks

  Derek nodded. “They stocked me up with the basics. Everyone here’s been really nice.”

  Mason didn’t quite understand the accusatory look Derek sent to him when he said that.

  Mason accepted the coffee gratefully, sipping carefully, and surprised at how good it was. Last time he ever had instant, it tasted like shit and he swore himself off the stuff.

  He watched as Derek dumped out his own cup and started making another one for himself. “When did you buy the pawn shop?”

  The clink of metal against the ceramic was the only sound Mason heard for a minute as Derek stirred his coffee. “Two years ago. The old lady was selling it for cheap, and I’d saved up some money, so I picked it up.”

  “The crazy cat lady?” Mason asked, incredulous. “Wow. I didn’t think she’d survive another eight years.”

  Derek smiled a little and came to sit down across the table from

  him. “She still is alive, too. Still luring the squirrels in for her stupid cats to go chasing around.”

  Derek always had been more of a dog person. Maybe that was part of the reason he and Mason had both clicked so well back then.

  Mason’s spirits suddenly sank. “I thought you were saving your money to go to the city? What happened with that?”

  Derek had always talked about going to either New York or San Francisco. It was one of the few topics they’d managed to properly discuss in the three days they’d been together. He’d wanted to go to be around more other people like himself and even kept maps on his walls.

  Not that Mason had paid much attention to them as he’d been too busy pounding into the other man, but he did remember them.