Devin's Mercy [Shifters of Mystery 4] (8 page)

younger.”

Why that made Devin angrier, he wasn’t sure. But it did. He

curled his lips in before he said something he would regret. He knew

his anger was stemming from other problems, deeper issues, and

Devin wasn’t going to take it out on Mercy.

* * * *

Mercy could see the pain in Devin’s blue-grey eyes. It was like a

living and breathing entity in the room as the shorter man glared

daggers at him. The knowledge that something more, something

deeper had gone on in Devin’s life had Mercy ready to kill something.

And what an odd reaction that was.

He walked out of the bedroom, not wanting to argue with Devin,

or see the raw anguish in the man’s eyes. It was killing him. Devin

was filled with so much hate that it was coming off of the guy in

waves.

“Everything okay?” William asked as he watched Mercy come

down the steps. He was still a bit sore from his wound, but it wasn’t

anything he couldn’t handle.

“Just peachy.” He needed to run, to work off the aggression he felt

building inside of him. Not only was Mercy confused about how he

felt where Devin was concerned, but baffled at the rage he felt inside

for what had been done to the man. Mercy didn’t know for sure, but

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he was pretty damn certain what had happened to make Devin so

bitter and enraged.

And he wanted to kill Martin.

He took off from the porch, running toward the woods, letting his

thoughts fly free as his feet hit the soft earth.

How the hell could Devin be twenty-five? The man looked so

much younger. How could Mercy have miscalculated his age? But

then deeper questions started pushing toward the front of his mind.

What had Martin done to Devin? Not only had Mercy seen anger

and anguish in the man’s eyes, but shame as well. There was a wall so

thick around Devin that Mercy wasn’t sure he would ever get past it.

And why did he want to? It was true he had developed feelings for

Devin over the years, but he was a loner, always had been. Why was

he even entertaining the thought of getting close to the other man?

Mercy came to a grinding halt and dropped down to a squatting

position when he smelled something out of place in the forest. He ran

out here too many times and had become familiar with the scents

surrounding him.

He was crouched, sniffing the air. Mercy could smell pine, small

creatures that inhabited the forest, the flowers coming into early

bloom, but he could also scent man, and that scent shouldn’t have

been there. He knew everyone’s scent in the house, and this wasn’t

one of his friends.

Mercy instinctively wanted to run back to the house to protect

Devin, but remained where he was. It wouldn’t do him any good to

run back to the house. The intruder would only follow, and Mercy

wasn’t leading whoever it was back to the mates or Devin.

Biting back the growl, Mercy narrowed his eyes when he saw the

intruder come into view, an assault rifle slung over the bastard’s

shoulder. The man was walking carefully, his steps measured, trying

to be as quiet as he could.

That wasn’t going to help him. Mercy had the guy in his sights

and wasn’t going to lose him. He didn’t have any weapons on him,

Devin’s Mercy

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but then again, Mercy didn’t need any. He was damn good at hand-to-

hand combat.

He just needed to get the rifle away from the guy.

Mercy’s hands curled, fingernails breaking skin at the need to stop

this man from getting too close to the house. Whether Mercy wanted

to admit it or not, he cared deeply about Devin and wasn’t going to

allow anything to happen to the guy—even if Devin didn’t want his

help.

He didn’t know how true his words rang about keeping Devin safe

until he saw this intruder. Now he knew it to be a hard fact. No matter

if he was a loner or not, Mercy was going to protect Devin.

In his crouching position, Mercy silently inched closer,

positioning himself until he was at the man’s back, and then he struck,

yanking the weapon free and tossing it away before taking the man

down. “Who are you?” he snarled close to the man’s ear, unsure if

there were any other intruders with this one.

The man grunted, but remained silent.

Mercy pulled the man’s arm behind his back and applied pressure.

The grunt grew louder, but the guy still didn’t say a word.

“You will talk.” The defiance in the intruder’s eyes enraged

Mercy, but he kept his cool. He was known for thinking before acting,

for his calm exterior and methodical ways. What he wasn’t known for

was letting his emotions get the better of him.

But damn if he wasn’t close to doing just that right now. The

thought of Devin being hurt again drove Mercy close to the edge. He

wanted to make someone pay for what had happened to the guy back

in his bedroom. Devin’s anger was eating away at Mercy. If he

couldn’t get his hands on Martin, this one would do.

No. That wasn’t right. He wasn’t thinking logically.

Who would blame you? None of your friends would hold this kill

against you.

Mercy shook his head, trying to dislodge those tempting words.

He would know. He would hold it against himself. He may have

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killed before, but never in cold blood. What in the hell was Devin

doing to him? Mercy never lost his composure.

Never.

“You’re lucky I have a wealth of self-control or you would be

dead right now.” Mercy pulled the man to his feet, holding his arms

behind him, and led him to the house. He could lock the intruder in

the cage below and let Sage have the guy. Mercy needed to put space

between them. He didn’t trust himself at the moment.

“What do we have here?” Monterey asked as he stepped off of the

back porch.

“Someone trying to get to close. His rifle is still in the woods.”

Mercy nodded toward the forest. “Take him and I’ll go retrieve it.”

Plus, Mercy needed time alone, time to gather his thoughts.

Monterey grabbed the guy, hauling him up so close that the

intruder’s feet nearly left the ground. “Gladly.”

“Put him in the cage and let Sage know he’s here.” Mercy knew

that look. Monterey was dying for a piece of the guy. So was Mercy,

but that wouldn’t get them any answers if the man couldn’t talk from

a fierce work over, or worse.

“Sure, take all of the fun out of this.” Monterey smiled, but it was

a predatory smile, no friendliness to it.

The intruder struggled a bit, twisting his body around, fear finally

seeping into his eyes, but Monterey rearranged his grip, tightening it

to the point the man couldn’t move. “Now, now. We can’t have you

trying to get away before we torture you.”

Mercy did grin this time, widely, but the man’s back was to him,

and he didn’t see it as Monterey hauled the guy into the house. Mercy

wasn’t sure why he had smiled, but seeing the pout on Monterey’s

face was a bit funny. The man was tall, thick, and unbeknownst to

most, a fucking teddy bear. That didn’t mean the man would take

anyone’s shit. It just meant Monterey wasn’t a brooding man like

most of the men in the house.

Devin’s Mercy

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There was a crash and then someone shouted, Mercy recognizing

the voice as Pat’s.

Maybe Mercy really wasn’t the one the intruder had to be wary of.

With the mood Pat was in, even Mercy was trying his damnedest to

stay away from the werewolf. Pat was over the top on his best days,

and the man hadn’t had a good day in a while.

Once again the thought made Mercy want to track Sheriff Sam

Reese down and choke some sense into the man. Sam may be human,

and he may have stolen Jeremiah’s blood from the hospital so no one

would be the wiser about who they were, but the sheriff didn’t have to

run from Pat when he found out they were werewolves.

Pat may have joked about not being interested in Sam, but

everyone knew that for the lie that it was. Pat was in love with Sam.

Mercy had seen it in the man’s blue eyes. Anytime Sam was around,

Pat went all weird.

To see Pat ruminating and sullen, not his usually perky self, pissed

Mercy off. He had known the man his entire life and hated to see him

hurting like this.

But then again, he couldn’t force Sam to accept Pat. That was

something the sheriff had to come to terms with. Mercy knew for a

fact that Sam felt the same way about Pat. The human had found the

stupidest reasons to come around just so he could see Pat.

Time.

That was what the sheriff needed. But if he didn’t get his head out

of his ass soon, Mercy was going to ship Pat to Sam. He wasn’t sure

how much more of Pat’s scathing attitude he could take.

Walking back toward the woods, Mercy searched until he located

the fallen assault rifle. He picked it up and noticed something odd.

Paying closer attention, he checked to see if there was a bullet in the

chamber when he saw something that made his blood run cold.

There weren’t bullets in the gun, but injection darts, filled with a

blue liquid. He remembered Jeremiah telling him about the injection

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Martin had given Sylvester, Jeremiah’s mate. It had turned Sylvester

into a werewolf that same night.

Everyone in the house was a werewolf. He wasn’t sure what the

serum would do to a
vârcolac
or any of the converted mates. His grip

on the rifle tightened, thinking of Devin being injected with one of

these darts.

Mercy turned back toward the house, unsure now if he could stop

himself from killing the bastard.

Devin’s Mercy

57

Devin stared at the clothes Mercy had given him to wear. How in

the hell was he supposed to fit those? Mercy wasn’t a small man.

While Devin wasn’t either, he wasn’t super huge. Okay, he was only

five foot three, but he couldn’t help it if his parents were shrimps. He

didn’t like his smaller size, but there wasn’t a damn thing he could do

about it.

It had made him a tougher man, though. Growing up, he had

always been picked on for his shorter stature, and that only made him

fight harder to defend himself. Soon, the other kids realized that

Devin wasn’t somebody they could just push around and left him

alone. He wasn’t a fighter, but he knew how to defend himself.

But he hadn’t wanted to be left alone. He had wanted friends. That

was when Pat befriended him, and then soon after, Monterey, York,

and then Isaac. A year or two after that, Jeremiah and Sage began to

let him tag along.

But it was Mercy who had made Devin’s heart speed up every

time he laid eyes on the guy. Mercy was so fierce, so quiet that Devin

was drawn to him. It may have started out as wanting the man with

the most muscles because Devin was always picked on, but it soon

turned into something more.

Much more.

But Mercy had never given Devin the time of day when it came to

letting the guy know how interested he was in the man. He knew he

was too young at the time, and Mercy knew this as well. But now

Devin was a fully grown man.

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And…he wasn’t sure what he wanted. Devin was still having

nightmares about what had happened to him in that isolated cabin. He

still feared the woods, and that just pissed him off considering he had

loved the forest ever since he was a small child. Now, it was a sinister

place that made him cramp up with nightmares every time he looked

out of the window.

And Mercy, well, Devin began to shake with nerves anytime the

man was around. He was still attracted to the warrior, but he was also

terrified of him. Devin had seen too much violence and had been

victim to too much abuse to trust anyone. If he couldn’t trust his

alpha, then who could he trust? An alpha was supposed to be the

cornerstone of protection and security in a pack. Martin had been

anything but.

Now Devin was so damn confused and filled with so much anger

that he was lost, feeling as if he had no one.

Pushing those morose thoughts aside, Devin eyed the pants and

then decided to try them on. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. Sweatpants

he could work with, tying the string tight to fit around his waist, but

jeans…

Devin pulled them on and then rolled his eyes when they