Devin's Mercy [Shifters of Mystery 4] (9 page)

immediately fell back down. What was Mercy thinking? Not only was

Mercy’s waist three times the size of Devin’s, but the pants were a

mile long on him. He would have to roll the bottoms a hundred times

in order not to trip over them.

This wasn’t going to work.

Kicking them aside, Devin walked over to the dresser to find a

pair of either jogging pants or leisure pants. Devin spun around when

the bedroom door opened and Mercy walked in.

They both stood there frozen, Devin having nothing on from his

waist down. His heart was beating so hard that it felt as if it were

trying to escape his chest. Mercy’s eyes slid down, staring at Devin’s

exposed cock.

Devin’s Mercy

59

“Sorry.” Mercy spun around, giving Devin his back, but not

before Devin had seen the lust in Mercy’s dark-grey eyes. “Go ahead

and get dressed.”

Devin quickly grabbed a pair of pajama pants, the easiest thing to

slide on, and then tied the strings tight to hold them up. He bent,

cuffing the pants that were so long that by the time he was done, there

was a heavy weight at his ankles.

“I’m dressed.” His voice was unsteady, sounding a bit squeaky.

Mercy turned, but kept his eyes averted. “You’re needed

downstairs. I caught an intruder in the woods, and he isn’t talking.

Sage wants to see if you can identify him.”

Devin’s knees nearly buckled. He didn’t want to see any of

Martin’s men. He didn’t want to be reminded of the nightmare he had

survived. He took a step back, rubbing his hands up his arms. “Do I

have to?”

Mercy looked at him then, his eyes full of steel. “He won’t hurt

you, Devin. He’s in the cage.”

That wasn’t what scared Devin.

“Could you take a picture of him and show me?” He was grabbing

for straws and he knew it, but Devin wasn’t willing to face any of

those men.

Mercy’s face softened. “That bad?”

All Devin could do was nod, turning away so Mercy couldn’t see

the humiliation in his eyes. He didn’t want Mercy’s pity. It would

destroy him if the man who he had cared about for so long treated him

like a victim.

“I’ll see what I can do.” Mercy left the room.

Devin took in a shaky breath, praying Mercy would show him a

picture instead, and dreading even seeing the face on a still frame. He

wanted to put his abuse behind him, not be reminded of it.

His head snapped up a few minutes later when Mercy walked

back into the bedroom. He had a cell phone in his hand. Devin felt his

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gut wrench into knots so tight that he felt as if his insides were going

to tear him apart.

“Whenever you’re ready.”

Devin would do this. He would help the men he had once

considered friends. Men he still considered friends even if they had

turned their backs on him. Martin had to be stopped. Charles had to be

killed.

With that thought, anger rose to unyielding heights inside of him.

“I’m ready.” His voice was steadier, determination helping him take a

step toward Mercy.

Hesitating, Mercy finally lifted the phone and showed Devin the

man in the cage. Devin inhaled sharply and then took a step back. As

brave as he had been, seeing the man who had held him down while

Charles…

Devin spun around, knocking the contents on the dresser to the

floor, screaming as he tried to rip the room apart. Every emotion he

had held inside, had tried to lock down, came flooding back to him.

His skin crawled, his head hurt, and he was seconds away from

vomiting.

When two strong arms circled around him, Devin fought like a

madman. “Don’t touch me! Never touch me again!”

But Mercy held firm as Devin crashed through the memories,

reliving them, fighting them, and feeling just as mortified as he had

when it originally happened. He wanted blood. He wanted revenge.

But most of all, he wanted to forget.

He clawed at Mercy’s arms, shouting out his rage. But Mercy

didn’t let him go. “Let it out, Devin.”

Devin bucked, trying to physically fight the memories that

wouldn’t let him rest. He wanted them gone, to no longer plague him,

following him into his sleep.

Finally, his strength dwindled, leaving Devin an open and raw

wound as he slouched in Mercy’s arms. He didn’t want to appear

weak in front of this strong man, but Devin had nothing left to give.

Devin’s Mercy

61

“Let me be your anchor, Devin. Give me your demons so that I

can slay them,” Mercy said softly, but gruffly in his ear. “I’m not your

enemy.”

“Everyone is my enemy,” he finally admitted out loud.

* * * *

Gods, this man was screwed up. Mercy wasn’t sure what he

should do. He’d never been through anything like this and prayed he

didn’t fuck it up. One wrong word and Devin would be lost to him.

He didn’t want that.

“If you don’t trust someone, they’ve won.” Mercy wasn’t even

sure if he should say
they
or
he
. He prayed it wasn’t a
they
.

“They won the moment I couldn’t fight them anymore.”

Mercy closed his eyes, cursing silently at the plural. His arms

tightened around Devin, wishing he could pull the memories from this

man so Devin would no longer suffer. But he couldn’t. The only thing

he could do was try to win Devin’s trust and help him heal.

“You survived, Devin. You’re standing here alive. That’s winning

in my book.”

Devin’s hands curled around Mercy’s forearm. “You believe

that?”

A crack in his armor.

“I do.”

“But…the things…”

“You. Survived.” He emphasized his words with a tighter hold.

“But they won’t leave me alone.”

Another crack. Devin was talking. That was a start.

“Let me handle them from here on out. I won’t let them hurt you

ever again.” It killed something inside Mercy to use the word
them
. It

would have been bad enough if Devin was fighting just one person in

his nightmares, but he wasn’t.

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Lynn Hagen

Devin was quiet for a long moment, and then the one word was

spoken so low that Mercy almost didn’t hear it. “Promise?”

“With my life.”

Releasing Mercy’s arm, Devin reached up and brushed the tears

from his face, clearing his throat. “You can let me go now.”

Mercy didn’t want to. He wanted to keep Devin in his arms where

the man was safest. The feelings were new to him, and Mercy wasn’t

sure what to do with them, but he knew one thing. Devin wasn’t going

to be hurt ever again.

He relaxed his hold, allowing Devin to escape. Mercy’s skin felt

instantly cold. The compulsion to pull Devin back into his arms was

brutal, a fucked-up beat in his body that he couldn’t push away.

Mercy took a step back. “How do you feel?”

“Stupid.” Devin pushed past Mercy and then stopped, staring at

the door as if he had changed his mind at the last minute. Devin

turned, walked back to his cot, and took a seat, glancing around the

room but never settling his blue-grey eyes on Mercy.

“I’ve felt that way once or twice. You know what the cure is?”

Devin finally settled his eyes on Mercy. “What?”

Mercy grinned. “Food. I’ll go get us some.” Because he really was

hungry, but he also wanted to wipe that insecure look from Devin’s

face. Mercy slipped from the room, closing the door behind him and

taking a deep breath. He hadn’t fucked Devin up further. He had no

clue what he was doing, but he hadn’t pushed Devin away.

He didn’t know why he was feeling this way, or what
this
even

was, but Mercy wasn’t going to allow Devin to go this alone. Not

while Mercy had anything to say about it.

He was a lycan, an ex-enforcer, having an unflinching will and

being stubborn to the bone. But Devin was threatening to crush his

loner status. The man was like a slow-acting drug that was inching

through his veins, and Mercy feared becoming addicted to the one

man he had fought to stay away from.

Devin’s Mercy

63

He’s twenty-five, not as young as you thought. What excuse do

you have now?

Devin was damaged. Mercy wasn’t going to take advantage of

that. The man needed a friend, not a lover. Mercy did have his honor,

after all. He would cut off his right arm before allowing his craving to

take root and destroy the little bit of trust Devin had given him.

Mind made up, Mercy walked downstairs to get him and Devin

something to eat. But first, he had to confirm to Sage that the man

being held captive was one of Martin’s men.

Mercy just wasn’t sure if he would leave the basement with the

intruder still alive.

* * * *

Sage paced in front of the cage. It disturbed him that he didn’t

know the man behind the steel bars. He thought he knew all of his

father’s whack jobs. Apparently Martin was recruiting. That thought

chilled him.

That meant Sage wouldn’t be able to identify any threat coming

near him or this house. He knew Martin’s men, could spot them in a

crowd. But if his father was bringing in fresh blood, then they were in

for a fight Sage wasn’t sure he could win. Martin’s numbers were

growing, and that worried him.

His head snapped up when he heard a low whistle. Sage could see

Mercy standing at the top of the steps.

“I’ll be back.” He snarled the warning at the prisoner.

“Take your time,” the man snidely replied.

Gods, what Sage wouldn’t give to be able to swipe the man’s head

from his shoulders. It was tempting, but he needed information, and a

dead man couldn’t talk.

“Devin identified him as one of Martin’s men.”

“I already knew he worked for Martin. What I need to know is if

Devin can tell me who he is, if he has a higher position with Martin.”

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Lynn Hagen

Mercy looked hesitant, something Sage had never seen before. If

anything, Mercy was the epitome of calm steel.

“What’s wrong?”

“Devin is pretty fucked up in the head right now. I’m not going to

push him.”

Sage heard the underlying threat. If he tried, Mercy would take

Devin away. He wanted to demand that Mercy get the information

Sage needed, but since he relinquished his claim of being alpha, he

didn’t have a leg to stand on as far as leadership and hierocracy. It

would undermine what he was striving for, a pack-free town. Whether

Sage liked it or not, he had no choice but to back down.

Which didn’t sit well with him.

“Think about the mates, Mercy. We need to know what we are up

against. I don’t want to go out to that cabin and be outnumbered.

Knowing the odds could be the difference between life and death.”

So, he wasn’t going to back down all the way. But Sage wasn’t going

to walk into a slaughter.

Mercy looked conflicted. Sage was starting to think that maybe

Devin didn’t really have a choice. He never thought the man one

hundred percent on Martin’s side, but in this war, people who he had

once trusted could become his worst enemies. His father would stop

at nothing to achieve his insane goal, even turning longtime friends

against him.

But Mercy was no fool. If he was protecting Devin, then maybe,

just maybe, Devin could be trusted once more.

“Let me see what I can do, but don’t hold your breath. Like I said,

Devin is pretty screwed up right now, and I won’t let anyone hurt him

again.”

Sage mentally took a step back. Since when did Mercy care that

deeply? Sure, he knew the man cared about his friends, but Mercy

was a loner, never before taking on a charity case.

And he had a feeling Devin was anything but a charity case.

“I appreciate anything you can do to help.”

Devin’s Mercy

65

Mercy’s hackles relaxed. “Have you decided when we are going

to strike the cabin?”

Sage shook his head. “I want to charge in there and save those

boys, but I won’t risk you guys. Isaac and Jeremiah are sneaking in

after nightfall tomorrow to get a better idea of what we are up against.

It would be easier to get it from this guy, but he’s not talking.”

“Have you asked Kell to give him something to loosen his

tongue?”

Sage grinned. “I knew we were friends for some reason.” Sage

walked back down the steps, only this time he went over to the side of