Jacks, Marcy - Mason Returns to His Mate [DeWitt's Pack 8] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove) (11 page)

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.”

“But we don’t have a werewolf with us. Ivan?” Derek put his hand  on the other man’s shoulder when he didn’t immediately respond. The  quake he felt in Ivan’s shoulder, in his entire body really, had Derek  stumbling back.

What the fuck?

“What’s happening to you?”

His night vision was shit, but he’d adjusted enough by now to be  able to see the outline of the vampire he was with, so he could see  when the shaking subsided.

It hadn’t been a violent thing to begin with, so Derek hadn’t been

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worrying that the man was having a seizure or anything like that, but

still …

“Hey, you all right?”

“I’m fine.”

Derek jerked back again when the voice didn’t match Ivan’ s. He tried to see around the vampire, thinking there might’ve been another person in the area with them.

As far as he could tell, it was just the two of them.

“How’d you do that with your voice?” Derek asked.

Ivan turned around. This time, instead of glowing red eyes, the irises that lit up in the dark were gold.

Derek squinted, thinking he might not be seeing this right.  “How’d you do that with your eyes?”

Ivan stepped up to him, and then strangely, held out his hand. “My name is Eric. I’ll be helping you to track Mason. Nice to meet you.”

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Chapter Eight

Mason wasn’t much interested in being found. That was the sole reason why he’d left. He made his way over to the pond where he and  James used to play when he was a pup and James was still bigger than him. He was happy to see it was still there and as beautiful as ever, if a little overgrown with weeds.

He always felt better whenever he came to this place, so he approached the water, glowing under the moonlight, found himself the rock where he used to sit, and sat down.

The boulder was flat, and partly out of the water, leaving the top dry, perfect if he wanted to cool his legs in the pond without getting his ass wet.

He sat down and gently kicked his legs in the water, feeling the minnows and tadpoles tickling his toes.

He was always calmer whenever he came here. After ten years away from this spot and, even though he didn’t want to admit it at the moment, from Derek as well, he didn’t know how he’d survived the last ten years without either.

Now that his inner wolf had been let out to run, Mason was able to

better think about his circumstances.

He guessed Derek did have a reason to be pissed. That was exactly why Mason had kept it from him that his stay might be extended or even permanent if they couldn’t find and kill the hunters.

He knew Derek would worry and that he would be angry.

Mason hadn’t chosen to keep those things from him to be a prick or anything, and that was the one thing that pissed him off the most about all this. That Derek seemed to think that Mason got a kick out

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of keeping secrets from his mate. He didn’t.

The fact that Derek was his mate was also something of a secret,  but he was working up to that.

Mason sighed. Maybe ten years of being his own wolf and relying  on no one but himself  for his decisions had turned him into a pussy.  He couldn’t handle the thought of what would happen if someone was  to become upset with him.

That was why he’d lost the challenge against James that day. He  wasn’t fit to be the leader of a pack, much less to  make decisions for  his mate.

“Mason!”

Mason damn near jumped out of his skin as he half turned his body just in time to watch Derek come running after him.

What the hell was he―

Oh, he saw that vampire, Ivan, standing behind Derek in the shadows. He was naked, and his eyes were not red, suggesting that he’d been possessed by the ghost of Eric.

He didn’t care how romantically the others spun that story. It creeped him out.

“Mason.” Derek ran two feet into the water, soaking his shoes and the bottom of his jeans to halfway up his calves before he stopped.

The rock that Mason rested on was on the other side of the pond, just on the other side of the small and gentle waterfall that came from the river and fed into the pond, keeping the water always fresh and clean.

Because of the horseshoe shape of the pond, and the little waterfall in the center, the only way to get onto the rock where Mason sat was to either swim to it or jump to it.

It forced both men to keep their distance from each other.

Mason was glad to see his mate, but was still grumpy in the fact that he wanted to be left alone. “What do you want, Derek?”

Derek winced, and Mason bit down on his bottom lip. He wasn’t meaning for these stupid snappy things to be coming out of his mouth.

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He just wanted some solitude to think.

The thought of Derek turning around and leaving on that final note just so that Mason could have that solitude wasn’t so appealing.

“Wait,” he called when it looked as though Derek was about to do just that.

Mason got to his feet and jumped to dry land, landing at a crouch beside Derek.

The other man’s face dropped in shock as he looked over at the rock and then back down at Mason. “I didn’t know you could jump that far.”

“It’s a talent,” he said, then turned toward Eric or Ivan or whoever

the hell that was. “We’ll be fine on our own for a bit.”

Eric―at least, Mason was going to assume it was Eric considering the other man was naked, meaning he’d just transformed―nodded and then turned around, vanishing back in the shadows.

The man would probably stay close by, just in case, but Mason wasn’t entirely looking for privacy at this point.

“What are you doing here?” Mason asked.

Derek wet his lips, and he didn’t look Mason in the face. “I was worried you’d try and leave again.”

Mason hesitated and then decided to just go for it and put his arms around Derek’s shoulders. To his extreme relief and delight, the other man held him back. “I wouldn’t do that to you again. I just needed some time to think.”

“Didn’t want to risk it,” Derek said against his shoulder.

He felt good there. Warm and solid. Mason loved having him  against his body. He could stay like this forever.

“Sorry I worried you. I just…I did what I did so you wouldn’t  worry.”

“I know that,” Derek said, pulling away enough to look up at  him.  “But I’m not a werewolf, or an omega or whatever. I’m human, and I  don’t like other people deciding what I should and shouldn’t know  about my safety without my say-so. I’m sorry if that goes against

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what you are, but this is how I am,” Derek said.

Again, Mason fought the urge of his inner alpha to demand to be  given the right of way in everything. If Isaac and Tristan could do  this, then he could, too.

“Okay. I’m sorry it came out that way, but I can’t be sorry for  trying to protect you,” Mason said. He needed to be stubborn in this  thing, at least.

Derek looked at him long and hard. “Protect me from people who  want to hunt and kill me, not from the emotional stuff. That I can

handle.”

He could do that. “Deal,” Mason said.

“But Isaac did offer to go target shooting with me to bone up on  my aim with a pistol,” Derek said, smiling. “Just in case.”

Just in case. Christ, there wasn’t going to be a single thing about  this that wasn’t hard.

Clenching his jaw, Mason nodded. “Just try not to get into any trouble, all right? These guys are usually more skilled than the average human.”

“You have my guarantee that I am too much of a coward to do more than hide under the bed if some guy comes at me with a gun or knife.”

Mason was about to argue against that and say that his mate was no coward, but the look on Derek’s face, that same shit-eating smile,

told him that his mate was joking.

He might be serious about not running straight into their next

battle, but Derek was no coward. Mason knew that. Derek wouldn’t

have survived that first encounter with the hunters if he had been.

“All right. I’ll hold you to that, and the next time we might have  to keep you at the pack for an extended period of time, I’ll let you  know first.”

Derek kissed him. It was a gentle and chaste  pressing of their lips,

and no kiss had ever been as sweet.

“I’m just glad you’re staying,” Derek said.

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“I won’t leave again,” Mason said, putting his fingers into Derek’s

hair. Even if he did ever decide to leave, this time he would make sure

to take Derek with him.

While Mason loved the press of their bodies, there was still that one more tiny detail that needed taking care of. “Ah, Derek, since you don’t want me keeping emotional touchy feely stuff from you and all, there’s something else you should know.”

Mason gently pushed them away from each other, and he and  Derek held each other at an arm’s length, but they didn’t completely

separate.

Neither wanted to let the other go.

Derek frowned a little, but his face hardly turned angry, nor did  Mason get that vibe out of him.

“All right, what is it?” Derek asked.

“It might make you angry.”

“Spit it out, DeWitt,” Derek said.

“Okay, here it is,” Mason said, gripping Derek’s shoulders tight.  “We’re mates.”

He shrugged and smiled to mask how nervous he felt. “Ta-da?”

Derek blinked at him a couple of times, his brows lifting as he put together exactly what something like that would mean.

“You mean, like, we’re together now? Because I already figured that part out,” Derek said with a grin, trying to get closer to Mason again.

“Yes, we are, but not in the way you’re thinking,” Mason said, pushing Derek back a little, ever fearful of the building confusion on his lover’s face.

He had to explain himself quickly. Derek wasn’t known for his short fuse, but everyone had a limit on what they could take.

“A mate, for a werewolf, isn’t the same thing as taking a lover or a partner. It’s not just attraction, and it isn’t always based on love.  There are a lot of weres in the world who find themselves mated to

people they can’t stand. When I say we’re mates, what I mean is that

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you and I are spiritually connected. Pretty much for the rest of our

lives.”

Beyond that, too, if he remembered the story about Ivan and Eric right, but he didn’t want to get into that too much.

Derek’s brows shot right into his hairline. “We’re married?”

Mason shrugged. “If that’s a good way for you to look at it, then yes.”

“Holy shit.” Derek rubbed his face with both palms before sliding his hands into his hair. He looked like he was struggling to not lose it.

“I don’t want this to be another choice you think is being taken away from you,” Mason said. “I know we haven’t been together for that long”—not long at all—“so I don’t want you to feel pressured or anything. I want to be with you, so much, but if you ever want to go, when the hunters are dealt with, you can go back to Brampton or wherever you want to go and I won’t stop you.”

Derek looked up at him sharply. “That’s why you walked out back there? Because you thought I wanted to leave you?”