Authors: Marcy Jacks
Tags: #none
Now, although still smaller than Mason, he had the stomach and shoulders of a
GQ
model. He even had something of a beard growing out if he didn’t shave in the morning, which was a look he enjoyed, so he tended to skip shaving every two or three days.
He knew the orange T-shirt he wore was stretching over his abdomen, and he couldn’t help but be pleased as Mason stared.
“When did you get back into town?”
Had Mason come for him?
Mason blinked and seemed to come out of the trance that Derek’s
body had put him in. He shoved something into the pocket of his faded jeans and cleared his throat.
“Just now. On my way to see my brother.”
“Oh, that’s nice,” Derek said, doing his best to hide his disappointment. “How is everyone doing?”
His choice of wording was done on purpose. He dared not ask how the pack was doing. No, he remembered how Mason didn’t much like talking openly about what he and his family all were.
Though the pack was situated just outside of Brampton, Derek didn’t keep in contact with any of them. Not even Mason’s older brother.
Oh, he saw them around once in a while whenever they did their odd jobs to bring in money, but they avoided him and he avoided them. He pretended not to know werewolves existed, and they
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pretended he didn’t know. It was better that way.
Sometimes he thought he was the only man in Brampton to figure it out. Everyone in town had their own superstition with wolves because they were always in the area and always seemed to be howling at night, but Derek had been especially interested in them. He’d been a geek, really.
He’d always known about the group of people who lived just outside of town, but most people thought it was just another group of houses. They avoided those houses and those people because of all the injuries and the occasional death that supposedly happened there.
He had been an incredibly curious geek.
He’d seen Mason for the first time, in an unguarded moment, in the woods just outside the property where the other houses and cottages were. Derek had thought him to be the most beautiful man he’d ever seen in his life.
He hadn’t meant to spy on them. He’d honestly just taken the day to go hiking. Then he’d watched the man shift, and he still thought he was beautiful.
Mason had sniffed him out, and after a brief chase, they’d stopped and spoken.
Talking with a real werewolf, who was naked, was the most amazing thing Derek had ever done in his short life. Maybe it was his obvious attraction to the other man that drew Mason to him in return.
Somehow they’d come together, and Mason had sworn him to secrecy from that day on.
Even after Mason had left town, Derek had kept his promise. Really, who was he going to tell?
“Honestly, I don’t know,” Mason said.
What?
“You haven’t kept in touch?”
Mason’s face turned scarlet.
Shit
. “Sorry, I didn’t mean―”
“No, no. Not your fault. I haven’t been keeping touch. Not after ”…
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Mason trailed off, and Derek didn’t push him. He did bite down on his bottom lip, though.
He had a fairly good idea of what it was that made Mason run away from his pack, and Derek was certain it had something to do with the fact that they’d been fucking.
Why the hell not? Derek’s family had thrown him out after he refused to go to one of those pray-the-gay-away camps. After the sudden way Mason came to him and then left, it only made sense to Derek that he was banished from his pack for having a relationship with another man.
He was still having trouble deciding if the fact that he was also human had something to do with it, too.
Was Mason going back to try and get back into their good graces? Why would he even want to go back if they tossed him out?
Mason smiled at him and took a step back, his heavy boot making the floorboards groan. “It was good to see you again, Derek.”
Panic seized Derek like a fist squeezing his heart and lungs, and for a second he struggled to breathe.
Mason opened his mouth. What he was going to say, Derek didn’t know, because he shut it again and turned around.
Derek hurried to the glass door and pushed it shut just as Mason tried to open it.
Mason looked at him quizzically.
Without taking his eyes away from the other man―his pale-blue eyes were more gorgeous than Derek remembered, and when had he shaved his head?―he flipped the lock and turned the “Open” sign to read “Closed” to any customers who might try coming in.
It was one thirty on a weekday, so Derek was pretty sure they had some time.
“What are you doing?” Mason asked.
Derek recalled the way the other man was always able to smell when Derek wanted him. Judging by how Mason’s nostrils were flaring now, he had no doubt in his mind that Mason knew what he
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was up to.
He took Mason by the hand and pulled him away from the door. “Stay a while,” he said.
Mason didn’t protest as Derek led him into the back storage area. Thank God he’d just cleaned up in here yesterday. There was no dust or oil on the shelves when he pushed Mason up against them, grabbed him by the chin, and kissed the man.
By the way Mason’s body went tight, it was safe for Derek to assume that he’d just shocked the hell out of him. When his hands slid around Derek’s waist, coming to a stop just above the swell of his ass as Mason kissed him back, he’d guess that it wasn’t an unwelcome shock.
He’d missed Mason so much. He just couldn’t let him leave.
* * * *
Mason didn’t know what he’d done right lately to have deserved this. After what he did to the other man all those years ago, he would’ve thought that Derek would never want to be in the same room with Mason ever again, let alone touch him.
Despite that, Derek had smiled at him, made polite conversation, and was now pressing his hips against Mason’s. His cock was hard beneath those nearly too-tight jeans he was wearing, and Derek’s fingers were undoing the belt and fly of Mason’s own worn-out jeans.
Whatever it was that put Derek in such a good mood, Mason didn’t care, and he didn’t protest when Derek pulled down Mason’s jeans and boxers, grabbed hold of his cock in his cool hand, and then fell to his knees.
One hand grabbed Derek by the shoulder, and the other held him by the back of the head, gripping him by the hair, when Derek opened his mouth and put his lips around Mason’s throbbing prick.
He hissed in a breath. “Oh God.”
If Derek was just doing this to be cruel, so that he could get
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Mason off and tell him to get the hell out, then Mason would consider it well worth it just to have those pink lips moving up and down the base of his cock again. He was a bastard for letting this happen, and he didn’t care.
Derek was as good as he remembered. Better, even. He didn’t
want to even think about what that actually meant, but it was there, and he was loving the hell out of it.
When the other man hummed slightly around Mason’s dick, the vibrations of his mouth shooting stars of pleasure behind his eyes, he had to reassess that.
No, he was better than Mason remembered.
Mason pumped his hips, unable to contain himself as he looked down at Derek. The other man brought his hand up to stroke and rub at the base of Mason’s cock, the place where Derek’s mouth couldn’t reach, and Mason nearly lost it.
Two more quick thrusts, and he did lose it. He didn’t even get the chance to warn Derek that he was coming.
His legs buckled as he moaned, shooting his release down Derek’s throat.
The man choked and pulled back, taking the last of Mason’s cum
on his cheek.
Mason was never really interested in face shots, but the inner wolf in him growled his pleasure over the sight of his fluids on Derek’s cheek.
It was a pretty sight.
Derek continued to choke, and the high Mason had been on left him. He came down from it almost against his will and then realized the gravity of what he’d just done.
He slapped Derek on the back, and Derek coughed and started to breathe normally again. Then he touched his face and cursed, getting to his feet.
He went off somewhere farther in the back and came back wiping his face with a damp paper towel. He had a grin on his face that
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Mason didn’t quite understand as he tucked himself back into his pants.
Derek’s smile left him as he realized what Mason was doing.
“You’re leaving?”
“I told you I was coming here to see my brother.”
He realized too late how heartless that sounded, considering Derek had just given him head.
The look on Derek’s face told him just how much those words stung the other man.
Wham, bam, thank you, man. Ugh. Mason wanted to hide his face from ever being seen again. Derek knew all about werewolves, but Mason had never gotten around to telling him about a wolf’s mating rituals.
He’d thought he was just having some fun. Just sex with someone he happened to like very much.
He never expected to figure out that Derek was actually his mate, and when he lost that fight for control over the pack against his brother, his wolf wanted satisfaction, so it had gone to the one person he knew he could get it from.
Derek hadn’t stood a chance. Mason had been in human form, but
it was all animal instinct that drove him to do what he’d done. Derek
had passed out when Mason had finished with him, and when Mason woke up from his haze, animal urgings satisfied with Derek beneath him and out like a light, long scratch marks marring the beautiful skin of his back and even bruises on his neck and face …well, Mason had
to go.
Just like he had to go now. Clearly Derek hadn’t done that to try and get back at Mason. Was it repressed memories? Was that why he was able to stand in the same room with him? Kiss him?
A lot of things were certainly different about Derek now compared to back then. Christ, he even smelled different. Mason had known someone was behind him but hadn’t guessed it was Derek, and he never would’ve guessed the other man would be looking like
that
.
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He was a supermodel now.
What the hell was he still doing in this small town? Last Mason knew, Derek had been saving up to move to the city.
It was none of his business to ask, and he still had to think about
the possibility of Derek blocking out their last time together. Was something like that possible even after all these years?
Maybe. Mason didn’t want to be around if that was the case and any supposed repressed memories came hurtling back to him.
“I’m sorry, I need to go.”
Mason pushed past Derek and went out the door to the front of the shop. He pulled on the glass door once before remembering that it was locked. He unlocked it and exited the store, power walking to his truck. He opened the door and slammed it again when he was inside.
Derek hadn’t looked at him when Mason left. He just stood there, fists clenched and muscles tight with suppressed rage.
Mason was feeling a little rage right now. He couldn’t hit anything in the truck. He’d destroy it and then piss himself off even more. His wolf itched to be let out, to get running and hunting and tear through some trees and maybe pick a fight with a mountain lion or something.
That was probably the better choice and the one that would cost less money.
Mason still had the Rolex in his pocket. He’d quickly stuck it there when he realized it was Derek he was looking at. Mason had thought he was ready to part with it, but clearly he wasn’t, and now he still had no money.
He started the truck and pulled away from the curb, driving down
the two-lane highway that was paved in the middle of the small town until he found a good place to pull over.
Highway 22 was where he needed to pull off, where his brother and the rest of the pack were hidden, but he didn’t want to see them just now. He wanted to let his wolf out.
Mason locked the doors and stepped out of his clothes, folding
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them neatly and sticking them in the back with the few other packed possessions he’d brought with him for the journey. He would have to make this quick. He didn’t want any humans sniffing around here thinking they could take something.