Out Of The Shadows (14 page)

Dane’s mind searched for any reason why this was a bad idea and came up with nothing. If he was being honest with himself, he also loved waking up next to Jai each morning. Not to mention the numerous other benefits of staying here.

“Okay.”

Jai grinned and pulled him into his arms for a kiss.

“I thought you two were packing?”

Jai drew back far enough to pull a face at Sasha and Dane tried to step away, out of the embrace, before reconsidering. If he actually thought about it, he wasn’t embarrassed about Sasha seeing him with Jai. It was just that his first instinct was still to hide. She wandered in and sat down on the corner of the bed as he turned, settling back against Jai.

“Your brother just agreed to move in with me.”

Sasha grinned. “It’s about time. Actually, this is great,” she said, looking thoughtful. “Do you think that your landlord would let me take over the rent on your flat, Dane? I’ve been looking for somewhere of my own and you would not believe some of the horrible places I’ve seen.”

Jai laughed. “You couldn’t just stop at ‘that’s great,’ could you?”

“Hey, I’m just being practical.” A teasing smile lit her face as she added, “Besides, I have my reputation to think of- I can’t keep living with two gay men. People will think it’s a bit odd.”

Dane threw a pillow at her as Jai turned him in his arms, kissing him hard on the mouth. Jai reached around to grope at Dane’s arse as Dane’s arms looped around his neck.

“Ewww. I may love you both, but I didn’t need that image in my head,” she complained good-naturedly, getting up. “I may be scarred for life. Can’t you at least wait until I get out of the room before you start groping my brother?” She paused. “Remember that we leave in an hour.”

Jai laughed as Dane smacked him on the arm. “What? It made her go, didn’t it?”

* * * *

Two hours later, Dane shuffled uncomfortably in the cramped train seat and glared out of the window. He was tired of sitting in this tiny little seat, where there wasn’t enough space to stretch his legs. If they currently had a car big enough for the three of them to ride comfortably in they could have used it, but the courtesy car was too small and the bike was out of the question. Then again, a long car journey was sometimes worse, the space being smaller. At least in the train they could get up and have a walk every so often. Most of the weres didn’t like being confined, their wolf side objecting to the lack of freedom. Next to him, Jai was engrossed in a paperback novel, and had been for the past half an hour. Dane wasn’t sure why he looked so comfortable. Sasha, sitting across the aisle, had her head back, eyes closed, listening to whatever was playing through her headphones. Why the hell did he have to come on this damn trip in the first place? If his dad wanted to see him then he should have bloody well come and seen him.

This was going to be a nightmare from start to finish; his dad hated him and hearing him say it last time had been enough. His mum had said that he’d calmed down a little, or at least that’s what Jai told him. It wasn’t just his dad who would be there, though; he hadn’t been back to his birth pack or had any contact with them since leaving. They didn’t know why he decided to move on, and they were likely to want to get together, asking questions and reminiscing. The thought of having to face the friends he had known for so many years scared the life out of him. Coming out to the guard had been bad enough and he had only known them for a few months; he had been lying his friends for years. And what about Georgina? She was likely to be there, too—what was he supposed to say to her?

“What’s the matter?”

Dane looked across at Jai, frowning.

“I know that look,” Jai said. “You’re about five minutes of fretting away from a panic attack.”

“I’m not panicking,” Dane protested. He sighed. “Maybe a bit.”

He couldn’t help the glance around at the other passengers, checking to see if any of them were listening. Jai put the bookmark back in his book and tucked it away in his bag, turning in his seat to face Dane. His mate studied him for a moment and then sighed and got to his feet.

“Come with me.”

When he hesitated, Jai reached out to grab his mate’s hand and pull him to his feet, letting Dane follow him to the end of the carriage. He reached the space between the two carriages, near the exits, and waited until the doors closed behind them. Now they were alone.

“Okay, talk to me,” Jai said. “I thought you were fine with this trip.” 

“I thought I was, but I don’t want to do this,” Dane told him, leaning back against the wall. “My dad hates me, everything about me, and so will they.”

“Who?”

“My old pack. Dad will have been mouthing off since he got back and they’ll hate me, too.”

“Dane, stop it. I’ll be there with you, so will Sasha, and everything will be alright. You need to calm down.”

Jai didn’t give Dane a chance to object before he pressed his mate back into the corner and kissed him. After a second, Dane reacted, letting himself be swept away in the kiss. Jai’s fingers raked gently through his hair as he edged closer still.

“There, you look a lot calmer now,” Jai said a few minutes later when they finally moved apart.

Dane sighed loudly. He was feeling calmer, but only because he was too turned on from having Jai pressed against him to worry any more. He followed Jai back to their seats, ignoring the knowing smirk he received from Sasha as he sat down. When she reached over and held up a pocket mirror in front of him, however, he felt his face heat up. No wonder she gave him the I-know-what-you’ve-been-doing look when he sat down. His hair looked as though, well, someone had been running their fingers through it. He glared at Jai, who merely grinned unapologetically back at him, as he tried to make himself look presentable again. 

* * * *

Ten minutes later, he watched as his mum hurried across the station from where she had been sitting on a wooden bench, waiting. She reached them, a happy smile on her face as she hugged Sasha and Dane. When Jai hung back, she rolled her eyes and reached for him, too, drawing him into a tight embrace.

“He’s at home,” Dee told her son, seeing him look around.

If not for Jai’s hand on his lower back, forcing him to walk towards the exit, Dane would have turned and jumped on the next train home. If his dad couldn’t even face coming to meet him, there wasn’t much of a chance that he was going to be any more welcoming when they got home.

Dee spent the short car journey home chattering, asking about what she had missed since her visit, about their jobs and lives. In fact, she talked about everything but Nick, pointedly avoiding mentioning anything to do with him. Sitting in the back seat with Dane, Jai entwined his fingers with Dane’s. He could see the worry returning to Dane’s eyes.

“Well, here we are,” Dee announced, turning the car into a narrow, tree-lined street. “Home again.”

Getting out of the car, Dane looked up at the house he had grown up in. Even after moving out, he had always thought of this place as home, but something had changed. Now, this wasn’t his comfort zone, the place he called home. Even though he hadn’t actually moved in yet, he found that Jai’s house had replaced this place in his mind as “home.”

“Jason is having a bit of a get-together tonight,” Dee told them. Jason was Alpha of Dane’s birth pack. “A few of your friends heard you were coming back, that you’d found your mate, and they wanted to congratulate you.”

“Do they know about Jai?” Dane asked quietly. “Do they know I’m—?”

“Gay? Yes, they do.” She frowned. “Is that what’s been bothering you? Oh, Dane, they’re your friends and they care about you—they won’t stop caring for you just because of that.”

“Dad did, and he’s blood.”

Dee couldn’t argue that one, choosing instead to usher them all inside. She told them to get settled in and drop off their luggage.

“Sasha, Dane, you know where your rooms are. Jai, I presume you will be sharing with Dane?” She glanced between the pair of them as her son’s cheeks flushed. “I can make up the spare bed if you prefer.”

Jai smiled at his mate’s discomfort. Truth be told, if it was his mother discussing his sleeping arrangements, he might be a bit embarrassed, too.

“There’s no need. If it won’t make it uncomfortable for you, I’ll be with Dane.”

He followed Dane up the stairs, looking around curiously. This was his first real view of Dane’s former world, the place he had grown up, and it intrigued him. Dane didn’t really talk about his home or his family, not after the last disastrous reunion. The bedroom was as he would have expected, slightly dated as though Dane’s parents had simply not decorated after he had moved out some years earlier. They put their clothes away and Jai sat down on the bed.

“Are you alright?”

Dane turned to him, leaning back on the cabinet. “I don’t know. Maybe once we get this thing tonight over with.”

“I’ll be there with you,” Jai told him. “Come over here.”

When Dane shook his head, staying where he was, Jai stood to go to him. He slid his arms around Dane and leaned in for a kiss.

“My mum is downstairs,” Dane protested.

“I hate to break this to you, but I think your mum knows that we’re sleeping together.”

Dane smacked him on the arm. “Don’t make fun of me. It’s just being here, in my parents’ house, my old room. It makes me feel like I’m sneaking my boyfriend in at night behind my mum’s back.”

“You actually did that?” Jai sounded amused.

“Well, no, but you know what I mean.”

Jai grinned, dipping his head to press a kiss to Dane’s mouth. For a moment, Dane froze, before relenting and opening up to the kiss. His arms looped around Jai’s neck as he pressed against his mate.

* * * *

Later that afternoon, Dee drove them all out to a large house on the outskirts of the town. The town was on the edge of the moors, only a few minutes’ drive away, and the difference was clear. In the centre and among the residential streets it had felt like they were in a city, Jai noticed, but just a short ride down the road and there was nothing but open countryside. Dee had told him that many of the pack lived either in the town centre or in the urban areas nearby, but not them. She and her husband liked the peace and quiet and the illusion of living in the country that being on the outskirts of town gave them.

They parked on the pebbled driveway and, instead of knocking on the door as Jai had expected, Dee opened a wooden gate that led around the side of the house. It seemed that this was more than just a small get-together, judging by the number of people already gathered on the covered patio and inside the house. Jai felt Dane tense beside him as he saw the people. His face was white, breathing fast, as he stopped. Suddenly, he turned.

“Move,” he ordered, pushing past Jai and going back out to the driveway.

Dee and Sasha both frowned, Dee going to follow her son, but Jai stopped them.

“You go on in,” he told them. “I’ll go talk to him.”

Dane was sitting on the front steps, leaned back against the door with his head in his hands, when Jai found him.

“Dane?”

Dane glanced up to see Jai watching him. He hadn’t realised how much he had been dreading telling his friends until he had seen them all sitting there around the picnic table.

“I can’t go in there, Jai,” he said. “I don’t want to see their faces if they reject me.”

Jai leaned against the wall next to him. “Why would you think they’d reject you?”

Dane closed his eyes and took a calming breath. “I’ve been lying to them for so long.”

“So? I’m sure they have things they haven’t told you,” Jai pointed out. “Maybe not quite as big as your news, but still.” He reached down and Dane took it, letting Jai pull him to his feet. “The guard and the pack didn’t turn against you when you told them, did they?”

Dane shook his head.

“Exactly, so give your friends a chance to do the same.” Jai kept hold of Dane’s hand as he led him back towards the party. “You can’t put this off forever.”

They went around to the back of the house, looking across to there Sasha and her mum talked to a small group of people when she waved to them. A few of the others turned to stare as they passed by, some saying hello to Dane. It seemed that his dad had already been gossiping, Dane thought. He wasn’t sure whether he was relieved not to have to tell them all or whether it would be worse since they only knew his dad’s version of events. 

“Ready?” he asked.

Jai nodded and followed him to the group of people sitting around the large wooden table on the porch. As they approached, eight pairs of eyes turned to them. For a moment, there was silence as each waited for the other to speak. Then, a man at the end of the table smiled.

“So, are you going to sit down or just stand there all night?” he asked dryly.

Jai nudged Dane and he moved to the space that had been cleared for them near to the man who had spoken.

The man leaned past Dane. “Since he’s being rude, I’ll introduce myself,” he said to Jai. “Hi, I’m Stephen.”

“Jai. Nice to meet you.”

When Jai had been introduced to everyone else, including a gorgeous blonde woman who turned out to be the much wondered about Georgina, he nudged Dane.

“You doing okay?”

Dane nodded.

Stephen was quiet for a moment before he finally turned back to Dane. “Where did you go?” he demanded, sounding angry. “You just disappeared, Dane. You didn’t even bother to call and let us know where you’d gone. I thought we were friends.”

“I’m sorry that I didn’t call. I just had to get away from here.”

“Your dad has been shooting his mouth off,” Stephen continued. “Is any of what he’s saying true?”

Dane shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. Dad hasn’t spoken to me since he came to visit—he disowned me—so I don’t expect he’s been too complementary about me.”

“Very well, we’re listening.”

Jai laid a hand on Dane’s knee under the table, offering support, and Dane took a deep breath.