Sage's Mystery (11 page)

He had witnessed his angry outbursts and moody ways. It wasn’t a pretty sight.

He was willing to bet his sweet ass that Sage was going to fuck this up. “Twenty says he’s in there right now saying all the wrong things.”

“You got it.” Monterey chuckled. “I say William is the one to turn him around.”

“I’m in,” Mercy said. “I say William will walk away.”

“Twenty on Sage fucking it up,” Isaac said.

“You’re all dickheads,” Jeremiah said. “Count me in. William will turn him around.”

Patrick snickered as he rubbed his hands together. “Good. I need a new pair of shoes.” He glanced toward the house, praying he was wrong and that William was exactly what Sage needed. As much crap as he talked, Patrick wanted his friend to be happy.

* * * *

Sage looked up the stairs, wondering if he should go up. What had he said wrong? Didn’t William want to be mated to him? It was too late to change his mind now. The bonding was complete and couldn’t be reversed.

Sage cursed as he walked back through the kitchen and out the back door. He stood there looking over the backyard at his friends around the fire laughing. He felt as though he were caught in the undertow of this mating thing.

It wasn’t supposed to be hard. He had flirted with his mate all day, winking at him, trying his best to let William know he wasn’t forgotten with all the chaos of getting the house in repair. Hell, all Sage had wanted was to go lie down and rest after his shift. He was
Sage’s Mystery

85

surprised he had made it through the day without falling over from exhaustion.

Had he come on too strong?

Sage wasn’t sure about anything right now. All he knew was that William made him happy, something that had been sorely lacking in his life. He made it easy for Sage to love him. The man had all that Sage ever needed in a person, in a partner, in a mate. The small man was priceless to him.

He swung back around, storming into the house and up the stairs.

He was going to find out what was eating at his mate. There was no way he had found the perfect man only to lose him.

Sage’s steps faltered when he heard soft crying coming from the bedroom. Was being mated to him that terrible? Sage braced himself for the hurt as he pushed the bedroom door open. He stood there feeling as though his heart was being ripped out of his chest as he saw William curled up on the blanket, crying softly.

“Slim?”

“Go away,” William said as he sniffled.

Sage wasn’t going anywhere until he had answers. “Why are you crying?”

William wiped his eyes and then looked up at Sage. His pretty green eyes were bloodshot as his bottom lip quivered. “Why do you think?”

Sage was lost as fuck. “Is it because you’re mated to me?” he asked a little too curtly. If it was that god-awful, Sage would…he wasn’t sure. Giving William up wasn’t an option. He couldn’t see himself without William in his life. In just a week’s time, Sage had fallen hard for the man.

William gaped at Sage as if he had two heads. “Are you serious?”

Sage was officially confused now. He felt like Terror when she chased her tail in a circle. He pinched the bridge of his nose, placing his hand on his hip and taking a deep and cleansing breath. “Please tell me why you are crying.”

86

Lynn Hagen

“Because you don’t want to be mated to me. The only reason you did it was to save me from the pain I was going through. Admit it!”

Sage’s jaw dropped as he stared at the small man before him. He could feel his anger mounting as he stared disbelievingly at William.

“You think I mated you out of pity?”

“Yes,” William retorted with attitude.

Sage counted to ten, and then counted to twenty. He half wished it was one of the guys downstairs he was arguing with. At least he could slug one of them.

His hand shot out as he pointed angrily at William. “I don’t do a fucking thing out of pity. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you. If you don’t want to be mated, fine. But don’t you dare lie there and put the blame on me. Tell me what I’ve done that even gave you that asinine idea because there is no one on this planet that has ever taken my heart the way you have.”

William opened his mouth and then snapped it shut. He cocked his head as he stared disbelievingly at Sage. “You love me?”

Sage’s Mystery

87

William knelt there stunned. When Sage spun around to leave the room, William panicked. He shot from the blankets and jumped onto Sage’s back. “Don’t go.”

Sage’s arms swung back, grabbing William’s legs as he stilled. “I don’t play games, William. If you don’t want to be mated, I need to know.”

The tables had taken a hard turn, and William was confused as hell. “I don’t like games.”
Damnitty, damn, damn.
That was all he could think of to say? He should tell Sage that he loved him, too. But had Sage really said he loved him? What exactly had Sage meant by
taken my heart
?

“Good, then we’re on the same page,” Sage said as he pulled William from his back. William climbed down, staring up at Sage, wondering what to do next. He didn’t want the man to walk away from him.

Begging seemed a little unmanly, but William had never worried about his manhood before, at least not when it came to bravery. What was another shot against him? And same page? William wasn’t even sure they were reading the same book. “So, you want me around then?” he ventured, dreading Sage’s answer. His muscles wound tight as he waited for Sage to answer him. That was the last thing William wanted Sage to do.

“Slim, I didn’t just confess all that to you to sharpen up on my romantic side. And not a word about my romantic side. I definitely don’t want the guys downstairs to get the wrong impression. Jeremiah
88

Lynn Hagen

would roast my ass over the open fire if he knew how deeply in love with you I am. Those guys can be brutal.” Sage shivered.

William threw his hand over his mouth, stifling the giggle. “Not a word, I promise.”

“Good, now stop with the crazy idea that I don’t want you around, slim.”

William’s eyes dropped to Sage’s hard, muscled abs. Good god, he could scrub his clothes on that washboard. He would never tire of seeing Sage’s body. And he wanted to see it again, naked, pressed hard against him.

But it was more than that. William wanted to feel Sage’s arms wrapped around him, holding him close and making him feel as if the world wasn’t insane. The world felt like it was crazy already to him, and after last night, William wasn’t sure what to believe anymore.

He had been just a baby when the murders in Mystery took place.

He was one of only two who had survived the massacre, and now he was back, living close to the house he had been taken from. Only his return hadn’t felt like coming home. It felt more like falling back in time where everything was crazy, chaotic, and unreal.

William just wanted Sage to hold him and let him know he wasn’t alone anymore. That the creatures he heard so long ago and the creatures he heard since coming back weren’t one and the same.

William prayed they weren’t because if they were, then it was starting all over again.

And he couldn’t lose Sage, not after getting to know him, personally and intimately.

“Why the sad face?” Sage asked as his thumb played over William’s jaw. “I want you around, slim. I want to be mated to you.

Do you understand that?”

William shook his head, to answer Sage, but also to rid himself of the memories. “No. What exactly is a mate?”

Sage took William’s hand in his oversize one and led him back over to the blankets, setting both of them down. He could see the
Sage’s Mystery

89

struggle in Sage’s eyes and wondered if the explanation was that difficult.

“When a werewolf decides he wants to spend the rest of his life with someone, he bites them and gives that person his seed, binding them for life. It’s like you’re my partner now, my life companion.”

Sage scratched his stubbled jaw as he glanced at William. “I’m not explaining this right.”

William sat up on his knees, mulling over Sage’s words. “So I’m like your husband now?” And wouldn’t that be fantastic. Weird, but fantastic. He couldn’t see himself with anyone but Sage.

“Exactly, only there is no divorce for us. This is it, till death do us part.”

Did he have to put it that way?

“Can I have a ring?” The question slipped before William could stop it. It was a childish question, but an insecurity he wanted to put to rest. William was afraid he had gone too far when Sage took a while to answer him.

Sage smiled as he pulled William down onto the blankets with him. “Whatever you want, slim.”

William was flying high, soaring through the clouds at a high rate of speed. He launched his body at Sage’s, a smile so wide that his cheeks hurt spread across his face. “That means you’re my husband as well.”

“It does, but we call it being mated.”

“I like married better,” William confessed as he buried his face against Sage’s chest. The warmth alone made him feel like he was as safe as a baby in its mama’s arms. That thought led to another, making William sad all over again. God, he hated the roller coaster of emotions this moment was causing.

“I know what happened in Mystery,” he confessed to Sage’s chest. He hadn’t spoken a word of the tragedy in a very long time.

That confession had bought him a one-way ticket to a mental health facility where he spent most of his life. William had learned a long
90

Lynn Hagen

time ago to keep his memories and the truth to himself. The trouble was, after so many years and so many doctors refuting his claim, William began to wonder if he had heard those sounds at all, until he had come back to Mystery.

Once the howling began, William had no doubt whatsoever about all those years ago.

He knew he could tell Sage. He was a werewolf after all. It wasn’t like he wasn’t used to the strange and bizarre.

“Tell me,” Sage whispered against his hair.

“I was a baby when it happened, but I remember it as if it were yesterday. My mom had just given me a bath. We were in my room when howls sounded from every direction. My mom set me down and looked out of the window. I remember her running back to me and grabbing me from my bed, hiding me in one of the closets.” William swallowed hard at the memory of his mother’s beautiful face. She had been a kind and beautiful person, not deserving what had happened to her.

“You lived here, in Mystery?” Sage asked in astonishment.

“A very long time ago. I don’t remember the town being this bad, though.”

“It must have been squatters.”

“Maybe. But ever since I’ve been back here, I’ve heard the same howls as the night the town was massacred.”

“I’m not sure what’s going on, William, but I will get to the bottom of it. My question to you is, how can you not fear me after what happened to you?”

William clutched Sage, holding him tighter as he spoke the truth.

“I got to know you before I found out who you were. I fell in love with you before you went all hairy. You didn’t attack me last night.

You showed me a gentle side. It’s hard to explain, but I just don’t.

Are all the men downstairs werewolves?”

Sage’s Mystery

91

Sage sighed as his hands skimmed William’s back. “Yes, but we’ve never killed anyone who didn’t have it coming. We don’t kill innocents.”

Now wasn’t that a blessing?

William didn’t want to think of Sage killing anyone, but he had learned a long time ago that life existed and sometimes people did things they normally wouldn’t have just to survive in it. And life was also filled with cruel people who cared for no one but themselves.

People who were sick and twisted and had no morals or conscience lived among the good.

“You truly are kindhearted, slim,” Sage said as he lowered William to the mound of blankets. William thought that they were about to have sex, but was shocked when all Sage did was hold him close. “I’ve never had someone I could just cuddle with.”

The big guy was turning out to be deeper than William had first thought. He wasn’t a rebel, but someone looking for the same thing William was—comfort, security, and someone to traverse through life with.

William found himself wrapped in Sage’s arms as soft snores fell from Sage’s lips. He pushed closer to his mate’s hard chest, finding himself in a position that everyone looked for. Just the feeling of Sage’s large, muscled body curled around him made William sigh contentedly as he, too, drifted off to sleep.

* * * *

Jeremiah scowled as he tossed broken floorboards into the Dumpster. He wasn’t sure how he got wrangled into giving up his labor, but here he was shoveling shit with everyone else. It wasn’t that he was pampered or prissy. That was the farthest thing from the truth.

He just hated trying to fix up a place that looked as though it were standing on its last leg.

92

Lynn Hagen

“What exactly happened to this damn house?” he asked Sage as he walked back inside for another load.

Sage grunted as he carried a few pieces of plywood over his head through the living room and up the stairs, Jeremiah following behind with two five-gallon buckets. “Beats me. The foundation is good, so we can work with the rest.”

“But one of the bedrooms has no exterior wall!” he pointed out for the tenth time that morning. It baffled him that a wall was missing.

Who stole an entire wall? Who stole a wall, period?

Sage sat the plywood down as he gave his best friend a defiant stare. “Look, I know you five think I should raze this place and the town and start over, but it was William’s childhood town. I think it’s worth saving.”

Jeremiah prayed someone shot him first before he turned all sentimental over something that belonged to his mate, if he ever found one. He wasn’t the easiest person to get along with. Most guys loved writhing under him, but as soon as the sex ended, they ran from his sparkling personality.