The Werewolf Affair [DeWitt's Pack 14] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove) (14 page)

He put his hand to his face. He didn’t know who he was hiding from since there was no one else there, but he just had to do it as his eyes burned and face crumpled.

When he heard the heavy stomp of booted feet and the gentle click of the door handle turning, Phillip quickly wiped away his tears and put his expression into what he hoped was neutral.

To his surprise, James entered the room, and what was even more shocking than that was that he had Sammy held perched on one of his arms. The boy sat on his forearm and had his little arms reaching up, trying to wrap them around James’s large neck, but of course, that was impossible for him to accomplish. James kept his free hand on Sammy’s back for the added support.

Sometimes Phillip couldn’t believe that his son was a year old already.

Actually, wait a minute. “How long have I been out for?”

“Nearly five days now. Your wounds were more extensive than anyone thought they were, even after we started pouring the pond’s healing water down your throat.”

“Nearly five…” Phillip trailed off, and then he looked at his son, who was staring back at him curiously. “Sorry I missed your birthday, buddy.”

“I don’t think he minds,” James said. “All things considered, it was more of a quiet celebration anyway.”

Phillip figured it would be. His thoughts went back to Trevor and the way his hand had gone lax toward the end.

“He’s dead?” he asked and then inhaled a deep breath as the words that he didn’t want to be true left his mouth.

“No. He’s alive.”

Phillip looked sharply at the other man.

“He’s still in pretty bad shape, though. You two make quite a pair with all the injuries you both took in.”

Phillip tried sitting up and was surprised when he could with only some mild pain. “Where is he?”

“Still unconscious. Hasn’t woken up yet. He’s back at his cabin. Old Maggie, Corey, and Chris have basically turned his room into a minihospital, and they’re still having him drink the water from the pond.”

Though it was the best news he could’ve ever hoped for, there was still the cynical part inside of him that needed to confirm it. “Can I go see him?”

James looked hurt that he needed to ask. “If you’re awake and able to walk, then it’ll probably be good for the both of you. I had you moved into this room so that Corey or myself could bring Sammy in between our other responsibilities. We figured it would be good for you.”

Phillip looked at his son. Sammy’s face melted out of confused wariness to a bright smile.

Phillip smiled back. Yeah. It had been good for him. “Thanks, but if it’s not too much trouble, could you bring me to see Trevor?”

“Of course,” James said.

Phillip heard the man’s sigh when he threw off the covers from himself and put his bare feet on the hardwood floor.

“Phillip, I need to apologize for this.”

Phillip frowned and half turned to look at him. “For what?”

“Luke. That was entirely my fault. I’m the one who gave the rest of my pack the command to let him go a month ago when you created him. I thought that as a wild werewolf, he would be more inclined to avoid confrontation with humans, and then there were both Cole and Everett who needed seeing to, as well as you.”

He felt bad for the call he’d made.

“If Trevor had died, I might’ve had something more of a problem forgiving you, but since he’s alive I think I can put it behind me.”

“That’s not good enough. I made a bad call, and I want to own up to that, and because of that my own pack was put in danger, and both you and your mate nearly died.”

“Don’t know what you want me to say here, DeWitt,” Phillip said. “I won’t be making a challenge to take control of your pack for one bad decision. I’m pretty sure you would mop the floor with me if I tried in this state anyway.”

James smiled, his scars seeming deeper as he did so. “I just want you to know that I won’t be making any bad decisions like that again.”

Phillip nodded, accepting James’s words and his hand to help him up. “All right.”

* * * *

Trevor’s room smelled like every kind of over-the-counter drug that could ever be purchased. There were spare bandage rolls on his nightstand, along with several bottles of disinfectant and unsealed bottles of water. He knew those contained the special water from the spiritual pond. The place of healing.

The water couldn’t have been doing very much if Trevor was still out of it, but he looked more like he was sleeping rather than unconscious. His head was turned slightly to the side, and he was in bad need of a shave. Phillip hadn’t realized how Trevor looked with a beard before. He’d never thought about it.

Maybe the only reason why he didn’t like it was that it was only there because Trevor couldn’t take care of himself and was so injured that he hadn’t even woken up yet.

The blue blankets were tucked up and under his armpits, and his one hand rested lightly on his stomach while the other lay straight at his side.

“His heart stopped twice,” James said. “Isaac had to give him CPR, and then we all dunked him under the water once we made it there. You, too.”

Phillip had a sudden flash in his memory, and he realized that James was telling the truth. Not that he had any reason to lie, but the fact that Phillip could remember it made it so much more real somehow.

He must’ve been drifting in and out of consciousness by the time they made it to the pond. All he could see was alphas scrambling everywhere, shouting commands to omegas to get supplies. The water splashing around them as they ran into it with their injured cargo, and then Phillip’s entire body was under the water.

Oddly enough, that was where things became a little clearer in his memory. His eyes were open in the water, and it was so crystal clear it was almost as though he wasn’t in the water at all.

He could see Trevor, probably only ten feet away from him. The water was staining red around the both of them, but that didn’t stop Phillip from seeing his lover.

Trevor was still as the dead, his hair waving around in a ghostly fashion in the water. The hands of the alphas that held Trevor under were gentle on him as they used the water to also clean the blood from his open wounds.

Things happened in slow motion after that. The hands started to pull Trevor and Phillip back up so that they could both breathe, but despite that, he recalled staying under the water for a lot longer.

Helen was there. He recalled seeing her in the water as well, but her ghostly form neither surprised nor scared him.

Her face was right in front of his, but he could barely acknowledge her. His brain wasn’t working right, or else he would have asked her to do whatever she could to save Trevor. He would have told her that he was sorry for loving someone else, but he did, and he didn’t want that man to die.

Maybe she understood after all, because the next thing Phillip knew, her pale spectral face was no longer in front of his, and she had gone over to the other man in the pond and was hovering over Trevor.

Her hands had touched Trevor’s face, his neck, and his chest. For a split second, Phillip had feared that she was pulling Trevor’s soul out of his body when it began to glow the same bluish color that she had all over her body.

Then he recognized what she was doing for what it was. She hadn’t been trying to pull Trevor’s soul out. She had been attempting to keep it in.

That was why the pond sometimes brought people back to life. The souls who were drawn to it wouldn’t allow the dying person’s soul to leave.

Phillip shook the thought from his head. The revelation meant nothing to him at the moment, and right now all he cared about was the man in the bed.

He looked over his shoulder at James, who nodded in understanding.

Phillip kissed his son’s forehead before the two of them left, and Phillip was alone with his lover.

He kind of wished he’d taken the time to get dressed in something other than the clothes he’d been sleeping in for the last several days, but getting here as quickly as possible had been his first priority.

He hobbled over to the chair that had been placed beside Trevor’s bed. It was difficult for Phillip to look at him lying there and not think of the stark contrast between now and when they had last been together in this room. Their bodies coming together, taking full control of the both of them as they moaned and slid against each other.

It would be that way again. Trevor was alive, and he was going to make it.

Phillip took his hand and squeezed it tightly. “Hey, Trevor, I’m here.”

There was no response, and he hadn’t expected one. For Trevor to wake up now just because Phillip had entered the room would be just a little too perfect.

Phillip just started talking. He felt the need to fill the silence with something, and if he spoke, maybe Trevor would hear him, maybe he could pretend that the other man was awake and that he would respond. “You almost left me there for a second. Don’t think I can’t remember that, because I do. I saw you almost leave your body.”

Helen had saved him in the water. She had done that for Phillip, knowing that she was sparing Phillip’s mate.

“My wife had to save your ass there before you could take off on me. I wish you could’ve known her. You would’ve liked her.”

Phillip squeezed Trevor’s hand even tighter. It was a comforting fact that his hand was warm and not cold, that there was hot blood still pumping in his veins and not spilling out all over the ground somewhere in the woods.

“But she’s gone now. I’ll always love her, I think, but I can’t live without you. You can’t come into my life like that and think you can just leave it. Don’t you ever do something as stupid as that again. The next time I tell you to run away from a giant wild werewolf, you’d better do it, or else I’ll be the one to kill you.”

Still no response. Phillip wiped at his eyes and leaned over the bed. He pressed his lips to Trevor’s. Beneath the sharpness of the whiskers, his lips were warm, soft, pliant, and unmoving.

“I’m going to go somewhere. There’s something I need to do, but I promise I’ll be back. I love you. Keep breathing.”

Phillip said he needed to go, but he found himself standing there, holding on to Trevor’s hand for another minute before he was able to release the other man’s fingers and turn toward the door. It was high time to let the omegas back in here so they could do their jobs, check medications and bandages, and things like that. Or hell, even to give Trevor another sip of that miracle water. James really should bottle and sell that stuff. The pack would never have to think about money ever again.

Phillip spared one more glance back at his lover in bed, and then he left the room.

Phillip went to the pond. The more he walked on his own, the better his legs were able to carry him without too much of a fuss.

Still, after about a hundred steps he was willing to take hold of one of Old Maggie’s spare canes, if only to take the edge off from what was happening with his muscles.

He didn’t like holding it, or accepting it from the omega that was now following him at a slight distance, but yeah, it did help.

He stopped when he made it to the clear water, just before his shoes could get wet. Phillip looked behind himself to where the omega was shuffling around at the entrance to the pond.

He would hear every word that Phillip said if he stuck around. He was an omega, so it wasn’t like he was there for Phillip’s protection. The man’s job was to make sure that Phillip didn’t keel over or pass out or something. He was a healer omega, that was his specialty, but Phillip was feeling good enough to be here on his own right now.

“Can you give me a minute?” he asked.

The other man looked up at Phillip’s call. He was maybe in his early thirties, so he wasn’t so young and inexperienced that Phillip’s request would fluster him about the rules and whatnot.

Instead, the man nodded and walked away. He would still be around. There was no way he would leave a man he considered to be a patient entirely alone, but at least now Phillip would have the chance to speak freely.

“Thank you for what you did. Helen…I can’t even…” He trailed off. He hadn’t exactly come here with a speech all written out, and it wasn’t every day someone spoke to a deceased loved one and had more than faith to count on their audience was listening.

“I love him. I think I did almost from the start but was too caught up in what happened with us to want to admit it or even want to love him. I never wanted to hurt you, and I never wanted to tie you to me like that. It wasn’t fair.”

He cleared his throat and looked behind himself one more time, just to make sure that the other guy was still gone. He caught the man’s scent and continued speaking when he was sure that he was far enough away and wasn’t spying.

“I realized something today, when my memories came back of what you did. It’s not that I can’t let you go that’s keeping you tied to me, and my relationship with Trevor…well, I didn’t want to put that under your nose, but clearly you accept it. Otherwise you wouldn’t have saved him.

“People die, and the ones they love will always love them, but those spirits aren’t forced to stay on earth like you are, so I think I know what this is about. You’re not being forced to stay here. You’re here because you want to be here, because you think you need to be.”