Devin's Mercy [Shifters of Mystery 4] (18 page)

“Enough!”

Mercy growled when he heard Martin’s commanding voice. It

was a voice he would never forget. He wanted to kill the man for even

being in the same house as Devin. Mercy prayed Devin wasn’t

listening. This would set the small man back and that was the last

thing Devin needed.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Pat shouted as he came to

skidding halt in the hallway.

“I’m here to get my experiments back,” Martin stated as if it were

too damn obvious.

“Experiments?” Mercy asked. As far was he knew, Sylvester was

Martin’s only experiment in this house. The alpha had injected

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Jeremiah’s mate with some sort of serum, instantly changing

Sylvester into a werewolf. If Jeremiah hadn’t mated the human,

Sylvester would have surely died. But the serum had a nasty side

effect, giving Sylvester massive headaches that damn near killed him

anyway.

Only Kell’s quick work had stopped the headaches and cured

Sylvester, but the cure had a nasty side effect of its own, severing

Jeremiah and Sylvester’s bond. Thankfully, Jeremiah was able to bite

the human the old-fashioned way, converting and bonding with him

the way it should have happened in the first place.

Martin’s grin was cold, void of warmth as he nodded behind

Mercy. “Yes,
experiments
.”

Mercy spared a second to look over his shoulder, watching as Kell

came up from the basement. Anger the likes of anything he had ever

felt before boiled up inside of Mercy. This only confirmed that Kell

was a traitor. Seeing him walk toward Martin made Mercy see red. It

took everything in him not to attack Kell. The bastard had a smirk on

his face as he brushed past Mercy.

“We trusted you,” he gritted out between clenched teeth.

“You should have listened to Devin,” Kell replied. “He saw right

through me.”

“You bastard,” York shouted, leaping toward the doctor.

Monterey grabbed him, pulling York back.

“That’s right, leash that dog.”

Mercy felt every nerve in his body tighten when Charles walked

in through the front door. His eyes snapped up toward the second

floor, a minute amount of relief sliding through him when he saw his

bedroom door closed. As badly as he wanted to tear Charles apart,

now was not the time. Not when there was a room full of lycans

waiting for one of them to make a wrong move.

“Father.”

Mercy smiled when he heard Sage’s voice behind him. Sage was

the only werewolf that that could best Martin. The bastard wasn’t an

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alpha for nothing. As good as Mercy was, he knew he couldn’t beat

Martin, not without blowing the fucker’s head off.

“Sage.” Martin sneered the name. “I see you are still

alive…unfortunately.”

“Alive and ready to end your madness. Tell me, Martin. Where is

Mother?”

Martin’s face contorted to pure rage. “You have no mother. You

are an abomination.”

Mercy listened to the exchange, wondering where Sage’s mother

was as well. In all of this, he had admittedly forgotten about her. Even

though Sage was marked as an outcast and kicked out of the pack,

Mercy knew Sage’s mother loved her only son. It was strange that she

hadn’t contacted him by now. He wasn’t getting a good feeling about

her whereabouts.

Sage took a menacing step forward. “If you have hurt her, I’ll

slowly kill you, making you beg for death years before I deliver the

last blow.”

Martin laughed. “I highly doubt that. Now what in the hell did you

do with those humans you stole from me? Are you fucking them as

well?”

Mercy felt his anger racing out of control. Those humans were

children. What kind of monster did Martin think his son was? He

could see Sage’s jaw ticking as he raked his eyes over his father. “I’m

not like you. I wouldn’t hurt innocent men.”

“Speaking of innocent men,” Martin said as he turned toward Pat.

“That sheriff of yours put up one hell of a fight.”

Pat gave a strangled cry as Isaac grabbed him, stopping him from

going after the alpha. As badly as all of them wanted a piece of the

alpha, everyone knew Pat didn’t stand a chance against Martin.

“I’ll kill you if you hurt him,” Pat half shouted, half whimpered.

“Leverage. I love it,” Martin said with a satisfied gleam in his

maniacal blue eyes. “Hand over Sylvester and I’ll give you back your

man
.” Martin’s face screwed up in distaste as he said the last word.

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Mercy’s eyes shot toward Jeremiah. He could see the regret in

Jeremiah’s eyes as he glanced toward Pat. “I can’t do that, Pat,” he

said with regret in his voice. “I can’t give up my mate.”

The tears sprung up in Pat’s eyes as he nodded, falling back into

Isaac’s arms, looking defeated. “I know.”

“How touching,” Martin said. “So you are sacrificing the sheriff

for Sylvester?”

Mercy’s fingers itched to grab Monterey’s gun and blow the

bastard’s head off. Never in his life did he want to kill anyone as

badly as Martin. But he didn’t want the man’s death to be quick.

Martin had spread his sick mind to others, infecting them. He tortured

for pure pleasure, taking what he wanted with brute force.

No, killing him quickly was not going to happen.

“Besides taking over the fucking world,” Sage said with a

dramatic roll to his eyes, “what do you hope to accomplish with your

serum?”

“Haven’t you figured that out yet, boy genius?”

Sage growled.

Martin chuckled. “Slow on putting the clues together I see. I plan

on cloning the strongest of our species. They’ll be able to strong-arm

the humans in greater numbers, making the conversion happen at a

higher rate of speed.” Martin narrowed his eyes. “But you stole those

humans from me.”

“Sorry to foil your plans,” Sage said as Mercy’s head spun.

Cloning? Was the man that far gone? Shit, he was psycho as hell.

“Now that I have Kell back, that won’t be a problem. Things will

be back on track in no time.”

“Give Sam back to me!” Pat shouted, struggling against Isaac but

failing to get free as the tears fell freely down his face. Mercy hated to

see Pat cry. It tore at his heart. Pat was a sweet man who didn’t

deserve to suffer like this.

Devin’s Mercy

127

Martin backed toward the door, Charles following, the lycans

surrounding them both, protecting the two from Sage, Mercy

assumed. “Just as soon as you give Sylvester back to me.”

“Why is he so damn important to you?” Jeremiah growled out his

question.

“Because,” Martin answered, “he is the first clone I experimented

with. He may not have worked out the way I had planned, but I can

learn from him. Kell didn’t cure him. He finished the experiment.

Surprise!”

Mercy didn’t stop Jeremiah when he leapt at the alpha. But the

other lycans attacked, allowing Martin and Charles to escape, along

with Kell. Sage shot to the back of the house, going after his father as

Mercy took down as many of the traitors as he could.

The remaining werewolves fled, leaving not only dead bodies

behind, but a few devastated men. Pat looked like he was on the verge

of coming unglued as Jeremiah raced for the steps, taking them two at

time.

Mercy stood in the hallway, glancing at Monterey then York,

wondering how much more twisted Martin’s plans were going to get

before he either succeeded or someone killed his sick ass.
How the

fuck can he clone a living being
? It just didn’t make sense.

“We’ll find Sam,” Monterey tried to comfort Pat. “We’ll get him

back to you.”

Pat stood there numbly nodding, his eyes unfocused as he stared

at the front door. “But will he be the same Sam I fell in love with?”

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Mercy walked into his bedroom, towel wrapped around his waist,

freshly showered. He ran a hand over his head, wondering what they

were going to do about the fiasco happening all around them.

Sage had called Mayfield County Sheriff’s Department and

verified that Sam was MIA. He was questioned at length, cooperating

the best he could with the men in charge of finding Sam. But no one

knew where to start looking. Jeremiah felt like shit for the choice he

had to make. Mercy knew Pat didn’t resent Jeremiah for picking

Sylvester over Sam, but that didn’t stop Jeremiah from trying his best

to comfort Pat.

Sylvester had freaked out when he found out that he was some

sort of failed experiment. The man was shouting at the top of his

lungs about needing a doctor to see exactly what Martin had done to

him.

As far as Mercy could tell, Sylvester was fine, but then again, he

wasn’t a doctor.

“One hell of a day,” Devin said from his cot. “We didn’t even get

the grill assembled.”

Mercy knew Devin was rambling, trying his best not to fall apart.

“Come here, tiger.”

Devin stood, walking over to Mercy as Mercy folded the man into

his arms. “I promised to keep you safe, and I plan on keeping that

promise.”

“Even as everything around us falls apart?” Devin pushed closer

to Mercy as if he could crawl inside of Mercy’s skin.

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129

“We’re not giving up. Sam will be rescued, and Martin will be

stopped.”

“Charles was here. I heard his voice.”

Mercy sat on the bed, pulling Devin down onto his lap. “But he

didn’t get to you.”

Devin curled up on Mercy’s lap. Mercy felt lost at what to say.

Just hearing Charles’s voice had probably fucked with Devin’s mind

in a way Mercy didn’t know how to fix. He didn’t like feeling

helpless. Devin was his to protect, but how could he protect the man

from his very own mind?

“I’m okay.”

Mercy tilted Devin’s head back. “Never lie to me, tiger. Lie to

anyone but me.”

“I’m just tired of being afraid, Mercy. I’m tired of hating and

feeling helpless. I want my life back.”

“You’ll get it back. It may take a while, but some day you’ll be

happy again.”

Devin smiled, which surprised Mercy. “I am happy, when I’m

with you.”

The confession stunned Mercy. He had thought Devin was in a

dark place that he was fighting to break free from. To hear that Devin

was even a little bit happy made Mercy grin. “Gee, thanks.” It seemed

Devin was starting to heal already, whether the man noticed it or not.

But what was most noticeable was Devin’s erection. It was

straining against the sweatpants Devin had borrowed from Mercy. He

was going to have to go clothes shopping for his soon-to-be mate.

Although the guy looked good wearing his clothes, they were

practically falling off of him.

“Is that hard cock for me?” Mercy asked and then chuckled when

Devin blushed seven shades of red.

“Yes.”

Mercy wasn’t sure if this was the right time to take things to the

next level, but damn if Devin’s hard-on wasn’t making his own cock

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thicken. Just feeling the man lying in his arms, brushing against his

skin, was driving Mercy mad.

Without a word, Mercy scooted back onto his bed, taking Devin

with him. He laid the man out next to him, taking in just how

gorgeous Devin truly was. “How did I get so lucky?”

Devin shrugged. “I don’t know about lucky.”

Mercy nipped Devin’s chin playfully. “Yes, lucky.”

“And how lucky am I going to get?” The question was pretty bold,

and made Mercy’s cock thicken even more.

“That depends.” He turned Devin to his stomach, pushing the

man’s shirt up and licking a wet line up his spine. “How bad do you

want me to be?”

Devin glanced over his shoulder, his eyelids slanting down. “What

do you mean?”

“Trust me, tiger?” Mercy asked as his tongue slid back down

Devin’s back until he reached the two indents on either side of

Devin’s lower back. He circled his tongue around one, and then the

other, hearing a moan escape Devin’s lips.

“You’re the only person I trust.”

“Then lie still and let me have my wicked way with you.”

Although Mercy knew he had to hold back. His tastes ran on the

rough side, and he knew Devin would never allow him to give in to

his desires. Mercy was okay with that. Loving Devin was more