Sage's Mystery (15 page)

He nodded at Sage as he wrung his hands. He could do this. The werewolves weren’t there now, at least not the bad ones. “I’m okay.”

William walked over to the counter, seeing years of dust piled high.

He wiped his finger through it to see a faded, grimy, yellow counter below. “But this counter has to go.”

Patrick walked over and stared at where William had swiped his finger through the years of dust. “That is the ugliest counter I’ve ever seen. I agree. It has to go.”

As they walked out of the diner, William saw movement over by the woods. He tugged on Sage’s shirt and jerked his chin. The need to run was pushing at him, but William stood his ground. He was tired of running from his fears, but damn if it wasn’t tempting. Besides, he had six strong men with him. What could the person in the woods do to him?

“I suggest you come out. You won’t like it if we have to come after you,” Sage called loudly. William moved an inch behind Sage when a man walked out of the woods, a gun held high in front of him, pointing it right at Sage’s chest.

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Lynn Hagen

“I don’t think you’ll like it,” the man retorted. “I was waiting for backup, but fuck it.”

“What do you want?” Monterey asked.

“Put your hands up where I can see them, all of you,” the man shouted.

“Fuck you,” Isaac replied. “Who the hell are you to tell me what to do?”

William screamed when the gun went off, Isaac dropping to the ground. Sage stepped forward and then took a step back when the gun was raised high again, aiming right at his chest. William wanted to run to Isaac to see if he was all right, but the smoking gun stopped him.

“I said put your goddamn hands up now!”

Everyone raised their hands, looks of impending death marring each of their faces. William knew all the gunman had to do was make one mistake and all five men would take him down. His nerves were frayed as the tension mounted. William wasn’t sure what to do, but having a gun pointed in his direction wasn’t something he was going to argue with.

“You’re all filthy dogs. You killed my parents, and now you’re going to pay for it.”

William’s head snapped back. This was the other survivor? He didn’t know the guy’s name. He had just heard the doctors’ comment on there being another person who survived the massacre.

“I don’t know where you got your information from, but it was humans who killed everyone here,” Sage said. William was shocked to hear this. How would Sage know something like that? This had to be a bluff. Sage was stalling the man, buying time.

“Liar!” the man shouted. “I remember that night. I heard the howls. How dare you try to blame humans.”

Sage shrugged, looking as though he were bored with the situation. “I know it for a fact. Some bastard werewolves may have
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paid the humans to kill everyone, but it was the humans who ultimately killed everyone who was here.”

The man looked confused, as if he didn’t want to believe that his own race had done this. His gun wavered, and Sage took a step forward. But the stranger quickly caught his mistake and raised the gun high. “Don’t even think about it.”

William wasn’t sure how this was going to play out, but he wasn’t about to let his mate get shot. He steeled his nerves and then took off in the opposite direction of the men. He prayed his plan worked and he wasn’t eating dirt in the next five seconds. He heard a shot and winced, but felt no pain.

Looking over his shoulder, William saw the men taking the stranger down and Sage coming after him. The feral look on Sage’s face made William run faster. He had meant to distract the guy, but now he was running from his mate.

He knew he wasn’t going to like it if Sage caught him. He yelped when large, firm hands caught him around the waist and pulled him from his feet.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Sage shouted as he slowed.

“You could have gotten yourself killed!”

William struggled to free himself. He had only been thinking of Sage, wanting to save him from a bullet. His life wouldn’t have mattered anyway if Sage was no longer in it. “I wasn’t thinking, okay?”

Sage growled as he spun William around, his face a mask of anger. “Don’t you
ever
do something that reckless again!”

He was about to open his mouth to argue when he saw the blood spanning across Sage’s shirt. “You’ve been shot!” William felt dizzy as he stared at the blood slowly decorating Sage’s chest. “Holy fuck.

He shot you!” And it was all his fault. If William hadn’t come up with the plan to run, Sage wouldn’t have a bullet in him. Tears began to fall from his eyes as he clutched tightly to Sage. “I’m so sorry.”

“I’m fine, slim. Just a nick.”

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Lynn Hagen

It was more than a nick. A damn nick didn’t bleed like that.

William pulled at Sage’s shirt, lifting it high as he examined the wound. He swallowed, feeling bile rise to the back of his throat when he saw the hole in Sage’s shoulder. “That’s not a nick!”

“I’m fine,” Sage reiterated as he pulled William back to the group.

“Get him to the house.” He growled at the men. William walked quickly beside Sage, watching as his mate winced.

He was not fine, and William was going to kick his ass for downplaying it. This was serious, and Sage needed to act like it was.

Damn the heroics.

Once they were back home, William raced upstairs and grabbed the first aid kit. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do with it, but it seemed like the right thing to do. It couldn’t hurt.

“He’s gonna need more than that,” Mercy stated as he walked past William into the living room. William stared at the white box in his hand with the red cross displayed on the lid. His hands began to tremble as thoughts of losing Sage engulfed him. William walked slowly into the living room. Sage and Isaac were laid out on the floor.

“Hold him down,” Mercy shouted as he straddled Sage’s legs.

William walked around to his mate’s head and stared at the scene in a hazed detachment. This couldn’t be real. Sage had said he was fine, but now he was lying on the floor, sweat soaking his clothes and skin as his jaw clenched tightly.

William dropped to his knees, his hands covering his mouth as he rocked back and forth. He wanted to shout for everyone to stop holding his mate down, for them to leave Sage alone. One hand flew to his stomach, holding it there as Mercy dug into Sage’s shoulder with a pair of pliers.

“Got it,” Mercy said as he wiggled the pliers and then pulled the bullet free. William’s face pulled back in rage as he jumped to his feet and went after the bastard who had done this. He leapt at the stranger who was tied to the chair, pounding his fists into the man’s face as he screeched.

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“William.” Patrick said his name softly as he pulled William from the bloody man. The guy was a lot stronger than he looked. Patrick picked him up with ease and took him across the room. “Take a deep breath, shorty.”

William didn’t want to take a deep breath. He wanted to kill the guy. His head snapped around when he heard Isaac curse the entire room. The men were working on him now. It looked like the bullet had hit his shoulder as well.

“Hold his ass down!” Mercy shouted as he rode Isaac like a bronco. Isaac was fighting as Mercy tried to pull the bullet free.

William pushed away from Patrick and ran to Sage, kneeling by his head as his mate slept. He ran his hands over his beautiful black hair as he tried not to cry.

“He’s going to be fine,” Monterey said. “We gave him antibiotics and cleaned the wound pretty good.”

William nodded as he glanced down at his mate. He prayed Sage was all right, because if he wasn’t, William was going to kill the bastard sitting there looking lost.

* * * *

Sage rolled his shoulder, clenching his jaw at the stiffness as he sat in the bedroom. Tonight was William’s shift, and all week his mate had been snappy and irritable. It was odd seeing William that way when he was used to the happy little man.

Even Terror was avoiding William lately.

“Is it going to hurt?” William asked with fear in his voice. He was sitting on the bed naked, staring at the setting sun, his eyes filled with trepidation.

Sage pushed from the chair as he walked across the room. His arm was in a sling, but he managed to crawl up onto the bed and pull his mate into his arms. “I’m afraid so.”

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Lynn Hagen

William nodded as he cuddled close to Sage. “And this will be the only time?”

Sage ran his hand over the back of William’s hair, feeling as though he wanted to kick fate’s ass. There might be magic running through werewolves’ blood, but having William in his arms was where the true magic lay. The man was everything to him.

“Just once, slim. You’re mated, so after this, you can control your shifts and it won’t hurt.” He wished he could give the smaller man more reassurance, but Sage wasn’t going to lie to him.

As the night slowly crept into the bedroom, William began to pant and sweat. Sage repositioned himself, laying William across his lap as he watched his mate go through his change. He ran his hands over William’s head, knowing there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about his mate’s suffering, and that knowledge tore at him.

William writhed around in pain, crying out as his body reshaped into a werewolf. He clawed at his skin, his muscles straining as his body slowly transformed. Sage grabbed William’s hands to stop his mate from tearing his skin from his body as William jerked around.

“Fuck, you’re beautiful,” Sage said in awe as William spun to his hands and knees and howled for the very first time. His mate’s head snapped to the side, staring at Sage curiously. He leaned forward, sniffing at Sage as he crawled up his body.

Sage smiled, allowing his mate to get acquainted with his scent in his new form. “You keep that up, and I’m going to fuck you.”

William howled again and then smiled. “Be my guest.” His eyes widened at his low and gravelly voice. Even that sound was sexy to Sage. He heard loud howls coming from downstairs and knew his friends had shifted. They were going to go for their run, and Sage didn’t want William to miss that.

“Later, slim. You need to meet your family in their werewolf forms,” he said as he pulled from the bed and slowly undressed.

Being shot wasn’t a fucking picnic, and Sage’s arm protested the movements. When he was finally naked, Sage shifted. His arm wasn’t
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as sore, but he didn’t have full use of it either. The range of motion wasn’t up to par, but he would deal with it for William.

“Come on, slim. Let’s go for a run.”

William jumped from the bed, landing on his feet and smiling up at Sage. “This is so cool.”

“I thought you might like it.” He hated the fact that William was forced into his dangerous world, but it did have its perks. No matter how much he had fought it and railed against the idea of William becoming a werewolf, he was here now, so Sage was going to show him how much fun it could be.

They raced down the steps as the others were leaving from the back door. “Leaving us?”

Monterey turned and grinned. “Just thought maybe you two wanted to be alone,” he said as his brows bounced up and down.

Sage snorted as he waved a hand at the back door. “Get your ass moving.”

As they walked outside, Sage pulled in a lungful of air. It had gotten colder and the leaves were falling from the trees, but it was a night that Sage didn’t mind running through the forest. If William thought Terror’s hide-and-seek was fun, just wait until he saw the game played werewolf style.

Sage looked over his shoulder at his town that loomed in the distance, wondering if there really was a cure. All his life he hated the shift, but now that there was a possibility to cure himself of being a
vârcolac
, Sage wasn’t so sure he wanted that.

He was going to find out Mystery’s secret, but until then he was going to enjoy every minute he had with William.

“Coming?” William shouted as he ran with the rest of the pack.

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world, slim.”

* * * *

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Lynn Hagen

Santana struggled against the ropes. He was freaking out big-time and wanted to get as far away from the creatures as he could. He knew help was on the way. He just prayed they got there in time.

Watching all the men shift into werewolves and not attack him made him start to wonder just what happened all those years ago.

Could the guy he shot be telling the truth? Could humans have killed an entire town?

Santana didn’t know what to think anymore, but he knew he was going to get to the bottom of it one way or the other.

THE END

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lynn Hagen loves writing about the somewhat flawed, but lovable. She also loves a hero who can see past all the rough edges to find the shining diamond of a beautiful heart.

You can find her on any given day curled up with her laptop and a cup of hot java, letting the next set of characters tell their story.

Also by Lynn Hagen

Everlasting Classic ManLove:
Robert’s VP

Ménage Everlasting ManLove: Zeus’s Pack 1:
Jasper
Ménage Everlasting ManLove: Zeus’s Pack 2:
Avanti
Ménage Everlasting ManLove: Zeus’s Pack 3:
Knox

Ménage Everlasting ManLove: Zeus’s Pack 4:
Torem
Ménage Everlasting ManLove: Zeus’s Pack 5:
Hunter
Ménage Everlasting ManLove: Zeus’s Pack 6:
Sully
Ménage Everlasting ManLove: Zeus’s Pack 7:
Bald Eagle

For all other titles, please visit

www.bookstrand.com/lynn-hagen