The end of the day had arrived. James was starving and desperately wanted to get into bed with his mate. He wanted to get
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into his mate, period. He still had a lot of frustration to get out of him, and sex tended to help with that.
Too bad Mason had all the sexual knowledge of a blushing virgin or he would have known that ten years ago.
They arrived back at the pack. Nick and Mickey must’ve been thinking along the same lines as James and Mason because they appeared like shadowy ghosts through the thicket of trees and shrubs at just about the same time as he and Mason did.
From the look of them, they’d clearly not had any luck finding any of the wild werewolves either.
That was disappointing, and James tried not to let that show on his face.
It wasn’t just that he was looking to increase his pack size—his pack was big enough as it was—but with hunters out there, he wanted to keep as many werewolves out of their path as possible. Not all wild werewolves were angry and vicious, after all. Some were scared, slowly losing their rational thinking minds to the wolves inside of them.
They headed for their respective cottages. James could smell the steak cooking for him a mile away, and his mouth watered.
Corey couldn’t cook for shit, and neither could James, outside of using a barbecue. Likely that meant that Old Maggie was the one doing the cooking.
Nick and his mate Adam tended to take turns doing the cooking depending on who was out on rotation that day or who was out for the longest. That tended to work for them. Mick and Jason had a pretty good go of it, too. Jason enjoyed cooking, and Mick enjoyed eating.
It took a second for James to notice that there were no smells
coming from the cabin where his brother’s mate was situated. The human might’ve already eaten. James was pretty sure that neither he, nor Mason, had told the man when they were going to return. That didn’t stop the bad feeling from settling into his gut that Mason was going to have a bad night tonight.
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“I’ll see you tomorrow?” James said.
God, he wished it hadn’t come out sounding like a question. Of course he was going to see his brother tomorrow. The man was not going to leave on him again. James wouldn’t allow it.
“Yeah, sure,” Mason said, already moving toward the cabin.
James hoped everything would be okay between those two. He really did.
* * * *
Mason fought the urge to say the standard “honey, I’m home” line when he opened the door. He was still over the moon about having Derek in his life, but he didn’t want to be too silly about it.
It wouldn’t have mattered anyway since Derek was sitting at the kitchen table, apparently waiting for him with a single beer in front of him.
Mason smiled at him and shut the door. “Hey.”
Derek nodded. “Hi.”
Okay. Mason stepped into the kitchen and looked around. Everything looked pretty clean, and he didn’t catch any lingering scents. “You haven’t eaten yet?”
Derek shook his head. “Nope.”
His mate wasn’t in a good mood. Mason pulled out a chair and sat down. “How about we order pizza or something. I haven’t had that in forever. You’re still a meat-lovers guy, right?”
At least, Mason hoped he was.
Derek suddenly turned his hazel eyes onto Mason, and Mason froze up.
“Would I be able to go into town with you and pick it up?”
Shit. “Derek, I was going to tell you. I was just waiting.”
“For what? For me to make plans on reopening my store just to have everyone give me the poor-idiot look?”
“No, I was waiting until we found the hunters,” Mason said,
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trying to hold onto his patience, but his inner alpha didn’t enjoy the challenge he heard in Derek’s voice.
“According to Corey, that could be years,” Derek countered.
Well, had it been another alpha to spill the beans, Mason could’ve gone and kicked his ass. The omega mate of his brother, not so much. “It won’t be years. James and I are going out to search for the wild werewolves to bring up our numbers. We’re not finding them, so that can only mean they’re being scared away by the hunters. They’re close, and when they attack us, we will kill them and you can go on your way.”
Derek looked at him sharply. “Go on my way? Just like that?”
Mason rubbed his face. “Derek, you’re purposely being difficult.”
That had apparently been another wrong thing to say. Derek’s face went beet red. Mason had never seen anyone go that shade in anger before. It was surreal.
Derek got up and left the table, knocking the chair he’d been sitting in over. Mason sat there and listened to the slam of his door echo through the small cottage.
He couldn’t help it. His own anger started to bubble up inside him. They were trying their best, Goddamnit. Derek needed to stay here for the safety of the pack. It was a damn miracle the police hadn’t found this location and come to ask questions yet, and unless Derek wanted a slow death, then hiding here was the best option.
Mason got up from his own chair, the legs scraping across the floor harshly as he pushed away from the table and went for the door leading outside.
He slammed the door much the same way Derek did, hearing the crack in the new wood as he went.
Shit. Back only a couple of days and already he was destroying
his brother’s stuff.
Looking over to the cabin that belonged to the leading alpha, Mason was mortified to see James looking at him from his deck.
Mason didn’t know what the man had heard, but clearly, he’d
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heard enough. Mason wanted to tell him that he was sorry, but nothing left
