Chapter Five
Mason
After Valerian and Finn left me at the lodge to go back to break camp and let Roark and his brothers know we might be staying a while, things calmed down some. Marco wanted the pack doctor to see me so he took Nicky home and promised he’d be back soon with the doctor. I resented it, but I could understand why they were confused. By this time, Valerian and Finn should have been some kind of hybrids too, maybe in the same way I was. We had all shared blood and venom and a lot of semen. But other than a bit of initial extra strength, which had mostly worn off after a while, they hadn’t been overly affected by being injected with each other’s venom. So what was different about me? And what exactly was that creature I’d transformed into?
Marco took Casey when he left and Jax told Cade to take Connor and Rayce and go for a run or whatever it took to work off their excess energy. Jax was still angry at Cade for trying to be so protective of him.
“I’ve told him a hundred times I’m a damn grown man now and I don’t need his help,” Jax said in a grouchy voice after they left. “I think he still sees that skinny little nineteen-year-old kid he first met on the side of the road when he looks at me.”
“The one he fell madly in love with?” I smiled at him, and he finally returned it.
“I guess he did, didn’t he? He scared me to death, when I wasn’t lusting over him.” He took my hand and gazed into my eyes. “I used to worry I’d done the wrong thing by bringing you here. The wolves were good to us, but you didn’t have much choice, did you? You were just a little kid.”
“I was happy to be here or anywhere with you. It felt like home, right from the start.”
“And then even that was taken away when that-that wolf bit you.”
“Okay, hold up. That wolf is my mate and I know he doesn’t make a great first impression. I’ll go ahead and tell you upfront that he doesn’t make a great second impression either. He’s an acquired taste. But he’s really not what you’re thinking at all. I love him.”
“Do you?” He stared intently at me. “Or is this some kind of fucked up Stockholm Syndrome thing? And tell me the truth, Mason. Did he—did he give you his knot?”
I felt my face growing hot and laughed. “You sleep with a wolf. What do you think?”
“It’s not the same thing.”
I laughed out loud. “It totally is.”
He leaned back in his chair, frowning. “I guess I can’t ask you about the other one either? The vampire?”
“You can ask. I may or may not answer. Look, I love Valerian too. Just as much, and I know you can’t wrap your mind around it, but it’s true.”
“Well…he’s certainly handsome. Both of them, but the vampire in particular is really good looking—he’s almost too perfect.”
“I don’t know about that,” I said, reacting to yet another criticism. Fuck, now he was “too perfect.” He couldn’t win.
“And you’re not jealous of them with each other?”
“No, it doesn’t work that way. I hope they’re somewhere now, enjoying each other.”
Jax shook his head. “I’d be way too jealous.”
“Suppose you had two best friends. Would you love one more than the other or would they both just be your family? Couldn’t you all hang out together and enjoy each other? And wouldn’t you have an individual relationship with each of them too? I know that’s not the same, but I can’t explain it any better. It’s just how I feel. I love them both and can’t make a difference between them. I don’t want to. I get mad at both of them, and they get mad at me, I guess, but it doesn’t change how I feel about them. They’re frustrated with me right now, but we’re a unit. A strong one. Now change the subject please.”
“Okay then, let’s talk about the elephant in the room. Or should I say the thing you turned into?”
“What about it?”
“What the hell, Mason?”
“I honestly don’t know. I wasn’t thinking really—I just let my body do whatever it wanted and that’s what came out. I’d already transformed into a wolf and even a tiger before. I don’t know exactly what happened. What I am. I think I can be whatever I want to be.”
“But a demon, Mason?”
I smiled. “You tell me. What did it look like?”
Jax’s lips thinned and he gazed out the window beside him. “Big. With horns and…” he gave an almost delicate shudder. “Hooves.” He shook his head. “It was scary as crap, Mason.”
I shrugged. “I wasn’t planning on scaring or hurting anyone. I guess I was showing off in a way.”
“Hmm. What about your mates? Can they turn into this creature too? You said they’d had a blood exchange with each other.”
“I don’t know,” I said, frowning. “But I really don’t think so. I think it’s just me.”
“But why?”
“I don’t know.” I sighed and stood up, feeling really uncomfortable. “Look, can we just change the subject?”
Jax gave me an unhappy glance, but nodded. “Okay. For now anyway. But when the doctor comes…”
“I hope he’ll be able to give me some answers.” I heaved a sigh.
“Sit back down in the meantime and relax, Mason, please. Talk to me. I’ll stop interrogating you, I promise. As a matter of fact, I want to plan a party to welcome you back home.”
I raised an eyebrow at him. “A party? I don’t know about all that.”
“Why not? I think it would be a great idea. Not only would it let everyone know how happy I am that you’re home again, but we could introduce your mates to everyone.”
“Yeah, you saw what happened when we got here. It’s not like everyone is going to be glad to see us.”
Jax waved his hand in the air, like that was a minor point. “Then they need to get over it. You’re my brother and you’re still going to be in my life.”
“Jax,” I said softly, taking his hand in mine. “You know I’m not here to stay forever. Finn and Valerian were living in Virginia, and Finn has his cabin there.”
“I know, but you can stay a while. And Virginia’s not that far away.”
“True, but…”
“But nothing. I want to give you a welcome home party. Let me do this for you.”
Reluctantly, I shrugged and sat down again. “Okay, if that’s what you want,” I said, wondering what Finn and Valerian would think of a party. I suddenly felt restless and full of nervous energy. Or maybe it was the idea of the entire pack coming together to meet Finn and Valerian. Party, huh? With dancing and music? I got a sudden picture of Finn dancing and bit back a laugh. Damn, I wished I had gone back to camp with them and wondered how much longer it would take them to get back.
“It makes you nervous to think of the pack coming together because of your vampire, doesn’t it?” Jax said. He knew me pretty well.
“It does, I guess. I’d never really heard anybody mention them before that I can remember, but Rayce and the others had such a violent reaction to Valerian and his scent on us. They tried their best to kill us.”
“I don’t know what to say, Mason. The subject of vampires never came up when you were a kid, because they hadn’t directly threatened us, but I knew a little about them. Once when you were really young and I was beginning to change myself, I was with Cade on a perimeter run, and he picked up a scent and got all excited about it. He called Marco and there was a search all over, but the trail led off the property. Cade said one of them must have been just passing through, but the wolves got all angry and excited about it and extra patrols were put on for a while.”
“Did the idea of them scare you?”
“Of vampires? Sure, it did. But hell, I was sleeping with a werewolf, so by that time I had just kind of accepted there were a lot of things I’d never known about the world, you know? Scary things that I didn’t really like to think about and some that weren’t all that scary once you knew about them. The Dark Hollows pack fought the Hunters for years and maybe their presence kept the vampires away. Cade told me there had been a war between the vampires and the werewolves long, long ago. A bad one. Lives were lost on both sides. Nobody really knew how it got started, though both of them claimed aggression by the other side. The truth, I think, is that nobody knows for sure—not anymore. But they still hate and mistrust each other, that’s for sure.”
“So you’re saying the war never really ended.”
“I guess so. The wolves aren’t going to go looking, but if they come here and threaten us, then yeah. I could see the whole thing starting up again.”
The door opened—fast like always with the Dark Hollow wolves, who constantly seemed to be in motion. Finn’s pack seemed like a bunch of lazy slackers next to these guys. Marco came in, glancing around the room. He had the pack doctor with him, and when he saw me and Jax sitting alone on the sofa, they both came over to us and Marco sat down in the chair beside me.
“Mason, how are you?” Marco said, looking a little wary.
“I’m fine. I’m not sick, Marco. I’m sorry if I startled you earlier, but I really only came to let everyone know I was still alive. We’re planning on going back to Virginia right away.”
“Actually, Mason, that may not be a good idea. Not until we know what’s happening to you. Do you mind if Dr. Cornsilk takes a few blood samples? He just wants to check some things out. Do you remember Dr. Cornsilk?”
“Of course,” I said, smiling at him. I glanced over at the doctor. He was a natural pet—that’s what the pack called their members who didn’t turn out to be a wolf at puberty. His Native American heritage from his human side showed plainly on his broad, handsome face. He had black eyes and hair and a manner about him that was always soothing and instilled confidence. I’d always liked him a great deal, and I smiled at him now. “Go ahead and take your samples, Doc. I’m kind of curious myself.”
“It’s good to see you again, Mason,” he said, busying himself with his test tubes. “You had us all pretty worried.”
I extended my arm so he could locate a good vein and looked up at him. “I came home as quickly as I could. I had to be sure of what was going on, and it was a while before I even remembered who I was.”
“I’m sorry about earlier,” Marco said, distracting me from what Dr. Cornsilk was doing with his needles. “It was a shock to see you—we’d all just about given up on you, I’m afraid. And then you had the vampire and that alpha with you. Cade has been telling me about it.” Marco frowned. “I don’t like the idea of that vampire lying to you the way he did.”
“That alpha and the vampire are my mates, like I told you. And I didn’t like it that Valerian lied to me much either once I found out. But to be fair, he didn’t really know much more about me than that I had been living here with the pack. He knew I was a human, and the only name I could remember at first was Jax. He called me that for a long time. So he really didn’t know who I was either.”
“And he didn’t care. He knew how to find out if he’d cared to take the time.”
I lifted one shoulder, not really willing to agree or disagree at this point, but not wanting to argue about it either. What had happened between us was mine and Valerian’s concern. Nobody else’s. Was I angry at him? Of course, but what good did that do me or anybody else? I’d tried leaving him and that didn’t work out so well for either of us. I had finally realized that I was still in love with him and I wanted to give him—give us—another chance. Maybe that wouldn’t work for everybody, but I believed in second chances, and I was fully aware it might not work out. If it didn’t and he screwed me over again…well, I’d face that if and when I had to. Marco just gave me a disapproving look as the doctor finally finished with his samples.
“Okay, Mason, that ought to do it. I’ll need some time to study the results, and I’ll let you know what I find. How long will you be here?”
“He’ll be here a while,” Jax broke in before I had a chance to respond.
The doctor nodded and gathered up his samples to leave. “I’ll be in touch.”
Marco hesitated by the door. “Mason, which way did you come in this morning? Wasn’t it over the mountain trail?”
“Yes. We’ve been camping by the stream near the cave, so that was the shortest route.”
“And Valerian is the only vampire with you?”
“Of course. Why?”
“I don’t know. It may be nothing—Rayce and Cade picked up some strange scents over on the western side of the mountain. They were old and the tracks were badly degraded, but they thought it was more vampires. Like I said, it may be nothing.”
“It wouldn’t have been us. We didn’t go over that way.”
He nodded distractedly. “We’re putting on extra patrols. When your…when the alpha and the vampire get back, keep them here. The woods won’t be a good place to be tonight. Especially considering the full moon.”
He turned to leave and I was reminded of the old Creedence Clearwater song. I glanced over at Jax and laughed. “Did he really just warn me there’s a bad moon on the rise?”
“Don’t joke about it, Mason,” he said, frowning. “I have a bad feeling too. I don’t know what it is, but I can’t seem to shake it.”
I smiled and tried to shrug, but the shrug turned into a shudder that suddenly swept over me and made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I glanced over at Jax and tried to laugh it off.
“I guess someone just walked over my grave.”
He looked at me with his eyes wide. “Don’t say that. Please, don’t ever say that again.”
****
Finn
After Valerian and I got back to camp, I filled Roark and his brothers in on what was happening. I told them we’d break camp and go over to the Dark Hollows pack land to camp for a few days while Mason did whatever it was he felt he needed to do with his brother.
Roark was—predictably—not too happy about it, but he shut up pretty fast when I told him if he didn’t like it, he could leave. He and the others packed up for us without any more lip and by late afternoon we were on our way back to Cade and Jax’s lodge.
The wolves had given us permission to camp out behind the lodge. Neither of us felt good about my pack being too close, so when we could see the back of the place, but were still at least a hundred yards or more away, we began to set up our camp. It wasn’t much of a camp, really. Mason had insisted on buying a small tent, even though we had stayed inside the cave. He’d said, you never knew when we might need one, so we set that up and set out our supplies. Roark built a fire. Roark and his brothers could use the tent, because Valerian and I were supposed to stay inside the lodge with Mason. I hated the idea of it—I didn’t like to stay where I wasn’t wanted, but Mason wanted to be there, and Valerian and I wanted to be with Mason.
We didn’t have the benefit of running water here, so we’d have to get water from the house. We were roughly the length of a football field away, but even from that distance, I could smell the grays when the wind shifted and it made me uneasy. Valerian said it was my imagination, but I knew better. One thing that neither of my mates, as smart as both of them were, had never been able to figure out was that my imagination wasn’t that great. They gave me way too much credit in that department.
Valerian was restless, pacing up and down and staring off into the woods. I wondered if it was hard for him to be so close to these humans and werewolves. Maybe he needed to feed again.
“Leave for a while, if you need to,” I called softly to him.
He glanced over at me, gave me a brief nod and took off so fast I barely saw him leave in the twilight. There was just a ripple in the air at the tree line to mark his passage.
Roark got a fire started and pulled out some hot dogs we’d been keeping cool in the stream. We needed to cook them, and I was starving anyway, so Tate, one of Roark’s brothers, put them on some sticks to cook over the fire. I wondered what Valerian had been thinking about, and I kept stealing glances at the tree line, hoping he’d come back. I wanted him again with a power and intensity that surprised me, especially considering we’d just made love only a little while before. Partly it was because he was so beautiful, and partly because he had this thing about him. He called it an allure, and said it was part of being a bloodsucker. But I’d seen plenty of them in the past and never found any of the others attractive in the least. Only Valerian.
It wasn’t just him I wanted though, it was him and Mason—both of them together, and I decided it was past time I made that happen. I’d listened to Mason bitch long enough. Tonight I was going to give him an ultimatum. He was going to make love to both of us and let me claim him as my mate along with Valerian, or…or…else. I wasn’t sure how I’d finish that threat I was making, but I meant it anyway. This shit was getting old. I was going to stand up for what I thought was right. He could be mad at me and Valerian all he wanted to, but we needed to make a connection for once and for all. We needed to consummate this thing, and be together if that’s what we really wanted or else we should just get away from each other. But I was done waiting. Until we formed that bond and made a unit we were weaker than we needed to be, and that was dangerous.
I wasn’t even sure why I thought about the word danger, or why I even used the word in my head, but there it was. It was a feeling of something coming for us. Something cold and deadly that could destroy us all if we weren’t careful, and I wasn’t about to let that happen. So I sat by the fire and ate my hot dogs and washed them down with the last of the cold beer. I brooded about how I was going to approach Mason to make this happen when I noticed the sun was down and it was fully dark. The full moon was riding high in the sky. I wondered how long I’d been sitting there lost in thought and then I wondered where the hell Valerian had gotten off to. He should have been back by now.
I was still doing that when I heard the shouting coming from over the ridge. I smelled the blood too—pungent on the evening breeze. The smell of so much fresh blood was overpowering and I turned and started running flat out toward the scent and the commotion coming from the ridge, with Roark and the rest of my pack right behind me. Just as we reached the bottom of the hill, several members of Cade’s pack appeared at the top of it, carrying somebody and hauling ass toward the lodge.
We waited for them, shifting our feet uneasily and feeling restless. The smell of blood was worse as they got closer to us and as they came by us, I was shocked to see Cade, covered in blood and held up on his feet by two of his guys. He was mostly unconscious from the loss of blood, and most shocking of all, his throat had been ripped open leaving a wound that would have easily killed a human. But he was an alpha wolf and strong. He was still alive—just barely—though his life blood was rapidly spilling on the ground.
I heard a cry and looked behind me toward the house. Jax was running toward him, his face frozen with fear and Mason was following him.
“Put him down,” Jax yelled. “Go to Marco’s and get me some help!” Two of his guys ran off, shifting into their wolves as they took off running. Jax was scared and shaking, but without hesitation, he bit into his wrist and held it to his mate’s mouth. Alpha’s blood. Mate’s blood. It was potent stuff, but I was afraid Jax’s blood was too diluted with his humanity to be enough. The blood slipped down Cade’s throat, and after a few seconds, he clutched Jax’s wrist and held it to his lips. He began to fade again soon though, and Jax was quickly being drained. Frantic with worry and fear, he looked up helplessly at Mason, who was grim and pale beside him. Somebody had to intervene and I decided that somebody would be me. I was the only alpha wolf around at the moment, and by the time Cade’s men made it to Marco’s lodge to get help, Cade would be stone cold dead.
I muscled my way over to stand beside Jax—not easy, since his remaining men didn’t want me or any of my guys close. One of the gammas tried to body slam me, so I had to pick him up and toss him aside. The others turned to snarl at me and Mason gave me a fierce look.
“Finn, can you just stop for a second? Cade is hurt—maybe dying. Jax is trying to save him.”
“I see that. But it won’t be enough.”
Mason gasped and Jax tore his gaze from Cade long enough to give me a blistering glare. I gave it right back to him. “He needs alpha blood.”
“What the fuck do you think I’m doing?” he shouted.
“I think you’re trying, but your blood is still too human. The blood lust may have given you some of your mate’s alpha blood, but it’s still too weak to save your mate. Besides, most of what you’re giving him is coming right back out his throat.”
Jax glanced down in horror and saw I was right. He looked stricken. “Oh God,” he breathed softly.
“Let me try.”
Mason touched his arm. “Finn’s right, Jax. Let him try. Please!”
Jax was clearly torn up and frantic with grief and shock, but he reluctantly pulled his wrist away from Cade and stood up, swaying a little. Mason put an arm around his waist to support him and I knelt down beside Cade. I grasped the ragged edges of Cade’s throat and pulled them together. His blood had made his skin slippery, but I did the best I could. I held his throat in one hand and pinched the edges closed the best I could. Cade was still conscious enough to scream and claw at my hand but I brushed his hand away. I couldn’t worry about his pain or about the way his men were muttering and drawing closer to me. I had to get some blood into him, and fast. He was dying and we all knew it. He looked up at me with confusion and suspicion and fear and horror all plain on his face, though he tried to hide the fear. He was an alpha, after all. I partially shifted, bit down into my wrist and laid the bloody wound against his lips. After a moment, he sucked the blood and swallowed. Then again, and again, and soon he was clutching my wrist and moaning, closing his eyes. The color began to come back into his cheeks, just a bit. And when I thought he’d had enough, I broke the seal of his lips with my finger and he fell back, almost exhausted. I still held his throat in my hand.
“Get rid of his clothes and shoes,” I shouted to his men. His guys soon got the idea and started stripping him and taking their clothing off too. I pulled him up to his feet and he looked around, groggy and disoriented from the loss of blood and the trauma of his terrible wound. I grabbed his chin with my free hand and made him gaze at me. “You have to shift, Cade, now—let your wolf heal you.”
He nodded and I let him go, stepping back. He rolled over onto all fours and started his transformation. I was glad to see he had enough strength to do it, because I hadn’t been a hundred percent sure he’d have enough left in him. Soon his big dark wolf stood in front of us and Jax fell down beside him and threw his arms around the wolf’s neck. Cade allowed it for a few seconds and then turned and ran into the woods. The rest of his pack was right behind him. Jax stood back up slowly and began to unbutton his shirt. He stared right into my eyes the whole time, his eyes wide and still shocked. When he got undressed, he fell on all fours too and shifted into a small but handsome wolf. He looked up at us once more and bounded off in the woods after his mate, and I turned to Mason.
“I want it noted that my eyes never went any lower than your brother’s chest.”
“Mmm. And why is that?”
“Because…well, It wouldn’t be right. He’s kind of like my brother-in-law now.”
Mason smiled and patted my chest. “Good answer.”
I grabbed his wrist and kissed the inside of it, and he sagged against me, wrapping himself around me. “God, Finn, I was so scared when I saw Cade. He was pale as a ghost.”
“I know, baby. He’ll be all right now.”
“Do you know what happened?”
“No—we were eating when we heard all the noise and shouting. Then we smelled the blood.”
“Where’s Valerian?”
“He took off earlier to feed, I guess.”
“He fed just this morning, I thought.” He gazed up at me and then off into the woods. “Will he be back soon, do you think? Marco warned me that tonight wouldn’t be a good time to be in the woods.”
“I don’t know. If he’s not, I’ll go find him.”
He gasped and grabbed my arm. “No! I mean, I don’t want both of you in danger.”
“What danger?”
He just looked up at me, his eyes big and blue. “I don’t know. But I feel something—don’t you? Whatever happened to Cade…I can’t have that happening to either of you. I couldn’t stand it.” He hugged himself, shivering a little in the night breeze. “What did happen to Cade?”
“I don’t know. Whatever did that to him had to be pretty powerful.” I dropped a kiss on his upturned face. “We won’t know anything until they get back. In the meantime, what do you say we both go looking for Val? Would that make you feel better?”
He smiled up at me. “Yes, I think so. Let’s go find him.” I kissed him again. I couldn’t help myself, and I sent my pack back to camp and took Mason’s hand to lead him to the woods.