Jacks, Marcy - Mason Returns to His Mate [DeWitt's Pack 8] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic Man by Marcy Jacks (free novel reading sites .TXT) 📗

Derek stopped and looked at James’s face, his scarred face. Derek  had seen the healing powers of the water when Old Maggie made an  unconscious Mason drink from that water bottle, but despite how  carefully they’d cleaned his wounds, his face had still healed up a  little roughly, with a few indents here and there in the skin from  where Mason had taken a particularly hard punch with one of those  silver rings.

This time, however, his pack mates, anyone with any skills with a  needle, really, would’ve needed to pick out the silver pellets before  they could do too much harm to him then put him in the water, and  Mason had already been feeling weak because of his last encounter  with silver. Did that mean that his body wouldn’t have healed so well  the  second time around?

“Just take me to him. Please,” he asked.

James nodded and led the way.

They walked carefully at first, Derek limping along until he was able to walk out the stiffness and hurry up. He and James were practically running the rest of the way back when he was able to.

The area where the cottages were was strangely quiet. Alphas and omegas worked together to clean up the mess left behind by the hunters. There were no bodies that Derek could see, meaning they’d all been cleared away by now. There were still bloody patches in the dirt, and Derek did his best to not look at them, especially the larger

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ones that had dried into the brown dirt.

He didn’t know how many members of the pack had died, but judging by the quiet nature everyone worked in,  the way they all kept their heads down as they hosed blood off their walls or racked up bloody grass, there had been some casualties on their side.

James opened the front door to his house, and Derek was glad they didn’t have to go through the back. He wondered if the other man knew or not yet that Derek was responsible for the broken glass and blood all over the place.

He was more concerned with just getting to Mason.

“Where―?”

“Upstairs, second door on the right,” James replied.

Derek bolted up, knowing James was slowly following him, but  he didn’t mind. The closer he got to his lover, the better he could feel  the other man, the more he knew that what had happened to him  wouldn’t seriously affect him for the rest of his life.

He opened the door, and there  he was. He was lying on the bed,  the covers pulled up to his chest but under his hands. Derek had never  seen anyone tucked into bed like that in real life before.

The blue covers weren’t exactly thick, though, and Derek could  clearly see the easy way in which Mason’s chest rose and fell. No  trouble breathing, that was good.

Derek entered the room quietly, practically tiptoeing toward the  bed. He was hardly dripping wet at this point. He’d been put in the  water wearing only the boxers he had on from earlier  this morning,  and they were slightly damp after his run in the woods, so he took a  seat in the chair next to the bed and looked over the medications and

swabs that were on the nightstand.

All regular-looking stuff. Derek didn’t know much about  medication or anything, but he could swear that there was nothing  stronger on that nightstand than some basic over-the-counter Tylenol  painkillers.

Maybe it was more of that werewolf healing in effect. That could

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be the reason why Mason didn’t need anything stronger than this.  That and that magical pond that was on this land. Derek was going to  have to ask about that when he had the time.

“You can stay here as long as you like.”

Derek whipped his head to the door. He hadn’t heard James come

in.

The leading alpha was looking at his brother in bed with sad eyes.  “Maybe you being here will help him to wake up.”

Then James’s eyes went down to Derek’s hand on the bed.

Derek blushed when he noticed what James was looking at. He hadn’t even been aware of when he’d reached out  and took hold of

one of Mason’s hands. But now he was holding onto it in both of his  hands, cupping it gently, and comforting himself with the feel of  Mason’s warm skin.

Derek cleared his throat. “Thank you.”

James nodded. “There are others in this house who are being tended to, so myself, Corey, or Old Maggie might be coming in here once in a while just to check on things. If you think you can handle it by yourself, just let us know.”

James was asking him because of the territorial way werewolves were with their mates. He was gently making sure that Derek didn’t have a problem with anyone else in here touching his lover, even if it was for medical reasons, without his say so.

Derek didn’t know nearly enough about medicine to be given complete control over anyone like that, and even if he was skilled, he would still feel better with someone else coming in and taking a look once in a while.

“I know everyone must be busy, but it would be great if Maggie  or yourself or Corey could come in and take a look once in a while.”

James nodded, and the door shut with a quiet click behind him as  he left.

The room was dark and quiet once he was gone. The window drapes were shut tightly, and hardly any light came in from the

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outside. Derek felt so helpless doing nothing but  sitting there and  waiting for Mason to open his blue eyes so that he could see them one  more time.

Just to check and make sure everything was okay, Derek reached out and touched the back of Mason’s head, gently sliding his fingers over the shaved skin.

He  was due to do it again soon. There was a soft fuzz already growing there but definitely not enough hair to have