Authors: Lynn Hagen
“Why are you staring at me?” Jason asked defensively.
“You have beautiful eyes.” He could feel his face heating up at the confession.
Nicholas sat there, studying Jason’s face. The man seemed shocked by the compliment. Why? His rugged handsomeness was turning Nicholas on. Surely the guy knew how good he looked? “My name’s Nicholas. I just realized that I hadn’t told you that yet.”
“I thought you were the physician?”
Nicholas couldn’t understand how Jason was so…so…what’s the word he was looking for? Lived in a cave? Under a rock? “That’s what I do, not who I am.”
“I stayed in the estate a lot, didn’t get out much. Forgive me, Nicholas.” Jason smiled tightly, but his eyes showed Nicholas that he was afraid and curious.
Nicholas pulled his legs back to his chest. “I know what you mean. I practically live in that damn hospital. It seems like I never leave.”
“Do you go to humans’ houses like the wolf physician visits pack houses?”
Nicholas shook his head. “I wish. That’s what the hospital is for. The sick go there and I try to heal them.” How in the hell was this handsome man so naïve? Nicholas knew there were all sorts of people in all walks of life, but there had to be an explanation to how innocent this man was to the world and how it worked. No one was that ignorant of…humans. Maybe that explained it. Jason was a wolf. Maybe he hadn’t mingled with humans or their world.
“Oh.” Jason looked embarrassed as his eyes lowered.
Nicholas wanted to change the subject. He didn’t like that Jason was uncomfortable. “How can you shift?”
Jason bit his bottom lip. “I can’t tell you.” He locked eyes with Nicholas. “And you can’t tell anyone you know about us.”
“Maverick trusts me. I would never betray that. I wouldn’t betray you.” And Nicholas wouldn’t. Something was going on here, something between him and this wolf that he didn’t fully understand, but the idea of betraying him turned Nicholas’s stomach.
“That’s good.” Jason nodded his approval, and for some reason that made Nicholas happy.
His cell phone went off, interrupting his happy moment. Nicholas pulled it from his pants pocket and checked the caller ID. His father. Someone he didn’t want to talk to right now. He touched the pad, silencing it as he shoved it back into his slacks. Jason watched his every move.
“My father. Someone I never look forward to speaking with,” Nicholas volunteered when he read suspicion in Jason’s eyes. For some reason he didn’t like that. He wanted the wolf to trust him. “He tries to run my life. Always has.” Now Nicholas found himself staring into the night. Why couldn’t his father leave him alone and let him live the life he wanted to?
“My father did the same, then my Alpha, then the Alpha who won the challenge, and now Maverick. I don’t think anyone trusts me to make the right choice.” Jason sounded bitter and resentful. Nicholas felt the same way about his own father. He watched as Jason shifted around a little, tightening that blanket around his shoulders again.
Nicholas smiled. “It seems our lives are more similar than we thought.”
Jason nodded. “It seems that way.” Jason watched him stand, stretch, and then slide his loafers back on.
“I have to get that blood work to the lab. She has chicken pox, but I saw something unfamiliar when I examined her eyes.” Nicholas jumped back when Jason leapt up.
“You’re leaving?” Jason’s voice sounded strained and panic filled.
“I’m coming back, Jason. I promise.” Nicholas laid his hand on the comforter, touching a firm arm. The driving need to be near this man was threatening to undo his sanity. He couldn’t understand it and didn’t care to at the moment. All he wanted was to get under that comforter and explore every inch of that ruggedly handsome man.
Jason gulped. “When?”
“Soon. My shift starts tonight. I have to work forty-eight hours, but I promise to come back here when it’s over.” The thought of leaving Jason was making Nicholas’s chest hurt. There wasn’t any reason he should be feeling this way toward a man he’d just met, but a feeling of belonging settled inside him.
“Two days?” Jason sounded so despondent that it tore at Nicholas’s heart.
“I promise, I’m coming back.” Nicholas leaned up, placing his hands on Jason’s strong shoulders, and kissed the wolf. Jason gasped, stood stock-still as Nicholas plunged his tongue in. He took advantage of Jason’s lowered defense to explore his mouth, but the wolf didn’t stay stunned long. His arms wrapped around Nicholas, pulling him in closer, devouring him like a starved man. Nicholas thought he was going to run out of air soon.
Nicholas knocked the blanket aside, grabbing onto hot flesh as he opened his mouth wider. Jason grabbed his hair, pulled his head back as he licked down Nicholas’s neck. Nicholas moaned, his hands running over Jason’s back as the wolf pulled him even closer. He had guessed correctly. The wolf was gloriously naked and tasted rugged and manly. He felt Jason’s erection prodding his stomach and wished it was pressing against his ass instead. The need to be loved, to be with someone who didn’t care who he was, ate at Nicholas.
Nicholas froze when he felt raised skin under his hands, multiple scars. How the hell did such a beautiful man become so scarred? He cried out when Jason pushed him back, screaming at Nicholas to get out as he quickly picked the comforter up and shielded his body, but not before Nicholas saw the horrendous scars slashed across him in every different direction possible.
“Get out, now!” Jason roared.
“I don’t want to go.” Nicholas cried as he tried to reach for the wolf, but Jason pushed him back again. This couldn’t be happening. He
didn’t care
about the scars. He wanted the wolf. The one person who made him feel whole and loved. Nicholas was desperate to feel that closeness again. To feel those strong arms wrapped around him.
Maverick stormed into the room and blocked Jason as someone grabbed Nicholas from behind and began to pull him away.
“Maverick, I don’t want to go,” Nicholas screamed and reached for Jason as he begged while being pulled from the room. He tried to break free, struggled to get back to the man who had held him like Nicholas had meant something, but the man holding him was too strong. He didn’t want to leave Jason.
Please no.
“For now, you have to.” Maverick looked him straight in the eye, sadness filling them.
Nicholas knew he wouldn’t win this. That he would be forced away. Everything in him wanted to grab Jason and never let him go. “Jason!” Nicholas shouted as he reached for the wolf, trying one last time to break free.
“Now!” Jason yelled around Maverick.
Nicholas hung his head as he was escorted from the room. His wolf didn’t want him there, and he wasn’t going to force himself on anyone. His heart was breaking, a lump forming in his throat as he swallowed past it and looked Jason in his eyes. “I’ll be back, just like I promised,” he said softly.
“Don’t.” Jason sounded so defeated, as if he was truly saying good-bye. Nicholas would be back, no matter what the wolf said.
* * * *
Maverick sat back in his chair, feeling like a total shit for making Nicholas leave. He picked up the phone and dialed the Alpha of the Eastern pack. “Zeus, it’s Maverick. I need you to tell me about Jason.” Maverick heard a sigh on the other end.
“I knew this phone call would eventually come. What has he done?”
“He found his mate, but it’s having a negative reaction on him.” Maverick had been outside of Melonee’s room guarding her while Jason sat next door with his mate. He heard the yelling and charged straight over. Mate abuse was something he would not tolerate. He was stunned to see Nicholas fight so hard to stay with the Grey wolf as Jason ordered his mate away.
“From what I know, his father never let him out of the house. He was isolated, alone. Then when he matured, Jackson had his goons storm Jason’s home. His father was killed, although Jason thinks he just moved away. That’s what Jackson fed him. Anyway, Jackson never let him leave the estate except when he made him do his dirty work, which I’m not too sure what it was, but he never was gone more than a few hours.”
Zeus sighed again. “When I took over, the man was too terrified to leave his room. He performed his duties here but stayed to himself, shut everyone else out. He’s what some would refer to as a recluse, but he still takes his job seriously, only goes out when he has to.”
Maverick cursed inwardly. His warrior had one fucked-up life. He wanted to kill Jackson all over again. Even though Jason’s father was dead, he wanted to kick his sorry ass as well. No child should be raised that way. It also explained a lot about Jason’s behavior. It also made him feel like shit for not getting to know Jason better. “Do you know about his scar?”
“You mean
scars
. I saw them once, all over his body. I heard Jackson didn’t let them heal by sprinkling silver dust in them. Not enough to kill him, a minute amount, enough to where shifting wouldn’t heal them.” Zeus growled. “Jackson was one sick bastard. Jason’s scars are more serious on the inside though. Those are the ones he’s hiding from.”
Maverick knew it took a large amount of silver to kill them. That’s why when his warrior, Murdock, was shot, he wasn’t instantly killed by the silver bullet. The sadistic bastard, Jackson, had known what he was doing to Jason. “Thanks. How’s Jasper?” Jasper used to be a member of Maverick’s pack until he mated the Alpha Zeus. He was as feminine and lethal as they came. Made killer-ass chocolate chip cookies and had a mouth that put sailors to shame.
Zeus chuckled. “Keeps me on my toes. He’s nuts, but I love him.”
“Thank god he’s your headache now. Tell him I said hello.”
“Will do. Call me if you need anything else.”
Maverick hung up, wondering how he was going to handle this whole situation. Jason had a very ugly past. Maverick was determined to make sure he didn’t continue to suffer by keeping his mate away. The Sentry deserved happiness for once in his life.
* * * *
Nicholas’s father was livid. He took one look at his son’s face, and Nicholas thought steam was going to come out of his ears. There was no “are you okay” or “dear god, what happened.” It was “how can you disgrace our name by acting like a commoner.”
Really?
What were they, fucking royalty?
The only thing on Nicholas’s mind was Jason. He had to stop himself multiple times from tossing it all away and running back there. Maverick wouldn’t let him in anyway. He told Nicholas to come back when his shift ended and made sure he drilled it into his head to keep their secret close. He assured Maverick that he wouldn’t breathe a word about it, but being away from Jason was suffocating. His chest was heavy, and his heart hurt.
Nicholas did not care about Jason’s scars. He only wanted the man he dreamed of so many nights. Nicholas knew there was someone out there for him, had dreamt of meeting that perfect someone. And he had. Jason. He…
“Here he comes again.” One of the nurses brought him out of his thoughts as she warned him. His father stormed the hallway toward him. Dr. William Sheehan was acting more like a child throwing a temper tantrum than an adult. He really didn’t need this right now.
“Has your fiancée seen your face?” his father asked smugly.
Like that was something he should fear. If his father only knew. “Yes, as a matter of fact, she was the first one to see it.”
His father smirked at him. “And what did dear Rebecca have to say?”
She told me to lie to you and gave me a good cover story
. “She offered me her makeup concealer and boxing lessons.”
Dear old dad didn’t think it was funny. Nicholas did. “Now see here…”
Dr. William Sheehan, dial three one two.
“Duty is calling you.” Nicholas smiled as he walked away. God he loved paging systems.