Free Sage's Mystery by Lynn Hagen Page A

deep and growly. Sage tried to make it as gentle as possible, but that was a large feat in his present form.
    “Are you going to hurt me?” William asked as he cocked his head to the side.
    Sage shook his head, never breaking eye contact. He couldn’t.
    William was a beautiful sight with the full moon illuminating the room, casting a haloed effect around William’s form. “Never,” he finally answered.
    William lowered his eyes, giving Sage his submission. He glanced down at the small human when he heard a swift intake of air. William was staring strangely at Sage’s cock as it jutted out, hard and erect.
    Sage chuckled, but it sounded more like a grunt as he watched William’s reaction to his desire for the small man.

    Sage’s Mystery
    65
    “Stay inside,” Sage warned as he backed out of the room. He had to leave. There was no other course of action to take. If he took William now, Sage knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he would bite the small human.
    It was inborn in him, the need to mate, the need to claim. He was getting older, and the pull to mate was getting stronger with each shift. If he bit William, the change would begin and on the next full moon, William would become a vârcolac , a lycan, a werewolf, but if he bit him while fucking the man, William would become his mate.
    It was a decision Sage wouldn’t take from William.
    “Don’t go!” William shouted as he pushed to his feet. “I’m terrified of you right now, but I’m even more terrified to be alone,”
    the small man confessed. “Please don’t leave me alone.” He whispered his plea.
    Sage was torn. He had only wanted to check on the man, but knew he crossed the line when he entered the room and revealed who he was. The fear in William’s voice tore at Sage. He wasn’t sure what he should do.
    When a howl and then another cut through the quiet of the night, Sage pulled to his full height. His head snapped around, scenting the air. The howls were distant, further away than Jeremiah, and more than one.
    William swallowed and moved closer. “I heard those noises all the time before you came. I heard a lot of weird noises coming from town.”
    Sage’s eyes scanned the outside through the window across the room, looking for movement before his eyes slowly lowered to William’s. “No one should be here. Stay here. Jeremiah and I will hunt.”
    William nodded quickly, bending at the waist to pick Terror up.
    The dog was shaking in William’s arms. Sage reached out and ran a claw over the small dog’s head. Terror whimpered and whined and then twisted around in William’s arms as her underbelly was exposed.

    66
    Lynn Hagen
    “Stay,” he commanded gruffly. When William didn’t argue, Sage left the room, closing the door behind him.
    “Do you know who they are?” Jeremiah asked from below.
    “No, but we are about to find out,” he said as he bounded from the top step, landing on his feet below. Fuck, if he kept up his acrobatics in this house, it was going to fall apart. He was shocked his fighting with Jeremiah hadn’t brought the structure down.
    Sage pushed that thought from his mind as he and Jeremiah stalked from the house and headed toward town.
    “William says he’s heard these howls before, almost nightly before I arrived.”
    “Impossible,” Jeremiah replied. “That would mean these werewolves are mated if they don’t need the full moon to shift.”
    “Then let’s find out what they’re doing in my town,” Sage said as he and Jeremiah took off running. His number-one priority was to protect William.
    Sage spotted two wolves before they disappeared from sight. He howled, putting on a burst of speed, Jeremiah at his side. Sage could feel his control slipping. He had used every ounce with William in his goal not to fuck the small man and mate the fragile human to him, bringing William into this dangerous life.
    Whoever these werewolves were, they didn’t have a damn thing coming to them. He had left his scent