Free Jacks, Marcy - The Hunter's Omega Mate [DeWitt's Pack 2] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove) by Marcy Jacks Page A

for the long weekend before summer. There was a private lake there, with a dock, some paddle boats, a fire pit. You name it and it was probably there.”
    The whole time he spoke, Tristan made soothing rubbing motions along Isaac’s arm, and he was extremely grateful for it. It kept him
    grounded here in the present, instead of falling completely back into  his morbid past.
    “It was only our second day there, and I can remember it like it  was yesterday. Dad was at the barbecue making supper, Mom was  calling me and Steve out of the water to wash  up and get ready, but I  was being a brat about it. I kept stalling, swimming around, didn’t  want to go in and eat the food my dad was making.”
    His breath caught a little at the memory, wishing, like he always  did, that he hadn’t been so ungrateful, that he’d come in, said that he

76                            Marcy Jacks
    loved them, and fucking   did   something to protect them.
    “Eventually she lost her patience and waved me off, stopped  calling me, and went back in with Steve, my little brother,” he  clarified. “Maybe she said something to Dad, I don’t know, but ten  minutes later they’re all walking back down to the water with plates  of food and blankets, like they’re going to eat on the dock. I didn’t  want to get yelled at by my dad, so I was about to come in when they  attacked.”
    Isaac still shivered as he recalled the speed in which those massive animals sped out of the trees and toward his mother first. They were like brown blurs with teeth.
    “They didn’t even see them coming. Dad got out a scream, tried to  pull Steve away before the next one tore his  arm and head off like a  shark or something. The third wolf put his teeth around Steve’s whole  torso and bit down.”
    Tristan was holding him now, and Isaac thought he just might cry without that comfort. “I hid under the dock and could hear the sounds
    they were making. Every once in a while I’d look through the spaces  in the boards to see what they were doing. They ate the food first then  started ripping at my parents’ skins. Then they turned into naked  people and just kept on   eating .”
    Tristan pulled Isaac into his arms, kissing his cheeks, neck, and  forehead, and Isaac buried his face against Tristan’s shoulder to  prevent him from seeing his tears.
    “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry that happened to you,” Tristan muttered  between kisses. “I promise no one here is like  that. No one here will  hurt you.”
    “I know   you   won’t,” Isaac said. The   but   at the end of that sentence
    was unsaid.
    Tristan nodded and just kept right on rubbing Isaac’s back and
    neck.
    Maybe he would be able to think of the other people in this pack as…well, almost something like Tristan, but not now. Right now he

    The Hunter’s Omega Mate                      77

    was only here, offering to help them, because Tristan insisted on it,  and if he told him that the people here were not dangerous, he would  take his word for it until proven otherwise.
    After a minute he sniffed, wiped his face, and got up. “We should
    go,” he said.
    Tristan nodded. They’d both already showered and dressed, so  now it was just a matter of getting back to James and finishing their  plan of attack.
    But then Tristan stopped. “You were fifteen nine years ago?  You’re twenty-four?”
    “Yeah?”
    Tristan’s lips pulled up in a catty smile. “I’m older than you are.”
    “ What? ” Isaac thought for sure that Tristan was only twenty or
    twenty-one. “How old are you?”
    “Twenty-seven.”
    “Christ.” And all this time Isaac had been thinking of Tristan as  some young kid. Well, no harm came in that, did it?
    He took Tristan by the hand, wishing he ’d wipe his little smirk off  his face as they set off to make plans with James.
    * * * *

    Marty scarcely allowed himself to breathe. It