Bear the Burden (Midnight Falls #25)

Chapter Nine

The closer Hyett drove them to Wesley’s house, the more Wesley began to realize this was not such a brilliant idea.

A reflexive habit in times of stress, Wesley rubbed his leg, but today there was no pain. He had even noticed it was gone this morning when he woke up. Despite not touching Hyett for over an hour, the pain still hadn’t returned.

But Wesley wasn’t going to fool himself into thinking it wouldn’t come back.

He wasn’t that lucky.

Jackson’s drug use and gambling addiction were proof of that. Wesley had been completely unaware of both problems until they exploded into his life, along with drug dealers invading his home, one of them being a demon.

A freaking demon.

No wonder Seth had given off a creepy vibe. He may have been handsome on the outside, but there was something about him that made people instantly cautious and distrustful of him.

“Can we stop at the gas station? I have to use the bathroom,” Wesley pleaded, sounding like a child who couldn’t even last five seconds into a road trip without needing a pitstop. He wanted a moment to himself to freak out, and then he would pull himself back together.

Why on earth had he asked to know everything that existed in Hyett’s world? Wesley was convinced he needed to get his head checked. But ever since making that foolish request, he hadn’t had a single second to himself.

Just breathe normally, because if Hyett notices you panicking, he might not take you home.

“Right now?” Hyett asked. “We just left the house ten minutes ago. Why didn’t you go beforehand?”

“Because I didn’t have to go until now.” Wesley was even more desperate, almost forgetting how to breathe.

Hyett shot him a curious look, but didn’t say anything.

As soon as they parked in front of the convenience store attached to the island of pumps—Hyett’s dad and brothers pulling up on their motorcycles behind them—Wesley made a beeline for the back of the store. He passed an almost empty slushie machine and a coffee maker with empty carafes.

The place used to be much cleaner when Alex worked there. Wesley wondered what had happened to him as he locked himself in the bathroom.

“Pull yourself together.” He gripped the edge of the sink and extended one leg backward. “Who cares if you’ve been taking a lot of right hooks lately? You’re now heading back to the most terrifying moment of your life.”

Second most terrifying. Mustn’t forget the fire.

Great. Wesley really was losing his ever-loving mind.

After splashing some water on his face, he grabbed a handful of brown paper towels to dry off. He turned toward the toilet realizing he did need to use it after all.

At least now he didn’t feel so guilty for lying to Hyett.

“Ugh, gross.” Why were public restrooms always so disgusting? It was as if people had completely given up on basic hygiene habits and turned into nasty little pigs when the toilet belonged to someone else.

Now Wesley needed to wash his hands and keep from touching anything on his way out.

He used the bottom of his shirt to open the door, wondering if there was any hand sanitizer on the counter by the register.

“Shit,” Wesley snarled when he almost collided with Hyett standing directly outside the door. “We’re going to have a talk about boundaries, buddy.”

“I have to use the bathroom,” Hyett said as if Wesley was being ridiculous.

Wesley placed a hand on his mate’s solid chest. “Trust me, you do not want to go in there.”

“I don’t even want to ask.” Hyett kissed Wesley’s forehead.

“I didn’t do it!” he quickly defended himself. “And can we please stop talking about it?”

He walked toward the snack aisle and grabbed a bag of gummy worms, hoping the sugary scent would help clear his nose from the unpleasant odor in the restroom.

Hyett grabbed a large bag of chips, several chocolate bars, a mega-sized bag of beef jerky, and two bottles of water.

His brothers and dad had come into the store and were already at the counter paying for their haul. How were they not a thousand pounds each with the way they scarfed down food?

“Is that all you want, babe?” Hyett asked, noticing Wesley’s single bag of candy.

“Yep. I’m not a bear shifter with an insatiable sweet tooth like a family I know. On second thought…” Wesley strolled over to the “limited time only” section and picked up a small jar shaped like a bee and filled with about a teaspoon of honey. Grinning, he made his way back to his mate.

“Very cute.” Hyett chuckled.

“I think so.” Wesley was going to set it on the counter at work to feel connected with his mate whenever he had to be there. “Whenever I look at this jar, I’ll always think of you.”

After studying it for a moment, Hyett went back and grabbed the whole box.

Wesley laughed. “What’re you doing?”

His mate counted the jars in the box. “Now you’ll have nearly two dozen reminders.”

“Dude, each one cost seven dollars.” Which Wesley thought was outrageous for such a tiny jar. But he had to have it. Hyatt, on the other hand, was insane.

He did the math in his head, and his jaw slightly dropped. “Are you seriously going to spend over 160 dollars on these?”

“Whenever I open a jar of honey, I’ll remember this moment.” Hyett placed the case on the counter.

“What is with you and sentimental moments, Winnie the Pooh?” Wesley teased, still stunned Hyett was buying all of them.

He wasn’t the only one. The clerk looked at Hyett like he’d lost his mind. “We sell much larger containers of honey for a heck of a lot less,” he remarked.

“I’ll take these.” Hyett pulled out his wallet.

“I’m heading to the car before you buy something else insane,” he said, starting away.

But his mate snagged the back of Wesley’s shirt with a finger and pulled him back.

Hyett didn’t say a word as he completed his outrageous transaction. Sighing, Wesley waited until his mate grabbed his things before they headed toward the exit, stepping aside to make room for two deputies entering the store.

“I highly doubt anyone will try to kidnap me from the checkout counter to the SUV.” Wesley opened his bag of gummy worms and took a bite. “Plus, your family is parked right next to us.”

“Whose responsibility is it to protect you?” Hyett asked once they reached the car.

“Winnie the Pooh’s job.” Wesley groaned, ready to bang his head against the SUV if Hyett reminded him of it one more time.

His mate narrowed his eyes. “You are not about to start calling me that. I’m much deadlier than him. Does he have a six pack like mine?” Hyett flexed his arms.

“Oh bother…” Wesley attempted a poor impression of the cartoon character.

His mood tanked when they reached his house. For a year he had walked through the door without issue, but it no longer felt like his safe haven. Not after he’d been attacked in his own home, and definitely not since learning what his father had been doing behind his back.

The rumbling of motorcycles died as Hyett’s family parked and cut their motors.

“You don’t have to do this, hon.” Hyett brushed his knuckles over Wesley’s cheek. “Just tell us what you need and they’ll grab it for you.”

Wesley closed his eyes and exhaled slowly. “My dad caused the fire,” he murmured, for some reason feeling compelled to tell his mate what happened.

“Babe.”

Wesley held up a hand. If he didn’t push through this, the nightmare would always have a tight hold on him. He was sick of the secrets he kept buried. All they had done was fester inside of him.

“He was high. That was when he’d just started using, but I naively told myself he was just tired from working all day. I didn’t want to believe my own father was an addict, because prior to his addiction, he was a good dad, though we butted heads a lot.”

Hyett slid a hand over Wesley’s shoulder.

“Jackson had started hanging with a few guys he’d just met. I think they’re the ones who got him started.”

Wesley wiped at his eyes and bit his lip to stop it from trembling. Hyett’s hand tightened on him. “We got into a huge fight because those friends kept crashing at our house. Freeloaders. A few things of mine also came up missing.”

“His friends were stealing from you,” Hyett murmured.

“Jackson was,” Wesley admitted. “My mom’s jewelry, which I’d treasured. My gaming system and other things he could sell to buy his drugs.”

Hyett silently cursed.

“I went to bed that night, livid at my dad. I woke a few hours later to my bedroom filled with smoke. I couldn’t see anything, so I had to feel my way through the house while I screamed my dad’s name.”

He balled his fists in his lap.

“I tripped over one of the freeloaders. The guy pinned me under him, telling me he would save me. He was so goddamn high he didn’t even realize we were trapped in the same room with the fire.”

My dad shoved the guy off of me, but the man grabbed my ankle just as the ceiling collapsed. My leg was trapped, and the ceiling fell on my dad’s right side. The next thing I remember was waking up in the hospital.”

Hyett easily lifted Wesley and placed him on his lap. His mate held him as Wesley breathed out slowly, determined to keep his composure.

“You’re the first person I’ve talked to about that night. My doctor knows about my burns, but he doesn’t know the part Jackson played in it. When I next saw my dad, he was doped up with hospital pain killers. I sat at his bedside, still recovering myself, when he confessed he’d accidentally set some papers on fire but was too baked to put them out.”

Hyett’s arms tightened and he laid his cheek on Wesley’s head. “I don’t know what to say, babe. If I’m being honest, I don’t ever want you near your father again. He almost ended your life and then went into a debt with dealers, who threatened to kill you. Jackson has no regard for anyone but himself.”

Wesley pulled Hyett down for a kiss. One meant to make him forget and remind himself he was no longer in this alone.

His mate pressed his hands against Wesley’s head and deepened the kiss, telling Wesley without words he was there for him.

“I’ll just go through the back door,” Wesley said when they pulled apart. “ There’s nothing in the living room I need anyway.”

“You let me know the moment it becomes too much for you.” Hyett still held Wesley’s head, making him look into smoky-gray eyes. “Promise me.”

Wesley nodded. “I promise.”

Ten minutes later, Wesley stood in his bedroom, embarrassed of the mess as his mate stood there with him.

Quinton stood guard in the front yard, Ryker in the back, and Killian walked through the house.

“It’s no big deal.” Hyett winked. “Glad I’m not the only one who leaves their cleaned clothes stacked on their bed and piles their dirty dishes.”

“I was running late for work,” Wesley lied. “What’s your excuse?”

“I was running late for life.” He chuckled. “I just really hate putting away clothes.”

“Fantastic. We’ll be living out of twice the piles in your bedroom.” Wesley checked his closet but didn’t see his backpack.

When did he last use it? Oh yeah. He’d tossed it in the closet by the front door. His heart began to hammer as he thought of walking in there.

“What is it, honey?” Hyett frowned at him. “Do we need to get some fresh air outside?”

“I just need my backpack from the living room closet,” Wesley said on a trembling breath.

He hated that Morton and Seth had made him fear his own home.

No. The blame was shared. Jackson had a hand in Wesley’s fear as well.

His father had a hand in a lot of Wesley’s fears even before the fire.

“Killian,” Hyett said in a normal voice from where he stood.

“Bathroom,” Killian hollered back.

“How on earth did he hear you?” Wesley asked in confusion. His brother shouldn’t have been able to hear him.

Hyett tapped his ear. “Heightened senses. He only yelled for your benefit.”

The more Wesley learned, the more he wondered whether he was fascinated with Hyett’s world or afraid of it.

“I’ll go grab it.” Hyett headed for the door. “Gather what you’ll need. I’ll be right back.”

Wesley pulled open dresser drawers as Hyett walked left the room. He wasn’t sure what to take, so he pulled his entire stack of underwear out. A guy could never have enough clean pairs. Now he wished he’d mated his socks instead of throwing them into a drawer and matching them when needed.

He stilled as the closest door to his left slowly opened. Wesley’s heart pounded hard as he watched Seth walk out of it. He couldn’t have been hiding in there. Wesley just checked his closet, and it had been demon free.

“We must hurry, Wesley. I’m risking being away from my signal jammer.” Seth slapped a hand over Wesley’s mouth and yanked him into the closet before he could scream.

* * * *

As he stepped into the living room, Hyett surveyed the chaos he’d caused in his desperate attempt to reach Wesley. The image of his mate lying unconscious on the closet floor was seared into his mind.

Closing his eyes, Hyett took a deep breath. It seemed Wesley wasn’t the only one who’d been traumatized by what happened in this room. Hyett fought against the urge to turn and walk out, but he needed to grab Wesley’s backpack.

Kicking aside plastic storage bins, he pushed away thoughts of how frantically he had yanked them out of the closet to find his mate hiding behind them.

Hyett kept trying to take deep breaths to calm himself down and still his spinning thoughts when he suddenly heard a stranger’s voice.

“We must hurry, Wesley. I’m risking being away from my signal jammer.”

Heart pounding, Hyett sprinted toward Wesley’s bedroom just as the closet door clicked shut. He wasted no time in flinging it open, but there were no people inside. “Wesley!”

As Hyett began to hyperventilate, Killian burst into the bedroom. The demon had used the shadows, taking advantage of the darkness in Wesley’s closet to sneak into his mate’s room.

Why hadn’t Hyett considered that possibility?

And where had the demon taken Wesley?

“Calm your breathing,” Killian instructed. “We’ll find him.”

“It was my responsibility to protect him.” Hyett turned to Killian as his father and Ryker entered the room. “I never should have brought him here. I practically handed my mate over to that demon.”

Quinton quickly placed a call while Hyett struggled to catch his breath. The room began to spin, leaving him disoriented.

“Stay focused.” Killian grasped his face. “You’re having a panic attack, little brother. Focus and calm your breathing.”

He couldn’t breathe. Why was Killian telling him to do the impossible? His chest was tight, and it felt like it was being crushed.

“Hyett, concentrate on me,” Killian urged, his voice laced with worry. “Look at me and take deep breaths in through your nose then slowly release them through your mouth.”

“I-I can’t.” Wesley was such a brave, beautiful man, but he had been through so much already. Seth and Morton had threatened to kill his mate, and now they actually had him.

You have to calm down. Wesley needs you.

Hyett did his best to listen to Killian’s voice and mirror his breathing. Gradually, his racing heart began to slow down and the room came back into focus.

“I have a location,” Quinton announced. “A guy I know is familiar with the drug dealer named Seth. He gave me an address. Let’s go get your mate, Hyett. I want my son-in-law back where he belongs.”

Hyett felt his bear rise to the surface with a deadly growl. He had no idea who Seth was, but the demon was about to learn that messing with his family was a deadly mistake.