42. Mason

Mason

T he pain in my chest isn't easy to ignore. I'm awake, my eyes are sore, and my body feels strange, but I'm awake. What is that smell? Disinfectant? And that strange beeping, it's familiar but not.

I lift my hand, seeing the tubes that connect to the line in my wrist and follow them to the monitor. Numbers I can't read make no sense to my aching head. The walls are white and familiar, and my mind supplies the answer. Not a hospital, but the estate.

I'm home.

No, this isn't home. It's his home.

It's mine now.

My head aches, and a thousand memories collide painfully, causing me to cry out. I remember my life as Mason, and disorientingly, my other lives. But I focus on the end, the gun lifting, the rage and fear in his eyes as he aimed the barrel at her chest. He was convinced if she died, it would all end. I could read the intent. Even though his words said differently, Phil was planning to kill her.

I remember leaping. I was so afraid I'd be too late. The lights shatter, darkness everywhere, and then the flash of the gun. Two wills colliding in one goal, one desperate wish.

Save her.

Pain obliterates thought, obliterates everything. Did we succeed?

The door opens, and then someone is helping me, holding me up. A man, I twist, peering up, needing to see who has their hands on me.

Dane's flinty blue eyes meet mine, and he freezes. His face pales and his lower lip trembles before it grows into a wobbly smile. Rafe crashes into the room, staring at me, too, and I stare back, my heart calm, my mind eased. I don't know how it happened. I don't know what we did. But it worked. It worked. I have a chance to make this right.

"That's not Mason," Rafe says in a scared voice.

I lick my lips and push myself into a sitting position. Where is my girl? Where is Jax? I look back at Dane and smile, knowing what he's suspected for a long time and daring him to put it into a single word. Come on, Brother.

I wait, but not for long.

"Terrance?" Dane whispers.

"I'm back," I say in a voice that isn't mine. "I'm sorry it took so long."