Seducing Samantha (20 page)

After the kids were in bed, she gave James her statement, wanting to get the story off her chest and feeling that her throat could take that much talking.  She told him and the other pride members everything she could recall of that night, how she’d gone limp and then managed to get away from them for only a moment before they caught her.  She kicked and hit as much as she could.  She remembered getting punched in the face twice and her vision blacking out, just before she heard the van take off and the men yelling after the female.  Then all she could remember was how difficult it was to breathe with the thick arm across her throat, and that she was certain she was going to die.

She made sure they understood that the females wanted to take the kids with them and raise them up to be slaves of some sort.

Letting her throat rest for a moment, she took a few sips of her third cup of hot tea and looked around the kitchen table where they were all gathered.  Even Eryx, Ethan, Callie, Rhett, and Lisa had come to hear what she had to say.

Callie looked over at where her children were sleeping on the couches and then up to her husbands.  “What will we do if they come back?”

Ethan cupped her face.  “All we can do is stay vigilant.  Hopefully they learned that they can’t just come down here and take our cubs and demand our compliance with their requests.”

“Ethan’s right,” John said.  “We’ve always watched out for each other, and now we know that there’s a chance that they might come back.  We dealt with the guys they hired, and if we’re lucky, it was a deterrent and they’ll leave us alone.  If they try to come at us again in the future, then we’ll be ready.  This is our pride, and I’ll be damned if any of the females are going to destroy what we’ve built.”

He growled loudly, and every cat in the room joined in, until the walls felt like they were vibrating.

Later, when she was tucked between Grant and Aaron, she said, “I hope the females got the hint and stay the hell up there in Canada.”

Aaron chuckled.  “Us, too, baby.  I don’t want you to be afraid.  We’re going to take care of you and make sure nothing like this ever happens again.”

“I know you will.  I’m not really afraid for myself, but I am worried about the kids.”

“All we can do, sweetheart, is just look out for each other.  Let us worry about your’s and the kids’ safety. It’s our job,” Grant said.

“I love you.  Thank you for coming for me.”

“We’ll always come for you, Sam.  You’re ours, forever,” Aaron said with a low voice, brushing his lips across her forehead.

* * * * *

The week passed quickly as Sam recuperated.  Her apartment was packed up and brought over by the pride members, and since she was on a month-to-month lease, she gave notice with the apartment complex manager and officially moved into the boarding house.  Aaron’s room was slightly larger than Grant’s, with a more modern bathroom with a shower stall and a garden tub.  Grant moved his things into Aaron’s room, and his bedroom became a music room and library, with her furniture scattered around the room along with her upright piano, collection of antique stringed instruments, and three bookshelves full of everything from sheet music to romance novels.

Sunday afternoon, they drove as a family up to her parents’ home for dinner.  She offered to trade her car in for a vehicle big enough for eight, but Aaron instead traded in his slightly older sedan.  He knew she liked her Infiniti, but she still would have been okay with giving it up.  She turned around in the front seat and looked back at her family.  Grant sat in the second row with Ben and Brian, who were watching a DVD on a small portable player.  Grant had been looking out the window with a sad, wistful look on his face.  When he realized she was watching him, he said, “I was just wishing that our Dad was still alive, to see how far we’ve come and to meet you.”

She reached her hand back to him, and he took it, leaning forward and kissing the top before rubbing his cheek against it.  “I wish I could have met him, too.”

Nathan, Owen, and Kevin were taking turns playing a handheld video game in the third row.  She’d been touched by their nervousness when they climbed into the SUV and reassured them that her parents really did like them and were looking forward to getting to know them.  After he shut the door, Aaron said quietly, “They’re not used to people outside of the pride caring for them.   You’ve brought so many wonderful changes to our lives in the last few weeks, Sam.  I’m so glad you’re our mate.”

When her dad opened the front door as they were getting out of the SUV, he called out, “Come on inside before you freeze your ears off!”

The kids scampered up the walk, and he greeted all of them warmly, sending them inside to take off their coats and boots.  He kissed Sam’s cheek and said, “You look much better, honey.  How are you feeling?”

“Great, Dad.  I’ll be glad to go back to work tomorrow.”

Her mom looked up from where she was hugging the kids and laughed, “Being waited on hand and foot getting to you?”

Grant slipped her coat from her shoulders and hung it up in the hall closet.  “Oh, yeah, it’s real torture,” Sam quipped with a smile.

The house smelled exactly like it always did on Sundays — roasted meat, fresh bread, and the hint of something sweet that would be for dessert.  Today it smelled like pot roast, sourdough bread, and apple pie.  Her favorites.  Her mouth watered at the thought of the feast that awaited them.

“I’ve got cookies that need frosting, boys,” her mom said, encouraging the kids to join her in the kitchen.  Over her shoulder she said, “Samantha, you could offer your mates a cup of coffee.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Sam replied sheepishly.  She looked at Aaron and Grant who had looks of wonder on their faces as she led them into the kitchen.  Her mom had been raised in Georgia, so the kitchen was country-comfortable, with gingham curtains, wood paneling, and framed prints of barns hanging on the walls.

“Would you like some coffee?  I’m sure there’s soda and juice, too,” Sam said, smiling as they looked the cozy kitchen over, noticing the refrigerator covered with family pictures.

When she got their attention, they both said they were fine, and her dad offered to give them the tour.  She followed behind, smiling at the kids who were perched on stools at the island, frosting thick sugar cookies with colored frosting.

The tour started on the second floor, including her parents’ room, the guest bedroom, and her own bedroom, that still held an embarrassing assortment of posters of teen heartthrobs plastered to the walls.  Aaron and Grant raised their brows at her but said nothing about the posters, the Pepto-Bismol pink color of the walls, or the mound of stuffed animals that graced the pink, lace canopy draped across the top of the bed.

On the way out of the room, Aaron said, “Like pink?”

She gave him a light punch on his shoulder.  “I was a teenager.”

Grant shut the door behind them and laughed, “It’s a good thing we didn’t know you back then.  I don’t think we could have competed with the one guy in the leather pants.”

Her cheeks heated as she laughed, hooking her arms through theirs.  “I’m glad you find my awkward teen years so funny.”

As they headed downstairs, her mother called her and asked for a hand in the kitchen, and she left her mates with her dad as they finished the tour, starting with the den.

Sam set the table, wiped frosting from the kids’ faces and hands, and sliced the fresh-from-the-oven bread into a big basket.  Her mom laid the platter of pot roast on the table and called for everyone to join them at the table.  Aaron and Grant came with her Dad back into the kitchen and joined her on one side of the table.  Her parents and the kids sat down in the other chairs.

Sam had learned very quickly that Aaron and Grant liked to fix her plate.  Whenever they sat down to eat together, one of them would put the plate together for her, making sure she had plenty.  It wasn’t uncommon for them to take more on their own plates and set it aside for her, just in case she decided she was still hungry.  She rarely was, though.  The meals at the boarding house were so filling, her plate piled high, and she had never wanted seconds.

While the meal progressed, her parents kept the kids talking about school and activities, peppered Aaron and Grant with personal questions, and told a few embarrassing stories from Sam’s childhood.  When the dishes were cleared, they took coffee into the family room and sat down on two comfortable couches while her dad tended to the fire in the fireplace.  Sam’s mom joined her dad on one of the couches, and Sam noticed that they both had expectant looks on their faces.  She was about to ask what was going on when Aaron and Grant both stood and then immediately dropped to one knee in front of her.

Her eyes widened as Aaron pulled a ring from his pant’s pocket.  Picking up her left hand, he held a diamond solitaire ring in front of her ring finger.

“Samantha, I love you.  When you came into my life I thought I was the luckiest man in the world.  If you’ll marry me, then I’ll know for sure that I am.  Will you?”

Happy tears sprang to her eyes.  “Yes!”

He pushed the ring onto her finger and kissed her.  The kids clapped.  Grant held two rings in his hand.  Lifting one from his palm, he pushed it onto her finger before picking up the other one and holding her hand.

“Sam, I know that there was some engineering over the way we met,” he glanced at the kids who grinned, “but even if that hadn’t happened, I know that we would have met eventually, and I would have found you to be completely enchanting, beautiful beyond words, and sweeter than anyone I’ve ever known.  You’re easy to love because you give so much of yourself to everyone, and I’m so thankful that you chose me to be your mate.  I love you.  Marry me.”

The tears threatened to spill over as she said, “Yes.”  Grant pushed the third ring onto her finger.  When the third ring nestled against the others, she saw that all three solitaires joined to form one ring with three connected stones.  After she kissed Grant, and the kids and her parents clapped and cheered, Aaron explained, “It wasn’t enough for us to both get you a ring, we wanted to have all three of us represented, so there’s one diamond for each.”

“I love it,” she sniffled.  “I love you both.”

Kevin said, “Now, Dads?”

Aaron and Grant both chuckled and got off their knees and sat on either side of Sam.  The boys stood and came over to Sam, lining up in front of her.

Kevin looked very serious as he cleared his throat and said, “I promise to not leave my shoes at the front door.”

Kevin looked at Owen, who stood next to him.  “I promise to help with the dishes.”

Ben said, “I promise to hang up my coat in the hall instead of tossing it on the floor.”

Brian said, “I promise not to leave my underpants in the bathroom.”

Sam chuckled at his confession.

Nathan said, “I promise to always be kind to my old brothers and my new brothers.”

There was a short pause as the boys looked at each other, and then they said together, “Will you be our mom?”

She gasped as Ben held out his hand and opened it, revealing a gold ring.  Ben picked up the ring and held it out to her as the tears came back in force, and she took the ring and put it on the ring finger of her right hand.  “Of course I will, kids.  I love you all so much, and I’d be proud to be your mom.”

The kids piled onto the couch, hugging her and kissing her cheeks.  When they were seated again, she looked at the ring they had given her and counted two rows of four stones in varying gemstones.

“Oh, it’s our birthdays!”  Sam said once she realized the colors were birthstones.  She looked at the kids.  “I love it!”

“And we love you, sweetheart,” Grant murmured in her ear.

Sam looked at her parents and saw how happy they were for her, and she realized that she’d never been happier.  It wasn’t just that Grant and Aaron loved her or that she loved them, it was that she loved being part of their family and how accepted they made her feel.  They loved her, cared for her, watched out for her — hell, they’d fought for her life.  They said they were lucky to have her in their life, but she knew that she was the lucky one.  The luckiest woman in the world.

Chapter 15

Grant kissed Sam goodbye before she left for her first day back at school.  He had really loved being home with her the week before, and it wasn’t until her alarm went off in the morning that it really hit him that she wasn’t going to be with him all day.

“You look bummed,” she said as she wrapped a scarf around her neck before he helped her into her coat.

“I’m gonna miss you.”

“Aw, I’m gonna miss you, too.  The day will fly by, you’ll see.”

He felt a little petulant.  He didn’t want to share her with the school; he wanted to keep her in bed where the scent of her arousal drove him insane.

He walked her out to the car and then stood on the porch until she faded from view.  After putting the kids on the bus and driving Henry to school, he headed to the farm to work, disgruntled and irritated.

He normally worked until dinnertime on Monday, leaving the kids to Aaron’s capable hands.  But as the day wore on, he wished that he’d been the one to greet Sam when she got home from school, to be the one to ask her how her first day back went.  He’d known that there would be times when he would jealous of Aaron, and this was one of those times.