Page 31 of Broken Trust

They stepped into the kitchen, and Atlas looked around, amazement filling his gray eyes. “You two have a very nice home.”

“Thanks.” Sam smiled and took a seat at the table, the rest of them doing the same. In the center was a smoked sausage and cheese platter, as well as a large pitcher of lemonade and ice, four glasses off to one side.

“The beach was incredible.” Sam’s eyes lit up as he leaned into Morgan. “It was also secluded, so we had some pretty fun nights, too. Like I said, I didn’t want to leave, but Morgan promised we could return every summer.”

“I’m shocked you didn’t buy the place for Sam,” Kellen said with a smirk.

“He tried to.” Sam chuckled. “Unfortunately, the owners weren’t selling.”

Kellen noticed how stiffly Atlas sat next to him. “Why don’t you show me the repairs you had done on your truck, Morgan?”

The polar bear shifter glanced at him, and then Kellen saw when it finally dawned on the guy that he wanted to talk to him alone.

“I’ll be right back.” Morgan stood and gave Sam a quick kiss.

Kellen brushed his lips against Atlas’s ear, nipping the lobe and smiling when his mate shivered. “Hold things down until I come back.”

Atlas glanced up at him when Kellen stood, his eyes begging Kellen not to leave him alone. If he and Sam were going to become friends, they needed time to talk without their mates up under them.

Chapter Nine

“You see what they just did.” Sam grabbed a cracker off the platter and took a bite.

“What?” Atlas looked over his shoulder, but his mate was already gone. He faced Sam, unsure what the guy was talking about.

“Though I’m sure that Kellen really does want to see the repairs on Morgan’s truck, he’s also giving you space so we can talk.”

Sam got up and took Kellen’s seat, pulling the platter toward them. “It’s amazing how hungry you get after a long flight. We ate when we got home, but I’m still starving.”

The guy made a sandwich out of the sausage, cheese, and crackers and then pointed at the tray. “Don’t be shy. If you don’t eat, I’m only going to scarf all this down and look like a pig in front of you.”

Atlas wasn’t hungry, but he also didn’t want to be rude.

“We weren’t always like this.” Sam stood and poured them each a glass of lemonade, sliding one of the glasses to Atlas. “I was kicked out of my house at sixteen when I came out to my parents.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” As much as his mom detested his sexuality, at least she hadn’t booted Atlas out. Not that his dad or sister would have let her if she’d tried. Aside from her not accepting that side of Atlas, she really was a caring and loving mother. Atlas had never felt neglected growing up, unlike Kellen’s childhood.

When he’d come out, his mother had remained the same person toward him. She’d just pretended that Atlas had never told her that he was gay.

She would get upset whenever Atlas brought a guy home, which only made him feel more and more alienated.

“I lived on the streets for years before I got my own apartment,” Sam continued. “Then I lost my job and couldn’t find any steady work, so it was back on the streets.”

Kellen hadn’t told Atlas any of that. He’d just said that he wanted Atlas to meet his friends. Not that he blamed his mate for not telling him. It wasn’t any of Atlas’s business. “So how did you meet Morgan?”

Atlas bit into his cheese and cracker, leaving the sausage on the platter. He wasn’t a fan of summer sausage. His mom always put a platter out when they’d had company, and Atlas hated the way it tasted.

“I was attacked by a guy who’d offered me his couch.” Sam took a drink of his lemonade. “He wanted to pimp me out to his friends since I didn’t have any money to pay him for staying there.”

Atlas’s jaw dropped. He couldn’t fathom something like that happening to him and felt horrible for Sam. “That’s so messed up.”

“Tell me about it,” Sam said. “I had no idea he was a hyena shifter or a drug dealer. He threw me down on his bed when I refused to sleep with his ‘associates’, whatever that meant, and used his claws to make gashes in my back.”

Atlas remembered Kellen saying something about Sam having two hundred stitches in his back when he’d tried to fight that twink. Atlas was also stuck on the fact that there were hyena shifters.

“How did you get away, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I don’t mind. I’m the one bringing this up.” Sam ate another sandwich he’d made from the contents of the platter. “Daryl left the room, assumingly to get his friends. I wasn’t sticking around. Not after I saw sharp teeth in his mouth and even sharper claws that had my blood on them. I forced myself to get off the bed, so scared I wasn’t thinking straight. I grabbed his bag in the corner, the one he never let out of his sight, and was only there because he’d thrown a party and didn’t want anyone walking away with it. I threw open the window and fled.”

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