Page 80 of Taming Raptor

Sam set his food down and swallowed hard. Seth gave his brother a worried glance, then looked to me.

“And?” Sam spoke up.

Another deep breath didn’t help like I thought it would, because I still felt a little lightheaded. I huffed it out. Reaching in my cut, I grabbed the papers and set them in front of both boys.

I didn’t miss the slight tremble of Sam’s hands when he reached for them. Seth read over his shoulder. The sharp inhale told me they’d reached the final results line. Sam quickly went to the next page. Seth gripped the edge of the bar so hard his knuckles turned white.

“But why?” Seth whispered. I knew what he was referring to, but I didn’t have a good answer that wasn’t talking absolute shit about their mother.

Sam’s nostrils flared and two bright spots appeared on his cheeks beneath the jump of his jaw muscle.

“Because Mom wanted to hurt Adrien—um,” he stammered, and I knew it was because he now wasn’t sure how to address me. Seth’s eyes glistened with unshed tears.

“Sam, I don’t want either of you to feel pressured to call me something you aren’t prepared to do. You can still call me Adrien if that’s what makes you comfortable. I’m just happy to know the truth, despite being pissed at the years we missed. I don’t want any of us to miss another day and I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure you know that you mean the world to me. Which is why I’m hitting you with everything at once. You’re about to be big brothers, too.” I’d debated withholding that last bit, but I hated the thought of keeping any more secrets from my boys. I held my breath as I waited to see if I’d fucked up and put too much on them.

Sage shot me a side-eyed glance filled with concern.

Seth and Sam wore matching open-mouth expressions of surprise that quickly morphed to laughter. Seth sniffled as his laughter died down and turned away to hide the quick swipe under his nose.

“Do you know if it’s a boy or a girl?” Seth finally asked as he turned back to us.

“I find out next week,” she softly told them as she rested her free hand over her belly that overnight had developed a slightly rounded curve.

“Can we go with?” Seth blurted out. Sam cuffed him in the back of the head.

“We’ll be in school. And Mom will be home,” Sam muttered with a frown.

“Oh. Yeah.” Seth looked so dejected, my chest caved. My head was reeling with how well they were taking the news, but anger at all the lost years simmered in the back of my mind.

“How do you guys feel about all of this?” I finally asked.

Sam dropped his attention to his plate in front of him. He absently picked at the rest of his food. “I’m mad.”

“Me too,” Seth quietly agreed.

Sam lifted his gaze to lock with mine. “But I’m happy. I don’t think I could’ve asked for a better person to be our dad.”

That three-letter word hit me like a fast-ball to the gut and if I hadn’t been sitting down, I might’ve dropped to my knees.

“What do we tell Mom?” Seth asked as his brow drew down and he picked up a potato chip and crumbled it on his plate.

Releasing the hold I had on Sage, I stood, placed a hand on his shoulder and gently spun him to face me. Then I crouched so I looked him square in the eye. “I’ll handle that. You two just worry about school and our training. We’ll work the rest of it out as we go. Together.”

Seth scrambled out of his chair and threw himself in my arms. Taken aback, I stiffened, but it didn’t take me long to wrap his slender frame in my arms. Sage caught my eye from behind the bar. A fat tear tracked down her cheek as she held her lower lip between her teeth.

Sam slammed into us, and his arms wrapped around us both.

I freed one arm to go around him. I palmed the back of his head and pulled him until our foreheads touched. Staring him in the eye I made a promise.

“Nothing will ever come between us again.”

Memphis (Soap, DSMC, IA)

As a member of the Demented Sons MC in northern Iowa, they called me Soap. Not many people knew it was because as a prospect, my dumbass didn’t know you couldn’t put regular old dish soap in a dishwasher. Hell, I’d never had one. How was I supposed to know?

The hours I spent cleaning suds up off the kitchen floor earned me my road name and I’d worn it proudly.

Until the day my world crashed at my feet.

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