Page 12 of Mated to Four Bears

Thank goodness. I already knew I wasn’t easily going to be able to walk away from this place tonight. I was on edge with theneedto be there for Samantha, whether she wanted it or not. I wasn’t going to allow anything to happen to her.

Richard walked away as he made the phone call, just out of earshot. Not that I needed to hear what was being said. I was happy to stand right where I was and look up at the window where I knew she was safe. Locked away and hidden from this ex-boyfriend and whatever the hell he was playing at. I needed her to be safe, shehadto be.

Samantha had gotten under my skin; she ignited a passion within me unlike anything I had ever experienced before. I’d grown bored of dating recently because I felt like something was missing. Something special and electrifying. Something Samantha gave me without even speaking to me. My gut told me she was special, and I ached to learn more about her.

“I won’t let anything bad happen,” I muttered, as if she was going to be able to hear it. “I swear to you, Samantha. You will soon realize that meeting me was the best thing ever. Maybe you and I can even make it work.”

I always thought that when I bear bonded to someone, it would be another bear shifter, or maybe a human. I never even considered a magical person, although I wasn’t sure why. I just didn’t think that would ever happen. But here I was, in the throes of feelings I couldn’t explain. This had to be that magical bonding I’d only ever heard of before now.

The only problem was I knew I wasn’t the only person feeling that way about Samantha. If I’d really bonded to her, then things were about to get very complicated. But she was worth it, that much I was already sure of.

8

SAMANTHA

Ifelt better. At least I thought I felt a little better when I got back to my own home because I wasn’t under the spell of the Osbornes any longer. Whatever magic they had couldn’t extend this far, right? Surely not. My magic was pretty damn good, I was always at the top of my high school spell classes, and I couldn’t extend my magic like that.

I was free now. Only, weirdly, I didn’t feel free. As I paced in my living room, I could still feel the same sense of need careering through my veins as I thought about those men. All of them. There was something intriguing about every single one of them that caused me to ache for me. The throbbing in my heart was almost painful with need.

The dream I had about William…God damn it, I wanted that to be real. I wished I’d woken up to find him looming over me, waiting to kiss me with those delicious lips of his. If I could have just kissed him one time, then maybe I would feel a little better. I would be able to figure out how I really felt about him, which was the most important thing.

Then there was Thomas. Blond-haired, blue-eyed, chiseled Thomas. I thought I only had a connection to him because he’dhealed me and used some kind of weird magic on me, but being away from him only made me want him more. Absence had my heart growing fonder in a way I didn’t even think was possible.

I wished I’d gotten a chance to really speak with Henry. Richard too. My interaction with them was so brief, and that was now something that I truly regretted.

I needed to figure out what these feelings meant. Because they had to mean something. Being away from them was kind of painful. Unexpectedly so.

“Oh God, what is wrong with me?” I groaned as I eventually sunk down on to the couch. This had to be some kind of Stockholm Syndrome.

I didn’t want to believe that I was crazy enough to fall for my abductors, especially in such a short span of time, but if I wasn’t all consumed by their magic now, then it had to be real feelings, even if they didn’t make any sense.

Ihadto remember that they might have been working for Antonio. I still hadn’t totally ruled that possibility out. I couldn’t imagine any other reason why they would kidnap me and force me to stay in their home when I clearly didn’t want to.

“Don’t think about it,” I whispered to myself. “It’s still late, basically the middle of the night. Get some sleep. Everything will seem better in the morning.”

I wasn’t totally convinced that was the truth, especially considering how wired I felt at the moment, but the less I slept, the worse this would be.

I heaved my body up and slowly trudged towards the bathroom. I wanted to wash up, put on my own pajamas, and turn in for the night inmyhouse and in my own bed.

I really didn’t want to think about what would happen if the guys woke up and saw that I’d run off, then Antonio would know, and I would really be in for it. But I couldn’t let him win. Not like this.

I was free.I’d escaped a kidnapping. That was really something. After the terrible day I’d suffered, with the firing and the stealing, to know that I could still defend myself was awesome. The Osborne brothers didn’t know who they were up against when they took me.

The smile fell away from my face just as fast as it arrived the moment I heard a banging noise. My heart leapt up into my throat and my breathing turned ragged. It was only when I strained my ears to really listen that I noticed a bunch of noises coming from outside my apartment. But it was just the normal sounds of this neighborhood. Nothing to worry about at all.

“Keep it together,” I hissed angrily to myself. “Don’t let Antonio do this to you.”

It still shook me to the core to remember the times I thought he was going to be the best thing to ever happen to me. When I saw him as a savior, someone who would make my life so much better. I so wished I could go back in time and stop myself from making that mistake. My life would have been so much better without him.

“Okay, what the fuck was that?” This time I was sure the sound came from inside my home. It was hard for menotto get paranoid, but I had to try.

There was such a thick, painful lump in my throat that I could hardly breathe. My fingers curled around my wand, and I held it out in front of me. There weren’t any more sounds coming from the other room, but I could sense a presence there. I couldfeelit. Someone was here that wasn’t supposed to be.

“Fucking Osbornes,” I whispered with sheer irritation. Why couldn’t they just leave me alone? I left for a reason; couldn’t they understand that?

I tiptoed through the apartment, making as little sound possible, all while trying to listen for the intruder. Not the easiestthing to do when the loudest sound was my heartbeat was ringing in my ears.

I stifled a scream when I saw a man standing in my living room like he belonged there. It wasn’t an Osborne brother, or Antonio. It was an older man with a curly moustache. “Who the hell are you? What the fuck are you doing in my home?”

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