Page 18 of Mated to Four Bears

As Samantha kissed him some more, she reached her hand across the couch to hold mine. To include me. She pulled me closer to her, so that the moment she broke away from William she could bring those delicious lips of hers to mine once more.

As we kissed, I knew for sure that I would doanythingto keep kissing her, and that if this was how our bear bonding was to look, I was happy about it. Samantha had changed everythingfor all of us the moment William brought her through our doors. Now we just needed to decide if we wanted to embrace that feeling and go with it.

I already knew where my head was at, so it was up to everyone else.

12

RICHARD

Every time I thought I had the trail of someone outside Samantha’s old apartment, I kept losing it. It was incredibly frustrating for me, not something I was used to at all.

But because this was for Samantha, and I knew she was worth all the fight in the world, I kept on going. I wasn’t going to give up until I found him.

Today really felt like it was going to be the day. That wasn’t just a gut feeling, it was something so much more than that. I had the scent in my nostrils and it wasn’t dying down. I followed it right out of the city to a string of farmhouses. A part of me wanted to wait until my brothers could get here before I went too deep with this lead because I knew I’d be able to do better with them, but the other part of me knew that if I gave Antonio a chance to escape from right under my nose, he would.

He was a tricky bastard, and it was hard for me to keep my eyes on him. I wasn’t going to allow this opportunity to slip away from me. It wouldn’t happen.

My bear was enjoying the run at least. I’d been so frustrated, not being able to find anything, not being able to follow throughon a lead, that I needed this. I was so desperately clinging to the hope that this trail wasn’t going to go cold, that I wasn’t thinking about much else. Revenge was at the forefront of my mind always.

I made my way to a farmhouse that looked more abandoned than any of the other properties. The stench was so bad it was almost enough to cover up the trail. But not quite. I could still sensehim. His evil was here, so was his desperation. I didn’t knowwhathe was doing in a place like this, but that didn’t matter. If his life had gone so downhill that he was hiding in this building, that was his own problem.

I growled and bared my teeth, waiting to come across him. Because Antonio had to be here. Surely this was where I would finally get my hands on him. Well, paws, I guess, considering I was in my bear form. Either way, I could easily tear him to shreds.

“Who the fuck are you?” I was so busy staring at the house, I didn’t notice a man creeping up behind me until it was too late and he was practically on top of me. “What the fuck are you doing here? I didn’t invite you here.”

I spun around and watched as he slipped out a wand. I could tell he had no intention of following the Code of Magic properly. I got the sense that he didn’t even know how to use his wand properly, which made him very dangerous. There were schools and education to make sure that didn’t happen, but every so often people fell through the cracks. Either they were so useless that their teachers didn’t know what to do with them, or they didn’t come from a family who encouraged schooling. I had a feeling with Antonio, it was the latter.

I growled, because it was the only way that I could communicate with him, and started to circle around him. He followed me with his eyes, but didn’t look too bothered by mythreatening appearance. If anything, the man looked like he was about to at any given moment.

I had been expecting arrogance, but this was something else.

I couldn’t help but wonder if now might have been a good time to shift back to my human form so I could talk to this asshole and tell him that he needed to stay away from Samantha or I would make him regret it. Not that I could imagine someone like him heeding my threat. I also wanted to access my cell phone, to let my brothers know where I was so they could get out here ASAP.

But I didn’t. Not yet. I waited to see what his next move would be first.

“Oh, don’t just play bear,” he said mockingly. “I can see that isn’t who you really are.” He flicked his wand at me, but no magic came out. Apparently, he just wanted to scare me off. He probably had no freaking idea that I had come especially for him.

“Why don’t you show your face, huh? You scared?” he taunted. “Well, you should be scared, because I’m not alone. I have a lot of other magical folk looking out for me. Once they arrive, you’re screwed. They won’t leave you alone. I can assure you of that.”

I looked the man up and down, wondering what it was Samantha ever saw in him. I suppose he was classically tall, dark, and handsome, but with the evil pouring out of every pore, I couldn’t see the attraction.

But then I had hindsight, didn’t I? I wasn’t being love bombed and manipulated by him. I could see this nasty piece of work for who he was and what he was capable of. Asshole.

“I’m serious, bear,” he snapped. “Get the fuck out of here. This isn’t a place for you. I don’t know what you think you’re doing here, or who you are…” All of a sudden, the color drained from his face. It was almost as if a horrible realization had hit him. “Oh fuck, did Benjamin send you? Because heknowsI’mworking on getting the money to him. I’m looking into all kinds of avenues. He doesn’t need to send me any more threats. Can’t he see that this is only making things worse?”

Wow, so he really was in a bad situation. One of his own making, though, so I didn’t feel sorry for him. It just explained why he was all of a sudden trying to get back into Samantha’s life. He was desperate for this money to save his own ass. Not on my watch.

“Look, stop this, please.” Antonio held up his hands in a surrendering gesture, which meant he wasn’t pointing his wand at me anymore. I took the chance to shift back, since I really was going to have to start answering some of his questions in a moment. “We don’t need to do this. I’m going to get the money back. Iwillget the money back to him…”

His words trailed off when he saw my face. I wasn’t sure if he had any idea who I was or not, but it didn’t matter. He was about to know exactly who I was.

“Antonio, you have fucked up badly,” I told him gravely, and circled around him. “You have been screwing around with the wrong people, and you need to stop.” While he stared at me with confusion, I discretely reached in my pocked for my cell phone so I could call up one of my brothers. “You are going to get in somerealtrouble if you continue.”

“So, youareworking for Benjamin? He sent you here to threaten me?”

I didn’t disagree or agree. If he wanted to assume I was some kind of loan shark or enforcer, then so be it. Whatever scared the shit out of him until my brothers arrived. Once they arrived, then hell would be unleashed, no doubt about it. Antonio wouldn’t see it coming.

“I have a little money in the house now,” Antonino declared. “But I don’t know if it’ll be enough for you to get Benjamin toleave me alone for a while. I would rather you just tell him that I have it all under control.”

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