Page 23 of Mated to Four Bears

Antonio flicked his wand in my direction, and it took me a couple of seconds to realize he had freed my lips so I couldspeak. I had so much to say I didn’t know where to begin. Emotions jumbled up inside me, almost giving me a panic attack.

“Where are we?” I finally said. “What are you going to do to me? Didn’t your friend tell you that I don’t have any money for you? I don’t know what kind of situation you’ve gotten yourself into, but I can’t help you. Don’t you have anyone else? Another girlfriend or other people in your life? Why me? Why are you doing this?”

Antonio grinned in what I could only assume he thought was a mysterious way. Asshole, he really was getting a lot of pleasure out of this, wasn’t he?

“You have always been so good to me, Samantha,” he purred, as if he was ever going to be able to seduce me again. I would have shuddered if I could move. “You have always helped me out. Maybe I was too quick to move on from you. We could have really been something.”

He walked around me in an intimidating manner, circling the bright white room. This place was so blank, I couldn’t glean any clues from it, which was probably what Antonio wanted. He knew that if he gave me anything, I could out smart him.

“I have nothing left for you,” I informed him. “I thought you knew that by now. You bled my dry. We’re not getting back together either, so this is a waste of time. Stop this now.”

“We can’t get back together because you have a new boyfriend?” Antonio jumped on this, but he didn’t seem upset about it. That was strange, because he was just acting like he wanted us to be together again. “One of the Osborne brother bears, right? I’ve been doing my research. I know who you’re spending time with these days. And I can’t say I blame you. You have good taste. Those men have alotof money.”

I didn’t eventhinkabout that when it came to the Osbornes. That wasn’t what I was looking for with the people in my life. Iwasn’t like Antonio at all. He saw wealth and I just looked for good people.

But I suppose that made a lot of sense, because they did live in one of the biggest homes in the city. So, if Antonio was after anyone now, I guess it wasn’t me. Instead of getting him off my back like I thought I was going to, I had walked right into his trap. Shit, I hated myself for that.

Shit, I hated myself for that. Nerves zig zagged through me as I watched Antonio reveling in his oh so clever plan. He really did think he was the smartest man around, didn’t he? The one positive was the knowing all of the Osbornes had a connection with me. With a bit of luck, that would be the one thing that knocked him off kilter and allowed me to win.

“They aren’t going to give you money for gambling, Antonio,” I warned him, not that he was going to give a shit. “They won’t give you anything you want. They aren’t like you and the people in your life.”

“I actually don’t think I need your money right now,” Antonio replied mysteriously. “There is another way you can help me out.”

“What…what are you talking about?” I stammered. “I have nothing…”

Antonio waved my wand at me. I didn’t like his grubby hands on it. I was wriggling like crazy, trying desperately to reach out for the wand. Of course, he loved that. Asshole.

“You have magic,” he said excitedly. “Andthatis what I want from you.”

“What are you talking about? That’s impossible, I can’t do that. I can’t give you anything.”

“Oh, yes, you can. I’ve been researching and conducting experiments with other magic folk for a very long time. And now you are going to be the first to do this.”

He had to be joking. Maybe there were people in the world who messed around with stuff like this, which was why we needed a Code of Magic, but I didn’t think Antonio would ever sink this low. Why would he do something like this? What was wrong with him? This was the worst thing I had ever heard from him, which way saying a lot, because I had heard him say some very terrible things in our time together.

“What are youtalkingabout, Antonio? That sounds absolutely insane. And how would my magic even help you? It won’t give you any money.”

“Maybe I’ve moved beyond what you know of me.”

I doubted it, because Richard told me he was still worrying about money and gambling, that he had some loan shark after him. He could try to act like he was bigger and better these days, but I wouldn’t buy it.

“I don’t know what you’re doing, Antonio, and quite frankly I don’t care. All you need to know is that I don’t want any part of it.”

He cocked his head to one side as a smirk spread across his face. “I don’t think that’s quite true, do you? Because you said you’d help me out.”

“No, I said that Ican’thelp you out because I don’t have anything for you.”

“Same thing.” God damn it, he wasn’t going to hear me out, he wouldn’t listen to me. He never did, so I shouldn’t have been surprised now. “You’re going to help me because you owe me. If you could have just helped me out with Benjamin when I sent for help, then I wouldn’t need this magic now. But this is the only way.”

“Benjamin?” I asked curiously. “Who’s Benjamin?”

“It doesn’t matter who Benjamin is, he’s irrelevant. I just need the magic so I can overpower him. So that I can overpowereveryone and no one can take me down again. No one can put me in a shitty situation that I don’t want to be in.”

“But you put yourself in them.” I had to point that out. It didn’t seem right to just ignore it. “With your gambling and getting yourself into debt like this. No one else made you do that. You’re the only person who can be blamed, so why don’t you try to work it out the proper way? The legal way? Wouldn’t that be so much better?” I didn’t think I wasreallygoing to get through to him, but I had to try.

“Don’t talk to me about legality, Samantha,” he growled through gritted teeth. “Don’t be such a fucking saint. You’ve never said anything of use to me, so don’t try now. In fact…” He bound my mouth once more, taking great delight in shutting me up. “I don’t want to hear anything you have to say. You’re nothing more than a puppet now. Once I have your magic, I’ll be done with you.” He shrugged and smirked. “You might survive it, but even if you do, you’ll just be a normal person. You won’t be able to do a thing to get me back, so we will be out of one another’s lives forever. Thank God. I’m sick of seeing you, and it’s only been a little while.”

Again, he couldn’t seem to understand that this was all his fault. I didn’t willingly come back into his life. He reached out to me, basically forced me to come to him, so the fact that I was in his life was his own fault.

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