by Hazel Gower
Adele took a step towards her, and Sammy almost jumped out of her skin as she heard two deep growls, one behind her and one next to her.
“Stay where you are, Mother. I will not even let you touch my mate. And if you do I won’t be as lenient as Jake and Zack.” Sammy could hear the deadly steel in Brock's voice.
Adele’s head shot up from staring daggers at her to look stunned at her son. “I have only ever wanted the best for my children. I don’t think this tiny, fat human is the right choice. One human daughter-in-law I can handle. Two, I’m stretching, but three is too much to pollute our good genes. I think you need to think real hard on your future.” And with that Adele turned and strolled away.
Wow. What a bitch. Maybe being with Slater and Brock was a bad idea. God, who would want that for a mother-in-law?
“Angel, I’m so sorry about her. If it helps, I was mostly raised by nannies.”
Sammy didn’t know whether to feel sorry for Brock that he wasn’t brought up by his mother or not. She turned in his arms and let go of Slater’s hand. “Thank God for that. I hate to think what you would have turned out like otherwise.”
Brock smirked, leaned down, and brushed his lips over hers. “Thanks for telling Mother what you are to me, to us.”
Sammy backed out of his arms as what she’d just done sank in. Both Brock and Slater stood still. Their bodies looked relaxed, but she’d learned that looks could be deceiving. They both wore tiny grins, but their eyes couldn’t hide their piercing gaze of possession, triumph at her finally wanting them and admitting to their family what they were to her. It was the happiness that shone from their faces that convinced her to give them a chance.
“Fine. I’ll date you two.” Their grins became two huge smiles. “There will be rules though. No breaking in or letting yourself in to my house. I learnt from Sandy and Susie that you Bear men think you can let yourself in and help yourself. Second, no pressure about how the relationship is moving along, no asking me to move in or moving me in a week or so into this, no hounding me for sex, no telling me what to do.” Sammy gave both men her best stern stare, so they knew she meant business.
****
Brock’s and Slater’s patience was finally paying off. Sammy had told his mother that she was his mate and said she’d give dating them a go, even if there were a lot of rules.
Brock knew he had to take it slow with what had happened to Sammy, but his bear wasn’t happy. His bear wanted their mate; he needed their mate. Since meeting Sammy and not being with her, Brock’s work was slowly suffering, and his performance was getting worse. His partner, Kegon, was pulling a lot of the weight and covering for him at work, which was dangerous with his job as a police detective.
He and Slater would date Sammy, but if she would allow it he was going to make sure he saw her every day. Even if he had to sit through chick flicks and boring TV shows.
Brock was working tomorrow night, Saturdays were always busy. The criminals and crazies liked the weekends the best. He knew this week he would be putting in overtime, so he could have next Saturday off for his little brother’s wedding, but if he could see Sammy every day, even for a hour or so and make his bear happy, he knew his work performance would pick up and he’d have no problem with the extra hours and he wouldn’t be a strain on Kegon.
“Lunch. Have lunch with Slater and me tomorrow.” Brock hoped she would agree. It would be perfect. It would be right before he went to work, and he and his bear would get a small fix of their mate.
Sammy chewed on her lip as she stared up at him. She looked over at Slater.
“Come on, Sammy. Brock has a great idea for a first date. It’s in the day, and it doesn’t have to be very long as both Brock and I have work tomorrow night.”
Brock could see Sammy warring with herself. He needed to help convince her. Not giving her the time to react he pulled her to him, lifted her up, and captured her mouth with his. Peaches and honey filled his mouth, and the same scent surrounded him. He ate her up, sucking on her lips, and as she gasped he slipped his tongue in to tangle with hers.
Sammy moaned, and Brock felt her hands slowly sneak up and run through his hair. The peaches and honey smell intensified, and his bear hounded at him to be set free and mate-mark her. Knowing if he kept going he would give into his bear, he reluctantly pulled his mouth from Sammy’s and handed her to Slater, who stood next to him. Sammy’s groan at the loss of him was cut off by Slater’s mouth.
Brock took satisfaction in the fact that Sammy had given a disappointed groan at the loss of him. While Slater helped convince Sammy, he calmed his bear and explained that they needed to take their time with their mate and earn her trust.
When Slater pulled away, Brock could see his eyes flashing bear, and his fist clenched holding his bear in as Slater held Sammy’s back. Brock could see the dazed, lust-filled bliss settle over Sammy and knew now was the time to ask again.
“Tomorrow at noon we’ll come and pick you up and take you to lunch. It’ll be our first date.”
Sammy looked from him to Slater and sighed. “Okay. Lunch tomorrow.”
Brock felt the grin spread over his face. He knew how he would get his mate to agree in the future, and he didn’t mind the method at all. Brock studied his mate, and his heart beat faster as he watched Sammy’s eyes flash with warmth as she smiled at Slater, then him. She surprised him when she reached for his hand and held Slater’s hand with her other.
“Thanks, guys. I needed that. I needed to feel irresistible and attractive.” She closed her eyes for a moment before she opened them and turned towards the door tugging them. “Come on. I think we’ve been out here long enough. I’m ready now to play some baby shower games, if I haven’t missed them all.”
Brock’s bear lay down content and relaxed for the first time in months at the sight of their mate holding their hand and dragging them into a place full of people who would know that Sammy was ready to finally admit to the world what she was them.
****
Slater watched as Sammy laughed and played games with her friends. He hadn’t been going to come tonight because it was getting too hard to be around Sammy and not claim her or hold her. Slater and his bear craved her touch. He was so glad he did come. Sammy sat between him and Brock on a big sofa.
At first she sat still holding their hands and watched everything going on. A peg game was being played, where you held a baby doll in one arm and tried to get as many pegs as you could off a line one-handed. Six women had a turn before they stopped when Susie said she would sit and open presents. Susie came and sat in a big padded armchair. She turned to his cousins, Brian and Blake.
“One of you can get me the presents. The other can write what I got and who I got it off.”
Blake pushed his brother toward the kitchen while he walked to the presents. “Brian, paper and pen is in the top right drawer in the kitchen.”
Slater couldn’t help chuckling at the glare Brian gave Blake as he went off to get the paper and pen. He glanced over at Brock to see a smirk on his face. Slater wondered how they would handle stuff like this when it happened. They’d only just stopped fighting and agreed to share Sammy three or so months ago.
At first he and Brock had fought all the time. Their bears attacked each other over Sammy, trying to kill each other to see who was the stronger. After months of fighting and being drained because of what was going on in the shifter world and the situation their mate was in, they’d decided if Brock’s two younger brothers could share and be happy and content, then so could they.
They’d bought a large five bedroom house, with two huge living areas, a massive kitchen, four bathrooms, and big verandas. The house was close to Brian, Susie, and Blake’s place. They’d hoped that Sammy would love it and be happy to move in with them. They hadn’t decorated much, as Brock’s sister had told them that if Sammy ever let them claim her she would want to decorate the house herself.
“Thank you, Brock, Sammy, and Slater. These will come in r
eal handy with the babies.”
Slater gave a mental shake and smiled at Susie as she looked at the two baby swings boxes. Susie gasped as she opened the present Sammy brought. Handmade knitted booties, bonnets, and cardigans, three in blue and three in yellow all different styles and sizes. That wasn’t all. Tears ran down Susie’s cheeks as she pulled out one blue-and-white and one yellow-and-white blanket. The work that would have gone into making these would have been hours, and taken months.
“Sammy, these are beautiful. They must have taken you forever. How did you get them all done in so little time?”
Sammy turned bright red and shrank back into the seat. “I have no life anymore, so I have a lot of time on my hands. I also find knitting therapeutic.”
Susie tried to get up, but Blake stopped her. “Let me go, Blake. I’m getting up to hug and thank Sammy.”
“Sweetheart, I think it’s best you stay seated. Sammy can come to you. She’s not eight months pregnant with twins.”
Sammy let go of his hand, and Slater watched as she got up, walked over to her friend, leaned down and hugged Susie.
His little mate was talented. You could tell by one look at the baby knitted stuff that Sammy had put a lot of love and time into them.
“I’m happy you like them, Susie. I wanted to do something extra special after what you did for me.”
Slater would be forever in debt to Susie for helping his mate stay safe and protecting her when he didn’t even know her.
Sammy kissed Susie’s cheek, and Slater could see the love that shone from her face for her friend. Slater wanted Sammy to love him. He wanted her to feel and know he would never hurt her and that she could count on him.
Going slow was going to be hard, but if Sammy looked at him with love the way she was currently looking at Susie he knew it would be worth it.
Chapter Two
What do you wear to a lunch with bear shifters who think you’re their mate? Sammy had no idea. She’d been staring at her closet for the last ten minutes unsure. She didn’t have anything sexy to wear, anything with cleavage, or clothes that showed too much skin. Greg had made her get rid of anything that he’d thought too provocative. Not for the first time Sammy wished she could kill him for what he’d done to her.
Not only had Greg beaten her, made her uncomfortable with herself and how she looked and acted, but he’d gotten ridden most of her clothes. He told her all the time, “Women your size shouldn’t wear what you’re wearing. No one wants to know how big your gut is or how large your breasts and arse are.”
Before Greg, she’d been a clothes hoarder. She was a huge op-shopper. She loved her curves, and she knew how to flaunt them to her best advantage. Her mother had always told her that most men liked women with a bit of meat on them, women with curves. Women with good child-bearing hips. She would always tell Sammy to never change for anyone. To always be herself, and that if anyone didn’t like that then they weren’t worth it. They weren’t the right people for her to even bother with.
God, Sammy wished she’d listened to her mother’s advice when Greg came along. The last couple of months she’d convinced herself that she hadn’t listened because she was angry with her mother dying on her. She was angry at her mother for leaving her alone in the world. Angry because she would never be at her wedding, or be there when Sammy got pregnant, see her first grandchild and so on.
Sammy could admit that she was pissed at her mum. If her mother had been alive she wouldn’t have met Greg. She would never have been with him. She would never be staring now at an almost empty closet. Sammy knew she was being selfish blaming her mum, but she was still mad at her, at the world for the cards she’d been dealt.
Grabbing her black pants and her long sleeved plain pink top, she shoved them on and went to her bag, got out her mobile and called Slater. He answered on the second ring.
“Hey, beautiful, you’re not ringing to cancel?”
“Maybe. It depends on you and Brock. I need clothes. I have decided that I’m not going to go another day without clothes that I like. No one gets to tell me what I can wear and what I can’t. I’m even going to treat myself to new clothes and not op-shop ones. You and Brock may come with me, or you can see me tomorrow. It’s up to you.”
Sammy slipped into her shoes and grabbed some hair-ties for her hair. She felt better already knowing that she would treat herself and go shopping.
“Of course we’ll go with you. Are you driving, or do you need me to come and pick you up?”
Sammy only had her learner’s permit. She’d meant to go and have lessons, but when her mum got sick she put everything on hold. She caught the bus to work, and any spare money she had went on her mother to help her stay comfortable and to have the better brand of medicine and so on. Her mother had wanted to go get a loan on the house, but Sammy wouldn’t let her. Her mother had looked after her all her life, and Sammy felt she could do it for her mother for the time she had left.
“I can catch a bus. I don’t drive. I’m only on my learner’s.”
“I can come and pick you up now. I’d also be happy to help teach you to drive. We’ll pick a time, and I’ll clear it. I know you need hours built up to go for your P’s.”
“If you’re okay with me dragging you around clothes shopping then by all means come and pick me up.”
“As long as I get to spend time with you I’m happy to do anything.”
Sammy rolled her eyes. She highly doubted Slater meant what he said, and after going shopping with her today he might regret saying it. “Sure. See you when you get here.”
“I’ll be at your place in fifteen, twenty minutes.”
Sammy hung up and finished getting ready. She brushed her hair again and did her teeth, put lip gloss on. It was the only makeup Greg had let her keep. Asshole. Today she would get makeup also. By the end of today she promised she would be her old self again.
Sammy tidied up the already immaculate house as she waited for Slater to come and pick her up. She would take Slater up on his offer. She would learn to drive. Sammy remembered Greg telling her that females shouldn’t be on the road because they were nuisances, and he liked that she couldn’t drive. Sammy now knew that her not driving was another control thing.
Her front doorbell rang, and she opened it to see Slater standing there and Brock opening her gate and walking to the door.
Slater was clean shaven, and with his short, curly, dirty-blond hair and deep sea green eyes and tall, muscular build it was no wonder her body lit up at the sight of him. He was gorgeous. He looked like he belonged on a magazine. He was so yummy.
Brock had a nice five o’clock shadow going on, and his hair sat in a messy curly array on his head. His piercing blue eyes never missed anything, and his body was to die for. He was dark and menacing and sent wicked shivers through her every time he was close.
The both together were deadly. They were irresistible. Sammy knew if she hadn’t gone through what she had in the last year, she would have jumped their bones as soon as they’d told her what she was to them.
Sammy hoped she could handle Slater and Brock. Before Greg she’d been full of energy and knew that she could have handled both men, or at least tried. The old Sammy might have been embarrassed about being with two men, but she would have tried. She wanted to be her old self again. Today she was determined to be what she was like before Greg.
Shutting the door behind her she hitched her bag strap over her shoulder and patted the side of the bag to check she had her keys. She walked down to Brock as he came to them. Two big four wheel drives sat out in front of her house, one white, the other black. She knew without even asking which car belonged to whom. She reached for Slater’s hand, held it, and walked to the white one.
“How’d you know this was mine?” Slater asked as he paused by the passenger door.
“I just knew. Brock is also the brooding one, so I thought black is his type of color.”
Slater laughed and opened the front passenger d
oor and helped her up. Crap. The car was big. He couldn’t teach her in this. She would feel like she was driving a truck.
“Did you mean it?” She grabbed Slater and yanked him back around to face her before he went to go to his side.
“Did I mean what?” Slater raised his eyebrow as she wiggled back on the seat.
“Will you teach me to drive?”
“Sure. I said I would. Just tell me what time suits you.”
Wow. He meant it. “Will you teach me in this car?”
“If you want. It’s probably the safest car to teach you in. My other cars are sports cars.”
“I don’t know if I could drive this. I’d feel like I was driving a truck.”
Slater leaned down and brushed his lips against hers. “Whatever you want to learn in I’ll teach you.” Slater kissed her, and she let her satisfaction at his answer show. She held him to her and devoured him. Her arousal intensified, and she breathed in and tasted his chocolate and honey smell.
Slater groaned and pulled away. “You’re killing me, beautiful.” Slater stroked her cheek before he walked around to his side of the car.
“I can teach you as well. Plus you can then say you were police trained.”
Sammy grinned at Brock as he moved into the spot Slater just vacated. “Really. I could, could I?”
Brock leaned down and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Between Slater and me you’ll be the best driver out there.”
Her heartbeat picked up. Warmth settled over her, and she felt great. She laughed and pulled Brock closer to her. “You two have just gone up in my eyes. I’m not working at the moment. So any time will be perfect.” She pulled Brock’s lips to hers and showed her appreciation.
So far so good. Not at all like Greg.
****
Brock couldn’t believe he was enjoying himself. He hated shopping with a passion, but with Sammy it was different. She didn’t take twenty minutes to decide if she liked a shirt or half an hour trying on clothes. She didn’t complain that they didn’t have something in her size or she thought she looked too big, or one of her assets was too small for the clothes to look right. Sammy laughed and smiled and didn’t go into every single shop. She knew what she wanted and what she liked.