by Marcy Jacks
His father sighed, looked into his coffee mug, and then he seemed to grit his teeth.
"No. He is…what he is. He's not some drug dealer who owed money. He's not a thief, and while I'm still not sure about you being with him—God only knows what that wolf did in his past—he wasn't the one who sent those people after me either. Those people didn't even really want him. They wanted you. They wanted to get back at you for what they think you and the others did."
He clenched his hand to a fist and suddenly slammed it down onto the table. He knocked over his mug. Sam had been holding on to his, so he managed to save his mug from being knocked over, but he felt the vibration.
He jumped with the table then hurried to pick up the coffee mug.
"They were the ones who kidnapped you! They were the ones who tried to hurt you! Those filthy, disgusting…" He shook his head.
Sam got up to grab for the paper towels to clean up the mess.
"You should have heard the things they were saying to me when I was with them. Dumb motherfuckers. I hope your boyfriend killed those idiots."
Sam flinched. He didn't want to agree or disagree with that because he wasn't sure what he wanted in this case. He didn't want to disagree with his father when the man was rightfully angry about what he'd suffered.
"I'm just glad you're safe," Sam said. "I'll make sure this doesn't happen again."
"What's that supposed to mean?" His dad raised a brow at him.
Sam tensed. "Well, I was just thinking…I don't know. I just don't want this to happen to you again."
His father still looked at him as though he didn't understand what this was about. Then he sighed, rolled his eyes, and shook his head.
"Are you serious about him being your mate?"
Sam swallowed. He nodded. "Yeah. I can…feel it."
He wasn't going to get into any more details than that. His dad already knew what he needed to know about it. Sam was still under the mating heat. He needed his mate. He wanted to be near him even now. It hurt him, physically hurt him, that Collin wasn't here to comfort him.
He didn't like that. He wanted his mate here with him. He wanted Collin to hold him.
But also, looking at his dad, at what Sam's relationship had done to him…
"Boy, don't even think about it."
Sam blinked. "Think about what?"
His father pointed a finger at him. "I can see it in your eyes. You're thinking of not being with that wolf anymore because of this." He pointed at his face.
Sam flinched. "I…I wasn’t…"
"Yes, you were. Don't even think about lying to me. I can always tell when you're lying to me, and I don't like it. If that wolf is yours…I don't have to like it, but there's nothing I can do about it. You're not going to fuck yourself up just because something unfair happened to me. Do you understand?"
Sam stood there, trembling under the stare of his father. He could really be a hard-ass at times, but right now, Sam was glad for it.
He was glad his father was so amazing, that he could look at Sam and set him straight, even when he might have been acting stupid and thinking of doing something he might regret.
"Thanks, Dad."
"Don't thank me. Just get me another coffee. Put something stronger in it this time, will you?"
"Sure thing, Dad."
His father only drank when he was stressed or needed to unwind. It wasn't often, so Sam never had anything to worry about, and after getting old enough, he sometimes drank with him, too.
This was one of those nights.
Sam and his father drank until they were plastered. He didn't stop to think about how that might affect his father with his head injury and all, and Sam didn't care either. His dad earned getting a good buzz, but he did seem to need to stop a little sooner than he normally would have.
Sam helped him get to bed, and Sam made his way to the couch.
His old bedroom had been turned into an office for his old man. There was a futon in there, but Sam was a little too drunk to figure out how to work it, so he turned on the TV and fell asleep on the couch.
Sam only woke up when he felt someone shaking his shoulder.
At first he thought it was his father. Sam tried to wave him off. He was too tired. Too tired to think about the possibility of this being an emergency.
"Baby, come on, wake up."
Sam groaned, opening his eyes. It was still a blur, but he definitely didn't see his dad. He saw Collin.
Sam smiled. Pushing himself to sit up, he was still tired, but now his body called to the other man now that Collin was here.
"You're all right."
"Yeah, I'm all right."
Collin sat down next to him on the couch. He wrapped his arm around Sam's shoulders, pulling him close.
That was more than all right with Sam. He leaned against the other man, sighing, satisfied and happy as he felt himself being held by his mate.
"I was worried about you."
He felt Collin squeezing him, felt the man's lips on the top of his head.
His cock twitched a little, stupid body wanting the other man even when he was exhausted and just coming out of a dead sleep.
But apparently he still could hold it off a little. The desperate desire to have this man wasn't as strong now that Sam was about to fall asleep on him, but it was still there.
"Not dreaming, right?"
He felt Collin's chuckle. "No. I'm here."
"Sorry," Sam said, feeling the need to apologize for the way he could barely keep his eyes open. "I promise I'm excited to see you. I'm just so tired."
"Don't be sorry. It makes sense you would be so tired after everything you went through. You've been taking care of your father all day. You went to get him, even though I wish you hadn’t."
Sam didn't want to hear that. "My dad wishes I hadn’t gone for him either."
"I know."
"You know?"
Sam looked up at the man. Collin shrugged.
"It makes sense he wouldn't have wanted you to go after him. He's your father."
Sam grumbled a little about that. He didn't expect Collin to be on his side, but it would have been nice to have at least one person not point out the stupid shit he'd done.
"Don't be mad at me, but it's true. You shouldn't have gone."
"He's my father. Of course I went."
"I know."
"Then don't tell me I shouldn't have gone."
"I know you would have gone, and I know you will go again if anything like this ever happens again, but you shouldn't have gone."
This wasn't an argument Sam wanted to get into, and he knew it wasn't an argument he was going to win. So he let it go.
"Do you want to stay here with your dad for a while? You don't have to come home if you want to be with him."
Sam smiled at that. His father had called this place his home, too. The fact that his dad felt the apartment was his home, and Collin thought the pack was his home was…kind of a nice feeling. Sam liked that there were people out there who loved him enough to want to share what they had with him. Who wanted to give him a home wherever they happened to be.
"I want to stay here, but can you stay, too?"
Collin didn't smell like blood. He didn't look like he'd been in the middle of an active murder. If things were as messy back there as Sam thought they’d been, then he'd definitely showered before coming here.
Collin took some time to think about that. "I'll stay until your father wakes up, but only because you want me to."
Sam smiled at that. "I've got you wrapped around my little finger, right?"
"Just a little. If he wants me out of his home, then I'll have to leave. You understand that, right?"
Sam nodded. "But I don't think he'll want you to leave. I think he's starting to accept you."
"He might not if he finds out what I was up to with those hunters."
This was the part that Sam didn't want to get into, but he figured there was no way around it.
Collin sighed. “Near as I can figure, maybe they thought your old man knew more than he did, considering his connection to you. When they couldn’t get anything out of him and you called, they decided to go for the better prize.”
Sam tried not to flinch at that.
"Did you kill those hunters?"
Collin didn't answer for a long couple of minutes. The longest minutes of Sam's life. Maybe as long as when he'd desperately tried to think of an excuse to borrow a car from a stranger in Maxwell's pack so he could rescue his father within the time limit given to him.
"Two of them are dead. One is alive. We…I broke all the bones in his right hand before sending him on his way."
Sam swallowed hard. "As a warning to anyone who might try something like this?"
"Something like that," Collin said.
"Did you kill the other two?"
Again, there was a minute or two of hesitation. "I killed one. Maxwell got the other."
Sam didn't say anything to that.
"Do you want me to go?"
Sam shook his head. "No. I want you here."
"I would still kill him, if given the chance to go back and do it all over again. I don't want any of those motherfuckers to live after what they did. They don't deserve to live after what they tried to do to you."
Sam held his mate tighter.
"I'm sorry you had to do that for me."
He felt Collin looking down at him, felt his chest expand with a heavy sigh, and then another kiss was pressed to the top of his head. "This isn't on you. None of this was ever supposed to be on you."
"I know, and I know that it's not, but I know you want to be in control of your wolf. I'm sorry I made you go through that."
"Those aren't the words of a man who knows this isn't his fault."
Sam couldn't help it though.
"I love you."
He felt Collin looking down at him, and while there was nothing outward to give any hint to his emotions, Sam got the distinctive impression the other man was pleased to hear those words.
He was pleased to be able to say them. He wanted to say them as often as Collin needed to hear him.
"Thank you for coming for me, and for my dad, even if you didn't mean to come for my dad."
He had to get that through to the other man.
"Did you go there thinking they would kill you?"
Sam cringed. "I'm…not sure. I guess I hoped they wouldn't. I was hoping…a lot of things. But I thought if they did, I was glad you weren't there to see it. I didn't want you to worry about me."
He heard his mate snort loudly at that. "You know that makes zero sense, right?"
"I know. I know."
Collin sighed, and this time Sam really did feel the ache in the other man. The emotional taxation he’d gone through when he’d found out what Sam had done.
Sam figured that was something he was going to have to get used to as time went on for them. But at least it was something he could get used to in the future. He would always have his mate. He would be able to go on with Collin by his side.
Because he’d come for Sam when he’d tried to go off and do something on his own that he probably shouldn’t have.
“The one thing I’m desperate to know…”
Sam looked up at the other man. Collin looked back at him.
“How did you get someone in the pack you don’t even know to loan you their car? Even if it was a piece of shit?”
Sam laughed at that. “Don’t tell my dad, but I offered the guy five hundred dollars.”
“What?”
Sam nodded, trying not to laugh at just how stupid it was. “I know. It’s basically everything I have in my savings account right now.”
And he would offer it again if he could to bring his father back. His dad could be mad at him all he wanted. He could yell and scream at Sam until the cows came home for what he’d done, but it didn’t matter.
Sam wanted his dad alive and well in the world.
There were two people in the world he cared about. One of them was snuggling him right now, and the other was going to spend some time recovering from a kidnapping that should not have happened.
Collin sighed. “I can tell this is something you’re thinking about even now. I had a talk with Maxwell. If you’re all right with it, and if your father is all right with it, we can set something up so your dad is taken care of. I don’t think he would want to come and live with us at the pack. He seems worried enough about what could happen to him and to you, and as an unmated male, it would be better if he stayed here, but, maybe, we can set something up where he can be protected.”
“Protected?”
“As much as we can. We’re not the mafia. We don’t have people at our disposal who can do things like that all of the time. At most, we can check up on him from time to time, make sure any other shifters in the area know he’s not to be fucked with.”
“But you won’t be able to do anything if any hunters come looking around for him.”
It wasn’t a question. The shifters could mark territory, and they could make deals with other shifter packs, but no one could control a hundred percent what other shifters did, and the hunters were a breed all of their own.
Sometimes protected by the police and sometimes not. The world had no consistency, and Sam hated that.
“We’ll do what we can, but only if your father wants us to. That’s the best I can do.” Collin looked at him as though he were hoping for some understanding. Considering how he’d looked when he was about to attack and kill those hunters, that said a lot.
“I understand,” Sam said, and he meant it. “Do you forgive me for running off like that?”
He needed to know. He needed to get that off his chest. He needed to know that he hadn’t damaged the trust Collin had in him because of what he’d done.
“There’s nothing to forgive.” Collin leaned in, and his mouth on Sam’s was the most welcome feeling in the world.
Suddenly, he wasn’t so tired anymore.
When Sam pulled away from him, he had that look on his face, the golden color to his eyes, and Sam wanted to find somewhere private he could be with him.
“Just promise me that if you want to go and save someone, take me with you next time?”
Sam nodded, wanting to give this man anything and everything he could.
“Yeah, I promise.”
THE END
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