“My dad passed away when I was seven. Charlie was only four, so he doesn’t remember him that well, but I do. We got our eyes from him, but our hair is from our mom. Anyways, my dad was a really good guy. He loved my mom and us completely. I can remember laughing with him a lot and feeling safe whenever he was around.
“When he died, it hit my mom really hard. It was a sudden death and it nearly broke her. But eventually, she recovered and when I was ten, she remarried. Jason was a good stepfather, treating us as his own kids. We had some really good times with, but that all changed nearly three years ago. My mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer.” I had to pause here, as my voice was cracking.
Ryan didn’t say anything, he just scooted over until he was beside me and then he put his arm around me. I rested my head against his strong shoulder and drew myself together. “The doctors didn’t give her long to live, but she hung on for a year. As she got sicker and sicker, Jason started to drink. I didn’t notice it at first, but soon he started coming home drunk all the time. My mom was too sick to notice, and by the time I realized what was happening, it was too late. He had become an alcoholic.
“When my mom passed away, it got worse. He would come home and scream at Charlie and I, saying how he never wanted to be stuck with us and that he’d only put up with us because of my mom. Soon after her death, he started to hit us.” I felt Ryan tense and I instinctively cuddled a little closer to him. “He didn’t do it to often at first, but it steadily got worse. Until Charlie hit him back for the first time. Now Jason leaves him alone completely, and if he knows Charlie is around, he won’t touch me. On Sunday night, he didn’t realize that Charlie was upstairs. He came after me and my brother pulled him off of me. Charlie took care of me after that, which is why neither of us was at school yesterday. And that brings us to today.”
Ryan was silent, staring ahead of him with an unreadable look on his face. His hand was lightly rubbing my arm, but I don’t think he even realized he was doing it.
I let him have his silence, content to just be sitting with him. I felt safe for the first time since my mom had died, and I loved that feeling. I listened to the steady thumping of his heart and it lulled me into an almost doze.
Finally, after ten minutes of silence, Ryan finally spoke up. “Why haven’t you gone to the police?” His voice was rougher then usual as he spoke.
“They’ll just put us into the system and Charlie and I will be split up. I’ve talked to a lawyer and as soon as I’m eighteen, I can take over as being Charlie’s guardian and we’ll move away from Jason. My parents left us a fair amount of money, and we’ve both been saving it, so we’ll be able to afford a place.”
“When do you turn eighteen?”
“In three months.”
He was silent for a few minutes again. Then he shifted so he could look down at me. “I’ll never hurt you Sammy. You have to believe me.”
I smiled sadly. “I know. I’m sorry for avoiding you like that. I’m just used to not letting people in, and after Sunday, I reverted back to that person. I still don’t understand why I can be like my old self with you, but I like it, so I’m not going to question it.”
“You don’t have to apologize, I can understand your reaction.” He rested his cheek on the top of my head. “I’m glad you can be yourself with me.” We sat like that for a few minutes before he sighed. “As much as I don’t want to move, you should probably call your brother. He’s likely going nuts because he doesn’t know where you are.”
I bolted upright. “Shit! I didn’t even think of that.” I leapt off the couch and raced towards where Ryan had dumped my bag. I scrambled to find my phone, and when I did, sure enough, there were eleven missed calls on it. It was still on silent from when I was in school and as I went to call Charlie back, it rang again. I answered it quickly. “Hello?”
“SAMANTHA WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?”
I winced and held the phone away from my ear. “Calm down, Charlie. I’m at Ryan’s. I had my phone on silent and just remembered that now. Ryan told me that I should call you, which is what I was about to do.”
“Why the hell are you at his place?” He was quieter now, but I knew he was still pissed.
I sighed. “I kind of ran from him earlier and he followed me, wanting to know why.” I paused before continuing quietly. “He saw the bruises.”
Charlie hissed out a breath. “Damn. What did you tell him?”
At this point, Ryan had come up behind me and he rested one hand lightly on my shoulder. “I told him the truth, Charlie.”
Silence.
“Charlie?”
Nothing.
“Charlie, are you still there?”
“You’ve never told anyone before,” he said quietly, shock evident in his voice.
“I know,” I said, just as quietly. “But something told me I could trust him.”
“I don’t like this, Sam. What if he goes to the cops or something?”
I glanced at Ryan over my shoulder. “He won’t tell anyone. I told him what our plan was and I think he understands it.” Ryan nodded, so I continued. “I feel better now, Charlie. Like a load has been lifted off of my shoulders.”
“Is he near you right now?” he asked.
“Yeah, he’s right beside me.”
“Let me talk to him.”
“Um, why?”
Charlie blew out a frustrated breath. “Sam, just give him the damn phone.”
I grumbled a little, but complied. “He wants to talk to you. I’ll just go wait in the living room like a good little girl while you men speak.”
Ryan chuckled a little as he took the phone. “Good girl. Men speak now,” he said with a fake caveman accent.
I rolled my eyes and went back to the living room.
*Ryan’s POV*
The smile left my face as soon as she was out of sight. I raised the phone to my ear. “Hey Charlie.”
“Look, you can’t go to the authorities about this.”
I rubbed at my temples. “I won’t. I know they’ll split you two up if I do, and that would hurt Samantha. I won’t do anything that will hurt her,” I said.
I heard Charlie blow out a breath. “I don’t know why she seems to be so attached to you, but I guess maybe it’s a good thing. This is the first time in two years that she’s ever really talked to anyone else, let alone a guy. And you don’t exactly give out a warm and cuddly vibe.”
I let out a short laugh. “No, I definitely don’t. But there is something about your sister that makes me want to protect her. At least now I know what I’m supposed to be protecting her from.”
Charlie sighed. “I wanted to talk to you about that. I want to join the basketball team at school, but I won’t leave her alone. Would you be able to keep an eye on her when I’m busy?”
I couldn’t prevent myself from grinning. I had been worried about getting through her brother, but he was already trusting me with her. “Yeah, I can do that. Most days that she isn’t working, she’s with me for the project anyways.”
“Yeah, and practices are on Mondays and Fridays, so it works out well. I’m warning you though, if you hurt her, I’ll kill you.”
“I get it. I won’t do anything that will hurt her on purpose. That’s all I can promise.”
“That’s all I can ask. Are you going to bring her home soon?”
I looked in the direction of the living room. “I don’t know. Is Jason going to be there?” The name left a bad taste in my mouth.
“No, he’s gone for a few days for business. She’ll be safe until then at least.” Charlie said wearily.
“I’ll see what she wants to do then. I’ll make sure she gets home safely at some point though.”
“Okay. I’ll talk to you later, Ryan.”
“Bye Charlie.” I disconnected the call and walked back into the living room. I smiled when I saw Samantha sitting on the couch, pouting. She looked up when she heard me come in, but then turned her face away from me. I stifled the chuckle that tried to escape. “Giving me the silent treatment now?” I asked.
When she ignored me, I just shrugged and sat on the other end of the couch. I grabbed the remote and turned the TV on. I figured I would just wait her out.
After fifteen minutes, she huffed out a breath. “So did you men have a nice discussion about poor defenseless me?”
I muted the TV. “Come on, Sam, don’t be like that. Your brother is worried about you, and so am I.”
She muttered something about “overprotective idiots”, but didn’t comment further. She turned her attention to the TV, effectively tuning me out.
As we sat together, I could feel the electricity humming between us. She must have felt it as well, because she kept on fidgeting. When I couldn’t handle it anymore, I moved over until I was beside her, and I wrapped an arm around her. She automatically curled into me, and the hum of electricity died down, although I could now feel it coursing through our bodies wherever we were touching.
Neither of us spoke about the fact that we seemed to be drawn together. I knew exactly why it was, but it wasn’t exactly something I could just blurt out to her. I knew it would likely scare her off, and I couldn’t handle it if that happened. So I would just have to keep being as patient as I could.
As we sat there, I thought over everything she had just told me. My wolf was desperately trying to make me go and find this Jason guy and teach him a lesson, but I knew that wouldn’t end well. Instead, I promised my wolf that we could spend our nights outside of her house, so we knew she was safe. That satisfied him enough to keep him from trying to take control, although I could still feel the rage radiating from him.
I didn’t blame him one bit. I wanted to tear Jason’s throat out for laying a hand on her. When I had first met Samantha, I knew someone had hurt her, but I hadn’t expected that it was still happening.
I sighed internally. I had a feeling that Sam was going to find out my secret sooner rather then later, because I was already slowly losing control of my wolf when we were near her.
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I know it's a little shorter, but I needed to end it there, otherwise it would have dragged on for too long. Next chapter is done, so I'll make the same requirements as last time, except it has to be 5 comments instead of 4, and they can't be from me lol. So, 5 comments from people that aren't me and again if this story makes it to the top 100, you guys get two updates. As usual, I'll update in two days no matter what, but you gusy have been meeting my goals so I've been uploading everyday which I like doing :-). Enjoy!