Part Three

I dropped Mac and Jett at the packhouse and left without going inside. They both looked at me questioningly as I reversed the truck and drove down the tree lined lane back through the woods. I wondered briefly how long it would take before my phone started ringing.

I knocked on the front door for a second time when I heard soft footsteps coming from the staircase and falter in front of the door, like they were waiting for me to knock again.

“I know you’re standing right in front of the door Samantha,” I said and I could hear her intake of breath. She wasn’t expecting that one and this time I did smile.

“What are you doing here?” she asked through the door.

“It’s cold out here, come on, open the door,” I said to her.

She unlocked it and slowly opened the door just slightly so she could look at me. She looked pale and sweaty at the same time like she had a fever and I just looked at her bundled up figure as I put my hand against the door and started to push it inwards.

“Are you going to let me in?” I asked her.

“No,” she said as she looked at me.

“I brought you soup,” I said as I held up the paper bag.

“Why?” she asked me.

“You said you weren’t feeling well, isn’t this what boyfriends do?” I asked her.

“You’re insane,” she whispered but I still heard it.

“Like I haven’t heard that one before,” I said as she stood her ground.

“I don’t even know you, I’ve never talked to you before and now you expect me to let you into my house after ordering me to be your girlfriend?” she asked me.

“So get to know me,” I said and gave her a smile.

“Is this some sort of prank?” she asked me.

“What?” I asked her as she looked past me. “No pranks, I’m alone.”

“If I take the soup will you leave?” she asked me.

“Sure, but next time I’m coming in,” I said as I handed her the paper bag.

“Thanks,” she said with an emotion that struck deep inside me. Gratitude, like she wasn’t used to this.

“I’ll pick you up tomorrow morning at eight,” I said to her and started to turn around. “It’s going to rain, so don’t walk.”

“Sure,” she said and closed the door. I stopped and waited until I heard it lock before continuing to my truck.

I was back home in time for dinner but neither of my parents asked where I went. They weren’t nosy like that and Damon knew I’d tell him if anything was going on, Finley knew that too. They never really pushed me.

“Where did you go bro?” Jett asked me as I sat down at our table in the dining hall.

“I took Samantha some soup,” I said and they both looked at me.

“Wow aren’t you turning into the romantic boyfriend,” Mac said batting his eyelashes at me.

“Piss off,” I said as Jett laughed loudly and a few people looked our way.

“Take us with you next time, we haven’t officially met your girlfriend,” Jett said.

“And scare her off?” I asked as they both laughed.

“Nah but she has to know about our little bromance and be cool with it you know,” Jett said.

“Bromance?” Finley asked and I closed my eyes wondering how long she’d been standing so close to us.

“Yeah, right now we’re in a three-way,” Mac said as people close to us started to laugh.

“Is that code for being gay?” she asked and I couldn’t hold back my laughter anymore.

“No Mom,” I said.

“No it just means we’re close as fuck and she should know that we’re always going to be there, having this one’s back,” Jett said as Kat smacked him behind his head.

“Language,” she said as his head snapped forward.

“Archer! What’s a bromance three-way?” Finley asked her brother loudly as Mac lowered his head.

“Uhm, what?” Archer asked her.

“Your son is in a three-way with Jett and Griff, some sort of bromance thing going,” she said.

“Is that code for being gay?” he asked as I laughed again.

“I think so,” she said as my father entered the dining hall.

“Who’s gay?” he asked.

“Your son,” Finley said as Jett slid off his chair laughing under the table.

“Does Samantha know?” he asked as I lowered my head to my arms laughing.

“Who’s Samantha?” my mother asked.

“His girlfriend,” Damon said and I started shaking my head.

“I hate you guys,” I whispered.

“You have a girlfriend?” Finley asked me loudly.

“Yes,” I said as Mac looked at me.

“Yeah he told her today she’s his girlfriend from now on,” he said as Finley’s eyes grew wider.

“I think there’s crack in the water or something,” she said.

“You didn’t ask her? You ordered her?” Archer asked as he looked towards us.

“It’s for her own protection,” I said.

“Yeah so preppy Travis fucking Morris doesn’t get her,” Jett said as another smack hit his head, this time by Connor.

“Language,” he said but there was no anger in his voice.

“You talk like that all the time,” he mused.

“You like getting smacked don’t you,” Connor asked him.

“Not like that,” he said as I laughed.

“Don’t even say anything else, please for the love of the gods, don’t say it,” Connor said as we all laughed at Jett’s red face.

“I wasn’t going to,” he said and then he smiled, “but a smack now and then doesn’t hurt.”

“Crack, I’m telling you it’s crack,” Finley said as Connor laughed and sat down next to her.

After dinner I went upstairs to my room and waited a few hours before I snuck out from the patio and jumped down to the grass three stories down. I looked back at the house and it remained dark. I walked into the edge of the forest and took my clothes off and shifted.

It didn’t take me long to run to Samantha’s house as I kept to the surrounding forest on the outskirts of town and then cut through the surrounding trees to Pleasant Street where she lived. I shifted closer to her house and pulled the sweatpants on as my breath fogged in front of me.

“Stalker…” Kane said in the back of my mind.

“I’m just checking if she’s okay,” I said to him.

“Sure…” he said before retreating.

I made my way over to her house, it was one am so there were no cars driving around and all the lights in the surrounding houses were dark. She didn’t live in the best neighbourhood but also not the complete worst one and I was more than surprised when a window at the back of the house slid open.

“Shit, it’s freezing in here,” I said to Kane.

“No wonder she’s sick,” he said and I was surprised that he actually said something.

I walked past the kitchen from the adjoining dining room towards the living room. The house was clean, painfully clean, but sparsely furnished and I thought maybe that’s why she didn’t invite me inside. The first stair creaked loudly and I stopped to listen. I continued when I was sure that nobody had woken up from it and her room was the first door at the top of the stairs.

I opened her door and walked into her room, leaving the door open since there were no other fresh scents in the house. She was alone and I looked down at her as she slept. She was bundled up in blankets even though I could see her breath every time she exhaled.

Her room had a three quarter bed pushed to one wall with a desk and a thin rug on the floor. That was all she had. I touched her forehead and she felt warm but a bit clammy as well. I closed her door again and went back downstairs and opened the fridge. She had eaten only half of the soup I’d brought her. There was literally nothing else in the fridge and Kane growled lowly as he peered through my eyes.

The cupboards weren’t any better and I found a few packets of instant soup in one. Her backpack was on the counter in the kitchen and her wallet was next to it. She also had no money, no card, and I had no idea how to describe the things I were feeling in that moment.

“This is fucking ludicrous,” Kane said angrily.

“Where’s her family?” I asked but mostly to myself.

“Dead if we ever lay hands on them,” Kane said and I could feel his blood lust.

I left her house through the same window and ran back home as I shivered, it wasn’t from the cold though, our body temperatures ran high and I was rarely affected by the cold. I felt guilty as I climbed into my bed knowing that I’d had a full meal earlier and that our house had heating and that I always had money in my pocket.

I didn’t really sleep as I lay in bed and tried to formulate a plan in my head. By the time Finley yanked my door open I was already dressed and she raised an eyebrow as she looked at me.

“Not catching me again,” I said as she laughed.

“I love it when you get all shy around me,” she said as I shook my head.

“Yeah,” I said as she closed my door behind her.

“Spill,” she said as she sat down on my bed, “I know you snuck out last night.”

“I went to Samantha’s house, she’s sick so I took soup over earlier but she wouldn’t invite me in,” I said to her as I sat down next to her.

“So?”

“So I went back later. She’s alone in that house, her sister’s never there, don’t know where her parents are. She kept half of the soup for today, fridge is bare, cupboards are bare, no heating,” I said as I looked at her.

“Shit,” she said as she looked at me.

“Exactly, and you know I can’t leave it there,” I said to her.

“I’d be disappointed if you did,” she said and I hugged her suddenly.

“I love you Mom,” I said.

“You’ve got a good heart Griff,” she said.