I covered Mason’s little ears and kissed the top of his head. “Watch what you say. That’s his mother you’re talking about.”
Lucas growled. “I’m not going to make her out to be a saint. She’s always been an addict and always will be. It’s amazing that Mason looks as healthy as he does. Why is he still bear, though?”
I adjusted Mason on my hip and he clawed me deeper. “Mason, baby, you’ve got to be careful.”
Lucas circled the couch in an instant and held Mason’s paws. “Mason, stop. You’re hurting her.”
Mason scrambled to get back to me while Lucas pulled him into his own chest. I watched with my hand over my mouth, feeling helpless and vulnerable as Mason fought to get away from his father. Lucas kept his arms gently around Mason, being careful to not hurt him, while keeping him pressed to his chest.
Claw marks appeared and then vanished on Lucas’s chest as Mason scratched him. He didn’t seem bothered by the pain and, as I watched on in a stupor, he healed immediately.
Mason wore himself out and drooped against his father’s chest. Lucas wrapped his arms tighter around his son and blinked down at the top of his head with watery eyes and a pained expression.
When he looked back at me, he was wide-eyed and confused. “What happened to him?”
I turned away to gather myself. When I faced him again, Lucas had folded his large body onto the couch and was holding Mason tightly, gently stroking his fur. The image touched me to the core and I clutched at my chest for a moment. Tears threatened to gather in my own eyes, but I quickly composed myself. I was supposed to be way more put together than to blubber over a father-son reunion .
“Mallory and her boyfriend got into something bad.” I swallowed and prayed I’d get through the story without falling apart. “They were busted and rolled over on a bigger fish to stay out of jail. My partner and I were assigned to keep them safe and hidden until the trial.”
Lucas shook his head and looked disgusted, but remained silent.
“She was doing better. Frank, her boyfriend, was a piece of work, but Mallory was…better. She was doing better.” I cleared my throat. “A week ago, I came back to the house and found them all… gone.”
He sat up. “Gone?”
I stared at him, my eyes pleading with him not to make me say it. “Gone. Frank, Mallory, and my partner, Aaron.”
“Jesus. Where was Mason?”
I looked at the little boy and sucked in a deep breath. “He was there. He was hiding but I’m fairly certain he saw everything. Before… he was talkative. A regular chatterbox. Now, he, well, he’s been like this since that night. He’s terrified.”
CHAPTER 4: Lucas
I tore my eyes away from Sammie and looked down at my son. He was hurting. It wasn’t normal for a bear shifter to remain bear at that age. He still trembled slightly in my arms.
“No one’s going to hurt you, Mason. I’m your dad. I’ll protect you. I’ll make sure no one hurts you, buddy.”
He held onto me tighter and I took it as a good sign. My heart ached for him, for this little boy that I wasn’t even sure really existed. The life he must have already had.
I looked back at Sammie and felt another tugging at my chest from the look of pain on her face. She was obviously tough, but whatever she’d seen had hurt her badly, too. I wanted to reach for her and pull her down beside us and sooth them both.
“I… I didn’t know what to do,” she continued, “I just found this beautiful bear cub and it took me a bit to figure out it was Mason. I didn’t know he could do that, turn into a bear. I just knew that I couldn’t let anyone else find him like that.”
I nodded. We were a private community for a reason. “How did you find me?”
“Mallory… She was still hanging on when I got there.” Sammie stopped and looked away. “She said your name. I didn’t know what it meant, but I went through her stuff and found that she’d kept a piece of paper with yours and Masons name on it. It wasn’t hard to put two and two together. I just hoped that you were… umm, like Mason, so you could help.”
I couldn’t help but formulate a mental picture of the scene. My stomach twisted and I had to fight the urge to grab Sammie and pull her into my arms. My bear was agitated, more riled than I could ever remember him being. The sight of her in pain had him rumbling in my chest with the need to comfort Mason while also comforting Sammie.
“Thank you for finding me.”
She nodded and stood up. “I just need to go wash my face. I’m feeling a little-”