“Enough to let her take your mate with her?” Nafarius asked. The question itself was disrespectful, insinuating that Alex didn’t care for his mate’s safety.
Alex ignored the slight. “There you go again with that phrase ‘let her’. Sam is as much my leader as you are; you can imagine how well it would go over if I tried to tell you what to do. Here,” Alex reached into his pocket. “She said to give you this.”
The note, written in Sam’s bold handwriting, was short.
4th & James ~ 4PM Don’t blame Alex. Love, Sam
Nafarius felt some of his anger slipping away. Sam, predicting his response at finding her gone, had let him know where to find her as well as giving him a not-so-gentle reminder that no one could tell her what to do. Alex breathed a sigh of relief as the corner of Nafarius’ lips twitched ever so slightly. Nafarius folded the note, put it in his pocket and grabbed the keys to the SUV. “Let’s go.”
Nafarius recognized the address; it was right in the middle of the shopping district, which meant parking would be a bitch. It took them longer to find a parking space then it did getting downtown. In the end, Nafarius got lucky and pulled up in front of the location Sam had given him.
He immediately saw her. She was sitting outside at a small bistro table; her hair was loose and her face turned up to the sun, one hand resting on the gentle swell of her belly. As he watched, she laughed at something Maddie said, the sound carrying to where he still sat in the car. It was at that moment that Nafarius realized that he’d never seen Sam laughing and looking so carefree.
From the very beginning, her time with the pack had been a test of her strength both as a leader and as his mate. It was only here, away from the rest of the pack members, that she had been able to forget her responsibilities – if only for a moment. Suddenly, Nafarius realized that he couldn’t stay mad at her for taking the day to enjoy herself. Besides, Alex was right, there was no telling Sam what to do and she could definitely take care of herself.
Next to him, Alex snorted, drawing him out of his musing. “I should have known.”
Nafarius turned to look at him. “What?”
Alex indicated the Starbucks sign behind Sam. “Before she met you, I would have said that there was nothing Sam loved more then coffee, including men and sex.”
Nafarius started out of the car and saw the exact moment that Sam became aware of him. Her head turned towards him and her nostrils flared slightly, catching his scent. She wore a pair of new sunglasses but despite the dark lenses, he knew that her eyes had locked with his. Sliding into the seat next to her, he leaned over and nuzzled the soft spot just behind her ear. “Hello, darling.”
Sam shivered. There was no mistaking the hint of his earlier frustration at finding her gone. She had known when she made the decision to go shopping that Nafarius would be worried and that his worry would turn into anger. However, she couldn’t stand the thought of spending the day locked in the house after having been out of the city for so long. Trying to sound innocent, Sam asked, “did you know that this is Maddie’s first time in the city?”
Nafarius didn’t bother to look at the other young woman. “I did know that, which is why I thought she would be a good one to accompany us on this trip.”
“Hmmm…” Sam said and took a long sip of her drink. “Well, I just had to show her my favorite shops and then we had lunch at this great little place I know. After that we did a bit more shopping and then I realized that my feet were killing me and I hadn’t had coffee in almost a year and well… here we are!”
Nafarius looked around the table, “didn’t you buy anything?”
“Of course we did,” Sam pointed to where the car she’d found in the garage was parked. “It’s in the car.”
Nafarius’ eyes about popped out of his head. Even from where he sat he could see that the entire back seat and storage area of the car was packed full of packages. “Is that all for the baby?”
“God no, we didn’t even get to the baby store yet. I want to do that with you after my appointment tomorrow.”
“Appointment?” Nafarius asked, feeling his grip on his sanity slipping. Surely his mate wouldn’t be the death of him.
“Yep. I called and made an appointment with an OB/GYN for tomorrow at 10AM. I explained that I had been traveling for the past few months and had just now gotten back into States.” Sam could see that he was worried. “I gave them a false name and told them that we’d be self paying so there is no insurance paperwork to fill out. It’ll be fine, I promise. I just need to know that everything is okay.”
Nafarius nodded. “Okay, let’s head back. Seth and Jake should be back at the house by now. I thought maybe we could all go out to dinner. I hear there’s a pretty good steak house near by.”
Sam and Maddie both groaned. “No! No steak! I want Mexican,” Sam said. “Or Sushi.”
“Or Thai,” Alex suggested.
“Italian?” Maddie offered quietly.
“Alright, alright,” Nafarius held up his hands in mock surrender. “No steak.”
As it turned out, Seth and Jake were home but only long enough to change and go back out. It seemed they’d attracted the attention of a couple of college girls and had been invited to a club in Pioneer Square. Nafarius gave them several strict warnings about how to behave before setting them free.
In the end, they settled on Mexican, Sam calling it the ‘Pregnant Lady’s Prerogative’. They found a family owned restaurant close to the house and were about half way through the meal when a young woman stepped up to their table.
“Alex? Is that you?”
Maddie felt herself stiffen at the sight of the tall redhead addressing her mate.
Alex was seated on the outside edge of the curved booth; Nafarius sat across from him, together they effectively prevented anyone from getting to Sam or Maddie without having to go through one of them first. Easily, Alex slipped from the booth and stood to greet the newcomer. “Caro, wow, you look great!”