Alpha Vampire Romance: Vampire’s Mate (Paranormal Shapeshifter Alpha Demon Vampire Romance) (Coming of Age Werewolf BBW Shifter Women’s Fiction Short Stories) by Rebecca Abbott Read Free Book Online Page A

I am,” she said, and smiled. “I’m just shocked, is all. It’s nice to see you, Jack. It’s nice to meet you, Eli.”
     
    *
     
    Sitting in her living room with Jack and this Eli, Samantha felt a distinct feeling of unreality, as though she were watching all this through 3-D glasses. She tried to keep her face clear of her shock. She had regained herself after her initial silliness and had made them all some coffee. She sat on the chair and the two of them sat side by side on the couch. Samantha watched Jack with a sort of animalistic curiosity as he sipped his coffee and looked around the apartment. This man was once the boy who had waded into the river and… it was strange.
    Eli picked up one of her books, a John Steinbeck, regarded it for a few moments and then set it down on the table. Samantha wasn’t a huge reader, but her father had loved John Steinbeck and recently Samantha had decided to read through all his novels as a sort of tribute.
    “We’ve shocked you,” Jack said.
    “Perhaps a little,” Samantha admitted. “I knew you were back to today.”
    “The Hag?” Jack said.
    “Yeah, how did you know?”
    “She charged at us as soon as we were in town. She was the one who gave me your address. She was adamant that I come and see you. I was going to anyway and I was thankful for the address. She looks ancient . Do you remember when she was just a gray-haired old woman, when we used to sneak into her garden? Now she looks like an actual fairytale witch or something.”
    Eli laughed, and Samantha laughed with him. They met eyes for a moment, this strange man sitting next to her childhood friend. “I can’t imagine that woman being young,” Eli said. It was the first thing he had said. Samantha was surprise by how deep his voice was; and it was tinged with the Deep South.
    “Oh, she was never young,” Samantha said. “Just less old.”
    They both laughed at that and Samantha found herself grinning like a gargoyle. They finished their coffee and sat in a companionable silence for a time. Samantha didn’t feel the need to fill the silence. That was a nice change from work, where every silence was filled with all the imaginable mundanities in mundane existence. Jack insisted on taking the mugs to the kitchen and then the three of them sat there.
    Finally, Jack leaned forward. “Sammy, I’m actually here with an ulterior motive.”
    “Really?” she said. Thinking: He needs a place to stay. But there isn’t room.
    But it wasn’t that. Instead, he leaned across the coffee table and touched her hand. His hand was firm and warm. “I want you to come on a date with me and Eli,” Jack said, staring into her eyes.
    “ Both of you?” Samantha exclaimed.
    “Yes,” he said, staring hard into her eyes. “Both of us. What do you say?”
    *****
    She had no idea what to say. She didn’t know Eli, and she barely knew Jack anymore. All she and Jack shared was a childhood; all she and Eli shared was Jack. There was no foundation upon which to build an opinion of Eli, and a flimsy one upon which to build a reevaluation of Jack. She returned his gaze and tried to look within him and see if he was joking with her. Jack had never been the most prankish or boys, but maybe war had changed him. But as she looked into his eyes she saw that he was dead-serious. They both wanted her.
    “Why?” Samantha said.
    Jack shrugged. “Why not? I showed Eli a picture of you whilst we were over there, and I thought about you a lot. I’m not saying we do anything, Sammy. Let’s just go on a date, the three of us, and see how it goes.”
    Eli was staring at her frankly with his deep green eyes; eyes like a wild man of the forest. Jack leaned forward on powerful forearms and looked deeper again into her eyes, penetrating her consciousness, making her feel like a fifteen-year-old girl again. She remembered the time when they had had too much to drink, and her parents had been out, and it had happened and it had been