“How’s Eva’s therapy going?” Sam asked, just trying to get the kid to talk. They’d been trying to meet for weeks, but Hunter was so tightly wrapped, he’d barely gotten a word out of him that wasn’t general chit chat.
Hunter blinked, and his jaguar disappeared. “She says she doesn’t need it, the therapy. But Red takes her anyway.” He pulled at the bottom of his hoodie, fingers finding a single thread.
“We both know if she really didn’t want to go, no one could make her.”
Hunter frowned, looking down. “Maybe.”
“It’s the same with you meeting me. I’m not forcing you to be here, and neither is Kace… I mean Red,” Sam corrected, using the name Hunter called the Guardian.
“No, but Red told me I have to. I don’t want to –”
“Disappoint him?”
Hunter clenched his fists, lashes dropping to hide his eyes. “Maybe. I don’t know.”
Sam waited, letting Hunter relax a fraction further. “Did you see your mam?”
A single nod.
“How’s she doing?”
“Why are you asking about my mum? You’re supposed to be asking about me.” Hunter shuffled his feet. “That’s the point of these sessions, isn’t it? The reason I’m being made to meet with you.”
Well, this is going well,Sam thought.
“Next you’ll ask me to piss in a cup,” Hunter said angrily.
“I’m not going to ask that.” Sam couldn’t control his wince. “But because you’re strangling your animal and –”
Hunter shot to his feet, his blue eyes merging into a bright emerald. “I’m clean, just like I tell Red every time he asks when I visit her.”
“He’s just concerned –”
“Youcan tell Red, because he clearly isn’t listening to me, I am clean, just like I say I am. My mum doesn’t force me to take the drugs, I say no. He isn’t my father –”
“Are you finished?” Sam replied, deadpan. Moving slowly, he shuffled forward on the bench, leaning on his knees. “Red may not be your da, but he loves you anyway.”
Hunter growled. “Fuck off, I don’t do guys.”
“What a childish fucking comment,” Sam shot back in return, his leopard apparent in his tone. “It’s actions, not always blood, that makes you family. Kace may not be the man who knocked your mam up, but he’s done more for you than anyone else. Take it from a guy whose da hated him.”
Hunter’s lips thinned, his eyes widening. “Your dad hated you?” he asked, his voice quiet. “Why?”
“Even after all these years I still don’t know.”
“Is that the reason for the therapy?”
“Yes.” Sam calmed his sudden anger, allowing another purr to rattle through his chest.
Hunter took a step back. “Stop it.”
“Stop what?”
“Stop doing whatever you’re doing,” he growled. “It’s not fair, you’re making me feel weird.”
“I don’t mean to,” Sam said, telling the truth. “Maybe that’s one of the reasons my da hated me.”
“Your dad sounds like a cunt.”
