As Love Shifts (18 page)

He spotted Ever sitting with Demetri on a fallen tree on the side of the road. Before them on another piece of corrugated metal was an assortment of things, including a large pile of bricks. Kris stopped, turning back into a man. He walked over and was going to sit beside her, but Ever got up and walked away. She was really mad. He looked at Demetri. “Thank you for keeping her busy and helping to gather things. We can really use those bricks. Could you give me a little time alone to talk to her?”

“Sure. I’ve been ordered around all day. Why not end it as it began
?
”

“Demetri. Please. I don’t need you mad at me also. I didn’t mean to order you around. I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, me, too. I think I’m just upset because Ever is upset. Her energy is filtering into me. Go talk to her. I’m going to check out the house. The two of you can haul this shit back.”

“We will. Thank you again.”

“Have fun. She is in rare form.” Demetri rose and headed back toward the house.

Ever was walking in the opposite direction. Kris jogged up beside her. “I know that you are really angry with me and I’m sorry. Really sorry. This was my issue and I shouldn’t have taken it out on you.”

“If you’re fucking jealous of Chirrot then just say so. I won’t ever look at him again if that’s what you want. I think it’s ridiculous that you don’t trust me, but at least be willing to discuss things with me. I can’t stand you shutting me out.”

He lowered his eyes guiltily. “It’s not Chirrot, well…it is Chirrot, but not how you think. Ever, the passage about you in the legend book is kind of unclear in places. One of those places is about your alpha mate and your three men. When Mick left and Demetri showed up, Liam and I assumed that the three were me, Liam, and Demetri. The problem is that if we are the only men in your life, you wouldn’t find anyone else attractive. That is not the case and now that Chirrot has been thrown into our everyday lives, I’m thinking that maybe he actually belongs as a part of us.”

Ever stopped dead, staring at him in utter dismay. Her brow was wrinkled, her eyes narrowed, and her bottom lip was hanging slack. “What?” she asked in a monotone,
what the hell are you talking about
voice.

He crinkled one side of his face in a sneer. “Um. I think I should start from the beginning. After I lost my eye, I was feeling very incomplete. I felt as if I had lost some of my sexual attraction and kept wondering how I could be alpha as I am now. I felt as if some of my power had been taken away. At the same time, you were discovering that you had new magic and you were becoming more powerful. I guess it kind of bugged me out and made me question everything about you and our lives. I even questioned if you would be better off without me. Today, after you left, Chirrot and the shifters showed up with building supplies and shit. It made me realize that we had done something that no other alphas had done. We brought two breeds together who hated each other for something that had happened hundreds of years ago.”

Kris smiled, stroking her cheek and glad that she didn’t bat his hand away. “I kept thinking and we worked together to make the bunkers happen and it saved our clan. We have beautiful children who love us and who are very special. Together we have accomplished so much. Even when we aren’t working side by side, we are still helping one another. We need each other and I need you. I will not allow myself to be weak because of my eye and I need you to keep loving me as if I was still whole.”

“You are whole. It’s not like your cock was bitten off.”

Kris chuckled. “You have been spending too much time with Chirrot.”

Ever laughed, but appeared confused. “What?”

“He made almost the same comment earlier. Can you forgive me for being an ass?”

“Of course I can. Just stop pushing me away.”

“I will, I promise.” He hated to breach the subject of Chirrot at the moment, but really needed to get her opinion while they were alone. “Um. I have a question that needs your consideration.”

“Does this question involve Chirrot?”

“Yeah.”

Ever stood at the opening to the house, staring inside with wide eyes. The structure was nowhere near their original home, but after living in the bunker for two weeks, it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. Chirrot held his hand out to her, his naked, slightly sweaty skin far more attractive than she wanted to admit. Kris nudged her with his shoulder. “Go ahead and take it. He came up with the plans and did a good amount of the work. It is his honor to show you around.”

Ever took the offered palm, allowing Chirrot to pull her up the single step into the house. The floors were raw hewn wood that could be stained and sanded at some later time. At least they were floors, away from the sticky mud. She looked down at her feet and frowned. “I’m going to get the floor all dirty.” He gestured her to the single chair and took a bucket of water, washing away the mud from her feet with a cloth.

The other men stepped inside, setting their shoes against the wall. Chirrot put a pair of socks on her feet and Ever giggled as he tickled her. He then gave her his hand again to help her up. His skin was warmer than hers, the last rays of sun setting on the land and denying them its brilliant warmth. Ever had been thinking all day that they were lucky that the weather had warmed considerably. Under normal circumstances, it should still be very cold.

Chirrot led her into an unfinished room. A rough wood table had been built with four log chairs to sit upon. “This will eventually be a kitchen. It is small, but we were thinking that with winter coming it was better to have smaller rooms that could be enlarged in the spring. Demetri said that you found some bricks that we can use for the fire hearth. We will start working on that tomorrow. We plan to put it between the kitchen and main room so it can be used for cooking and also warmth.” He led her back out into what was the main room. Ever saw that part of the wall had been left open between the two rooms and could almost envision a toasty fireplace filling the room with light. A solar light that had been mounted on an angle to shine into the room was the current source of brightness.

Kris pointed to a small heater. “We found those in the back storage area. There were seventeen of them stacked up, one for each room. They will help offset the chill until we get the fireplace built.”

“That will be nice. How do you build with bricks if you have no concrete?”

“There is some excellent mud for building down by what used to be the reservoir. I found it when I was out walking. It has a clay base that fires up nicely and will work well with the bricks. We will have to go find some tomorrow.”

Ever wondered if he meant “we” as in her and himself or just as a general for someone? He was still holding her hand, stroking her fingers softly as they stood looking around.

“I think that Chirrot should finish the tour and we can go down to our rooms and start rounding up furniture. Whoever is now sleeping on the children’s mattresses are shit out of luck. They are going to have to make do with the blow-up ones that we also found in the back storage. There was a bunch of shit crammed into those rooms. Did you order all that stuff, Ever?”

She nodded. She had ordered so many accessories over the last eight months, she had forgotten about some of them. Both bunkers had two large storage areas, one for food and another for additional items that wouldn’t fit in the personal spaces. “Thinking about it, there should also be tarps, flashlights, and even more touch lights with a good stock of batteries. It would be a good idea to bring some up in case the solar fails during the night. I think there are also electric blankets and a big box of personal solar items which will charge things like phones or my iPad. They would be good to have up here. I was wondering if we could use the windshields from the destroyed cars for a house window or two. My SUV is buried a short way from here. It has both a front and back window that is still in one piece.”

“That is a very good idea. You would make a really nice bow window in the living room and kitchen with those?” said Liam.

Kris gave her a smile and then thumped his brother on the back. “Let’s get cracking so we can sleep out here tonight. Demetri, forbid I should order you around again. We could use your help if you don’t mind.”

Demetri rolled his eyes. “Whatever. Go.”

Kris laughed and they headed back outside. Chirrot gave her a grin and led her across the open space. He pushed back a wide door. “This is the main bedroom. You will have your own fireplace for ambiance as well as warmth. Maybe we can put a window in here also.”

“That would be nice. I have a thing for sunny rooms.”

“So do I. I like sunlight for brightness and also because it seems to improve my mood. Did you give Kris an answer?”

The boy was blunt and she was stunned by the lack of some sentence or facial expression to provide a transition from one subject to another. “No. I didn’t. I told him that I wanted to discuss it with Demetri and think about it.”

“I already talked to Demetri, well…Liam and I both talked to him. He is willing to try and thinks that the diversity would help you to find new ways to use your magic. Liam wants you to turn into an eagle and fly so he can take the information from your mind.”

“An eagle? I can’t shift into anything but a wolf.”

“I think there is a good possibility that it is only your mind that is stopping you. Have you ever tried?”

“No.” Could she really turn into something beside a wolf? She could do so many other things, it wasn’t really an unreasonable idea. She had simply never considered it.

“We will try tomorrow. I would rather discuss us at the moment. I had the impression that you liked me. Was I wrong?”

“I find you a very attractive and charismatic man. I’m just at sort of a loss here. What the hell am I supposed to do with four men in my life? I don’t have time for the three I have. I mean, where would you sleep?”

He shrugged. “I would like to sleep with you in my arms once in a while, but I’m flexible. We could work out a rotation. Not that big of an issue.”

“Okay. Here’s one I have no clue how to accomplish. What about sex?”

He shrugged, and held up his hand, ticking off his fingers as he said, “Pussy, ass, mouth and two hands. You could actually satisfy five men at once.”

She couldn’t help but giggle at his comment.

“Okay, um, a woman can have sex a lot longer than a man. A rotation would work with four men or even a rotation of nights with you. I’m not sure of your current situation. Do you ever have sex with all of them or is it simply one on one?”

“It’s both. Lately it has been one on one, but it used to be all three or two and the third one watches.”

“Okay so anything goes. That’s cool. I am not new to this concept, Ever. My brothers and I once shared a shifter woman, but she left.”

“Why did she leave?”

“My mother has always said that we need to stick together as a family. We moved around a lot and she didn’t want to keep moving. Her name was Nicky and she wanted to buy a home and settle down. Our family has never settled down.” He flexed his lips, tightening them and then pushing them out into a pout. “Our brother Daniel left with her and last we heard, they were down south. We haven’t seen him since.”

“How long ago was that?”

“Seven, maybe eight years.”

“How old are you?”

“Fifty-one.”

He looked about twenty. “You’re not serious?”

“Actually, I am.”

Charity didn’t even look old enough to be his mother, but Ever knew that she was in her seventies. “Really?”

“Yes, really and truly. We age different. You also have me off the subject again. Do you want me to stay?”

“I think that I do. I have no clue how this is going to work out, but I would like to give it a try. I like attention and you will be one more hand to help with our children. That’s always a good thing.”

Kris and Liam came in, carrying three mattresses that had been stacked. They could barely see over the top of them as they turned and went into the children’s room. Ever walked to see the room and nodded. It was almost as large as their room and it had been partitioned into a large and small section. Presumably, the littler space was Avia’s private place and the larger one belonged to the boys. They laid the mattresses side by side and Demetri walked in with the forth one, laying it in the smaller section. He lifted the huge array of blankets and handed them to Liam, before taking the last blanket and quilt and putting them on Avia’s bed.

Her stomach rumbled and Ever realized that she hadn’t eaten anything since the oatmeal she had for breakfast. “Did you bring up any food?”

“Not yet. Maybe you would like to go back down with us and bring some up?”

“I can do that.” Ever headed to the door. She was stunned to see that it was dark and the world seemed to have been consumed by blackness. “Damn, it’s dark out here.”

Liam leaned around her and flipped on a light that had been attached to the outside of the house. It showed a clear path to the door of the bunker. Ever turned and gave him a quick kiss of thanks and then headed to the outer hatch. While she was down there, she was going to wash up. She marched down the stairs and stopped dead, staring around at the hall. The entire room was decorated with paper streamers and all the tables had been gathered and lined up. They were covered with bowls of food. She turned around to go back to the house and the men were all standing behind her. They walked down the stairs like a posse from an old western movie and then stood to either side of her. Ever turned to Kris. “What are you doing?”

“We are getting married.”

“Right now? I’m covered with mud.”

“I know. Go into our room and wash up. We will be waiting for you.”

“We who?”

“Me, Liam, Demetri, and Chirrot if you’ll have him. If he is going to be included, we might as well do it right.”

“When did you decide this?”

“Earlier while we were working on the house. I told him about the wedding and he suggested that it could be arranged while you were gone. We thought it would be a wonderful surprise. Are you surprised?”