As Love Shifts (5 page)

He was walking opposite her, circling slowly, his tail flicking back and forth in a low, uncertain twitch. Ever watched him and then charged, taking him down as she slammed him sideways to the ground. She held him there, her teeth snapping at the side of his face as she stomped on him.

Willis scurried back, eluding her for a moment before she slammed him back to the soil. She sunk her teeth into his ear, trying to keep herself from tearing his throat out. Ever was angry and wanted to hurt him, kill him. She couldn’t. She had promised herself while she was still a human that she would control herself.

Spitting him out, she tasted the blood in her mouth. It was bitter, yet incredibly sweet, the scent of it on her face driving her crazy. She was sinking deeper into the wolf’s mind, losing herself to instinct and nature.

He was on his feet again, shaking his head in pain as he growled. The sound was no threat, any more than the man was. Ever pounced again, hitting him with her paws and dropping him again. He needed to give up, roll to
his
back and submit his stomach with a whimper of pleading.

Again he stumbled to his feet trying to charge her, but Ever pranced deftly out of the way. She went after him again, taking him down, her open mouth around his throat. The urge to clamp her teeth was overwhelming. Her self-control was waning, a growl resounding past her barely controlled teeth. Her jaw was aching, straining, she was going to kill him and…

A whimper of submission filled her ears. He was submitting to her, declaring her alpha to him. Ever still wanted to kill him, the urge so strong, raging within her.
She
stepped back, still growling as he crawled out of the circle. She inhaled deeply and trotted back up to the platform, staring at her men. All three of them were looking at her in complete awe and their expressions instantly filled her with joy. They quickly circled around her and she forced herself to turn back into a woman, furless and sleek from head to toe. With a flip of her head, she felt her hair silkily glide across her back and smiled. Her hair had gotten incredibly long and it felt amazing against her skin. Kris handed her bra to her and she put it on, followed by her shirt and her shorts.

Kris wet his finger and wiped the blood from the corners of her mouth. “You, my sweet, are a nasty little wolf. You didn’t give him a break.”

“Was I supposed to?”

“No. Of course not. He challenged you in a public forum and you established yourself as my alpha female. That is a good thing. Are you going to be forgiving and heal him now? You did a number on his ear and probably broke a few of his ribs.”

Ever rolled her eyes. It was a bitch being a wolf and then taking up the role of healing witch. She didn’t want to heal him. She wanted to make him suffer for challenging her. That of course was the wolf in her brain. The human was appalled at the thought. He was an ornery old man, but he didn’t deserve to have his ear torn off. “Oh, get out of my way and let me go end his misery.”

All three of them chuckled and stepped back to allow her to pass. Ever walked through the crowd, stopping at the edges of the family. “If you will allow me to, I can heal him.”

Nothan turned a truly confused look on her. “You can what?”

“I can heal him, fix his ear and whatever damage was done to him in wolf form. I’m a half-breed, remember? Half-wolf, half-witch, and the witch half has the power to heal.”

His entire face seemed to melt into an expression of shock. “No fucking way.”

The comment was two sided and she had no idea which side to take.
Either he didn't believe her, or he did and he was stunned by it.
“Do you want me to heal him or not? I’m offering as a gesture of good faith for the clan.”

Nothan stepped back and Ever sighed. These weres were obviously overly inbred and not too bright. She knelt down beside Willis and would have felt very uncomfortable if the men didn’t have her back. Willis was out cold, blood pooling around his ragged, partially severed ear. She daintily stuck it back into place and closed her eyes, sending a surge of power into the wound to seal it up and repair the damage. As soon as she was sure that it was reconnected properly, she let her palm float over his chest. Kris was right and she could feel three cracked ribs as if she was touching a vase that had been improperly glued. She lined her finger up with the imperfections and let energy flow into them to realign the bone and fuse it back together. The heartbeat beneath the ribs felt slightly erratic and she calmed it, setting a more normal rhythm before she continued to finish checking him over. As a final gesture of kindness, she destroyed the cancer and repaired his ailing liver as best she could. He would still die eventually, but not as soon as the disease would have taken him. There was nothing she could do about simple old age.

Ever pushed herself to her feet. “He will wake up shortly and should be fine. I believe that this incident is over as far as the accusations that were made against me. The bunker near your home has been removed from the plans. I hope you live through the storm without my newfangled underground house.”

Her piece said, she turned and walked back to the podium. “I don’t know how many of you have seen the news, but I fear that we are in for one hell of a storm. According to my daughter, who I believe has had a dream premonition, our world will be flattened by the wind and the water. I suggest that everyone figure out what their most precious possessions are and put them in a suitcase with some clothing. We only have two shelters completed, but it may be necessary to use them during the storm. Please keep an eye on the weather channel for further updates. The crew will be here later to seal up the open ends of the tunnels and I would really appreciate it if they encounter no problems.”

She saw Gear in the crowd and hopped down to go speak with him. He gave her a smile. “Sorry to hear that things went so badly. I think that I should have gone with you. You are an imposing wolf, by the way.”

“Thank you. I have a favor to ask.”

“Ask it.”

“Could you assemble two teams of men to go guard the work sites
?
I fear that the Parth family will make more trouble.”

“I doubt it after what just happened. I will, however, have guards set up to make sure. Anything else?”

“No. That would be great. We are putting everything else on hold until after the storm so I guess I will let you know afterward.”

He nodded amiably and Ever smiled as he turned and walked away. Maybe it was her imagination, but Gear was suddenly treating her with a noticeable amount of newly found respect. She turned and walked back through the crowd, taking note of the looks of awe that she was getting. Was the sudden change of attitudes due to her fighting ability? She suddenly
realized that she
didn’t consider any of them her friends. They were more like friendly acquaintances.
She hadn't really had the time to develop close friendships in the clan.
Well…maybe with the exception of Charity and her family.

Kris and Liam walked up to her, draping their arms over her shoulders. Demetri took up a place beside Kris, giving her a smile. Kris bumped her with his hips. “So it is seven thirty and the babies just got up. Daisy said that her and Avia have everything under control and she is feeding them breakfast. I think that we should go into town and do that ourselves. Demetri said that there is a great new restaurant that serves food suited to our eating demands.”

Ever shrugged. She was rather hungry. “I think that sounds good. You can go speak with Vern and Bolt while you are there and then we are done for the day. Maybe we can get some rest and then get to know each other again tonight?”

“I think that sounds like a fantastic idea,” replied Liam. “I had some very interesting dreams last night involving your ass and a switch.”

She giggled. He was not going to let that go, but if she was free to heal in the morning rather than have to go out and sit on her ass, she had no problem with it. It might be interesting to really experience the sensation. Dreams tended to alter things. “Okay. I think that sounds like a great idea also. How about you, Demetri, or do you have to go into work?”

“Are you sure that Avia said that everything is going to get flattened by the wind?”

“That’s what she said.”

“Then I guess that I don’t have to worry much about the stock losses. Let the wind have the shop. In all honesty, I would rather stay home with Liam and play with the children. If they are magic, he is going to need the help as their power grows with their bodies. I also think that Ever could use the help and if I’m hanging around then Liam or myself can help her.”

Ever was stunned to hear this. She had always thought that Demetri enjoyed the shop. Now that he had mentioned it, did she have enough insurance on her house? “Remind me to check on my policy for the house. I think that I paid extra for acts of god, but I’m not sure now.”

“I know that I have it on the shop. I just renewed my policy. I guess that I’ll have to board up the windows for good measure.”

“I can give you a hand tomorrow,” said Liam. “Then the children can play with Ever and call me to complain.”

“Liam! They don’t complain about you. They love you. They just want us both.”

“I know that, but they do complain in a childish sort of way. I don’t mind. They just have short attention spans and get tired of the same games. You always seem to think of something new to do with them, like the papier-mâché yesterday. They had so much fun making faces out of balloons. I had no idea that you could make paste out of flour, sugar, and water. Of course the mess they made was a disaster, but they had a great time.”

Yeah, everyone but poor Lash.

Kris felt the shift in her mood as tension in her body. He released her so she could slide into the front seat of the truck and then got in himself. He pulled her closer and kissed the side of her head. “What are you thinking about?”

“Lash.”

“Ah, I knew it was something about the children. Let me guess, you were thinking that he didn’t get to play with the others and get messy.”

“Something like that. He doesn’t get to do anything that the other children do. We can’t even take him outside because he will take off. I will never forget the scene we had last month when he took off on us. It took all of us to wrangle him in and get him back inside. Forbid someone comes over and sees our son with a muzzle on his face. They will think that we are abusing him, when we are just trying to give him some freedom.”

“I know. I keep hoping that we can do something for him, reach him somehow.”

“I tried to get in touch with a couple of people last night, but no one was home. I will try again when we get home,” said Demetri. “I’m hoping that the translation of those words will tell us something. Shit…”

“Shit what?”

“All of my books are at the store and if the store is knocked out by a storm I will lose them all. Maybe we should stop there and I can grab the ones that I might need.”

Ever had never actually been to his store and it was an interesting idea. “Okay. We can stop after breakfast.” Kris pulled up to the gate and keyed in the code to open it. He had always thought that it was a bit much to have a keypad on both sides of the gate. It wasn’t like anyone was going to be trying to break out of the property. They were trying to break in. Kris drove out onto the rocky path that acted as a road. Only the part that was closer to the main road was paved and this part was simply gravel covered. There were
no trespassing private property
signs along the road and also along the fence that stretched to the reservoir on one side and the mountains on the other.

He picked up speed as he drove onto the blacktop and then pulled flawlessly out onto the main road. The town was a short distance away and within no time, they had pulled up in front of the diner.
O-Ganic Eats
read the sign out front. Ever slid out of the seat, standing between Demetri and Kris as they walked inside. He sat beside her, and Demetri and Liam sat opposite her in the very cozy booth. There were pink sea salt and organic pepper grinders on the table, just like at home.

A young woman walked over and gave them a smile. “Good morning, would you like to hear our specials?”

“We’d love to,” replied Liam. Ever leered at him. The woman was far too cute and Liam was being far too sweet. Kris put his hand to her leg, fearing that she was tempted to kick Liam under the table. The woman gave Liam an exasperatingly sexual smile and then proceeded to rattle off the specials. “I think the steak and eggs sound wonderful. Do you have wheat-free toast?” asked Liam.

“Yes, all our breads are that way.”

Ever pulled out the menu, scanned it over, and handed it to Liam. It gave a complete list of all the breads they had. Liam frowned at Ever, and then held his hand out, palm up. Ever put her hand into it and he turned it, kissing her fingers. “I would kiss your feet, equally sweet, so please stop with the lightning eyes.”

Liam always swore that he could see flashes of lightning in Ever’s eyes when she was angry. She wasn’t really that angry, she just didn’t like the woman flirting with her men. “Thank you, my love.” She turned to give the woman a grin. “I do believe that I will have the same. Make my eggs over easy and the cinnamon-raisin bread sounds lovely.”

“That sounds great, but add a side order of bacon onto mine,” said Kris.

They all looked at Demetri. “I would like the western omelet, please. But the raisin toast sounds great. Can we also get coffee?”

“Of course. Any preference on milk?”

“Whole milk as long as it’s organic.”

“Of course, everything we serve is.”

Kris believed it. It better be organic for what the meal was going to cost them. Ever could put in an entire meat order
from her favorite website
and probably pay less.