As Love Shifts (6 page)

Liam released her hand. “She’s gone.”

“She was flirting with my man.”

“How was she to know that all three of us belong to you? You are such a sweet and petite creature, I’m sure she never imagined that you could handle three burly men like us.”

Ever looked behind herself to see if the booth behind them was empty. “I can and I will, so don’t flirt back.”

“I wasn’t,” he replied in a sassy tone.

Ever shook her head, rolling her eyes. She really wasn’t mad at Liam, but she was a bit angry with the waitress. It would take her a while to completely calm down from the fight and that was probably an influence on her emotions.

“Kris, have you tried to call Mick? We should at least tell him what Avia said about the storm.”

“You’re right and it didn’t even occur to me.” He pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed, putting the phone to his ear. A few moments later, he shrugged. “Mick, it’s Kris. I really wanted to talk to you. Okay…um, Avia had a dream that Ever thinks is a premonition last night. She said that the storm flattened the world. I find it more likely that it just flattens the Northeast, but it’s nothing to mess around with. Please call me back.”

Shrugging, he hung up the phone.

“When was the last time you talked to him?” asked Ever.

“Maybe a month ago. We have been so damn busy. Liam?”

“I don’t know, I think a month sounds about right, but it may have been longer. We have really lost touch with him in the last eight months, haven’t we?”

“Yeah, I guess we have. I just hope he calls me back. I would hate to have the storm hit and not know if he is safe or not. Didn’t we invite him up for dinner or something?” He looked at Ever and she shrugged guiltily.

“I didn’t. Of course, I feel like I don’t have time to take a shit by myself lately. If I’m not on the phone, I’m at the work site or I’m with the children. I guess more than one thing has been put on the back burner.”

“Yeah and the pot boiled dry and burned. Shit! I can’t believe that we haven’t kept in contact with him.” Mick was their brother and it was completely unforgivable to have allowed him to slip from their lives. It had been Mick’s choice to go back to his holistic spa, but it didn’t mean they needed to be alienated. Of course, it might be a bit uncomfortable for Mick because Demetri had taken his place.

“He could have called us, or stopped by,” said Liam. “It’s not like he doesn’t know where we live.”

“True.” Kris swiped back his hair in irritation. “I wonder if Father has spoken to him?”

“Call and ask him,” suggested Ever.

Kris swiped his phone open and hit the dial button. “Hey, Dad. I was just wondering if you had spoken to Mick lately. I’m gonna put you on speaker so I don’t have to repeat your end of the conversation. Keep in mind that we are in a restaurant.”

Kris put him on speaker. “I talked to your brother about a week ago. I invited him up, but he said that he was too busy. Why, what’s up?”

“Avia had a bad dream about this storm that is coming and I was hoping that I could convince him to come up here. I would feel safer if he was down below with us.”

“Nice of you to tell me. I just found out about the shit with the Parth family. Imagine how stupid I felt that I didn’t know.”

Kris sighed loudly. He hadn’t even thought to call and tell his father. “I’m sorry. We didn’t find out until late last night ourselves and they called it for 6:00 a.m. I should have called you.”

“Yes, you should have. Is Ever with you?”

“I’m here.”

“Good. I wanted to congratulate you. Willis may be old, but he is a great hunter and from what I was told, he didn’t even give you a challenge. You put him in his place and that hasn’t been done in a long time. Good for you. I’m proud of you and even prouder to hear that you healed him afterward. That was an amazingly gracious thing to do.”

“He may be a moron, but—”

“He is a moron. Take my word for it. I’ve been dealing with him since he was a young…high spirit. You did the right thing not to back down to him. He would have made your life miserable.”

“I had that impression. Thank you.”

Wow, that was really something. His father was congratulating Ever. Not so long ago, the man had insinuated that Ever wasn’t good enough for his sons. Now he was proud of her. She had won the man over. How great was that? “Yeah, Ever was amazing. She pounced and didn’t let up until he was belly up. Our lady showed her true prowess today. Anyway, can you give Mick a call and maybe he will pick up the phone for you? I would really rather have him up here in the shelter.”

“I will try to get in touch with him. Enjoy your breakfast. Who has the children?”

“Daisy.”

“Do you mind if we stop by and give her a hand? I’m sure she is pulling her hair out by now.”

“That would be fantastic.” They trusted Daisy, but the three little devils could be a bit much to handle.

“We’ll go now. Why don’t you stay in town for a while and take some time to yourselves. I know you don’t have much.”

“Thank you. We have a few stops to make anyway. At least we won’t have to worry about making them.”

“Enjoy.”

Kris nodded and hung up the phone, sticking it back into his shirt pocket. “Cool. I think the three of them can handle the children for a bit.”

As if the comment had prompted it, Ever’s phone rang. She put it on speaker and answered it. “What’s wrong?”

“Mommy! Avia is bossing us around. She is not our boss. When are you coming home?”

“Who are you talking to?” asked Daisy.

“I called my mommy.” Ever rolled her eyes to the ceiling and chuckled.

“Seren. You are right, Avia is not your boss, but Daisy is. You need to listen to her. I have a surprise for you.”

“What?” he replied in a surly tone.

“Pops and Granny are coming over. They should be there in a little while.”

“When are you coming home?”

Kris knew that she wasn’t going to tell them that she was in town. They would throw a fit because they hadn’t been asked to go. They loved going into town. “I’m sorry, baby, but I’m busy. I have some business to take care of and then I will be home.”

He snorted and then grunted loudly. Ever heard the phone crash into the wall and Daisy picked it up. “I’m sorry, Ever. Avia was bossing her brothers around while I was making lunch. I guess that I didn’t stop it in time. I have to go check on Seren. He just stormed out the back door.”

“Okay. Julius and Sherra should be there shortly. If things get too out of hand, call me and we will come home.”

That was exactly what Kris didn’t want to do. Unfortunately, there was only so much that Daisy could be expected to handle and one of Seren’s tantrums was not one of those things. The child had a really bad temper at times and when he turned, he was the largest of the wolf children. He could easily hurt one of the others or even Daisy if she wasn’t careful.

“Okay.”

Daisy hung up the phone and Ever sighed as she tucked it back into her pocket. “Should we get our breakfast to go?”

“No. Let’s wait and see if Daisy can get things calmed down. If my father and Sherra are there, they can handle whatever happens.”

Ever nodded, but he could see the reluctance in her eyes. She was such a wonderful mother, even with all the other things that had gotten thrown at her since their birth. Ever loved the children and he knew it was hard on her. Working was hard and it was also hard having two children like Lash and Seren. Unlike Lash, Seren could be trusted most of the time. Then of course were those rare times when he was just as vicious and unpredictable as his brother. “What the hell are we going to do with Lash? Under normal circumstances, we could simply keep him in our private compartment. With everyone crammed into two bunkers there will be no privacy.”

Ever gestured with h
er
head and Kris saw that the waitress was headed their way with the food. He waited as she served everything and then poured their coffee. “Can I get you anything else?”

“No. Thank you,” replied Kris.

No one touched their food. Obviously they were all considering his question. “I hate to say this,” replied Liam, “but maybe we should pick up a large dog crate for Lash. We have to keep him restrained and have no idea how he will react around strangers. In those kinds of tight quarters he could do quite a bit of damage before we can get him under control.”

It sounded like a horrible thing to do to their son, but Liam was right. They couldn’t take a chance of Lash getting loose. “I agree. How the hell are we going to get him down there without anyone knowing about it?”

“I can make him some tea,” said Demetri. “It usually knocks him out. Of course, he will wake up and be furious that he’s in a small crate.”

“We need to get to your store to see if there is something that might help. It is bad enough that we’ve had to hide him for all this time. If something can’t be done, we are going to have to tell the clan what happened to him. I don’t relish the idea of being brought up on charges for abusing our child.”

Ever was glaring at him. “I wasn’t aware that there were laws about that.”

“There are, just as in the real world. They were put in effect at the same time we declared the old handling of female children illegal. They go hand in hand.” Kris had already explained that one to her. Ever had been horrified that female children were put to death, but were females were often weaker and they were culled to keep the bloodlines strong. Of course, that was over two hundred years ago and things had changed. “I think we should eat while our food is still hot and then get the hell out of here.”

Everyone took his advice as he cut into his steak and popped a piece into his mouth. The meat was tender and absolutely delicious. He could almost feel the tension radiating off Ever’s body. She was thinking about Lash again and Kris knew that this storm had the potential to destroy more than just their houses. By rights, the clan could demand that Lash was put down like a rabid dog. He was an uncontrollable creature who rarely even bothered to turn into human form anymore. He was a danger to anyone who came in contact with him and could harm the entire clan if he were ever to get loose. That made Lash a liability. Ever didn’t know this, and he hoped that she never had to find out.

They strolled into Demetri’s store together. The place was quite busy, the girl behind the register looking haggard. “I’m so glad to see you. Everyone is looking for talisman to ward off the storm and the rest are looking for more of those herbs for the flu just in case they get sick and can’t make it in. Me and Sheila are about to lose our minds.”

“I mixed up a large jar of herbs before I left yesterday, they are all gone?”

“Yes, and we ran out of bags to put it in.”

Demetri sighed heavily. “I think there may be some in my office.” He turned to them. “I’ll be right back. Feel free to look around.”

Ever looked at the girl behind the counter and smiled. “Can I do anything to help?”

“Um. I don’t know. Who are you?”

She held out her hand. “Hi, I’m Ever. Demetri is my…”

“I know. Your boyfriend or more than boyfriend. I’m so jealous.”

Ever giggled. “Can I do something?”

She nodded ferociously. “I’m Mara by the way.” She plunked a large half-filled jar of herbs on the counter and then put a scale next to it. “I’ve been using these sandwich bags that Sheila got at the drugstore to put herbs in. Can you measure out one ounce and put it in a bag? It would be a great help.”

“Sure.”

Ever removed the cap and using the scoop, pulled out what she thought was one ounce. Putting it on the scale, she was a little bit short and added some more. Ever dumped it in the bag and then measured more. When she had ten of them made up, she put the cap back on.

“Wow, you did that so fast,” said Mara as she put everything back behind the counter. A woman came up to the register and asked for four bags of the herbs for the flu and Ever realized that she should have done more. The woman put the white candles and the red stones that she had in her hand on the counter and then dug in her purse for money as Mara rang her up. She turned to stare at Ever and then frowned, taking a step back.

Demetri stepped between them. “Mrs. Watkins, it is so good to see you. How have you been?”

“You allow one of those creatures into your shop,” she said in almost a whisper. At least the woman was discreet.

“Excuse me?” replied Demetri.

“Creatures.” She pointed directly at Ever. “Don’t tell me that you don’t know what she is.”

“Yes. She is my fiancée. I’m well aware and I don’t give a shit. Please keep your opinions to yourself. Remember how narrow minded this town is and ignoring what offers you no harm is a good motto.”

“So I’ve been told. Good luck with the storm.”

“Thank you. The same to you.”

Obviously, Mrs. Watkins had never sensed the wolf in Demetri. Of course, he had said that he kept his magic cloaked in public. He had never taken the time to show her how to do that. Of course, it wasn’t the magic that had raised Mrs. Watkins’s hackles. It was the wolf in her that had done that.

Mrs. Watkins paid for her items and then turned, crossing herself before leaving the store. Demetri turned to her and shrugged. “She’s a white witch and very religious. I think she watches far too many horror movies.”

“Luckily she was discreet about her words.”

“Yes and no. The people of the town know about the clan’s property. They would just rather not believe the truth or think about it. As long as the clan keeps to themselves, ignorance becomes bliss.”

“Are you going to tell me that you believe in werewolves?” asked Mara. “Have you seen them while you were there?”

He gave Ever a bright smile. “Yes, and they are amazingly beautiful.”

Mara clicked her tongue. “You are so full of shit, Demetri.”

He put the bags on the counter. “Maybe. Would you like to see my office? It is very private and has a very big desk.”

Ever almost snorted with unexpected laughter. She looked around and saw that Liam and Kris were digging through the buckets of semiprecious gemstones. She walked over to them. “We have been invited to tour Demetri’s office. He says it is private and has a big desk.”