As Love Shifts (17 page)

“Why does it feel as if it has been forever?”

“I don’t know, but I agree with you.”

She wrapped her feet tighter around his back, flexing from side to side in direct opposition to his thrusts. It made the sensation all the more amazing, their flesh colliding as the soft hair on her mound rubbed against his skin. Ever nipped at the tip of his nose and let her upper body fall back, so she was holding his shoulders with her fingertips.

Demetri slid a hand up her skin, pulling her closer. She arched her spine against his hand and presented her breasts for the taking. He was happy to oblige, his neck craning forward as he sucked her pert nipple between his lips. The flesh was hard and tantalizing as he caressed it with his tongue. Her pussy was throbbing around him, each beat of her enjoyment slightly harder and coming faster. He picked up the pace of his thrusts, filling her completely so her wetness consumed him. Ever rocked, her legs so tight around him that he had a suspicion that he could let go of her completely and she would remain rooted to his dick.

The sounds flowing from her open mouth were intoxicating, moans and whimpers filling his ears and thrilling his brain like no other song on earth. She was his Ever, entirely his in this single moment, her body and mind focused completely on him. He wanted to come within her, release his craving into her pulsing warmth. Her hips slammed against him as he thrust harder, faster, taking her into a place where their oblivion was joined and they were one single entity for a moment in time.

Ever howled as he ground his teeth, the sensation so good, so overwhelming, the blood pulsing into his cock as it was crushed by her release. She was shivering, but so was he, the overwhelming tightness lasting for eternity and then it faded out, leaving them sagging against one another as she dropped her feet to the ground. She laughed and then crashed into his chest, wrapping her arms around him and leaning her head back to kiss him.

Demetri was left with the warm glow of her love, her lust, and he returned her embrace as a final indication of how much he had enjoyed their little tryst on the spot that had once been their home.

* * * *

Demetri pointed to a slab of orange in the distance. “Oh, perfect. Isn’t that one of the corrugated roof sheets from the Bantam’s chicken coops?”

That’s what it looked liked. “I think so.” They hurried up to it and then exchanged a smile. It was still in one piece and would work perfectly for a roof. They just had to dig it out of the mud. They slogged back through the sloppy landscape with their prize. Using it as a sled, they piled it with medium-circumference fallen trees, snapping off any smaller branches so the wood could be piled neatly. When they reached the fallen pine, they got dressed and grabbed the small ax, imbedding it in one of the trees on their sled.

Ever looked at her sneakers and then down at her feet. It was a waste to put them on. She had mud caked up to her knees. She set them on the wood and shrugged. Demetri chuckled and put his beside hers. “I think we need a bath.”

“Yeah, no shit. I can only imagine what the children look like if Daisy let them play outside all day.”

He rolled his eyes in response to her comment. “I’m glad that we grabbed that old watering tub. We can wash it out and leave it to be filled with rain. It will make a nice bathtub.”

They had been collecting small prizes and that was one of them. It was dented, but the dents could be pounded out. They tugged the sled past the fallen pine and saw that a smattering of small houses had sprung up on the horizon. They had been spaced far enough apart to have privacy, but were all centered around the bunker. Ever figured that it was a good idea because their food and supplies were inside, but with some of the occupants moving outside, it would be far more comfortable inside. Maybe it was a better idea to give their house to someone else and reclaim the children’s bedroom for their own. As they got closer, Liam walked up to them. He was covered with mud and had a nasty slice on his leg that was oozing with blood. He held his leg up to her. “Good timing. I just got nailed with branch backlash. Heal me, Mommy.”

Ever chuckled and healed the superficial tear in his skin. “So which one is ours?”

He turned and pointed proudly to his right. In the distance, set farther back than the others, was a huge structure that resembled a large log cabin. They had said that they were using medium trees, but it looked more like they had taken large trunks and split them to make walls. The roof was laid with rows of wood, and the oversized slab of plastic they had brought back would work perfectly. “How did you do all this?”

“We had some unwanted help. It appears that Charity had purchased a planning machine to build her own home. It runs off solar panels and it works great. She brought it over and her sons have been planning wood all day. She also had boxes of nails, hammers, and all sorts of helpful implements. I hate to say it, but Chirrot is amazing with a hammer. He also has good mental blueprint skills. Kris is thankful, but also…Is it wrong to use the words ‘jealous as hell’
?
”

Ever groaned. “Is that why he is mad at me?”

Liam shook his head, his eyes narrowing as he considered his answer. “I don’t exactly think that he is mad at you. I think that he is comparing himself to Chirrot and fears that he is coming up short in your eyes.”

“So he avoids me, or is snippy and talks to me like I’m stupid? He thinks that is a good way to get my attention and prove how much he loves me?”

“Your love is not in question. This is strictly a matter of lust and attraction.”

Ever had no idea of what Kris was thinking. Just the night before, she had woken up in the middle of the night and tried to convince him to make love to her. He had said he was too tired and rolled over with his back to her. It was time to have it out with him and fix this. She took two steps and Liam almost pulled her off her feet trying to stop her. “Do not do this now.”

She turned her anger on him, glaring at him. “Are you kidding me? This needs to be settled.”

“If you go in there now, there will be a war between Kris and Chirrot. They are working together nicely and I would like to have a bedroom of my own to sleep in tonight. Take Demetri and go hunt for more shit we can use. The farther you are away from Chirrot the better.”

Her nostrils flared with fury and she broke from his arms, storming back down the road.

Liam looked at Demetri. “Are you going after her? I really don’t want her alone. Go fuck her again, it will calm her down.”

Demetri rolled his eyes dramatically and took off after Ever. Liam chuckled. Hopefully Demetri didn’t take his brash advice. He didn’t want Ever alone, but he also didn’t want her fucking Demetri for a second time. The scent of the first time was strong enough on her skin. Liam walked back to the house, going inside and grabbing a hammer. They had a lot
to
finish if they hoped to sleep in the house tonight.

Kris was glaring at him. “Well, what happened?”

“She’s pissed as shit. She took off and I sent Demetri to keep her out of trouble.”

“What did you say to her
?
” asked Chirrot.

“I told her that you and Kris were tolerating each other and that she would start a war if she came inside. Kris, I should warn you that she thinks that you are mad at her.”

He rolled his eyes. “I know. I will make it right with her. I just had to get my own head on straight first. I’m really having a lot of trouble with the fact that I’m missing an eye. I have no vision on the right at all when I turn and that is bugging the shit out of me.”

“So why are you acting fucked up toward her?”

“I don’t know. I think it’s because I know that she expects me to be perfect. This makes me imperfect and that she can still look at me with her expressions unchanged is bugging me.”

“Do you have any idea how fucked up that sounds?” asked Chirrot. “You are mad at her for loving you enough that she doesn’t give a shit that you lost an eye? It’s not like you got your cock bitten off.”

Liam chuckled. “Ever has such good knowledge of his cock, she could probably have rebuilt that.”

Kris glared at him and then chuckled. “It’s not a matter of knowledge. It’s that she would have to know the anatomy of how something functions to rebuild it from scratch. If I’d thought of this before, I would have gotten her an in-depth book that covers the form and function of the body. I imagine it will be a bit hard to find one now.”

“Let me ask my mother. She has quite a collection of books and she might have something like that. She loves to learn new things. I know she had a bug up her ass about what makes us different for a while.”

Liam knew that the question in his mind was rude as hell, but he asked it anyway. “So what does she think about you having the hots for a were?”

Kris stared at him with his mouth open in shock. “Liam!”

“What! I want to know. It’s not like he isn’t obvious about it or that any of us are oblivious to that fact.”

Chirrot finished nailing up the interior board he was working on and then sighed. “My mother adores Ever and she understands. Believe it or not, my mother really has nothing against weres. She says that all breeds, be they shifter, were, human, whatever, are all basically the same. It’s just that some of us have gifts that other don’t possess. Human are the ones with the least amount of gifts and they are the ones who pretty much own the earth. It kind of sucks that we have to hide from them. We can pass ourselves off as human, but then we have to deny the gifts that nature endowed us with.”

Liam lifted another board and began to nail it into place. “We agree with you, but you didn’t answer my question.”

“Yes, I did. She doesn’t care if I have the hots for Ever. Maybe I shouldn’t openly admit that to you, but it’s the truth. I think she is an amazing woman. She has gifts that none of us possess.”

“What do you mean?” asked Kris.

“Mother has a suspicion that Ever can shift into anything she wants. She has only turned into a wolf, because she knows that she is were, but her magic may give her other abilities.”

That was an interesting tidbit. Ever was constantly discovering new things that she could do with her natural magic. Maybe this was just one more undiscovered thing. Liam had always wondered what it would be like to soar the skies as an eagle. Wouldn’t it be a hoot if Ever could do it? Then he could look into her mind and get a true sense of what it was like.

“Why are you pushing the subject of me liking Ever? I think she is busy enough with the men she has.”

Kris brushed his fingers through his hair. “I know why he’s pushing it. Ever is living under a were proverb. It says that she will know when the world is to come to an end. The legend says that she needs three mates to be at her strongest. It says that she will be with an alpha as his equal. I always took it at face value thinking that she needed three mates and she had them. Now I see how she feels about you and I have to wonder. Unfortunately, as I consider it now, I realize that the proverb is rather vague about whether the alpha is a part of her three mates, or if he is her main mate and she has three others. It also makes reference to her having diversity in her life. Liam and I have recently discussed this and you would add diversity. There is also the fact that she is attracted to you. If she didn’t need a fourth man, she wouldn’t feel that attraction in the first place.”

The expression on Chirrot’s face flashed with so many different emotions that Liam had no idea which one to choose. He smiled, became thoughtful, his brow creased and his eyes narrowed before he straightened his spine and shrugged. “Cool.”

Kris frowned. Obviously he was just as stumped as Liam. “Cool. Can you try to be a bit wordier?”

“I would love to be with Ever. It would be cool to live in a house with two weres and a witch. Do you think she will go for it?”

“I have no idea. I need to make peace with her before she will go for anything. Let’s get these walls up and then I will go find her while you and Liam do something about the roof.”

* * * *

Kris sprinted down the road, his nose searching for the scent of Ever. It was slightly distracting to be running as a wolf with only one eye, but it was the fastest way to travel. They had made excellent progress on the house. The walls were up and the roof was going to be temporarily finished with the sheet of corrugated metal that Ever had brought back.

They needed to see if they could dig up some bricks or maybe equal-sized stones to build a fire hearth in the center. For now, there had been eight portable solar units in the storage area, and they had been distributed to those building houses. Kris had put theirs on charge right after he had sent Ever hunting. It would run the electric heaters during the night and give them some light.

With Chirrot’s help, the idea of a small two-room cabin had been scrapped and they had created a four-room house. The children would have a bedroom and so would the adults. There would be a central room for eating and eventually they hoped to rig up some kind of kitchen. They would have to see what they could scrounge or build for that. Kris was even toying with the idea of putting on additions and making this their permanent residence. He wanted to plant some trees for Ever and see if she could grow them so the landscape wouldn’t look so barren. They were going to have
to
clear an area first, but quite a few of the larger trees had been used to build with.

He had already mentioned to Daisy that she could either sleep with the children or remain in the bunker until an addition could be created for her. Their main goal now was just to make the place livable. They really needed some privacy.

Kris’s nose picked up the scent he was looking for. She was in front of him, and not that far away. He slowed to a trot, not wanting to run by her and miss her. He was a bit hesitant to ask her about Chirrot. Kris had mixed feelings on the idea of adding another man to their home. It could be a good thing. Ever certainly adored the attention that she was already receiving and another man would give her even more. Chirrot did possess talents that the three of them didn’t have. He was a master craftsman which was a place they were lacking. Of course, it would mean making sleeping arrangements that would include another man. How the hell would they do that? He was not giving up his place at her right side.