Forever Our Ever (16 page)

She gently touched his chin. “I need you to go get the books.” Quickly she pulled her hand away.

Liam turned to her, putting his hand to her chest as a way to know if he was speaking in the right direction. “Books? What books? I need more information.”

Sticking out a single finger, she put it to his cheek. “Locked. Key. Were books.”

“Oh. I presume that you mean the books that Silva mentioned. I could go do that. If I leave, there is no one to watch the babies. Of course, Kris will wake up if they start crying.” He rocked his head from side to side in consideration. “Normally he would wake up. I don’t know if he will if you knocked him out.”

Ever rolled her eyes. Were they all being idiots tonight? She poked his face. “Four women.”

A chuckle rolled from his lips. “Duh. I’ve gotten so used to being here, I didn’t even think that we have four women here to help take care of them. I will go get one of them and then go for the books. I love you, Ever. I’m sure you are very upset about the cost of your life. I’m thinking that I agree with Kris, though. I adore Seren, but without you, things will completely fall apart. There are bigger issues here. Your death will leave this clan without an alpha. Even if Kris doesn’t die, which I fear he will, he will be in no condition to oversee this clan. I can’t imagine that he will want to live in this house that we built for you. I’m not even sure if he will be able to be a father for the other children, because they will remind him too much of you. I can only imagine what you are thinking, but you have to look at the big picture here, Ever. I’m very afraid of what is going to happen if you die. There are so many things that I know will happen, and none of them will be good.”

Liam stood before her, his chest up against hers. She was sure that his naked skin could sense her presence and he traced the outline of her body up to her face. “I love you more than life itself, and if it were Avia that I had to give in trade, I would still do it. I’m sorry.”

Ever stared at him as he backed up a few steps and then walked from the room. He was right, the family and then the tribe would fall apart without her. Their best option was for Mick to take over, but she already knew that Mick was not a good man for the job. He was further proving it with his actions. He was being possessive with her care so he could say that he did it himself. At the same time, he refused to open his mind to anything but the physical aspect of her body. She had no idea where he was going, but Ever had an idea and it irked her to the core.

Kris sat reading from one of the books and Liam was studying another. Ever was reading, but when she finished a page, she was stuck. She poked Kris in the arm and he turned the page for her. “Damn, you read fast. I would be better off to just sit here and turn the pages in your book. It’s taking me twice as long to get through this one because I keep losing my place.”

Ever rolled her eyes. She would love to be able to turn the pages herself, and it was really frustrating not to be able to. It was right up there with not being able to touch her children, or feel the lovely curves of the muscles that covered her men’s bodies. It did have its good points, though. She didn’t have to change messy diapers or go to the bathroom.

She put her mind back on what she was supposed to be reading. It was a history of were births and deaths, but it also had notations about the different families, and she had to read each page to find them. It was tedious reading, but she was still hoping that one of the books would give them something. The Internet was a great option, but she could no more use a mouse than turn a page.

She poked Liam this time and he flipped the page for her. Ever continued to read. Suddenly she stopped, her eyes locked on a name.
Tella Lath. Born April seventeenth 1896.
Holy shit! How was it possible that no one made the connection?
Tella was born with a dark shadow around her body that her mother took as an evil omen. She transferred her child out of the tribe, leaving her on the doorstep of the human church. The child was said to have no ability to change her body, because if she had, she would have been put to death.

She tapped Kris and he groaned. Ever ignored him and pointed to the page. He couldn’t see her. She put her finger to his cheek, which seemed the least disturbing to them. “Look!”

He picked up the book and began to read. Ever wanted to jump up and down and make him read faster. The notation was at the bottom of the right hand page, but she had no way to tell him this. Then the expression of shock came, his eyes narrowing as he read the passage again. “Holy shit. Liam, Tella is a were.”

“What?” His entire face accented the single word in surprise.

“It says here that she was born a Lath werewolf, but her mother considered her evil and gave her away. Tella is a were who doesn’t have the ability to turn.”

Kris flipped to the next page and then put the book down. “Now what the fuck do we do? Does it really make a difference? Maybe the fact that she isn’t a human will make her more sympathetic about splitting up our family. Maybe she will be thankful because we discovered who she really is and who her birth parents are…”

“If you want the honest truth, I think she already knows that she is suppose to be were. That’s why she wants to mate with a were, because her genes will support the birth.”

“Good point. Then her lineage is nothing more than an interesting factoid. Have you found anything?”

“No, nothing. It is some interesting reading, but none of it is helpful.” Liam yawned and pawed at his eyes with the back of his hand. “I need to get up for few. Do you want a cup of coffee?”

“Yeah, sounds good.”

Ever wanted one, too. She missed coffee almost as much as food. It wasn’t that she was hungry, but she longed to taste something. There was no flavor in her world and she needed to remember the next time they were in a dream to at least taste whichever man she was with. One of them was in for one hell of a blowjob.

* * * *

Ever poked Kris again, who turned the page without looking away from the screen. They had gone through every book and found some interesting tales about half humans who had been bitten a second time. Unfortunately for them, they had all died. Now Kris was on the Internet searching out witchcraft. He had written down the names of a few women who lived in the Connecticut area who made their living doing “mystic stuff,” as he called it, but it was still too early to call any of them. His new line of search was looking directly for anything involving the words “witchcraft” and “spirits,” but he kept hitting dead ends. Ever was reading a very dull book of werewolf history that was not unlike the other, except that it was more recent. It spanned back to the time when Rick, their older brother, was born. Ever found it odd that there was no mention of their father as alpha. A man named Alexander Novra was the named alpha at the time of Rick’s birth.

She wished that she could thumb backward and see if she missed something, but trying to get that across to Kris would be far too much trouble. Ever continued to read.

A knock at the door made both her and Kris look upward. “Yeah?” he said softly so as not to wake Liam.

Daisy slowly opened the door. “Kris, there is a gentleman here to see you. He said that your father contacted him.”

“Show him in.”

Ever was expecting another odd-looking person with graying hair, but this man was quite different. It was the man that she had seen at the welcoming ceremony who had been looking them over so carefully.

He was well dressed in casual attire, dark-black jeans and a light-green turtleneck. It seemed a bit warm for the weather, but everyone had their own dressing styles.

The man smiled at Kris and then looked at the book on the small table in front of her and beside Kris. His eyes drifted upward, settling on her face. “You were beautiful when I first saw you, and you are even more so now.”

“Can you see me?”

“Yes.”

He didn’t appear to be analyzing her this time, and he seemed far less creepy. “As a shimmering light?”

“No. I see you as a translucent human.”

“You were at the Alpha ceremony, weren’t you?”

“Yes, Julius invited me, but I never got a chance to introduce myself.”

“I presume you are talking to Ever?” asked Kris “Who are you, and why have we never met you before if you know our father?”

This man had Kris’s hackles up. He was tall and very good-looking, with sandy-brown hair and a thin mustache. His eyes were hazel, a nondescript color that indicated that he wasn’t were.

“My name is Demetri. I was a friend of your mother’s.”

“My mother? What are you talking about?”

“Years ago, before your mother met your father, she was very interested in witchcraft. I had a small emporium in the main village and she came into the shop asking questions. We talked for a long time and agreed to meet again for coffee. I would have asked her to marry me, but she was a were and back then, it was not allowed. When she was matched up with your father, he forbade her to see me again. You can imagine my surprise when Julius called me and said that his sons needed help.”

Kris appeared as stunned as Ever felt. Their father was helping them? How did their father know of their predicament? “How does he know?”

Demetri looked at her and shrugged. “I’m not really sure. That wasn’t exactly my first question. Julius said that Ever had been displaced from her body. Can you explain how this happened, in detail, so I have an idea of what we are dealing with?”

The surprise on Kris’s face was morphing to suspicion. “And what will you charge us for helping?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“I’ve already been offered help at the cost of my firstborn son. What do you want?”

Demetri glared at him as if the question had seriously offended him. “I don’t want anything. Who wants your child?”

“A witch named Tella?”

Demetri obviously knew the name. There was clear recognition on his face. “Is Ever’s life worth that much to you?”

“Of course it is,” Kris replied in a voice so deep it was almost a growl. “I love my son, he is part of my heart, but Ever is my heart and I will die without her.”

He turned his eyes downward and sighed sadly. “I remember that feeling. I loved your mother that much. There is no cost to you for my help. Do not trust anything that Tella says. If she wants your son, then you had better do everything in your power to keep him from her. She is a dark and dangerous woman.”

“Then why did Silva bring her here?”

“Silva? He is a tired old man who has spent his life rejected by his kind. He can talk to ghosts, but can’t communicate with people well enough to make friends. He hangs on Tella’s bootheels because she acts like she likes him. He would do anything for her, especially if it means defying your clan.”

Ever liked him. He was a very forward individual. “How do you know so much?”

“I like to stay informed. I have friends both inside and outside the clan. I had heard that a Sten child was to take his place as alpha and that he had a half-breed mate. I was kind of keeping an eye on things to see what happened. I never expected this, though. Tell me what you have tried.”

“I tried taking my body back. It didn’t work,” replied Ever. “We have been reading the old text, but other than finding out that Tella is actually a mutant werewolf, there hasn’t been much.”

“Do you think I can get a cup of coffee?”

Kris leaned toward the door. “Daisy!”

She was there a moment later, indicating that she had probably been listening. “Would you please get Demetri a cup of coffee? I would love one also.”

Ever suddenly wondered if the informant was Mick. She had a feeling that he had been holing up with his father, and this might confirm it. “So can you help me?”

He walked over and, smiling down at the babies, grabbed a chair and lifted it to bring it nearer to them. Demetri sat down, looking at both of them. “Tell me exactly what happened, first.”

Kris explained his side of it and then Ever told him about her side with Carmen. He nodded thoughtfully as they were speaking and sipped at the coffee that Daisy had brought in for him. When she was finished, he sighed heavily. “The problem, as I see it, is that a soul is tied to the individual and recognizes the body. Your spirit was displaced during a time of radical physical change, and now it is having trouble associating with the flesh to meld back into it. I have to think that Tella was truthful when she said that your were side would be weakest during the new moon. That means you will have an easier time trying to merge back into it during that period. I think there are things that I can do to help with that.”

“Like what?” asked Kris.

“Her body is at complete rest, yet her spirit is in an opposite state, where you say that you don’t sleep. I believe the key will be to rev up your body at the same time we cause your spirit energy to be calm. That way we can find an equal place between the two where your body and spirit can become one again.”

“So we do that how?” asked Kris. “It’s not like her body is going to get up and run a marathon.”

Demetri chuckled. “There are other ways to excite the flesh. Have you been doing exercise to keep her body toned?”

“Yes. My brother and I have been taking turns throughout the day while the babies are feeding.”

“That’s good. Are you just performing rudimentary exercises, or are you taking the time to stroke and massage her skin? Touch can be very helpful.”

“We touch her when we do the exercises. We haven’t exactly given her a backrub or anything.”

“It might be a good time to start. Any stimulation that raises her heart rate would help. As far as calming your spirit, Ever, I can teach you some meditation that might help. We have a little less than a week to figure out what will work and how to put the physical and mental side of your body in sync. Have you been doing anything that will fire up your spiritual side?”

Ever grimaced. “Like having sex with Liam and Kris in dreams?”