Shifter (30 page)

“We’ll be back after noon,” his father says and disappears after the women.

Devan looks around for a moment, unsure what he should do.

“We’ll be fine. Go home. Get some sleep,” Dimitri says.

Devan nods and leaves.

I take Carrie into the kitchen, make a pot of tea, and begin to tell her what I know. Dimitri cuts in every so often, filling in the gaps.

Chapter 27

~~~Dimitri~~~

“Are you sleeping with my sister?” Carrie asks me in a harsh tone as I help her prepare breakfast for her kids. The kids are still in Abby’s bedroom per Carries orders because Mark and Abby are still fast asleep in the living room.

Devan had reappeared, while we were explaining things to Carrie, with pillows and two more air mattresses: one for Abby and one for me. I took great pleasure in his look of anger and disappointment when Abby took one of the mattresses and stowed it in the hall closet as she dug out sheets.

He disappeared without a word minutes later when Abby stepped up beside me, pushed my hair back from my forehead, and said, “If you’re tired, go on to bed. I’ll join you as soon as Carrie goes to bed.”

“I’ll stay up with you,” I answered and kissed her lightly on the lips. When I had looked up, he was gone.

“We share the same bed,” I answer her sister.

“No, I want to know if you are having sex with her.”

“If I am?”

She doesn’t answer. She looks at me, wanting to say a number of different things. The most obvious is the ‘if you hurt her, I’ll kill you’ bit, but she knows it will sound cliché. Plus, I’m sure she wants to be happy for her sister. As I look at her, another thought crosses her mind, and I grow angry. A part of her doesn’t believe I want her sister, as if there is something wrong with Abby, and my temper flairs. For a second I think about smacking the bitch. I hate people. No matter how much of a front people put up, deep inside they are all vain. She thinks her sister is beautiful, but she doesn’t believe the rest of the world does.

“I love your sister,” I say, feeling the need to justify myself. “I thought she was gorgeous the moment she walked into the pound and adopted my furry ass. And no, I don’t find her even more gorgeous since she has lost a few pounds. The only thing that stupid machine has done for her is make her feel better about herself. I’m not vain. I’m not superficial. I’m also not perfect. I have my flaws, my imperfections. I may be better looking than Mark over there, but Devan is far better looking than I am.”

She nods in agreement, and I laugh.

“See. Despite that, she chose me.”

“It’s not that. I want her to have a happy life, and your life...”

“Is full of supernatural beings out to kill her and me. Trust me, I know how much I need to leave here—leave her.”

“You don’t understand. Has she told you what happened to her…”

“Not every detail, but enough. I know she has been through more than any one person should, that I’m wrong to bring this into her life, but it’s too late. I love her. I would go if she told me to, but I would always be nearby. Watching. Making sure she is all right. I’m a shifter. Part animal. We mate for life. I’m tied to her on a level I can’t even explain.”

“Where does that leave her? She isn’t one of you. She isn’t going to live as long as you do. She can’t have children with you.”

“Yes, she can.”

“No, she can’t. I mean physically, yes. But emotionally, no. Those children will be a part of your world not hers. They’ll live longer than she will, and they’ll have to leave her long before she’s old enough to die. This is a small town. People will notice that her children and husband aren’t aging, and do you seriously expect to take her to the pack. Obviously, she would happily go. She would leave the kids and me in a heartbeat, and I wouldn’t blame her in the least. But she would be a weakness for you. All of your enemies will be after her. Anyone you have or will piss off will see your fragile, little, human wife as an easy target.”

“I know.”

“So what do you plan on doing?”

“I don’t know, yet. It’s not like I can change her.” The thing is, I am not so sure about that anymore. I guess I should clarify. I know I can’t change her. I am not even sure how to go about it if I wanted to. I guess I could try biting her, I mean really biting her, not the nibbling I had done the night before. Yet, something tells me that she is changing. Something about her has been shifting these last few weeks/months but last night when I entered her, I felt her change. As she slept, I had watched her. I couldn’t see anything different, but I know something is.

After the kids eat, I crawl up next to Abby on the mattress to wake her. She doesn’t open her eyes, just snuggles up into my arms and nuzzles my chest. “My parents are going to be here in an hour to take Carrie and the kids to the cabin. You want to wake up and see them off?”

“No.” She groans and laughs.

“Maddox, I think it’s time for Aunt Abby to wake up, don’t you,” Carrie says, setting the youngest of her three children down in the hallway. The look he gives his aunt tells me exactly what he is about to do. I quickly jerk out of her arms and off the mattress as the child comes barreling across the room. Abby turns in time for him to leap from the floor onto her.

With a humph, she jerks upward, wraps the kid in her arms, and begins tickling him. Wanting to join in on the fun, the other two run from the kitchen and dog pile on their aunt.

“In my house, Maddox is the first one awake,” Carrie tells me. “If he wants you up, you get up. He usually achieves this by throwing himself on top of you, successfully landing on your bladder.”

“He most definitely found mine,” Abby says as she pins one of the boys and begins blowing into his stomach making a noise kin to a person blowing a raspberry and causing the kid to laugh hysterically.

I can’t take my eyes off her. Her hair is everywhere. She looks tired. Still she gives the children every bit of attention they demand, doing her best to play with each one, showing no favoritism. The pain in my heart that knows I can’t give her this causes me to look away.

Carrie is standing on the other side of the mattress giving me a knowing look. The look isn’t happy in its knowing. Her look is sad. Sad for her sister, whom she believes is going to be hurt in the end.

“All right. Aunt Abby is done. Come on, get up. Go get dressed. I have to pee and shower,” Abby announces.

The kids grumble but do as she asks. Carrie follows them to Abby’s room.

“Dimitri,” Abby calls from the open bathroom door. She had entered it five minutes ago, after making sure no one was going to need it for at least a half an hour.

“Yeah,” I call from the living room where I am deflating the air mattress.

“Could you come here for a minute?”

“Something wrong?” I ask, jumping up from my place on the floor and heading her way. I am instantly worried that she has changed physically, and I hadn’t noticed. She doesn’t answer. I push the bathroom door open just enough to slide into the bathroom in case she is naked, and she is.

Before I can step completely into the room, she grabs me, slams the door shut, and locks it. She pushes me against the wall, her naked body firmly against mine, her lips on mine. I wrap my arms around her, pull her closer to me, and kiss her back. In seconds, I am naked, the stereo is on, the hot water of the shower is beating down on us, and I am inside her, sliding in and out in hard, fluid movements. Her hands are everywhere. Her mouth kissing every inch of me.

“God, you feel so good,” I whisper as I lick, nibble, and kiss her ear, her neck, down to her nipples. Those soft nubs taste like heaven.

“Dimitri,” she moans. The sound of my name on her lips nearly makes me end things too quickly. The more sounds she makes the closer to the edge I get. I hold on for as long as I can, loving the feel of her.

When I can’t take anymore, I reach down between us to massage her clit. She says my name again while I whisper for her to cum for me. Almost on cue, she buries her head in the crease of my neck and screams out her orgasm. I hold mine until her spasms begin to ebb before I growl out my pleasure, pinning her harder to the tiled wall as I do so.

I stay inside her as long as I can, not wanting to separate from her. Gradually the water begins to cool, washing away any thoughts of a second round. I slide from her, and she whines in disappointment.

With her still wrapped in my arms, I turn the cold-water nozzle completely off and the hot water up a notch. Grabbing a rag and her bottle of body wash, I begin to wash our bodies. Running my hands and the rag over her breasts, thighs, and ass.

I am back inside her before she can rinse the soap completely off and wash her hair.

Chapter 28

~~~Abby~~~

We haven’t left my house in nearly a week. The plus side of this is that we haven’t left my bed much during this time either. The down side is that we haven’t been able to leave the house. I haven’t even checked my mail. If it weren’t for the pack, we would be down to eating Ramen noodles and wiping our asses with my good hand-towels.

If Devan’s sudden appearance while we were christening the kitchen counters hadn’t interrupted some good sex, and if he hadn’t had an angry look on his face, I would have been thankful for the change in pace his appearance brought.

“What the hell?” Dimitri barks, conjuring up a large blanket to cover our naked bodies the second Devon pops in the room and clears his throat.

“Remind me not to eat off that counter,” is all Devan says and turns away from us.

For a brief second, I use my interior muscles to latch onto Dimitri, preventing him from pulling out of me. He looks from me to his brother with a pained expression, then leans down, kisses me hard, and whispers, “Later,” before slipping out of me and clothing us.

“Why are you here?” Dimitri asks, following his brother to the living room.

“Mave and her wolves have been circling our land. Her scouts seem to have figured out that we’ve moved Abby’s sister. She only has a few people watching her house. Nearly all of her wolves are looking for ways onto our land. We’ve caught one and chased off three. The one we have isn’t saying much. Dad won’t let us torture him, although he has let Sam work a little mind mojo.”

“And?”

“He’s a peon. Doesn’t know anything about their master plan. His alpha told him they had to do what the witch says because she is going to get them their land back. That was all he was doing. His alpha order him to circle the parameter. If he found a way in, take it, and see how far he got in a half an hour. We caught him on his way back out.”

“Damn it,” Dimitri swore.

“Yeah. Dad has called in a pack from Canada to help. Marcus’ people. And he wants you and Abby to come stay with us.”

“If she can’t get onto our land, then she might force her way in here. With everyone elsewhere, she might succeed,” Dimitri says, following his brother’s train of thought.

“Pretty much.”

“Carrie and the kids are fine, then?” I pipe in.

“Yeah. Dimitri’s cabin is set deep in pack territory.”

“It’s a small place, but we’ll stay there with them,” Dimitri cuts in.

“Is that safe? Having me near them won’t put them in harm’s way?” I ask.

“It’s not the greatest plan, but we’ll be deep enough that should anyone get through, we’ll get to them before they get to you,” Devan informed me. “Mom and Dad’s place is too close to the city. We can’t have too many shifters in wolf form that close to such a populated area. Too many want-to-be-hunters and scared housewives. Almost all the other homes are along the edges of the woods. You will be too easy of a target.”

“There are only three other homes even remotely close to mine,” Dimitri added. “Jim and Sarah are expecting, and as much as I love you, my people will not allow me to place them in danger for the sake of a human. Marshall and Yvette are too old. Two of the oldest of our kind. Again, my people wouldn’t allow the danger. The other home is dilapidated. Dad is drawing up plans to remodel it, but that project isn’t due to go into effect until next spring. No, my cabin is the safest place for us. I’ll pack our clothes, if you’ll get our lap-tops and other stuff together.”

“Okay.” I went to my computer and began transferring everything of importance over to my laptop.

Devan watched Dimitri enter my bedroom, then turned to me. “You should also know that even though Dad has placed an order to protect you that doesn’t mean all of our kind will.”

“They hate me?” I ask. This fact doesn’t surprise me.

“I didn’t say that. It’s just that some of them, a few of the woman for sure, suspect that you and Dimitri have a thing going on.”

“Why do they suspect that?”

“Well, Sam may have let a few things slip, and we are protecting your family. We tend to worry only about our own kind. The fact that Dimitri has chosen to stay with you and has asked us to protect you, says a lot to them.”