Deep River Shifters 4 Book Box Set

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Deep River Shifters 4 Book Box Set Page 35

by Lisa Daniels


  It wasn’t the bathroom.

  Standing around the room were more than 20 bears, many of them different species. And all of their eyes were on her.

  Eva’s eyes widened as her brain processed what she was looking at. Her head slowly moved from side to side, and her hand began feeling the door for the handle. The door opened and she quickly turned to leave.

  A familiar voice stopped her, “Stop, Eva. It’s not what you think.”

  Slowly, her head turned around so that she could see the bears out of the corner of her eye. Most of them were making unintelligible noises, but one of them was looking at her with his mouth closed. The bear was different from the rest, much smaller and with distinctive markings on its face and chest. Its claws were very different, but otherwise it almost looked cuddly. Eva instinctively knew that was the leader of the group.

  “You are wrong. This is exactly what I think it is, Alaric.” Without waiting for a response, she ran out of the door, across the room, and into the hall.

  Chapter 6

  Deeper Than Family

  As she fled, Eva tried to figure out the best course of action. She could run back to the women and act like this never happened, or she could try to get outside and call one of the driving services after figuring out where she was. But the obvious thing to do was to find the bathroom because her bladder was yelling at her as she tried to run in heels.

  A voice stopped her as she paused to take off the heels. “The bathroom is over here.”

  Eva finished collecting her shoes before turning to look at him. “I think I would like to leave now.” She was relieved to see he was human.

  Alaric walked toward her. “Why don’t we talk after you do what you came out here to do? No reason to make a snap decision when you are that uncomfortable.”

  Eva wanted to argue, but her bladder was very much in concurrence. Keeping some distance between them, she muttered just loud enough for him to hear (and not loud enough if any of the others were listening), “I know you are shifters. You had better be prepared to talk about that instead of trying to convince me that I didn’t see what I saw.”

  She didn’t bother to look at him as she stepped into the bathroom. Shaking her head, she wondered why she had listened to Cora. The bathroom was on the right side closer to them, and she didn’t have to go through another room to find it. Then again if Cora had been with her, things might have gotten messy. It was unlikely she knew about her boyfriend, let alone the other men she was friends with. Eva didn’t need to be told who was which bear. Even with a short glimpse, she knew exactly what their other forms were. She had years of experience with shifters—it was the real reason why her family was so picky about her friends and connections.

  Eva adjusted her dress once she had finished, then washed her hands. Looking at her reflection, she was reminded that she didn’t have any makeup on. It was a relief. Eva turned the water back on and splashed her face a couple of times. Some of her hair fell down and stuck to the side of her face. With a sigh, she opened the door.

  Alaric was leaning against the wall on the other side of the hallway. “Would you mind if we step outside to talk?”

  “Will it matter if I say no?”

  “Yes,” he frowned at her. “I really am not trying to make you uncomfortable or unhappy. If you want to stay inside, we can. I just figured the fresh air might help.”

  Eva took a deep breath, “Don’t you need to get back to the others?”

  “They have all left already. I kept them far longer than I had told them I would, so once you entered, it was the escape they needed. Actually, if you stick around, I’m sure they will thank you for it. Your reaction also gained you a good bit of respect among them.”

  “Are you trying to sell me on staying?”

  “Of course. But I’m not going to force you.”

  “Fine. Let’s go outside, but do you have any shoes I can wear that aren’t heels?”

  Alaric smiled, “Yes, over near the door.”

  They walked in silence until they reached the door. There was a rack of shoes. He picked up a pair, “I think these are the same size as what you were wearing.” Alaric put a pair of moccasins down in front of her.

  Eva slipped her feet into them and immediately understood why people wore them. They were unbelievably comfortable. “Thank you.” She looked up at Alaric.

  “I’ll take those.” Without waiting for her to speak, he took the shoes from her hand. His hand brushed hers, and her cheeks flushed a little. Frowning, she tried to remind herself that this was exactly the kind of thing that had ruined her life. Getting further entangled with shifters would pretty much suffocate her. “I promise to make sure you get them later. They are yours.”

  Despite trying to keep her mind focused on the problem, Eva found herself smiling at his thoughtfulness. He looked at her for a moment, then shoved his hands in his pockets. Turning away abruptly, his voice sounded a little different as he opened the door. “After you.”

  Eva stepped outside. Unsure what to say, she waited for him to start talking first. He closed the door, then looked at her, an uncertain expression obvious in the moonlight.

  Eva frowned for a second, then looked up. “The sky is clear?”

  “Yes, that occasionally happens here, although I’m sure it won’t last.”

  “Any chance that we might be able to see the mountains? We don’t have anything nearly as impressive back east as what I saw on the plane.”

  “Probably not. The clouds down here tend to last a little longer.” Eva looked over at him. His eyes were on her instead of the moon, and it made her feel shy again. Looking down, she couldn’t think what to say.

  “I take it this was one of the reasons you were so averse to talking about your family.”

  Eva nodded, “It is at least part of it.”

  “Serenity doesn’t know?”

  “Of course not, as I’m sure that she doesn’t know about Ryland.”

  “Oh, no, all three of them know about us. Those three men wouldn't dream of taking a mate with such a huge secret.”

  Eva looked at him, her brain clearly processing what Alaric had said. “So all three of them know that you guys are bears?”

  “At least they know that their boyfriends, or in Serenity’s case, fiancé, are shifters. It was actually how all three relationships started. Damsels in distress, all of them.”

  A giggle escaped Eva before she could stop it. “The idea of Serenity being a damsel in distress is difficult to imagine. So Ryland saved her when she fell over.”

  Alaric looked at her for a moment, then nodded.

  Eva ran a hand over her face, “Yet another secret that she didn’t tell me.”

  “Well, it wasn’t exactly her secret. And as you said, you haven’t told her about your family.”

  “She already knows enough about my family to know that they are not the kind of people you mess with. Serenity hates them more than they dislike her.”

  Alaric looked back at the house and nodded. “That does explain a lot.” His head swiveled back to Eva. He looked like he was about to say something then shook his head. “Um, there’s a nice little garden nearby if you want to go explore that.”

  “Okay.” Eva fell in step beside him as he started walking towards it. Alaric looked down at her, then he seemed to make a decision. Holding out his arm, Eva knew he was offering it the way gentlemen did when escorting a woman around. She knew there was no deeper meaning to it, but she blushed anyway as she took his arm. Stealing a look at his face, it almost looked like his cheeks were a little flushed. Eva looked in front of her before her mind got carried away.

  “You look lovely in the dress.”

  She looked down. “Thank you. It’s all your doing.”

  “Yes, and I regretted it when I walked into the room and was immediately accosted over text by Silas saying I needed to save you. It was quite disappointing that saving you meant talking to Trevor. That man has been trying to get me to buy in
to that scheme for over a year. It was far less enjoyable rehashing that than actually saving you.”

  Eva hid a smile. He certainly knew how to make a woman feel good, even if he didn’t mean it.

  “You don’t need to hide your face. It’s just the two of us out here.”

  Eva tried to look at him, but found that she was a little too nervous. Instead she looked up at the moon. Her hand immediately went to the necklace, and she said, “I thought this was a moon at first, but now it makes sense why it is a sun. So you are in charge of all those guys. It seems like a real challenge.”

  “You have no idea.” There was a heaviness to his voice that attracted her attention. He was looking up at the moon. “I was five years old when they found out what I was. I mean the family. My parents knew a little earlier, but tried to shelter me from what it would mean. All bears are different, but sun bears are incredibly rare. Unlike the other species, there is no way to know what causes a shifter to be a sun bear. Both of Silas’ parents are pandas because their parents spent a lot of time in China and Indonesia. They moved back and forth between Alaska and China when she was pregnant with Silas, so they were expecting another panda. Well, you know what shifters are like. Their species is an indicator of what their personalities will be like. When it turned out Silas was a polar bear, they had no idea how to raise him. That was why Ryland and I pretty much took care of him when he wasn’t living with Cora. Cora made him much gentler than he probably would have been otherwise, but he is still easily the most aggressive of all of us.”

  “Silas?” The image of the innocent man being anything other than sweet was difficult to imagine. Then again, she knew he was the only polar bear in the room. She didn’t know much about bears, but everyone had heard how vicious polar bears could be when provoked. “It’s surprising. Wait, isn’t he dating Naomi?”

  “Yes. He and Cora were more like siblings. And she didn’t know about him before you ask. I don’t think she knows what kind of bear he is either, although I am certain she knows he is a bear.”

  “So, you are related to all of them?” Eva looked at Alaric. “I have to say I can see the resemblance.”

  Alaric looked at her, “What do you mean?”

  “Oh, nothing. You were saying that you were born a sun bear, but no one knows why.”

  Alaric pursed his lips, but let the unexplained comment pass. “Yes. When the family found out, they took me to have my fortune read. Sun bears tend to end up as leaders, but sometimes they are bad leaders with questionable intentions. The last one in our family tried to wipe out humans. That was back in the 1800s. It got the family nearly hunted to extinction. We’ve stayed in hiding ever since.”

  Eva nodded at the familiar story. “My family are birds of prey. And there are plenty of them with the brains of a bird, too. It is only those of us who are fortunate enough not to be special that tend to be intelligent. Although that probably has more to do with us needing to survive in a family that sees us as breeders instead of people.”

  “They what?” Alaric looked horrified at what she had said.

  “I told you, I’m nothing special. I may have shifter blood, but I am not a shifter. That makes me a lesser member of the species.”

  Alaric was looking at her a bit differently now. Something appeared to catch his attention, and he pulled his arm away from her. “Actually, let’s head over here. There’s some, um, old architecture I think you would appreciate more than flowers.”

  “Really? How old is it?” Eva stumbled a little trying to catch him. Alaric was suddenly moving a little faster as if to put some distance between them.

  He said over his shoulder, “It’s native architecture. I made sure that it was preserved when they built the place.”

  “Are you serious?” Eva’s interest was piqued as she tried to catch up. He stopped after a while and held out an arm to stop her. Eva nearly ran into him and had to grab his arm to stop her momentum. She began to fall forward and soon found herself pulled against him.

  Through his chest, she could hear him saying something, but Eva could not focus on it enough to understand what he was saying. She looked up into his eyes and found she could not look away. Alaric looked down at her for a few seconds, then quickly held her out at arm’s length. “I’m sorry. That was really rude of me.”

  Eva had lost interest in what it was he wanted to show her. As he cleared his throat and motioned toward the site, she placed a hand on his face and drew his eyes back to hers. Her mind was racing. What she was doing was wrong on so many levels. Forget her family, Eva did not want to be caught up in another shifter family. Regardless of what her mind was telling her, screaming at her, she felt curious about what it would be like to kiss Alaric.

  The world seemed to stop as he looked down at her; this time his interest was very obvious on his face. And it was equally obvious that he was fighting it.

  Chapter 7

  Through the Night

  Eva’s voice was soft as she asked, “Why?”

  Alaric’s eyes looked like those of a predator trying to resist its natural urges. His voice was lower than normal, “Because I promised Serenity I wouldn't.”

  This was not the answer Eva had expected. Pulling back a little, she found she couldn’t quite leave his arms, and he did not seem able to remove his hands from her waist. “Why would you do that?”

  “I am not like the others. Over the years, I have taken many mates and never told them anything. I have had no interest in anything serious, but I didn’t want to deny myself pleasure. It was one reason why the family gave up on me and turned to Ryland.”

  Eva blinked. It was bizarre how similar their lives had been and how much they had worked around their families. Alaric had done so much to escape the pressures of his life, which was where they really differed. Eva had largely accepted the decisions her family made because the more she let them control her, the less they tried to control her. She had learned that from Rebekah. After Rebekah had gone to college, she admitted to Eva that she was a lesbian. It was only years later after she had proven to be a successful lawyer that she had finally opened up to her family. Because of her status in such a well-respected profession, her family did not do much to distance themselves from her. She still came to holiday celebrations and events, and she was welcome as long as she didn’t bring another woman with her. Eva was 15 when Rebekah came out to the family, and it was then that she learned how best to rebel. Of course, having lost one of the lower breeders, Eva’s parents had become far stricter with her. Still, she learned how to work within their requirements so that she could have more freedoms.

  It was strange to think that Alaric was one of the people who her family would have revered because he was nothing like any of her special siblings. They were always fighting for the attention of their parents, trying to prove they were better. If any of them had been told they would be the leader of the family, that would have been a blessing, instead of the apparent curse it had been to Alaric.

  Eva looked at his mouth. “I don’t see what Serenity has to do with anything you decide to do.”

  She watched his Adam’s apple move when he swallowed and the way his chest moved as he took a deep breath. “She is afraid that I will hurt you.”

  Eva pulled her head back a little. “Afraid you would hurt me? She’s never been concerned about that before.”

  “Maybe she has and she talked about it with the men instead of you.”

  Eva blinked, and suddenly a few of the circumstances that had resulted in men losing interest made more sense. She had always assumed the men were interested in Serenity, but what if it had been fear that had driven them away? All of those cases were after her abduction.

  “Has she been doing this kind of thing behind my back?”

  “A few times, yes. She told me as much this evening when she made me promise it another dozen or so times.” There was a bit of annoyance in his voice, but his eyes were intently following Eva’s mouth.

  “I do
n’t need her protection.” This trip had been truly eye-opening about Serenity, and many of the ways were far more hurtful than anything Eva thought Alaric could manage.

  “What if I were to tell you I’m not afraid of hurting you?”

  Eva looked up at him and tried to figure out exactly how he meant it. Either he was warning her that there were reasons why Serenity was concerned, or he was afraid that he would end up hurt. Eva knew that he had to mean the previous version because the latter was impossible to imagine. “Then I would have to tell you that I’m not afraid of you hurting me either.”

  Alaric’s eyes took her in for a few more seconds. Before she could react, Alaric was kissing her. His hands slid down her back and wrapped around the tops of her legs. Lifting her off the ground, he pulled her legs up to his hips and pulled her to him. Eva moaned as she leaned into him. Her hands slid around his neck and she pressed her chest against him. She could feel him pulling her dress up over her legs, allowing her to press her hips against him. As soon as her legs were bare, she wrapped her legs around him and slid up on his body. Alaric pressed his tongue into her mouth and held her upper back so that her breasts were just under his chin. His mouth moved down her neck, and he gave her neck a short nip. Eva gasped at the surprise, then pressed her hips further into him. This time, she could feel how tight his pants had become. She began to push his coat off.

  Suddenly, he put her on the ground. Panting, he said, “Not here.” He took her hand and moved swiftly toward the door. Eva stumbled in the darkness. Before she could fall, his arms were around her. Second later they were moving at a breakneck pace to the building. When they neared the building, he let out a noise like a bird, and a door opened in what had looked like a solid wall. As soon as they were inside, Alaric adjusted his grip on her and pressed her against the wall. Again he pulled up her dress, but this time he didn’t just stop when they were over her legs. Holding her arms up, Eva’s hips continued to press into him. Alaric kissed her arms as soon as the dress was over her head. Throwing it to the side, he placed a hand on her upper back and her lower back. His mouth covered her nipple and he flicked his tongue against it. Eva gasped again and stroked his hair, her hands gripping it lightly.

 

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