Deep River Shifters 4 Book Box Set

by Lisa Daniels

  “That’s because he knows you aren’t serious.”

  Eva shook her head, “He told me last night that he has never been serious before. He isn’t like you guys.”

  “Wrong.” His gaze was still intense. “He was not like us. Everything changed when he took over. Did you know until last night he had not been with anyone in over a year?”

  Eva frowned and looked down at her plate.

  Ryland continued, “He swore he wasn’t going to be with anyone else ever again because it was a distraction. It was all based on a prediction about him that they made when he was a child. You should probably talk to him about it since you already know what we are.”

  He stood up. “If you will excuse me, I am going to go try to reflect on what you said.”

  Eva closed her eyes and shook her head, not quite sure what he meant. “What are you going to reflect on?”

  Ryland looked at her, “She has been changing. I hadn’t really noticed it until you said something, but you are right. And I don’t want that. I love her and I want her to be happy.”

  Eva felt a twinge of fleeting jealousy, but it was nothing like the day before. “I’m actually really touched by how much you care. So many men have been either possessive of her or thought she was a trophy. You actually seem to care.”

  “Of course I care about the people I love. And that is why I am warning you to cut it off with Alaric.”

  Eva stared at her plate and listened to the sound of Ryland’s footsteps. Before he left the room, she stood up abruptly and blurted out, “What if I were serious about him?”

  Ryland looked down the hall, then strode over to the table. Leaning forward, his eyes were piercing as he said, “Then it would be terrible for both of you. Your parents would never allow it because of who they are. If he had not given up his business, there would have been a chance, but not now. Have you ever stood up to your family when it mattered?”

  “I have been—”

  “No, when it mattered. Because if you were serious, then it would matter more than anything else in the world. Even if you did stand up to your parents, it wouldn’t work. Once he learned that he was the reason that your family disowned you, he would carry that guilt for the rest of his life. Family ties are considered the most important to us, and he would not be able to live with the fact that you broke yours. Could you watch him fall apart over something you could have prevented by doing the right thing now?”

  Eva had no response to that. She could do little more than stare at the food on her plate. She missed the look of pain and regret that passed over Ryland’s face at her indecision.

  Standing up, he said, “I am sorry, but don’t try to force something you don’t feel. And please spare him the pain of what trying would mean. I want him to succeed, and I don’t want either of you to suffer. Now, if you will excuse me.” This time Eva did not stop him.

  That night, Eva excused herself early and went to her room. Ryland looked very displeased with her, but Serenity was just concerned that she didn’t feel well. Eva said that she just felt a bit of jetlag and a good night’s sleep would fix most of the problem.

  To her disappointment, Alaric did not visit her, not that she had really expected it. She had never thought he was serious about her, but Ryland had convinced her that there was a chance he was. If he had come, she would have wanted to listen to Ryland, but knew it was equally likely that she wouldn’t be able to go through with it. Eventually, she drifted into a restless sleep.

  ***

  The next day they packed up for the camping trip. Eva was still determined to go because now she knew that she was going to be about as safe as it was possible to be. There would be at least four bear shifters there, making it safe. It would give her time to clear her head and rethink the trip.

  It certainly had not been anything like what she had expected. Putting the glasses back on, she decided to record the camping trip so that she could start recovering. All she needed was a few good camping trips and she would be alright.

  The group took off around noon. Serenity and Eva sat in the back and talked about the things they had done since Serenity left the east coast, then they started to reminisce about the early days of their acquaintance. Ryland seemed more than happy to get more information from them, and Josie seemed perfectly content to listen to music as she drove. Alaric had said he needed to finish something and would join them later. Something told Eva that they would not see him for a few days, but she barely responded to his announcement before they left.

  The first night was alright, with the group sitting around the fire talking about some of the adventures the group had gone on. Eva was fully entertained by the way Cora and Silas played off each other. They really were like siblings.

  After people went to their respective tents, though, Eva started to regret coming. Every sound was a possible threat, every stirring of the tent was someone coming to abduct her. Curled up in a ball, she felt as exposed as she had been a few years ago. She had a tent to herself because she was still not on the west coast schedule and no one wanted to wake her up.

  She drifted in and out of sleep. It was only when someone slipped into her tent in the early hours of the morning and placed blankets on her that Eva finally felt a little better. She thought that someone slipped in beside her, but when she woke in the morning, she was still alone.

  The next day was relatively uneventful with the group just hiking and chatting. The night passed nearly as sleeplessly as the last. Again she thought someone had joined her, but again she woke up alone.

  The next day, Alaric arrived, and the entire atmosphere of the group shifted. There was a feeling that things were complete, and they were much livelier than they had been. Only Eva seemed less cheerful, but she chalked it up to not feeling well.

  When Eva seemed a little worse off the next day, Serenity pulled her to the side. “Do you need to go back? I mean, I know that you hate camping, and I don’t want you to get sick because I talked you into it.”

  With a faint smile, Eva shook her head. “It’s fine. The ground is just a bit difficult to get accustomed to. I’ll be fine.”

  “What if I gave you an air mattress?”

  “You brought one?”

  Serenity looked around, then nodded, “Yeah, uh, I’ve been using it because I don’t care for sleeping on the ground either, but if you—”

  “It’s fine. You keep using it. I’m sure it gets quite a workout at night, so you need it more than I do.”

  Serenity gave her a wry look, “Oh please, I wouldn’t—”

  “Don’t lie. You aren’t good at it. And you have never been as quiet as you think when you have sex.”

  Serenity looked around, scratched her head, then looked at Eva. “Making sure you are comfortable is more important. Take the mattress.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “Good.” Serenity patted her knee. “I will have Ryland move it tonight while everyone else is eating.”

  “What about Ryland getting to eat?”

  “I’m sure you’ve noticed how quickly he eats. Besides, he wants you to have a good time almost as much as you.”

  Eva bit her lip because she was quite certain that was not true. She didn’t want to say anything, though, because Eva knew he meant well.

  But they never had a chance to move the mattress. When the group went hiking that afternoon, they were startled when gun shots rang out near them. Hunting season was over, so there should not have been anyone with guns there.

  Eva watched as the four men shot looks at each other. Alaric started barking out orders.

  Then blood started to bloom all over Silas’ shirt just under his shoulder.

  Eva felt a hand grab hers and pull her into the woods away from everyone else. It only took a few seconds before she couldn’t see any of the rest of the group.

  “He will be alright. The poachers may not be. We need to get you somewhere safe, then I will go deal with this.” The voice was almost a growl and was
far more menacing than she had ever heard it.

  Eva turned and looked at the back of Alaric’s head. He was running through the woods at an impossible speed, and she could not keep up. When she stumbled, he quickly lifted her before she struck the ground and darted into a small cave.

  “Stay here. I should be back in a few minutes. However, if I’m not, I want you to go straight to the cars and get everyone out of here who makes it back. Don’t stay here beyond an hour.” His eyes never stopped moving as he spoke. When he finished giving her directions, Alaric looked at her.

  She gave him a curt nod. “Please, be careful.”

  He nodded back, then he was gone.

  Chapter 9

  A Twisted Déjà Vu

  Alaric had not been gone long when Eva began to experience a panic attack. The cave seemed to be closing in on her, and her breathing became shallow. Stumbling out into the open, she looked around her, and the unfamiliar terrain seemed to make things worse.

  “Oh God. Oh God.” She wrapped her arms around herself and started to rock. She sank to the ground and buried her head in her knees. Time passed, but Eva had no idea how much when something cold tapped her on the shoulder.

  “Well, look what we have here. It looks like there must be an asylum nearby and we’ve found an escaped patient.”

  There was a cruel laugh, but Eva found she couldn’t even look up. Her rocking continued.

  “Come on, sweetheart. We can help you find your way back home.” There was another laugh. Eva began to rock faster.

  A hand wrapped around her arm and yanked her up. Eva fell over, screaming at the top of her lungs. A large man was standing over her, his eyes wide as he stared down at her.

  “This one is too damaged. Best to just put it out of its misery.” Eva couldn’t see the man talking, and she just kept screaming. Suddenly the man standing over her disappeared from her sight. Instinctively, she rolled over on her side and balled up again. Eva was vaguely aware of a flurry of activity around her; a sharp sound and pungent odor partially pierced her awareness.

  Almost as suddenly as it started, the commotion stopped.

  Eva continued to rock, but now she was humming to herself. When she felt someone lift her off the ground, she immediately started screaming.

  “It’s okay. Eva, it’s me.” The person holding her stopped and put her down. She returned to rocking and humming. Then she felt a hand on her head. It stroked her head, comforting her. Slowly she stopped rocking, while the whole time the hand stroked her hair.

  When she was ready, Eva looked up. Alaric was sitting directly in front of her. “Are you okay? Did they hurt you?”

  Eva took a few moments to comprehend what he had said. When she didn't answer, Alaric started trying to check her. Immediately, she screamed, and balled back up.

  “It’s okay. It’s okay.” The hand continued to stroke her head, and the voice helped her to come back a little faster. When she finally looked up at him, there were tears streaming down her face. He gently pulled her to him. Eva grabbed the front of his shirt and cried. Gently he lifted her and walked with her, all the time whispering comforting words to her.

  At some point she fell asleep. When she woke, she was in a dark room with a small fire at the opposite end. She blinked a few times, the panic rising.

  She felt the bed sink a little. “You are awake. Do you know who you are?”

  Eva looked over at Alaric, her mind attempting to process something it was trying to ignore. “Eva Madison. My family won’t pay, so it was a wasted effort. You should have taken one of the special kids. They would have paid anything to get them back.”

  “Oh God, no. No. No. No.”

  Eva felt arms go around her and pull her against a warm chest. She wanted to push the man away, but she felt too comfortable. “You won’t get anything. I'm sorry, but you won’t.”

  “You are safe. There is nothing else that I want. You are what matters. Eva, you are what’s important.”

  She buried her face in the warmth. “I can’t give you anything else.”

  The hand stroked her hair. “I don’t want anything else from you. Just be alright. I will get you home, I swear.”

  Something about the voice sounded familiar, but Eva didn’t want to think about how she knew it. Knowing would end everything, and right now she didn’t want to give up feeling safe.

  The comforting voice talked to her for a bit, but she couldn’t focus on the words. As the voice droned on, she found herself falling back asleep.

  ***

  The next time she woke, Eva was more aware of her surroundings. “Where are we?” Her voice was shaky as she waited to find out who was with her. She remembered very little of what she had experienced. The image of Silas’ shirt soaked in blood shook her. “Silas!”

  “He’s fine. Silas is fine. He shifted and was healed within minutes. The same cannot be said for the men who shot him. It will be difficult to heal now that their heads and bodies are divorced.”

  “What?” Eva thought back, and the memory of the bears in a room came to the forefront. “He killed them?”

  “Yes. He is easily the most proficient.”

  Eva shook her head. “Good for him. Those bastards.” She hugged herself. “Those bastards.”

  Alaric put an arm around her. “It’s okay. Everyone else made it back to the cars last I heard. You were in no state to try to get back, so I brought you here.”

  “Where are we?”

  “It’s my first home. Where I lived when I first ran away from my responsibility.”

  Eva looked around. “It’s tiny.”

  He gave her a partial smile. “It’s cold.” She simply looked at him. “Sorry, that was stupid of me. We didn’t have a lot of money back then. Ryland hadn’t left yet, and I was only 10 years old.”

  “You left when you were 10?” Eva leaned against him, and immediately she felt a little better.

  “Yes. I was really against the future that I was given.”

  A dull memory of Ryland saying something about it floated to the surface. “What did you learn?”

  Alaric patted her. “Does it matter?”

  “It bothered you enough to make you run away when you were a child.”

  “Being told that I was going to be responsible for our entire family because of my form was enough, wasn’t it?”

  “But that wasn’t why. There was something else that bothered you?”

  Alaric’s chest heaved, “I was supposed to marry some important woman with shifter blood. It was my responsibility to use her to keep the family going. If I didn’t, it was possible that the family would die out within the next 150 years.”

  Eva pulled away, “Why on Earth would they tell a child that?”

  “Why on Earth would a family refuse to pay for a ransomed child?”

  Eva pulled away, “They always told me what would happen if I wasn’t careful. And every time I got careless, I got hurt.”

  Alaric frowned, “What do you mean?”

  Eva shrugged, “The first time I was kidnapped, I was 10 years old. The next time, I had just turned 13. Then twice when I was 16. I wasn’t abducted again for about 4 years when my parents found out I was dating.”

  Alaric was scowling by the time she finished. “Did they ever do anything to help you afterward since they didn’t care that you were taken?”

  “Just Serenity. She pretty much forced me into therapy.”

  Alaric was quiet for a while. Something was obviously on his mind.

  “I'm hungry.” The words were out of her mouth before Eva realized she was about to say them.

  Alaric’s smile was positively angelic as he looked at her. “Of course. Hold on.”

  He returned a few seconds later with a small tray of food. “I keep the place pretty well stocked because sometimes I just need somewhere to go to escape everything.”

  “Even now when you are being responsible?” She gave him a feeble smile.

  “Especially now.”
/>
  “Surely at least Ryland knows about this place.”

  Alaric shook his head, “Nope, you are the only other person I have brought here.”

  “Only under duress.”

  Alaric looked at her, then he bit his lip. “If things had turned out differently, I could have been persuaded to bring you here for pleasure instead.”

  Eva tilted her head to the side.

  “Eat up. We will need to leave soon or Serenity is going to have a heart attack.”

  Eva nodded and took a few bites of food. Before long, she had drifted back to sleep.

  Chapter 10

  The World Shifts

  When Eva woke up, it was dark outside. She looked around but didn’t see anyone. “Alaric?” She whispered his name, even though there was no one else there.

  Eva swung her feet over the side of the bed and felt something warm when she tried to stand up.

  “Ooff.”

  “Oh my God! I am so sorry. Are you alright?”

  Alaric sat up beside the bed. “Yeah, just a foot to the… yeah, I might sing a little higher, but no big deal.”

  “I am so sorry about that.” She moved down to the floor. “Here, let me rub your back.”

  “You didn’t step on my back,” he quipped.

  “Well, alright, I will massage your—” Her hand reached down.

  Alaric quickly moved away from her. “I can’t again. I should never have given in, it was wrong, and I am very sorry.”

  Eva’s shoulders slumped. “I’m sorry because you warned me ahead of time. I didn’t listen. It’s my fault you feel guilty now.”

  Alaric frowned, “No, I knew better. I promised Serenity that I would do better, now it’s only a matter of time before Ryland tells her, and then things will get rough.”

  Eva looked at the window. “What if I said I wanted something more serious?”

  “No, you aren’t, and I’m not going to ruin what happened by forcing you into something more.”

  “Forcing me? You aren’t forcing me to—I have never felt this comfortable with anyone who wasn’t Rebekah or Serenity. I know that I can’t be so selfish with them because they have lives, but after something Ryland said, I am hopeful that I might be able to be that selfish with you.” She bit her lip as soon as she finished.