A Forever Series Box Set: A Paranormal Reverse Harem : Books 1-5

by Eve Newton

  He takes all that in with a look of distaste. I know he doesn’t want to be responsible for her, so I will take up the burden for him. “I will sort it. Okay, baby? I don’t want you to have to worry about it. Let me do that for you. Okay?” I ask.

  He nods gratefully and says, “Thank you. It’s selfish of me to want you to take the burden, but I just don’t think I can do it. I need you, Lizzie. I need you now, more than ever, to look after me.”

  “I will always look after you. Not because I have to as your sire, but because I want to as the woman who loves you. You are my darling boy,” I say hesitantly but make a decision to tell him something. Something that I have never said out loud. Something that I haven’t even really formed into a full thought before. I lean forward and whisper in his ear, so softly, and his eyes pop up to mine in surprise and fill with all the love that he has for me.

  He cups my face and kisses me. “Oh, Lizzie,” he breathes as he leans his forehead against mine.

  Everyone chooses that moment to make their appearance and we don’t get to discuss it further, but he knows how I feel, and that is enough for now.

  Lincoln is the first to reach us. He crouches in front of us and pats Devon on the shoulder in an almost sympathetic manner. I squeeze his hand and get to my feet. I have a bone to pick with Constantine and now is as good a time as any. I find him in the sitting room with Sebastian and Scott, who isn’t looking happy to be on his own with two ancient Vampires.

  Constantine hands me my phone and says, “I called Cole. Left a voicemail. He will no doubt call you as soon as he gets it.”

  “Thanks,” I say, taking it from him. “Can I have a word?”

  He nods suspiciously and I motion him over to the other side of the room, not that we’ll get any privacy anyway.

  “I am so mad with you, I am itching to get my sword out,” I hiss at him.

  He looks somewhat startled by my threat but then his face hardens. “May I ask why?” he asks quietly.

  “You told him he had seconds to make a choice. If you had made him think he had more time, we wouldn’t be in this mess,” I snap.

  He looks at me like I have grown another head. “You wanted me to lie to him, so that she died?” he asks in disbelief. “Really, Aefre, that shocks me. I thought your murderous ways were behind you.”

  “How dare you? I didn’t do this to her. I am thinking only of Devon, of my charge who didn’t want this. Do you know how difficult she is going to be when she wakes? He isn’t ready for that, and he shouldn’t have been put in this position,” I whisper-snap at him.

  “That is the price you pay when you cavort with humans,” he whisper-snaps back at me. “It is a risk especially when the human wants to be turned,” he adds haughtily.

  “If it offends your delicate sensibilities to lie to protect someone I love, then you should have at least let me turn her,” I say.

  “At the risk of what? We don’t know what will happen and this was not the time to experiment. We are in a hotel, outside of our hometown. The last thing we need is an even bigger mess to clean up. I told him his choices and he made one.” He narrows his eyes at me now and a cruel look passes across his face as he says, “Or would you rather I had stepped up and offered to turn her? Made her a new sibling for you.”

  CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-THREE

  I stare at him in disbelief that he has just said that to me. Without a second thought, I do something I have never even dared to think about doing in a thousand years and bring my hand up to give him a resounding slap to the face. He blinks at me as if he can’t quite believe I had the nerve to do that, before he brings his own hand up to slap me back. I put my hand to my cheek and gape at him in horror, before I realize it wasn’t him that slapped me. It was Sebastian. He had moved so quickly to defend his sire that I didn’t even see him.

  “Try that again and I won’t hold back next time,” he snarls at me before I launch myself at him, claws and fangs drawn. He is just as quick as me and, expecting my attack, he grabs me by the arm, twisting me around painfully, his other hand on the back of my neck, keeping my claws out of his reach. I elbow him – hard – in the stomach with my free arm and as he bends over, the wind knocked out of him briefly, I bring the back of my fist up into his face and he loosens his grip. Pulling myself free, I spin, quick as lightning, and have him by the throat, slamming him to the floor with a loud thud. All the commotion has caused everyone to find out what is going on, so I have a gaping audience as I straddle Sebastian and growl at him, “Lay a hand on me again and I will rip your fucking head off.”

  He sneers at me as our sire pulls me off his first charge. I struggle to get free as he puts me on my feet. I am hurt beyond belief that he has chosen Sebastian over me, but that is short-lived as he launches himself at Sebastian, fist bunched, and nearly knocks his head off. He goes skidding across the floor to end up in a heap on the other side of the room. I step back, gaping at them. “If you ever so much as look at her wrong again, I will do the honors,” CK snarls.

  “That’s the fucking thanks I get for coming to your defense? I should have known you’d take her side,” Sebastian hisses at him, as he gets to his feet.

  “I don’t need you to defend me, ‘Bastian. Not against anyone and certainly not against Aefre. Apologize,” he says shortly.

  Sebastian glares at me, not with hatred but something fairly close. Oh, well, so much for becoming friends. “I apologize. It is a natural reaction, as I am sure you can appreciate,” he says formally.

  Well, I can’t argue with that. “I accept. I apologize for flattening you,” I say with just a hint of sarcasm. I turn to my sire and I am genuinely abashed. “I’m sorry,” I say with my eyes down.

  He crosses to me and lifts my chin up, saying, “I shouldn’t have said what I did. I am the one who is sorry. I knew the reaction you would give.” He pauses before adding, “Well, maybe not exactly.” I smile and he kisses me lightly. “Am I forgiven?” he asks softly, not just for the sibling remark, but also for the other thing I was accusing him of.

  “Always, my love,” I whisper.

  “For fuck's sake!” Sebastian snaps. “This is ridiculous. She has you wrapped so tightly around her little finger you forget yourself.”

  Constantine turns to his first charge and says, “I won’t take offense to that, my boy. She tends to make one forget oneself.”

  “No kidding,” he says with a sneer. “I expect this infatuation from the weaker ones, but you? I’m surprised. I mean, I know she is a good fuck but Christ…” he trails off, running a hand through his hair as everyone silently stares at him. My eyes go wide in horror as my brain catches up with what he has just said. His eyes snap to mine as he also realizes what he has just said. I open my mouth to do damage control, as he sneers and opens his mouth to twist the knife a bit more.

  We both look at our sire, who looks like he is about to kill both of us as I say, “He used his gift on me.”

  Sebastian says quickly, “She made a move. I wasn’t going to say ‘no.’”

  The tension in the air ratchets up a thousand notches and no one says a word. Sebastian and I are staring at our sire who has turned his back on us, more out of restraint not to kill us than out of dismissal. Devon, Lincoln, and Scott sidle quietly and slowly back into the bedroom, choosing Jess in her prone state, over me in my soon-to-be dead one. I don’t blame them. I kind of wish I could also retreat.

  Constantine turns to look first at me and then at Sebastian. His face is impassive, unreadable. Unfortunately for me, Sebastian has one thousand, seven hundred and sixty years on me at our sire’s side and has the capability to adopt the same blank expression. He stares impassively back at him.

  Constantine turns to me. “When?” he asks.

  “Yesterday evening. Before we came downstairs for dinner,” I stammer.

  “I see,” he says, knowing exactly when. I can now see the process as the wheels turn and his eyes soften slightly as he continues to look at me. I
can see the relief pass across his face as he knows this was before I knew about Sebastian and his magickal persuasion and would therefore have no reason to make it up to protect myself. I must look absolutely terrified as he tries to smile reassuringly at me, letting me know he believes me, although it comes out more like a grimace.

  He turns to face Sebastian, the expression disappearing instantly. “I told you that if you used your gift on her, I would finish you. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t rip your head off right now,” he says.

  Sebastian looks back at him in disbelief and says, “You believe her over me? You know what she is like, a wanton little whore with no more thought for anyone but getting what she wants. Has all her little fuck toys lined up nicely in a neat little row at her beck and call. I knew all I had to do was pay her a bit of attention and she would come begging for it.”

  My mouth drops open shock. That’s what he thinks of me? He’s known me all of a week and I’m hurt that he thinks so little of me. He couldn’t know me less if he tried. And, hello? Talk about a big fat lie! Arsehole. I’m staring at him now with open hatred and I’m pretty sure he can feel it radiating off me as he shifts uncomfortably.

  Constantine regards him for a brief moment after those awful comments and says, “If you knew her as well as I do, or at all even, for that matter, you would know that every emotion she feels, every thought she has, passes across her face momentarily before she tries to hide it. It is endearing and one of the things I love most about her. It also makes it almost impossible for her to lie to me. And lest you forget, my boy, I know you just as well, if not better. When you want something, you get it whether by your own charms or your ability. She denied you and that annoyed you, so you went after her.”

  Sebastian is glaring at him for being called out. “She didn’t take much persuading,” he declares. He sulks, still trying to shift at least some of the blame, adding, “I hardly had to try.”

  “Of that I have no doubt. She already expressed an interest but was honorable enough to not follow through even when I offered us to her. Even though it was something she really wanted, she still turned me down, as you don’t fall within the boundaries.” Constantine looks smug as he says it. I have to inwardly huff at him as he hardly offered, I just assumed he was going to, and he ran with it when it was clear I wasn’t going to follow through. The reason for his smug look is that Sebastian is now glaring at him, knowing that the reason we didn’t have a three-way (or four-way if you include the time with Devon) was not because of him, but because of me. “So, you see, whether you had to exert yourself or not, you still used your gift on her and that is not acceptable. Oh, and don’t think you will get away with the insults. The last person to call her a whore had his head chopped off by way of the flames of Hell,” Constantine adds.

  I am pleased to see Sebastian looking slightly wary at that as I remember Lance’s final moments with a shudder.

  “Although…” Constantine continues as he turns to look at me, “I am surprised it worked. I was under the impression you were now immune to such things.”

  “That makes two of us,” I mumble, not happy to be back under the microscope.

  “Interesting,” he says curiously. “Aefre. Would you excuse us, my dear? Sebastian and I need to talk in private.” He doesn’t wait for me to nod before he grips Sebastian’s arm and Teleports them – I assume – upstairs to our suite. Oh, to be a fly on the wall.

  I relax now that they’ve gone, and this is over.

  “He used magick on you?” Lincoln bellows at me and I nearly jump a mile. I turn to face him with my hand over my heart.

  “Christ, Linc. You scared the crap out of me.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me that before? I wouldn’t have been so hard on you.”

  I mentally chuckle that he thinks his words were harsh, bless him. He has obviously never been on the receiving end of a Constantine tirade before.

  “I didn’t know when we spoke. I only found out about it a few hours ago. I knew something was off, but I just couldn’t figure out what,” I clarify.

  “Liv. This is unacceptable. He raped you. Why aren’t you more pissed off about it?”

  I stare at him and then at Devon and Scott who are staring back at me, not looking best pleased. “Raped? No, I don’t know about that. I mean, I have been raped before. That wasn’t exactly how it usually goes,” I muse, glancing at each of them in turn. Scott is looking like he wants to die, as he is once again caught up in the sex and scandal that is my life.

  “Did you say no?” Lincoln roars at me.

  “Yes, twice. But then I…I don’t really know. I was just…”

  “Doing it?” Lincoln hisses at me and I glare at his repetition of my words earlier.

  “Lizzie, I have to agree, it sounds like rape. You need to do something about it,” Devon says worriedly. “What are you going to tell Cole?”

  My eyes snap to his. “Nothing. I am not going to tell him anything. None of you are. Do you hear me?”

  “I don’t think that is such a good idea,” Lincoln says. “We all know. That’s a big secret to keep among so many people.”

  “It gets kept,” I say in the most authoritative tone I can muster, and it must have been convincing as they fall in line. “We have a bigger issue to deal with now,” I add, and Devon looks crestfallen as I have just reminded him of his worst nightmare come true.

  “I had better go and see what’s going on,” I say wearily and after hugs from Devon and Lincoln, I Astral back upstairs, conscious that I’m still dressed in my pajamas.

  CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-FOUR

  I land in on the two of them chatting like old pals. Well, I suppose they are, but I was thinking there would be more battering and less chatting going on. I am quite upset now that my honor clearly did not need defending quite as badly as I thought.

  “Constantine,” I say in that way so he knows that I’m pissed.

  “Liv,” he says back, in that way so I know he knows I have called him Constantine.

  “May I have a word?” I say sweetly – too sweetly – and now he knows there is a shitstorm brewing.

  “Of course. ‘Bastian, please leave us.”

  “Sure,” Sebastian says with a contrite glance at me.

  Oh, he fucking wants to be friends now after he threw me to the murderous ancient Vampire. Jerk.

  He leaves – via the door, I’m happy to note – and I turn my furious glare on my sire. “You two seem to be all chummy. You have forgiven him for what he did?”

  He sighs, that world-weary sigh he has perfected, and says, “He has explained. I have accepted his reasons. Please just leave it at that.”

  Err, what?

  “Are you fucking kidding me? He raped me!” I yell, going with Lincoln’s terminology to make my point. Although I don’t believe that, per se, as I know the difference.

  His eyes snap to mine. “Is that how you feel?” he asks earnestly.

  “Yes,” I state, feeling only a bit guilty. I’m being unfair, as I was obviously enjoying it once it got going, but at the same time, I did not want to.

  “You feel that strongly about it?” he asks seriously, suddenly looking very worried.

  “Yes,” I state again with absolute conviction. Now we seem to be getting somewhere. “He completely manipulated me. I didn’t want to do it and yet I had no choice. Do you know how disgusted I feel with myself? Do you know how awful I feel that I betrayed you? That I betrayed Cole, Devon and Lincoln? Do you know how shitty I feel that I cannot ever tell my husband about this in case he leaves me?” I ask. I’m beyond angry now at his blasé attitude towards this. My rage is flaring up again and my Dragon isn’t very pleased either as She moves swiftly across my back. He is staring at me in horror at my words. I bring it all home as I say quietly, “He violated me, and you don’t even seem to care. Does he mean that much to you, or do I mean so little, that you can just overlook this?”

  “He had his reasons,” he says again
just as quietly. “I have accepted them and as much as I hate what he did to you…he did it out of some misguided sense of duty.”

  “What?” I shout at him. “What the fuck does that mean?” Not waiting for an answer, I continue yelling at him, “You know what he did, and you find it that easy to forgive him? You punished me for months over Lincoln and he just walks off into the sunset with this?” I am on the verge of tears at his betrayal. “I can’t even look at you right now,” I say, disgusted, and I Astral off, still in my pajamas, to Lincoln’s suite. He is the only one I can bear to be around right now.

  He isn’t there but I use our Alpha bond to call him to me. He is there within minutes.

  “Clearly it didn’t go well, then?” he asks wryly as I burst into tears.

  “No, he is an arsehole. Forgave Sebastian, just like that,” I sniffle as I step into his arms. He cuddles me to him, and I feel better just for having his massive self around me.

  “He forgave him?” Lincoln asks, extremely surprised. “I thought he would have done him in.”

  “Me too. Or at the very least clobbered him a bit. But no. Said he gave his reasons and he accepted them.”

  “Oh. Interesting. What do you suppose they were?”

  “How the fuck should I know?” I yell, pulling back from him. “And I can’t think of a damn good reason why our sire chose him over me.” Tears forgotten; my anger gets the better of me again. “I don’t want to see him. If he comes here, tell him to piss off,” I say as I climb onto the bed.

  Lincoln looks at me wryly and says, “Sure, I will tell the ancient Vampire, who could beat me to death without breaking a sweat, to piss off.”