Bams ever, p.14
Bam's Ever, page 14
part #5 of Avaleigh's Boys Series
“The fuck was that all about?” Daniel asked.
Bane scrubbed a hand down his face, “Everly. Has to be. Nothing else makes him mad like that. Something must have happened in town.”
“Did she refuse him?” Goldy asked, “Surely she didn’t refuse him.”
“I don’t know, but we need to firm up plans now. Maverik, you talk him down on the drive,” Kaid said.
“Great, thanks for that,” Maverik snarked.
“Hey, he’s your professed best friend,” Kaid retorted, “Now, how we gonna do this? We can’t leave our own clan unprotected, but we need to be there for Matty, too,” Kaid continued.
Bane answered, “Well, clearly you need to be there. And Delilah and Daniel.”
Maverik spoke up, “Valerie ain’t going. She’s carrying our babies, and I don’t care how much she wants to go, she’s staying here. Maia, too. I won’t be able to fucking think if either one of them is there.”
“Delilah’s carrying, too. I really wish she’d stay here,” Kaid said, thinking out loud.
“Yeah, good luck with that!” Goldy barked out on a laugh.
“Well, we’ll see,” Kaid said.
Daniel continued, “Vince is nearby; we can ask him to stay here at night and Amos. And while Valerie is pregnant, she’s a freaking Lioness. She can do some damage if she wants to. And Riley, what about Riley?”
“I don’t want Valerie doing anything that could put her in danger. She needs to be taking it easy. And fuck Riley! He ain’t welcome here,” Maverik snapped.
Kaid contradicted him, “Riley is welcome here, Maverik.”
Maverik looked at Kaid, his mouth hanging open in shock, “What?! He’s got Maia so tied up in knots that her damn Wolf slept in her room last night. Took Valerie hours to get her to even come home.”
“What did he do, Mav?” Kaid asked.
“All I know is she is hurting, bad. Shut down. Her Wolf took over. And the only one she’ll let near her is Valerie. And it’s all because of him. That’s all I need to know.”
Kaid hated this, he needed to protect them both, and he had no doubt that whatever the issue, it had to do with their mating.
“Maverik, he’s making plans to better himself. Whatever is going on, it’s not what you think, I’m sure. I’m even going to help him get set up in his new place,” Kaid said.
Maverik glared at Kaid for a moment, thoughts of everything he’d like to say and do rolling through his mind, and also the fact that he’d accepted Kaid as his Alpha. Silence hung between them, while Maverik’s mind worked.
Bane said quietly, “Maverik, he protected Janie. He ain’t bad.”
Maverik flicked his eyes to Bane, back to Kaid, then said low and growly, “I want him kept away from Maia.”
“And what if she wants to see him?” Kaid asked.
“She won’t. And if she does, then we’ll talk about it. But until then, keep him away from my daughter,” Maverik said simply.
Goldy, knowing this could become a real problem in the clan, decided to steer the conversation back to the subject at hand, “Getting back to Matty’s problem, I’ll stay here, too. Much as I want to be involved, if something was to happen to me, I can’t imagine what it’d do to Ms. Sadie. I just can’t take that chance; she’s been through enough. I can’t shift, which puts me at a disadvantage in a showdown like this at my age, so I’ll stay here and watch over our place and our women.”
Kaid, grateful for the subject change, spoke again, “Alright, so Goldy, Vince, Amos and the women will stay. The rest of us will go to stand with Matty.”
“What you gonna do with Delilah?” Goldy asked.
“Pray she listens to reason,” Kaid replied.
Maverik, deciding to also drop the subject of contention right now, chimed in, “I’m gonna talk to Valerie and Maia; I’ve only got an hour,” Maverik said, rolling his eyes at Bam’s earlier comment.
“I’m going to talk to Delilah, then head into town to talk to Vince,” Kaid said.
Bane said, “Going to spend the day with Janie and Daisy. When we heading out, Kaid?”
“Depends on Delilah, I’ll let you know in a bit,” Kaid answered.
Chapter 16
“I am pregnant, not disabled!” Delilah spat at Kaid for the third time in 15 minutes.
“But, Monster, you’re showing, your belly is getting round,” he said lovingly, and he rubbed his hands over their baby, growing in her stomach. “You’re tiring more quickly, and the baby takes up more room, now.”
“And my Dragon is perfectly capable of protecting our youngling. She is much larger and has more room to tuck her away.”
“Her?” Kaid asked, smiling.
“We are not sure,” Delilah said, a confused look on her face, before remembering what they were talking about. “But that is not the point! We are fine. We are strong! And we are going to help Matty.”
Kaid sighed deeply, knowing that talking her into staying home was not going to happen. But he had to try once more. “Are you sure that it won’t hurt the baby? It’s a long flight, and shifting, then the battle…” he insinuated it could be dangerous.
Delilah regarded him for a moment, softening at the concern in his face. “All is well, my Mate. If I feel the least little bit unwell, I shall rest. I shall remove myself from battle just after I freeze all the bastards. Yes?” she asked joyfully, smiling.
Kaid just shook his head, smiling, wondering if he’d ever get used to having such a strong, willful Mate. He chuckled, “Yes, Monster. If you promise to pay close attention to your body and rest if you need to.”
“I promise!” she immediately agreed. “Besides, I will also need to speak with Grady of Matty’s pack. He may have answers for Bam’s auras,” Delilah explained, as she went around the room packing.
<> <> <> <> <>
Bam grabbed his duffle bag from the top shelf of the closet and tossed it on the bed. He started rummaging through his chest of drawers, pulling out clothes and tossing them on the bed, and from his closet, too. His pocket vibrated, his phone going off. He fished it out of his jeans and looked at the screen. It was Everly. It was the fifth time she’d tried to call him since he’d seen her with Cal. He looked at it, paused only for a second, before switching it to silent and throwing it on the bed also, before going back to packing almost everything he owned.
<> <> <> <> <>
Maverik knocked on Maia’s bedroom door. No sound responded. He called out, “Maia, baby, I’m going to be leaving in a minute. Can I come in?”
He waited - she didn’t say he couldn’t, so he took that to mean he could. He opened the door and walked to her bedside table, switching on her lamp. She was lying in bed, staring out of her window. He sat down beside her and reached out a hand to rest on her side, where she lay curled up. At least she’d shifted back from her Wolf, he thought. “I know the timing ain’t good, but I’m leaving in a little while to go to Matty. He’s challenging soon. We going to Keith’s to wait for the time to be there. Bam wants to leave now, so I’m going on ahead with him. The others will follow tomorrow night.”
Maia shifted her attention from the window to her Daddy. “I’ll come, too,” she said on a whisper.
“No. You stay here. I don’t want you or Valerie anywhere near there. I need to know that you are both safe when I walk into this. If I know either one of you is anywhere they can get their hands on you, I won’t be able to focus. I need you safe. Okay?”
Maia nodded her understanding and curled up even tighter.
Maverik hated seeing her hurting. “It’s gonna be okay, Maia,” he told her quietly.
She didn’t respond.
“I don’t know what happened other than he’s leaving,” Mav started.
“That’s enough. If he wanted me, like I do him, he’d wait. He wouldn’t run,” she said quietly.“It hurts. I wish he’d just go instead of trying to justify it.”
“Maybe he’s got a plan. If you’d listen, maybe it…” he started.
She sat up and looked him in the eye, “I heard him making plans to lure another Mate to him.”
Maverik stopped talking. He looked at his daughter. Wanting to kill the fucker that had hurt her like this. Knowing that no matter what he said, it wouldn’t make it better. Only time would do that. But still he had to try. “Maia, I’m not going to lie to you; I don’t know what the hell he’s thinking. But I do know that I almost took his head off when he saw you at the boil when you first got here. He knew you immediately. He was barely able to control himself. I know, I KNOW, he knows he belongs with you. Maybe just take a step back and see what happens.”
Maia didn’t say anything, just laid back down, her attention back out of the window on the tree branches swaying in the breeze.
Maverik sat there for a few minutes - then, not knowing what else to say, he leaned over, hugged her tight, “I love you, baby girl. I’ll be back soon as I can.”
Maia knew Maverik would be fine. He had waited too long for his retribution and had too much to live for now to not be okay. She wasn’t worried in the least. “I love you, too, Daddy. Kick ass, okay?” and she offered him a small smile.
“You know it!” he chuckled.
“You watch over Valerie for me?”
“You know it,” she said back to him mimicking his tone, small smile still in place.
He kissed her forehead and went off to find Valerie.
Valerie lay on the bathroom floor, her cheek pressed to the cool tile. Her stomach still twisting and spinning in spite of the fact that she’d emptied its contents, twice. There was a soft knock at the door, “Valerie, baby? You in there?” Maverik called through the door.
She groaned.
He opened the door slowly, peeking inside, spying her lying on the ground, he hurried to her side, kneeling, “Baby! You okay? What happened? Here, let me help you up,” he reached for her.
Valerie slapped at his hands and mumbled at him.
Maverik’s heart was in his throat at finding her on the floor, “Let me get you up, are you hurt? Did you fall?”
Again she slapped his hands away, “No. You did this,” she grouched at him.
“What?” he asked, surprised at her accusation.
“You did this. You couldn’t just keep being a dick. Nooooo, you had to make me pregnant. And you couldn’t just give me one baby, you had to give me two. And now… they are trying to kill me. You did this. You and them,” she finished, still lying on the floor with her face pressed to the tile.
Maverik laughed, in a split second he went from worry and concern to laughter. Once he recovered himself, “I’m pretty sure they ain’t trying to kill their mom,” he said, still snickering.
“It’s not funny,” Valerie said.
“No, baby, it is not funny,” he agreed. “And I am very sorry that I made you throw up, and I’m sure that the babies are very sorry they made you throw up, too.”
She looked up at him, ‘cause if he was smiling, she was gonna kill him. He looked back at her, serious as a heart attack. “Smart male,” she mumbled.
He reached out for her again, “Please, let me get you into bed. I’ll get you an ice pack for the back of your neck, it will help. I promise.”
She looked at his hands suspiciously. He just held them there, waiting for her to agree.
“Fine, but if it doesn’t, I’m coming back in the bathroom,” she said grumpily as she allowed him to pick her up off the floor and carry her to their bed.
He laid her in bed and pulled the covers back, pushing them to the end of the bed. She needed to cool off for now, so he made sure they were out of her way. Then he tucked the pillows beneath her head and said, “I’ll be right back.”
He came back with a gel cool pack, the kind for sore muscles, that they kept in the freezer in case it was ever needed. He lifted her gently and tucked it behind her neck and across her shoulders as far as it would go. “The cool on your neck will help with the nausea. Let me get you some saltine crackers. I’ll be back.”
As he disappeared through the bedroom door, she called after him, “And some Sprite, too. Ice cold.”
He came back into the room and laid all the things he’d brought on her bedside table. Then he lay on the bed beside her. “I gotta go in a little while, baby. Bam and I are driving up now. We are going to stay with Keith’s pack ‘til Matty challenges on the full moon.”
Valerie turned her head and looked at him as he spoke to her.
He continued, “The timing fucking sucks. You need me here. Maia’s hurting, and she needs me here. But I can’t leave Matty without back up. I gotta go.”
He was truly torn, and Valerie could feel the stress coming off him in waves. “It’s okay, Maverik. Go do what you have to. Avaleigh’s here. Ms. Sadie is here and Janie, too. We’ll be fine. And your babies only make me throw up in the morning. By noon, I’ll be good. And I’ve got Maia, too. I’ll take care of her soon as I can stand upright without puking.”
Maverik looked at her, his heart in his eyes. “I hate leaving you.”
She smiled at him, “I know, but it’ll be fine. We’ll be right here when you get back. And I’ll even promise to throw up again soon as you get here, so you can clean it up,” she smiled brightly, “Deal?”
“Yeah, thanks,” he said chuckling.
They heard a truck horn outside, honking repeatedly.
“That’d be Bam. He said he was leaving in an hour, with or without me.”
“Really?” she asked, her brow wrinkling. “That doesn’t sound like Bam.”
“No, it doesn’t. He ain’t right. I don’t know what happened, but something did. Gonna have to fix that, too, on the drive,” Maverik answered her.
Then he looked at his watch, got up and stalked to the window. He shoved the window up and yelled out of it, “I got 18 minutes yet!” then he slammed the window and went back to lie beside his Mate again.
He gathered her in his arms as best he could without moving her too much, “So what are we going to name them?” he asked.
“Who, these hellions?” she pointed at her slightly rounded belly. “I figure Hellion 1 and Hellion 2.”
He barked out a laugh, “Now you know that would get confusing, it’s too much alike. How about Hellion and Havoc?”
She laughed, “Now see? That works.”
She turned to him slowly so as not to make her stomach unhappy again and rested her head on his shoulder, “I love you,” she told him.
“I love you, Valerie. So fucking much,” he told her as he kissed the top of her head and just soaked up being near her.
<> <> <> <> <>
Bam sat in his truck, staring at Maverik’s double-wide. He looked back down at his watch, 9 minutes left. Then he could finally get the hell out of here. Away from Everly, away from Cal and away from having to look at his family’s pitying looks. Maybe he wasn’t as smart as they all were, but he wasn’t stupid, and he knew they all pitied him. And he hated it. He snarled as he looked at his watch again and back at Maverik’s home. Maybe I’ll just ask Alpha Keith if I can stay with his pack for a while, he thought to Bear.
Bear immediately thought back, No. Come back for Everly.
Bam sent him pictures of Everly laughing with Cal and Cal running his fingertips across her lips. Bear whined, but said nothing.
Finally, Maverik came jogging across the grass toward him. He fired up his truck and put it in gear. Maverik reached for the door handle, climbed in and chucked his duffle in the back seat. He noticed a lot of bags in the back. “That’s a lot of stuff you bringing,” he remarked.
Bam just nodded as he made the circle to their drive.
“You planning to be there a while?” Maverik prodded.
“Maybe,” was all he said when he reached for the radio to turn the music on and up so loud that Maverik couldn’t talk to him over it.
Chapter 17
The drive was quiet, except for the music Bam insisted on blaring. After an hour Maverik couldn’t take it anymore, reached over, switched it off and when Bam reached to turn it back on, he knocked his hand away. “I know it’s your truck, but if my Wolf has to listen to that crap one more second, he’s gonna snap. I’m asking politely to leave it off,” Maverik asked.
Bam glared at him sideways for a minute, but put his hand back on the steering wheel and faced forward again.
His phone, where it sat in the drink holder, started vibrating again. He reached for it, looked at the screen, turned it off and tossed it on the seat between himself and Maverik.
“That’s the third time your phone’s rung in an hour. Somebody really wants to talk to you,” Maverik commented.
Bam said nothing.
Maverik looked at the phone, then back at Bam, “You turned it off. How they gonna call now?”
Bam gave him another sideways glance, but still didn’t answer.
Maverik tried to stay out of it, but it just wasn’t his nature, “What if it’s important?!” he about shouted at Bam.
Bam slammed on the brakes, nearly throwing them both through the windshield, then turned on Maverik, “Stop it!” he snarled. “Just stop it! It’s my phone, my business, my choice! Do you understand me? If I wanted you to know, I’d tell you. If I wanted you to fix it, I’d ask you to fix it. I haven’t! I’m not going to! Stop fucking meddling or get the fuck out of my truck!” Bam shouted.
Maverik, instead of getting angry, saw the immeasurable pain that Bam was struggling to keep inside, “I’m sorry. I can’t help it. I care about you, and I want to help. You helped me ‘cause you cared. You can’t expect any less from me.”
Bam swallowed, his pain palpable, “I know. I just don’t want to talk about it. Please?”
Maverik looked him in the eye for a moment, “Okay. But when you want to talk, or just want somebody to listen, I’m here.”
