34. Everytime We touch.

The Arizona house was light wood. It had two floors and several rooms. There were eight bedrooms downstairs, one belonging to Bran, one to Adam, and one to Samuel. Upstairs were six bedrooms and my room. My room was the biggest bedroom in the house. It was a bedroom with a big, very soft post bed.

A chest of drawers, a wardrobe, and an enormous bathroom with a lovely bath and a luxurious shower. My room was decorated in pale red, magenta, purple, and pink shades, and Adam usually slept with me. At least he put me to sleep because I didn't sleep otherwise.

All my experiences had left behind a wonderful array of different nightmares, and I did not doubt that my time with Spike and Drusilla was now among the other nightmares. I had a photographic memory, so the nightmares were snippets of my memories, with emotions and feelings. 

The nightmares were bad. I felt everything in them, and I couldn't wake up right away when they started. They somehow kept me so tightly in control all the time. When I finally got myself up, I was sweaty, shaking, and scared, almost in shock. It always took me nearly an hour to calm down, so I was determined not to sleep quite early. Sleeping and dreaming was not for me what it was for others. 

Adam had a solution to this. Every night, he would come into my room and go to bed; usually, in just boxers, I would go lay in Adam's arms. He would stroke and soothe me, I would fall asleep safely, and at some point, he would give me a potent dose of sedative medicine.

At first, he stayed with me all night in the Chicago house, but then, at some point, he started sneaking into his own bed when I was already asleep. I had been with Adam for over six months, so this was our thing, but he sometimes had to be away for work or Bran's business, so on those nights, well, I didn't sleep.

In the morning, I always woke up alone. According to Samuel, this was not a miracle solution; at some point, I would have to try sleeping without the medicine. That's what we tried. Adam went to bed with me but didn't give me the medicine.

It wasn't enough to be near Adam when the sleep phase started. The nightmares started. No matter how hard Adam tried to wake me up and calm me down, I was stuck in my nightmare, and having him around was no use.

I had been kicking, shaking, whimpering, and trying to bite Adam for three hours before I finally woke up. That night, I didn't sleep again. Since this episode, Samuel had been trying to find the perfect tranquilizer that would allow me to sleep and dream but not have nightmares. He had already reduced my dose considerably.

It was one of the animal tranquilizers he used on me, trying to keep the dose as low as possible so I wouldn't get resistant. Besides, this drug messed with my thermoregulation if there was any more of it, so I was prone to getting cold.

I wondered casually as I watched the men busying themselves in the kitchen if Damon would take the room downstairs and if he would even live in the same house.

 Somehow, the idea of him living in the same house both fascinated and terrified me. But he was somehow wild and free, and Adam had hinted that Damon might not always be in the house. The men were in the kitchen tinkering with the food, and I was walking around the living room looking at the bookshelf. I was looking for the books on anatomy and surgery that I was in the middle of. I could read for a while the men were cooking.

 Samuel had given me several medical books, which I enjoyed reading. Maybe one day, I could help myself stay well and improve. Samuel said I should weigh 60-70 kilos. At the moment, I thought I weighed 38-41 kilos. I tried to imagine myself in better shape, but for some reason, I was convinced that reaching that weight was out of reach.

Mimosa weighed 60 kilos again when she should have weighed closer to 100 kilos. My wolf was huge. At one point, Bran feared that because Mimosa was so starved, she might become unpredictable and even attack and eat the children. Mimosa laughed at the whole thing. When I changed into my wolf form, I could eat 60 kilos of meat and offal that weighed in that form.

Eating meat always put more weight on me, but just when I got in shape, something happened. Now, it was Drusilla and Spike. My record weight, which I had already reached at some point, was 55 kilos. But not now. I knew it was going to take a while, and I hadn't ruled out the possibility that Samuel was putting me to sleep in an incubator for a few weeks. It was not bad at all. incubator was my ultimate safety, my own den almost.

Adam called me into the kitchen. "Come on, Mimi, dinner's almost ready."

Adam and Samuel had tried different foods on Mimi, and Samuel had even taken a stool sample from Mimi to test what would digest and what wouldn't. The carbohydrates came through effectively and seemed to strain Mimi's gut.

Only a tiny amount was absorbed; no vitamins or minerals were got from them. They weren't fantastic for her, but she liked to eat carbohydrates occasionally, so Samuel had tried to find the best carbohydrate that wouldn't strain her system and that she liked.

Meat was absorbed, but to varying degrees. Samuel and Adam were always trying different meats, and now, even before the whole kidnapping episode, they had talked about trying birds. Well, birds are low in fat, but the butter seemed to be absorbed quite well and would add fat to the food. Eggs were not absorbed; although Mimi loved fried eggs, they didn't do her much good.

Damon had also looked into all this. He had actually suggested duck. Luckily, there were whole ducks in the fridge, and Damon took it upon himself to cook them while Adam made pork sauce and pasta. Samuel made chicken gravy and fried chicken.

Deep frying provided many calories, and the coating often suited Mimi. So, they often had deep-fried meat or chicken. Fish was relatively light again and was less absorbent than pork, for example, so it wasn't so good.

 Adam and Samuel had both warned Damon that Mimi's eating habits were not very refined.

Adam said, "Mimi eats like she's starving; she doesn't use cutlery properly, and I certainly wouldn't take her to a restaurant to eat, maybe a fast food place, but not a restaurant." 

Damon said: "As long as that skeleton can stuff food inside her, it doesn't matter if she stuffs it upside down. I don't care how anybody eats, and yes, I will take her to a restaurant somewhere and teach her to eat civilized; it'll be so much fun." 

Samuel said, "Mimi has to eat a lot then, so you better make her a good portion already; that little thing can eat a lot of food. "

Damon nodded. The men looked at the table. Damon had almost sliced both Mimi's ducks. There was plenty of meat. A rich cream sauce made with duck fat and pasta, more or less swimming in butter. There were also potato croquettes on the table, but the potato didn't absorb quite as well as the pasta, so they were reserved mainly for the men, and Adam put them closer to him and Samuel. Damon would sit next to Mimi at the dining table. 

I went to the table, and Damon brought a plate in front of me. It was a mountain of meat.

"This is a duck, baby. Let's see how good this is for you," he said.

The duck was as good as I remembered from the old days. There was also sauce and pasta on the plate. I politely waited for everyone to get their food in front of them and looked at Adam sitting at the end of the table. He nodded. The men had potato croquettes, but the pasta looked heavenly, so I wasn't jealous.

It was a sign that it was time to eat. I attacked the food eagerly. The duck melted in my mouth; the sauce was delicious, and the pasta sank into me effortlessly. I devoured an entire mountain of meat and sauce.

Damon got up from beside me when he noticed my plate was empty, took it, and deftly filled it from the table, mainly with meat, not so much pasta anymore, but meat and sauce, and not a single potato croquette. I finished this portion pretty damn quickly, too. After a while, I thought I wanted dessert and knew exactly what I wanted.

I'd never actually made it while I was here; it had been decades since I'd even eaten layer cake the way my mother always taught me to. I knew there were cream and supplies in the fridge, and I'd walked outside for a while before the men were cooking and spotted a strawberry patch full of strawberries.

It was quite amazing as in Finland, the strawberry season was in June, and now it was almost September, but this is not Finland. I had tasted a few strawberries, and they were fantastic. I got up from the table, took my plate to the dishwasher, and went to the kitchen to get started.

I said to Adam. "I'm making dessert, which might take a few hours, and then we can have coffee. I'm making a delicacy that came to mind, and I haven't made it here yet. "

Adam nodded and continued eating and talking to Samuel about some match. They almost seemed to be arguing about how wrong the referee had been about the game.

Damon watched casually as Mimi ate everything. And quickly. Then Mimi got up from the table and went into the kitchen to make dessert. Damon himself had eaten the meat sauce, the steaks, and the potato croquettes. Even though he was now a werewolf, he felt full and sluggish. He would like to go to the couch for a while. Adam and Samuel shared an idea with Damon.

Damon said, " I think I need to digest some food on the couch for a while."

He wanted to give Mimi some space to get up to speed, and then he could return to her.

The men retreated to the living room to digest their food.

 Samuel said: "We werewolves have about twice as fast a basic metabolism as humans, but simply put, there are different parts of metabolism, and some parts are even faster, like the healing ability, but the basic metabolism is twice as fast as humans, so the three of us. But that creature over there,"

He pointed to the kitchen. "I suspect its metabolism is about three to five times faster than humans. That's why it doesn't get fat. I've also taken muscle samples from Mimi, and there's an interesting fact. Mimi has muscle cells in her sleep. About 20-30% of its muscles are awake. Think of the calorie consumption if it ever wakes up completely. And then Mimi's healing ability, well, it's two or three times faster than ours, and that she's never going to die, all these things affect her calorie consumption, and when she's doing everything, she's consuming calories. If you think that a human calorie requirement would be something like 2000 kcal a day, and ours might be around 5000 kcal, well, Mimi's 7000-9000 kcal a day, and even then, her weight gain is going to be slow, especially if she does any more activity. "

 Damon thought momentarily and said: " Caloric intake may not go up, but food absorption may improve. Right now, her body absorbs what these muscle cells need, but if we can get more of them awake, she'll have to absorb more. The muscle cells require certain nutrients that, in turn, help the metabolism and organ function. Because they set up certain neurotransmitters and enzymes to work better, and her body wakes up at a cellular level to work better. She will undoubtedly need calories, but she's going to make better ingestion of the food; it won't all come through so easily. Fat is her primary source of energy, and her digestive system can tolerate some pretty damn fatty foods, and it looks like fat is absorbed pretty damn well. "

Samuel thought about this for a while and said: "That's the next challenge for us. Awakening the muscle cells. But I feel like exercise might help with that, to get those muscles working properly."

I was humming to myself when I started. I wasn't paying any attention to the men. I took a measuring cup from the kitchen and broke 20 eggs into it. I knew hungry men were in the house, and I wanted to eat my share, so this had better be a lot. I poured the eggs into the mixer, measured out the same amount of sugar, and poured it into the eggs. I was making a sugar cake base. 

I turned on the mixer. I took out large round cake pans, greased them, and breaded them thoroughly. I measured out the flour and baking powder. I put the oven on to warm up. When the sugar and eggs were almost white foam, I carefully added the flour and mixed just enough to blend well.

I had been working in my own space, the sound of the blender masking the men's movements. I hadn't noticed that the men had come in quietly, watching what I was doing with interest.

When the cake batter was ready, I turned around to get the utensils from another table and was startled by the amused look in the icy blue eyes.

" What are you doing, baby, humming to yourself here?" He inquired softly to me.

I spoke coolly as I got myself together; damn, I shouldn't have been so startled, "I was making a whipped cream-filled cake. Sponge cakes."

"Mmm, they must be delicious, baby," Damon said in a lazy, almost seductive voice.

He leaned slightly towards me. And he touched me on the neck. His fingers were hot, and then he pulled his fingers away, licking the dough off his fingers. I hadn't noticed that, at some point, the dough had spilled all over me.

"I haven't had one of these in decades, and now I was craving one, and I saw earlier that the supplies were there, so that's why I made it," I explained matter-of-factly.

Adam asked, " What do you put in them for the filling? They're a bit of a carbs mess, but this time I think they'll do."

Damon nodded and said, " The whipped cream helps. The fat carries all that carbohydrate away."

I said sweetly, " I have whipped cream and fresh strawberries; ripe strawberries are outside. I'll go pick some when I get the bottoms in the oven."

Adam said: " Good idea, let's get them all together so we can get them faster. Obviously, we need quite a lot of strawberries. "

Adam said and watched as I filled five big pans and put them in the oven.

I took a bucket from the cupboard and looked at the clock, so I knew to set the baking time right. I put a timer on the oven so the bottoms wouldn't burn if I didn't get them out of the oven right away.

At some point, Damon had circled behind me and whispered in my ear. "Let's put the strawberries in the same container, baby. Mm-mm, you already smell like strawberries."

He pressed himself against me, and I felt his arm wrap around my waist, pulling me into him and sniffing my hair. He was hard, really hard. I could feel his manhood clearly against my back. It felt huge. He was hot; his body heat could be felt everywhere, and the hand on my waist was strong and unyielding. He held me against him for a moment, released his grip, and took a few steps back. When I turned around, he was gone.

I took a deep breath and got my legs to work properly. Werewolves liked touching me, and Adam and Samuel always touched or stroked my hair. Neither of them had ever done that to me. I just tried to think of Damon as a newly turned werewolf. He needs intimacy.

I had taken off my sweater while I was working in the kitchen. And I hadn't thought about it much, but that. Wow, that was an experience, and it set off such strange new feelings inside me I felt insecure. And almost tender.

Finally, I pulled myself together and went outside. I went to the strawberry field, which was old, and crouched down. I started looking for strawberries and tasted one strawberry at a time before I started picking the bush clean. Suddenly, there was Damon again.

He crouched down on the other side of the bush and started picking strawberries and putting them in my bucket. His fingers were long, his grip graceful. The autumn breeze brought the scent of his passionfruit to my nose and I saw him watching me as if in passing. I blushed as I began to wonder what he could see in me. I tried to concentrate on picking strawberries, not thinking about the new member of our flock.

I rummaged through the bush and grabbed one strawberry to remove it as our fingers touched. I almost felt a spark in my fingers. His fingers were like electricity. I grabbed the strawberry, caught it, and dropped it right into the bucket. Damon looked at me and laughed.

The sound was low, barely audible, and it vibrated something inside me. Damn. I was like a schoolgirl with my first boyfriend. I steeled my mind and concentrated on picking strawberries. Eventually, or surprisingly quickly, the bucket was full, and Damon grabbed it easily as he stood up and carried it inside.

I stood up and shook the legs of my favorite jeans, thinking to myself that I should probably go shopping one day for a new pair of jeans or some pants. I was very careful not to spend too much money on clothes, so I often found treasures in discount baskets. 

I followed him. I concentrated on making the cake. The bases were done and already slightly cooled. I took them out of the oven and put them on a wire rack to finish cooling. I opened the cupboard, took out a liter bowl, took some milk, and poured half a liter into it. I went to the spice cupboard, took some vanilla sugar, and poured it into the milk. Mm, vanilla milk, just the right flavor.

I turned to the fridge for the full cream and bumped straight into Damon's chest. His hands instinctively grabbed mine and held me close. I tried to make a sound. I could feel his closeness, body heat, and even a deceptive aura. It was like he was pulling me into some bubble of his own like prey.

Finally, I said, "Cream, I need cream."

Damon looked at me for a moment with a smile on his lips and then let go.

He said, "Oh baby, or cream, you wouldn't believe what I would do with whipped cream and you."

I went to the fridge, red as a crab, and couldn't get another word out of my mouth. I poured a quart of cream straight into the blender and added sugar and vanilla sugar for flavor. I didn't whip the cream into a froth just yet but got on with cutting the cake layers. I took a long bread knife from the boxes and set it on the table, ready to go.

The matching plates were once again too high, and suddenly Damon pressed himself against my back again, reached over, and said: "These will do, Baby."

He lifted five plates and flattened me against the countertop. Then he put the plates on the table, reached past me to the table, and picked up the knife.

"Little girls shouldn't play with knives this big, baby. I'll cut the cakes."

His voice again had a clear dominance, even if it was partly amused. 

This guy is really getting on my nerves. I thought this pack life would get a hell of a lot more interesting if he kept that up. Adam and Samuel watched the conversation between us with total disinterest and so I would have to fend for myself against these attempts at seduction. Damon confidently and expertly cut the cake into four layers. Samuel whipped the cream, and Adam continued slicing the strawberries.

I always took one of the pre-cut cakes and a spoon and started moistening the layers. Damon brought the finished strawberries, and Adam brought the already whipped cream. Samuel directed me to sit at the table and went to make the coffee himself.

The men assembled the cakes, and as I said, the cream had not been piped on top. It was just spread on top. Then the cakes were brought to the table and Samuel poured coffee for everyone. We were just about to start when Bran came in and was magnetically drawn to the table. We drank our coffee and devoured the cake. By the end of the coffee, all five cakes had been eaten.

This was the first time as I felt just how good seducer my husband is, he tries very hard from time to time to get me blush as easily and god damn I must admit; he does succeed. He just told me I would be very good in writing sappy romance novels. But in truth, our encounter was very spicy, and we had this connection right from the start.