Soulmates

Sorry it took so long to post this chapter. A cyclone hit north of where I live so have had a busy time with the clean up. Now that things have settled down I should beable to post regularly again. Thank you for your comments and mails to remind me to get back into it.

*

Maria had always been a early riser. She blinked a little looking around. The room was dark and she had to remember where she was. She felt a arm around her and her heart started to race. Turning her head slightly, she saw long hair covering a face and turned very carefully in the arms and moved the hair away. Lightly biting her lower lip when she saw the handsome face and knew then. Last night happened. It wasn't a dream.

Carefully as not to wake him, she tried to slip from the bed but heard a soft growl to which Eric pulled him back hard against his chest. "Your not going anywhere. Sleep, my Maria."

Giggling. "I have to get up Eric." And tried again to get away but only having the same problem with him pulling her back to his chest. "Please, I have to get up," she said softly.

With a soft growl. "I don't want you to leave me," he said.

She kissed the side of his hand. "The sooner I'm up, the sooner I'm back." She promised.

With another soft growl, he reluctantly released her. "Remember what you said."

She quickly slipped out of the bed and headed straight for the bathroom and turned the shower on.

Eric growled hearing the shower and called out, "You said you were coming back to me."

Giggling from the bathroom. "I will." Softly saying to herself, "Later."

"I heard that, 'later' part." He grabbed her pillow and hugged it to his face and inhaled deeply to her scent. He hugged it then started to relax to get another forty winks.

Maria showered quickly before getting out, after drying herself off, she wrapped a towel around her small frame and walked back into the bedroom. She knew she forgot something last night and was about to ask but saw Eric had gone back to sleep, so quietly opened his closest, grabbing the first shirt she could before slipping it on and headed out to the kitchen.

Thirty minutes after she left the bedroom, Eric came out to the smell of breakfast being cooked and the sweet sound of humming coming from the kitchen. He snuck up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and looked over her shoulder, "What's cookin' good lookin'?"

Leaning back against him. "I didn't know what you usually have for breakfast so I'm making flavored pancakes and homemade cream, if you want something different, just let me know. And the coffee is nearly ready."

He arched a brow. "Pancakes can be flavored?" he asked with a chuckle.

She nodded. "Uh huh. I got normal, chocolate and fruit."

He gave a curious, "Hmm..." He hadn't heard of having flavored pancakes before.

She chuckled. "Just close your eyes and take a bite of 'em."

He poured himself a coffee, grabbing plate of mixed pancakes and took it over to the table and arched a brow. "You better watch out Hun, I might get use to this." He couldn't help but feel pampered with the paper and files of the overnight reports at the head of the table along with the table set for breakfast. He wasn't use to that type of setting. He was use to just having a coffee at the computer as he goes over the overnight reports.

She smiled at his surprise to what she does in the mornings. "I don't have to do it from now on if you don't want. I'll do whatever your use to." Turning off the stove and picking up her plate and juice before joining him. "Just gotta tell me what your routine is and I'll fit into it."

He shook his head a little as he read thru the reports. "I'm liking this idea compared to just having a coffee at the PC."

By the end of breakfast, every single pancake had been eaten. Eric found out he liked the flavored pancakes and wanted them every morning from now on. On his way to the bathroom, he rang Richard up and asked if Dee could bring over some clothes until Maria bought her own over. Just after Dee bought over some clothes for Maria, there was a knock at the door, so quickly slipping the pants on, Maria went and opened it while Eric was still in the shower.

Peeking out behind the door. "Hello." Looking at the dark skinned man.

The man gave her a big smile. "Hi, I'm Billy, Eric is expecting me for a job."

She opened the door. "Yes, of course. Come on in, he's just finishing off in the shower."

Billy was tall and thin, his skin she compared to as a used oil and his hair had the same shade but slightly darker and with a natural wave to it. He had a big white smile and his eyes seem to gleam with happiness. He headed thru to the office and pulled out a small notepad to remind him of what he was doing with the desk Eric ordered then quickly spun around. "Your her ain't ya? The chick who stole Eric's heart."

Maria blushed with the way he worded it and nodded a little. "I guess I am. I'm Maria."

He seemed to sniff the air towards her. "Haven't gotten ya wolf yet, huh" then gave a huge grin. "I can't wait til you show up at the compound and show off your wolf. Those bitches won't know what hit 'em."

She started to act a little nervous around him. But he noticed it and eased his smile a bit. "Don't worry, girl. I'm safe. I'm kinda like Eric, I was born a Were, I'm a thylacine though."

Nodding slowly and glad now she knew that others would beable to tell who's what type then she blinked. "A thylacine?" She looked a little confused.

The look made Billy chuckle. "Yeah, thylacine, Tasmanian tiger, big Aussie carnivorous marsupial. Tan fur with black stripes that start behind the shoulder. We aren't suited as fighters but we're excellent scouts. If I knew where the album was I'd show ya." He headed to Richard's door and yelled out, "Oi, bloodsucker, bring the album over when you get ya lazy arse up."

Richard was heard swearing back at being woken up which made Billy laugh and Maria giggle. Since Dee was already up. "Good morning to you as well, Billy." She bought the album with her into the office and placing it on her desk and flipping pages til she got to a photo of the group of them with two thylacines, a wolf and a cougar and showed it to Maria.

Maria stared at the strange animals and shook her head, "Amazing, beautiful colourings." Then asked, "Who are those with you?"

Billy smiled proudly. "Those are my mates. Kaira is the other tiger, Natalie is the cougar and Tom is the wolf."

That made blink blankly at the photo. "You have three mates?"

The look made Billy and Dee both laugh and he nodded. "Yeah, my people are a little more stranger than you 'Merican shifters. We can only have pups with our own so, Kaira is the mating mate, Natalie is my true mate and Tom is Kaira's true mate. So when the girls go into heat which luckily now are around the same time, Tom and I become sex addicts for a week." He started laughing. "Nat and Tom decided they wanted to have pups as well so we made a agreement that when the the girls go into heat, I'd get Kaira pregnant and Tom would get Nat pregnant and we'd raise the pups together with two of each parent."

Maria nodded slowly, trying to take it all in as Eric came thru the doors and catching the last of the words and softly growled. "I hope your not giving my mate the wrong ideas there, Black Man."

Billy gave one of his bright smiles. "No way, Red Man. She wanted to know how I ended up with three mates." He winked at Maria then looked back to Eric. "So what else did you need me for? Oh, the girls and Tom are coming up as well, they wanted to meet the new family and to tell Dee something."

Eric nodded but not fully believing his old friend so went onto the new subject that was forced. "Alright, we'll meet them at the elevator and let the girls get to know each other." He went over to Maria, wrapping his arms around her and picking her up with a squeal and giggling. Taking her and the album into his apartment, he opened up his door as Billy and Dee followed him thru and Richard made an appearance to join them.

Eric decided that since he would be taking Maria to the compound, she would have to get use to being quizzed and there was no one better than Kaira and Natalie for that job. He softly kissed Maria and smiled. "I'll be back soon, my love." His eyes seem to shine with love for the young woman.

She lightly touched his cheek as they kissed it. "Take your time, I'm not going anywhere."

They heard the lift ding with the arrival of the others and the men left Maria and Dee to talk and flip thru the album. Richard smiled, "Hey beautifuls" then smiled brighter, "Ulisi, don't you trust us with her?"

Kaira and Natalie were on either side of Ulisi and walked her inside. "Oh no dear," Ulisi answered, "I thought Maria was in a rush last night and probably forgot to bring clothes with her so I brought a overnight bag with some of her gear if that's alright."

Eric grinned. "Your welcomed here any time Ulisi.." He paused and sniffed the air when she got closer to him then smiled more brightly. "You've released her." He went over and hugged the older woman.

The women looked at Eric curiously, not understanding what he was talking about but Ulisi nodded. "Now that Maria knows what's going on, I thought it was time she woke. It will take the full moon til she's fully awake and calmed down with what I did. But she'll do that quickly when she sees you and Richard with us now."

They women headed inside after that and the brothers grabbed Tom by the arms and pulled him back into the lift to go down one floor.

* * * * *

Kaira and Natalie headed into Eric's apartment with Ulisi and over to where Dee and Maria were. Kaira spoke as both the other women were busy with the album. "Hope you don't mind, we bought a extra."

Maria quickly looked up and squealed. "Gran!" Quickly went over to Ulisi and hugged her. "Your staying aren't you? I don't want you to go."

Ulisi hugged her granddaughter back and nodded a little. "Yes, I'm staying for a while. We have things to talk about and we don't really have the time to do it later."

Maria took over to Ulisi over to the table and let her feel the chair to sit down. Maria asked, "What's wrong?"

Holding her hand out, Ulisi waited til she felt Maria's hand. "What we are going to be doing so you and Eric can be fully together." Letting that sink into the young woman and once she thought she would understand what she meant, she began. "Alright dear, Eric and I will be doing the ceremony with you to see if the wolf agrees with his pick of a mate. If he does, he'll send a spirit to you and then the real test will begin. She'll be testing you to see if you are mentally strong enough for her. Eric will be helping you calm her down. But there will be blood shed by the end of it. So don't worry about waking up and being covered in blood."

Kaira and Nat screwed their noses at each other. They were glad they weren't spirit weres.

Ulisi patted Maria's hand. "With that said, I guess the lessons should start at the very beginning with what a were is, so it helps you understand what you will end up being. So to start with, there's three types of weres. There's created, born and spirit. Created is when a human is bitten and survived the change. Born is just that, mother and father were weres, hence the child is a were. And then is us, we're spirit weres. Very rare, but it's when our guardian spirits bless us with our animal and we become bonded to them that way."

Nodding a little, taking the information in. When Ulisi spoke of created, Natalia moved the neck of her shirt aside to show deep scarring from an attack so Maria saw what created meant without to many questions.

Once Ulisi felt Maria relax with the information, she continued. "Each type of were has two transformations. Created and Born have the animal and hybrid forms. Hybrid is half man, half animal. That's their strongest form when they go to war. For us, we only have two types of animal forms to transform in to. For women, our normal wolf is about the size of a large born or created man's wolf, so around six feet tall. Then there is our dire wolves, our dires are monstrous creatures. They are from eight feet and taller. It's very dangerous when we go into that form. It usually takes being completely worn out for us to beable to shift back to human."

Dee nodded. "I've only known Eric to change into his dire once over the past few centuries. It was a blood bath that night. He was like a rabid beast attacking everything in his way. It took months for him not to wake up in a sweat after that night. But we heard later from a sharman that dires shouldn't used at all until he had his mate by his side. So we'll have to get him to change again now your with us."

Ulisi reached out towards Dee and she took her hand lightly, giving it a squeeze. Then turning her attention back to Maria. "That's correct. You can only safely turn into the dire when your mate is close to you. Your mate is able to bring calm to your mind so the dire won't go on a blood lust. Oh, and the only other safe time to do it is on the full moon. You won't have to have Eric with you then."

Kaira arched a brow. "Doesn't the full moon make you change?"

Ulisi shook her head. "No dear, the moon cycle only affects created and born. For spirit, it's like having a deep mediation. Both of our wolves are more primal animals. The moon doesn't control us like it does you, it's more like a warm blanket over it to bring us peace of who we are. The human can talk them to do whatever. That's why the packs don't challenge Eric for land or force him into joining one of them. Because we have a direct link to the brother wolf, our normal shift is just as strong as your hybrids which is your strongest form. Then our dires are ten times if not more stronger than that."

Natalie nodded slowly. "So that's why when Thad found out about Eric he was a little nervous on the first meeting. He thought Eric would challenge him for the pack."

Ulisi gave a single nod. "Most likely. But with spirit were's, we're loners. Only time we'd be in a pack is with our mates and their direct blood families, and that's the only time we'd form a pack. Maria has always been part of my pack and now Eric is mates with her, we've become part of his pack with Dee and Richard."

Kaira quickly asked, "What if he was force mated, that would make him part of a pack."

Shaking her head, Ulisi answered, "That wouldn't be possible. We don't settle until we find our true mate. If we're force into a mating, we wouldn't become aroused so it wouldn't work. Say, Eric was forced into mating some bitch, she could suck him for five hours and he wouldn't get hard." Which made her chuckle talking like that. "Even the primal male urges wouldn't be a problem. His wolf would become depressed so even a bitch in heat wouldn't turn him on if he was forced into it."

Dee softly said, "That explains that then." To which Kaira and Natalie nodded to.

Maria looked at them curiously. "What explains what?"

Dee bit her lower lip. "Has Eric told you anything before we found you?"

Giving a half half motion with her hand, Maria answered, "He said he played around a bit but when he found me, that all stopped and has been celebrant since."

Least he had told the truth so Dee decided to tell her. "Well, when you go to the pack, you'll find out anyways, so we may as well prepare you now for it. Just before you were born, Eric was seeing an alpha's daughter, Carrie. She was and still is a total bitch. She wanted the strongest as her alpha when her father retired and that was Eric, and still is. He ended things between them on the night of your birth, but being the selfish woman she is, she didn't take no for an answer so told her father she wanted Eric as her mate. Her father forced Eric into the mating ceremony. Eric told her father he wasn't interested in Carrie any more because he had found his true mate but her father wouldn't believe him."

She could see the hurt in Maria's eyes with what she was being told but couldn't help but grin a little as she finished the story. "Lets just say, four hours later of giving head, he never got hard. No matter what she tried, it didn't entice him. Her father ended up calling a end to it. It took a few years but the alpha and Eric started talking again but Carrie has never forgiven him for making her look like a fool. I'm sure he wouldn't take you onto their pack lands until he knows that you can handle yourself against her. But even though you don't know her, she will be your number one enemy. She'll be out for your blood."

Natalie started laughing. "Oh, I remember that night. It was hilarious. She was calling him everything under the sun because he wouldn't get hard and mate with her. She's tried to get back into his bed, " then she hit Kaira. "Remember that time when we were out there and she snuck into Eric's bed after he went to sleep. When he found her, he howled and started yelling so the whole camp woke up and then he threw her out of the cabin in front of the whole pack. Her father came up and Eric told him to keep his daughter on a chain cause she's acting like a bitch on her first heat."

Dee nodded as she laughed. "And the time she played possum to get Eric to come after her. He ended up picking her up by the scruff of the neck like a pup and taking her back to her father."

Kaira burst out laughing. "Then he let Eric pick her punishment." The women burst out into a fit of laughter.

Ulisi chuckled hearing the stories and Maria felt a lot better. He had been truthful to her of not touching a woman since her birth. She couldn't help but laugh along with the stories the women were telling her.

* * * * *

The men went down to the floor below the the penthouse level and they looked around the open space. At the moment it was just being used for storage but with Eric's plans, it would soon be changed.

Eric looked over to Billy. "So what I was thinking, I want to have what we got upstairs. One side for an apartment and the other side I want set up for Maria's studio."

Billy and Tom looked around and nodded. Billy said, "That shouldn't be a problem. We can toss up a few walls within a few days."

Then Tom said, "What sort of colours you want them done in? We can always paint as walls go up so it's done quicker." Looking over to Billy to see a nod.

Eric looked around. "The studio will have to be white. And for Ulisi's apartment." He thought hard. "Well, her house now is with light colours but that might just be cause of her human side. Her wolf is waking up so that might change."

Richard nodded to that. "I would go with strong but feminine colours. You know what wolves are like".

Tom grinned. "Ok, female wolf. Shouldn't be hard to please her. We'll go with earthy tones with a touch of softness."

Tom had been the decorator for Richard and Eric's apartments All they had to do was tell him what the person was and he'd know exactly what to do for them.

Eric looked up at the ceiling, he could hear laughter coming from his apartment and shrugged it off. He was glad Maria was getting along with his friends. At least she had females she could go to when she wanted them, because he knew some questions she would ask, he wouldn't beable to do so. That was the other reason why he wanted Ulisi here with them. She would have what he never did. A family from the start to help her thru the changes that would soon take place.

Richard cringed and looked over to Eric with a sorry expression. Eric growled a little, "What."

That made Richard cringe again. "Their talking about your failed mating to Carrie and her attempts to get you."

Eric started growling again. "Their what!"

Richard nodded. "But it seems Maria is OK with it. She's laughing with them." He chuckled. "Laughing so hard, she's crying."