Everything was now calm. No more chaos, no more jealousy, no more drama. No more Mimi. Damon sat in an armchair, enjoying this peace. He knew he had made the right decisions. Mimi's intense flood had almost burned his soul away, or at least it had felt like it and he had let everyone feel it, so it was not just his decision at all.
It was obvious that Mimi was not suitable for this pack or in their lives and Damon knew that he, old creature, had an advantage of time fading his memories and in few decades, maybe century Mimi would be no more than one more mark on his bedpost so to say.
The pack lived their own peaceful lives and, over the months, learned to do more than fuck. They went shopping, ate out, and even went to the movies, shopping. They discovered the world. The entire world, and they traveled as a pack, as a family, to see different things, to experience everything. Now there was no more need to reproduce, need to be just a pack. Need to do their duty.
Damon realized that had all been Mimi. She had somehow twisted them into breeding, into doing their duty and not letting them live. But Damon saw what he wanted to see and time would be the only thing that might sometimes change things and perspectives, too.
Damon, maybe ignorant, uneducated of the life of a shifter as he had always seen himself more vampire, had not grasped what it meant for the pack to have an alpha pair, where there were both sets of forces, female and male. Not just male force. Mimi had had only female type alpha force in the pack. Every one else had male power as females had originally had seeds of their power from Damon. seeds of male power, meaning there was no real alpha couple in the pack.
Damon and no one in the pack saw that what they did to Mimi was anything cruel. He had just put her out of the pack and out of their lives. Their divorces had been notarized and all of Mimi's belongings were returned to her, but she did not return theirs. No worry pack was rich, and it was fun to go shopping and get new things, so good to be. They had done as those prenups had told them, given Mimi to everything that had been hers, under that settlement. It was time to move on.
Fucking was not their life anymore. Their lust production had gone way down and they had learned to use a lot of different energies, too. Love was strong within the pack. Many loved Mariella. All the salvatores felt loved by her and by each other, too. Adam, Charles, Demon, and Lepard also loved Mimosa and Shadow. No one thought of Mimi. They had their new hobby: cycling in the forest. It was fun, and they got the best bicycles and raced across European forests while enjoying the wonderful sport.
They were like children, as those other energies took over. None of them had lived before. Now it was time to live. To experience so much. Everything seemed fresh and new. They wanted to try it all, not do anything old but new hobbies as well.
Life was beautiful. So many new things to be discovered and learned. How much sex had taken away from them, all these experiences made almost their souls sing and little things like that energy web were very much weaker, and they could not see into the future so far, which meant little. They had not so many houses anymore as Mimi had gotten hers. So less energy was needed to upkeep the bubbles around the houses.
Magic houses helped too and there were not so many enemies as most of their enemies had been Mimi's, not theirs, or at least they see things that way. They had karaoke nights, and they went to karaoke bars to sing. Charles had been very popular there as well, Adam too.
Mariella believed everyone was afraid of them and their power and no one dared to attack them. Everyone got their birthday, and those were celebrated too, like all the holidays and whatnot they could come up with. Pack was more like family and they were truly happy. It was so perfect to be in the pack, no more so sex-driven and lustful. It was life, not fucking in bed. They talked about a lot of old stuff, learned to unload like that too.
For example, Mariella did her work, helped pairs to connect, and helped those who had no hope anymore to see that it was truly over. Though she had a lot of women with had been in the past with Damon and they had all told her how he had been the perfect boyfriend and then just gone. How they missed him. Mariella tried to find these ladies lot of other men as well and then Damon told her to put them with their offspring, so breeding would continue.
Fresh females were always good. It was not hard for Damon come by, go to one of them, flirt a little, hug them, maybe kiss them and fill them with their embryos that they had harvested earlier, few little spells that those women were soon pregnant and moved to other dimensions to be breeding stock, and they were happy to carrying Damon's babies.
They had even anniversaries, but there were no flanks. No one needed blood tests as protectors kept everyone in good shape and satisfied, too. Med bays were not in use as everyone was healthy as a horse and all the difficulties that Mimi had brought into the pack were history. Med bays were not updated, licenses ended from a lot of software, machines got old and not maintained so often anymore.
Everything was pretty nice, it was a good life and no problems what so ever. They came up with new hobbies that they want to learn and do, curiosity drove them forward.
But they rarely went to the Azores, and not once they did reproduce. Damon couldn't understand why. They had heat, and Mariella was an alpha female, but no cream was needed, not even with those statues, and no one knew why. There were no cubs, no babies. But it just was what it was, and they went on with everyday life. They had bred a lot and maybe babies would come in time. World was their oyster.
Mariella learned to cook and make chocolate and sugar when she had ten teachers and the wolves had their loved ones. Adam understood how Mimosa had felt her whole life. She was in second place. They enjoyed what she had, but never felt she was the most important. Adam taught Mimosa what it is and what it feels like. Shadow learned to love with the help of Charles, her feisty nature was well met with Charles's dominance and they had fun times. Pack went to different amusement parks and men protected Mariella so she would not be scared of little fiercer machines.
But why were there no puppies or children? Damon put out queries and sent samples, hoping someone would have something to say. The pack had been around for three years. They went to the Azores once a year for two months, and then there was always some pack trip for three months. They celebrated holidays and enjoyed each other, but life was dull, or flat would perhaps be a better word to describe the evenness of their life.
They get to live just a normal life like humans do, nothing amazing all the time not even they were vampires, emotions were flat and sensations normal. They did not need too much blood even. Everything was evened out. Fallen in its place.
All the excitement had run cold, and everything seemed so normal. There was no chaos in their lives and life was very safe, flat, and even, with no big drama, no heart-wrenching emotions, no big love confessions, and no dominant rough sex play. Just everyday life. They even started to watch TV and sleep.
They had gone to so many beautiful places and also visited Paris to put those locks on that bridge. Each Damon had carved their locks with magic and energy, and it was just beautiful. They sang karaoke at times too and did little cooking competitions too. Of course, salvatores were top chefs but girls just wanted to have some fun. There were a lot of romantic things to do, fancy restaurants to visit and this time, they weren't so hard to feed as Mimi had been so they could eat pretty much everything on the list.
They had their friends in magic houses and no one talked about Mimi, not ever, and it was just how it was. They knew years had gone by and their previous children had all grown up, so it was no use in asking them to visit. It was what it was. They weren't supposed to breed, and they had bred a lot in many decades, almost so there were a lot of their offspring around already. Bran and Samuel visited sometimes, not often, and they were always busy with their jobs, too.
Samuel could say nothing about why they weren't breeding, but he gave Damon a few numbers of good shifter doctors who might help or find someone who could help them. Samuel just said that was not his expertise as he had now been more of an epidemiologist than a general doctor. He liked to study and treat infections and such and learn all kinds of new stuff too. He had been a little irritated about a few things, but then again, a new epidemic, again some kind of transmittable sex disease, got his attention in India.
Bran was busy being marrok, and he had learned from his past, he was not getting involved with women, not at all. He was not a werewolf anymore but Marrok sat next to him, telling to him what to do. Now Bran was not interested anymore in the lusts of the pack but in rotten apples and he liked to visit and kill them himself, too. Charles was not yet interested in working. He was living his life, as a man, husband, partner, not killer or assassin. He wanted to love and have fun. Not always be so rough and cruel.
Pack contacted the doctors and went to a few clinics to undergo extensive testing and studying. After a few weeks, the doctors were none of the wiser. It was like everyone's reproductive organs were in stasis, hibernation and they were more or less infertile. The reason they did not know.
Doctors promised to send these results to others to get second opinions. There was someone. These doctors did not say who, but one doctor was brilliant and busy too, so it would take time to get maybe an answer if this doctor had time to review their case and give an opinion. After then few months, the result of that second opinion came through.
When Damon was told it was because of willpower,and the alpha power being incomplete, he understood. He still had Mimi's will with him, and he remembered how Mimi's body would unconsciously react to so many things, and it wasn't even intentional. Mimi's will did not belong to the pack, so it had made them infertile. And since there was no female type of alpha power, willpower ruled over it. He would just have to wait for the will to wear off, and then maybe. But when he didn't want to destroy the last of what he had left of Mimi.
Then all he'd have left would be memories, which was too painful a thought. He had slowly felt those feelings, regretting the whole fucking divorce but also accepting that they were no more. He'd taken care of it himself, and the months had passed, and he wasn't even thinking about it when four years had gone by.
As he had at first wanted her memory to fade until there was nothing left, now it was the very thing that he feared. He wanted to remember, not forget. He wanted to remember each day, every feature of her face, her scent, her mannerisms, her quirks, her gestures. He did not want to lose them. He had not that kind of memory that Mimi had, so time would do this thing.
He sat on the garden swing in San Jose Castle, remembering that this was Mimi's purchase, too, and wondering what Mimi was doing. He didn't sense her or feel it on any level, even though he had tried different frequencies, and he understood it was his punishment. Once again, he was reacting all wrong.
He had put the same chakra on Mariella, and even though they had a connection, it was pale and weak compared to the fire that had come from Mimi's soul. And now he would never experience it again. The seemingly perfect life was not so perfect anymore. Damon did not know what to do. That kind of burning love, how she had kept it all inside her. And how he had mistreated her for so long and she had felt like that for him.
Can he do it? The painful last rip out of his soul, rip this last tendril of Mimi out of him. And face this painful deep wound in his soul. Mimi had been the doctor that had given her opinion. So she had a good life. She was the best doctor in shifter circles. She had a reputation; she saved lives, and he had thrown it all away.
Damon wondered if she had gone to Magnum. Magnum had been single, and they had been together for decades. Had she made Magnum into vampire, or hybrid? Was she married? Happy? Healthy. He knew he had no right to go and ruin Mimi's new life, not even he wanted to see her. To talk to her. To be with her. Even to torture himself when he would see her happiness. He wanted to find her, spy her from the shadows, see what he wasted. See what would have been possible.
Mariella watched as Damon did it. He had turned around and now it was just a matter of time. This would be a hard place for all of them from now on. To learn to accept their feelings for Mimi. To permit themselves to miss her, to talk about her, it would take some time for to Damon grow enough but he would be magnificent once this would have been through. This would be the place of growth for all of them, as a pack, as a family and maybe someday, Mimi would be once part of this family too.
Mariella missed her, too. She made the best cake that there was and nor she nor Damon could not make that kind of cake. Or her fancy cooking her treats for herself. There was no one to care for them. No one to watch, to feed. No one to keep under control, no one to have those orders, or her ideas.