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 there were six bedrooms and my room. My room was the biggest bedroom in the house. It was the master bedroom and had a large, extra soft four-poster bed. A dresser and a wardrobe and a large bathroom with a lovely soaking tub and a luxurious shower. My room was decorated in shades of light red and pink, and Adam usually slept with me. At least he put me to sleep, because otherwise I didn't sleep. All my experiences had left a wonderful assortment of different nightmares and I had no doubt that my time with Spike and Drusilla was now there among other nightmares. The nightmares were bad. I actually felt everything in them and when they started I couldn't wake up immediately. When I always finally got myself up I was wet with sweat shaking and agitated. It always took me almost an hour to calm myself down, so I was determined not to sleep pretty early on.

Adam had a solution to this. Every night he would come in, I would go and lay in Adam's arms and he would stroke and soothe and at one point he would give me a strong dose of sedative. At first in the Chicago house he was with me all night but then somewhere along the way he started sneaking into his own bed when I was sound asleep. In the morning I always woke up alone. This was not a miracle solution according to Samuel and at some point, I should try to sleep without the medicine. We tried that. Adam went to bed with me but didn't give me the medicine. The nightmares started, no matter how hard Adam tried to wake me up and calm me down it 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. Samuel had been trying since this episode to find the perfect dream drug that would allow me to sleep and dream but not have nightmares. He had already reduced my dosage considerably.

I wondered as I passed by if Damon would take a room downstairs and if he was even going to live in the same house. Somehow the idea of him living in the same house both intrigued and terrified me. The men were busying themselves in the kitchen with the food and I was walking around the living room looking through the bookshelf. Samuel had given me several medical books, which I read with pleasure. Maybe one day I could help myself to stay fit and get better. Samuel said I should weigh 60-70 kilos, at the moment I thought I was 38-41 kilos. I tried to visualize myself in better shape, but for some reason, I was convinced that reaching that weight was out of reach. Mimosa weighed 60 kilos when Mimosa was supposed to weigh closer to 100 kilos. My wolf was huge. Bran was worried somewhere along the line that because Mimosa is so starved she could become unpredictable and even attack and eat children. Mimosa laughed at the whole thing. When I changed into my wolf form, I could eat the 60 kilos of meat and offal that I weighed in that form. Meat meals always put more weight on me, but just when I was getting myself in shape something happened. Now it was Drusilla and Spike happened. My record weight, which I had already reached at one point, was 55 kilos. But not now.

Adam called me into the kitchen. "Come on Mimi, dinner's almost ready." Adam and Samuel had tried different foods for Mimi, and Samuel had even taken a stool sample from Mimi to test what digests and what doesn't. Carbohydrates pretty much came out, only a small portion was absorbed, plus they didn't provide vitamins or minerals. The meat was absorbed but to varying degrees. Samuel and Adam were always trying different meats and now they had already talked before the whole kidnapping episode about trying birds. Well, birds are low fat, but the butter seemed to be absorbed quite well and would add fat to the food. The egg didn't absorb and although Mimi loved fried eggs it didn't do her much benefit.

Damon had also studied all this. He had actually suggested duck. Fortunately, there were whole ducks in the fridge and Damon took it upon himself to cook them while Adam made the pork gravy and pasta. Samuel made some chicken gravy and baked chicken. Adam and Samuel had both warned that Mimi's eating habits were not very refined. Damon said, "As long as that skeleton can cram food in, it doesn't matter if she crams it in upside down." The men set the table. Damon had cut for Mimi almost both ducks, there was plenty of meat. There was a rich cream sauce and pasta that was more or less swimming in butter.

I went to the table and Damon brought a plate in front of me. It was a mountain of meat, duck he said. The duck was as good as I remembered from the old days. There was also gravy and pasta on the plate. I politely waited for everyone to get their food in front of them and looked at Adam, who was sitting at the end of the table. He nodded. It was a sign that it was time to eat. I attacked the food with gusto. The duck melted in my mouth, the sauce was wonderful and the pasta sank into me effortlessly. I devoured a whole mountain of meat and sauce and everything. Now I thought, after a while, I'd like dessert and I knew exactly what I wanted. I had never actually made it while I was here, it had been decades since I had even eaten whipped cream cake the way my mother always taught me. I got up from the table and went into the kitchen to get busy. I said to Adam. "I'll make some dessert, it might take a few hours, then we can have coffee." Adam nodded and continued eating.

Damon watched casually as Mimi ate everything. And quickly. And then she got up from the table and went to the kitchen to make dessert. Damon had eaten the meat sauce and steaks himself, and even though he was a werewolf, he felt full and even a little lethargic. He'd like to go to the couch for a while. Adam and Samuel shared an idea with Damon. The men retreated to the living room to digest their food. Samuel said "We werewolves have about twice the metabolism in simple terms, there are different parts of metabolism and some of us have even faster ones like the healing ability, but the basic metabolism is twice as fast, as the three of us. But that there," He pointed to the kitchen. "I suspect its metabolism is about 3-5 times that of humans, that's why it doesn't gain weight. Also, I've taken muscle samples from Mimi and there's an interesting fact. Mimi has muscle cells in sleep. She has about 20-30% of her muscles awake, think of the calorie consumption if she ever gets all awake. "Damon thought for a moment and said " Calorie intake doesn't necessarily go up but food absorption may be enhanced. Right now her body is absorbing what these muscle cells need, but if we can get more of them awake, she'll be forced to absorb more. Which in turn helps metabolism and organ function. "Samuel spent some time thinking about this and said 'That's the next challenge for us. Waking up the muscle cells."

I took a measuring dish from the kitchen and broke 20 eggs into it. I knew there were hungry men in the house and I wanted to eat my share, so this had better be a lot. I poured the eggs into a mixer and measured out an equal amount of sugar and poured it into the eggs. I turned on the mixer. I took out round large cake pans, which I greased and breaded thoroughly. I measured out the flour and baking powder. I put the oven to warm up. When the sugar and eggs were almost a white foam, I carefully added the flour and stirred just enough to get it well mixed. I hadn't noticed that the men had come in silently, watching with great interest what I was doing.

When the cake batter was ready, I turned around to grab a utensil from the other table and was startled when ice-blue eyes looked at me with amusement " What are you doing, Baby?" I said coolly as I got myself together, Shit I didn't need to be startled like that. " I was making a whipped cream cake. Sponge cakes." " Mmm, they must be yummy, Baby," Damon said in a lazy, almost seductive voice. "I haven't eaten this in decades and now I was craving it and I saw earlier that there were supplies, so that's why I made it," I explained matter-of-factly.

Adam asked, " What's coming in?" I said sweetly " I have whipped cream and fresh strawberries, there are ripe strawberries outside, I'll go pick them up when I get the bases in the oven." Adam said, " Good idea, let's go get everyone so we can get them quicker, we need quite a lot of strawberries apparently. "Adam said and watched as I filled five big trays and put them in the oven.

I took a bucket from the cupboard and looked at the clock for the time. I put a timer on the oven so the bases wouldn't burn if I didn't get them in right away. At some point, Damon had circled around behind me and was whispering in my ear. "Shall we put strawberries in the same container, Baby? Mm-mm You already scent like strawberries." He pressed himself against me and I felt his hand wrap around my waist, pulling me into him and sniffing my hair. He was hard, I mean 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 and then released his grip and took a couple of steps back. When I turned around, he was gone.

I took a deep breath. Now werewolves like to touch and Adam and Samuel always touched me 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 the closeness. I finally got myself together and headed out. I went to the strawberry patch, 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.

I rummaged through the bush and grabbed one of the strawberries to remove it as our fingers touched. I almost felt a spark in my fingers. I grabbed the strawberry and dropped it straight into the bucket. Damon looked at me and chuckled. 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 snatched it easily as he stood up and carried it inside. I followed. I decided to concentrate on the cake making. The bottoms were ready and already a little chilled. I took them out of the oven and tilted them back on the rack to finish cooling. I opened the cupboard and took out a liter bowl and got some milk from the cupboard 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 consistency.

I turned around to get the full cream from the fridge and bumped right into Damon's chest. His hands instinctively grabbed me and held me close. I tried to make a sound. I finally managed to say " Cream, I need cream." Damon looked at me for a moment with a smile on his lips and then let go. I went to the fridge and took a liter of cream, dumped it straight into the blender, and added sugar and vanilla sugar for flavoring. I didn't quite put the cream into whipping yet but moved on to the cake layers. I took a long bread knife from the drawers and set it on the table ready to go. The suitable plates were once again too high and suddenly Damon pressed himself against my back again, reached over, and said " These will do Baby" He picked up five plates flattening me against the countertop. Then he put the plates on the table and reached past me to the table and took the knife for himself. "Little girls shouldn't play with knives like this, Baby, I'll cut the cakes."

That guy is getting on my nerves all over the place. I thought this pack life was going to get a hell of a lot more interesting if he kept it up. Damon confidently and expertly cut the cakes into four layers. Samuel whipped up the cream and Adam continued to slice the strawberries. I always took one of the pre-cut cakes and a spoon and started to moisten 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 wasn't piped on top, it was just slathered on. Then the cakes were brought to the table and Samuel poured everyone their coffee. 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.