Storm echo, p.16
Storm Echo, page 16
Honor, he reminded himself. She was a woman of honor.
Nathan and Tamsyn’s kitchen was large and warm, a place built for gatherings. He was surprised they were permitting him to see it—he could take a photo, give it to a teleporter, opening their home to a silent invasion. Then again, this was a pack used to Psy—no doubt, they were expert at methods to quickly alter a physical location so it couldn’t be used for a teleport lock.
Two identical little boys of around six or seven years of age sat swinging their feet on high stools at the breakfast counter, one in blue pajamas with the stars and the moon on them, the other in pajamas featuring a fantastical creature. A dragon, Ivan thought, that’s what it was.
They gave him suspicious looks out of dark blue eyes identical to their father’s. Then the one wearing dragon pajamas smiled, the sun coming out from behind a cloud. “Hi, we’re going to have cookies even though it’s bedtime! Want one?”
His twin scowled. “You’re not supposed to talk to strangers, Rome.”
“He’s with Dad. He’s not a stranger.”
On the other side of the counter, Tamsyn said, “Welcome to our home.” The healer’s eyes were assessing. “Friend or foe?”
“Friend. My grandmother usually prefers her grandchildren not make enemies unless the people concerned are out to harm our family.” In which case, all bets were off and you would go down.
Tamsyn’s lips curved. “Alpha Nikolaev speaks highly of Ena Mercant.”
Connections, threads, points of contact. “Valentin is of the opinion that he is my grandmother’s favorite changeling.”
Tamsyn laughed, but Ivan didn’t take that as a sign that he’d been designated a non-threat. He was also conscious that Nathan had stepped away—still close enough to eviscerate Ivan with his claws should Ivan make a move to hurt his mate or cubs, but far enough away that Ivan couldn’t hear the low-voiced conversation he was having on the phone. No doubt a call to his alpha.
What had happened here today, it would require Lucas Hunter.
So when Tamsyn invited Ivan to take a seat, he did so at a round table at the other end of the space from her cubs. Nathan shot him an approving look and joined him at the table after finishing his call. All the while, part of Ivan was straining at the bit to go outside, find out what was happening with Soleil.
Flashes of warmth, of gold and black fur spotted with threads of silver, of small claws patting at her in excitement, of tiny teeth nipping at her.
The visual was so vivid that he found himself curling his fingers into his palm, as if he had claws of his own. Should anyone have asked, he could’ve described the different scents of the other three ocelots, and that was an impossibility. He simply didn’t have those olfactory glands.
Yet his mind continued to manufacture scents, manufacture sensations, until he knew what it was to be surrounded by pack, the children’s small bodies wriggling against her, while the body of her elder held her warm and welcome. The knot in her chest, the heaviness that had crushed her since she knew herself once more, it began to unravel, until she could breathe again, could feel again.
Soleil was home. At last. She was home.
“Hmm.” Tamsyn was staring at him. “It’s not a mating bond, but it’s something.”
Ivan stared back at the healer.
She tilted her head at an angle that punched memory through him, of another cat in human form who’d done exactly the same action. “You carry her scent too deep for casual contact. Deep enough that it could be mistaken for a mating.”
Nathan stirred. “That’s what’s been bugging me,” he muttered. “You want to explain, Mercant?”
The idea of having Soleil for a mate, of having a bond as Nathan did with Tamsyn, as Silver did with her bear, he wanted it. More than he’d allowed himself to want anything for a long time.
“I don’t know what it is,” he said. “I’ve tried to set her free, but I can’t.” No matter how many times he’d searched, he hadn’t been able to find the strand of his web that connected him to her, her to him. It might feel like it was coming from her, her cat prowling through his mind, but logic said it had to be him.
He was the Psy, the telepath.
His was the web, so sticky and impossible to escape.
Warm laughter from Tamsyn, her eyes sparkling. “Oh, what I scent isn’t a Psy thing, Ivan. She’s marked you, and we cats tend to be possessive.”
Ivan wanted to believe that until it was a compulsion. “She doesn’t know me.”
“Are you sure?” Tamsyn stirred something on the stove. “I think her ocelot knows exactly who you are.”
Nathan coughed into his hand, his expression amused when Ivan glanced over. “Guess you better figure out how to tangle with a cat.”
SOLEIL was so full of emotion that she couldn’t separate one from the other. Joy, sheer joy, confusion, love, worry, so much more. She wanted to hold the cubs close, wanted to press herself tight against Yariela, wanted to rub their scents all over her and hers all over them.
She was home. Home at last.
But she was worried about Ivan. The leopards would consider him a threat. She had to make sure they knew that the only reason he was here was because he’d wanted to bring her home.
Panic fluttered in her at him being alone with unfriendly predators.
Stirring from the cuddle pile of her pack, she rose to her feet. The others stood with her. When Yariela went to lead them inside, she followed along on quick feet. In front of them, the two cubs ran to the door and back again, too excited to stay still.
Open wounds inside her began to scab over. The cubs were alive. So was Yariela. Which likely meant gentle and kind Salvador was also alive. She wouldn’t know about the soldiers until she asked. But this changed everything.
Lucas Hunter hadn’t murdered her pack. He’d saved them.
Emotion choking her but not enough to overwhelm her worry for Ivan, she followed Yariela through the doorway—and found herself looking immediately to the right. Right into the eyes of her Psy. He was uninjured … and sitting in front of a plate of cookies.
She blinked, shook her head. Nope, still cookies there.
Ivan wasn’t eating the cookies, however, quite unlike the boys who sat on the breakfast stools to her left. One of them dropped a cookie toward an ocelot cub; it was snatched out of the air by sharp little teeth.
“Boys,” Tamsyn said in a firm maternal tone that had all involved parties attempting to imitate angels complete with shining halos. “As for you two on the floor. You know we eat off proper dishes in this house.”
Razi and Natal ran around the counter to nuzzle at Tamsyn’s legs, their bodies fluid and their markings an echo of their parents’. Smiling fondly, the healer bent down and scooped them up in her arms to nip at their noses. Unrepentant, the cubs pretended to bite her ear while only licking at her earlobes. Laughing, she put them on the counter near the twins, where they both sat up neatly, ready for cookies.
Every so often, they’d look back, as if checking to see that Soleil was still there.
Soleil’s cells burst with purest happiness. The children were happy, healthy. DarkRiver had given them not just a home, but love. Soleil would do everything in her power to pay back that gift. Now, however, she needed her human voice. But though she was changeling and used to shifting into her skin, she felt shy doing it in front of strangers.
Even as she went to nudge Yariela, ask the question with her eyes, Tamsyn said, “Spare clothes are in a trunk by the front door. Yariela, will you show her the way?”
Of course a healer’s home would be stocked with clothing for those who might drop by. People always dropped by the homes of healers. That was just how it was. Even Soleil, young healer though she’d been, had been used to visitors—there to chat, to grab a bite, or to get looked over for small wounds.
She’d had a special stash of colorful bandages that she’d put on the cubs when they came to her with scrapes and scratches. The little ones had loved them so much that they quite often wouldn’t shift for a day or two, just so the bandages would stay on their skin.
Now she followed Yariela’s slower form to the trunk. Leaving Soleil there, the senior healer disappeared down another hallway, no doubt going to her room to get her own clothes. After shifting, Soleil changed into a pair of sweatpants that were far too large in the waist but were the right length for her height. They had a string tie at the top, so she used that to cinch it tight.
On top, she threw on a T-shirt of soft pink that actually fit pretty well, along with a hoodie of multihued shades that zipped up the front and seemed like something a juvenile might’ve helped purchase. She liked it. It was bright, open, more Soleil than anything she’d worn since the massacre.
She felt more real, more herself.
There was a mirror not far from the front door and when she glanced into it, she saw that she looked good. It had little to do with the clothes, however. It was the brightness in her eyes, the shine in her face. Happiness, she realized. She was glowing with happiness.
And though her heart tugged her toward Ivan, this Psy her cat had claimed, she followed the deep familiarity of Yariela’s scent to her room. She needed answers to her questions before Lucas Hunter got here. Because he would be coming.
Chapter 26
Not every changeling with the dominance to be alpha has the heart for it.
—Lucas Hunter, alpha of DarkRiver, to Remington “Remi” Denier, alpha of RainFire
“OH, MY LEILEI, come, come,” Yariela said with a teary smile when Soleil hesitated on her doorstep. “My sweet girl.” She closed her arms around Soleil when she sat down on the bed next to her.
Her eyes caught on a couple of colorful little cat planters on the bedside table, each holding a tiny succulent, and she had the oddest feeling that there should be three, but then Yariela was enfolding her in her arms and her entire world reduced to the care of this woman who’d taken a brokenhearted little girl and lavished her in such love that she’d healed, had flown.
The healer who was her grandmother in every way but blood felt so very fragile, far from the strong woman Soleil had known, but her hug was just as all-encompassing, her love a storm.
“I’m so happy to see you, Abuela,” Soleil managed to choke out, breathing in the scent of the ocelot who’d mothered her since she came into SkyElm. “I thought you were all dead.” Sobs overtook her. “The pack was erased in the records.”
Yariela kissed the top of her hair, squeezed her tight. “After all that happened, after the lack of honor displayed by Monroe, we as adults—all of us who survived—made the decision not to saddle the cubs with that history.
“Our babies will be told of it when they come of age, but as far as the records are concerned, they will be of DarkRiver. SkyElm’s terrible history won’t shadow their lives.” Dark, dark eyes held Soleil’s. “I’m so sorry, my Leilei, we didn’t think anyone else had survived. I would’ve never left you if I’d known.”
Soleil wiped the elder’s tears. “It’s not your fault. Monroe knew.” She had to say that, had to make sure Yariela never blamed herself for it. “He chose to reject me.”
Eyes burning, she admitted to the truth she’d already shared with Ivan. “I tried so hard to save Em and Robbie, but I couldn’t.” The alpha’s mate and their treasured cub had died in her arms. “I really tried, Abuela. I gave it all I had.” Her heart had shredded itself into a million pieces as she felt Robbie slip away, such a small and bright light, one she’d helped birth into the world at Yariela’s side.
“I know, my Leilei. I know.” Her mentor kissed Soleil’s hair again, her voice unsteady. “I saw their bodies in the aftermath. Those injuries … not even the most senior healer could’ve saved them, even had they been rushed into the infirmary right away.”
A sob caught in Soleil’s throat at Yariela’s confirmation that it had been too late long before she got to mother and child; the senior healer’s words could never erase the guilt that haunted Soleil, never silence all the hollow-eyed ghosts that followed her, but they softened the serrated edges of that guilt.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t be with you at that time,” Yariela said, her voice quiet with pain. “You should’ve never had to face such a terrible thing alone.”
It was Soleil’s turn to comfort. “No, Abuela, you burned yourself out with helping our packmates.” Echoing with the horror she’d felt at the sight, this memory was as sharp and bloody as a razor. “I saw you collapse, saw Duke drag you to safety.” The young dominant’s eyes had been shocky, but he hadn’t bowed under the weight of the deaths all around them.
Yariela’s sigh told Soleil that the elder healer continued to tangle with her own demons, her own guilt. “So,” she said, weaving her fingers through Soleil’s, “that’s why Monroe denied you your rightful place in SkyElm? Because of Em and Robbie?”
Soleil nodded. “I’ll never know for sure, but it’s the only reason that makes sense.” Because while Monroe had never liked her, he’d accepted her usefulness as a healer.
Gritted teeth from Yariela, her eyes suddenly a pale ocelot gold. “Then his reasoning held no reason at all. Or it was that of an egoist who refused to face the consequences of his own actions. Monroe made the mistakes and blamed you for them. Em and Robbie and the others were left unprotected because he decided that flank was safe enough not to need any guards.”
Yariela’s hand clenched on Soleil’s. “I can feel an unending sorrow for the loss of that sweet babe and his gentle mother, and I can hurt for Monroe’s pain without losing the clarity of my sight. And what I see is that that decision was but one in a line of bad ones.
“Long before that dark day, Monroe decided our pack would accept only ocelots rather than any strong feline changeling that wished to join us. It left us weak, with too many vulnerable and not enough dominants, not enough soldiers. We became prey because he allowed it to be so.”
Dropping her gaze, she released a tired exhale. “He was a good man once.” A shake of her head on the heels of her words. “But he wasn’t, was he? He followed your grandfather’s example and never treated you well, though you were the very heart of our pack, the sunshine around which we warmed ourselves.”
Shaky with emotion at the force of Yariela’s denouncement of Monroe and what he’d done to her, Soleil said, “What happened when Lucas Hunter came to SkyElm?”
“Monroe tried to have Lucas’s child kidnapped.”
Soleil sucked in a breath. This, she hadn’t known.
“Lucas executed him,” Yariela said. “The rest of us were welcomed into DarkRiver should we wish it. We were only six. Seven now.” A tremulous smile, Yariela lifting up her soft cotton tunic to wipe Soleil’s face.
Memories of childhood, of Yariela rocking her as Soleil cried for her parents. They might’ve been feckless loners who’d never made any plans for the future, but they’d loved her.
“The leopards are good people,” Yariela murmured. “We’ve been welcomed and treated as packmates. Even that dangerous mate of Tammy’s treats me with the respect due an elder.”
“Duke and Lula?”
“Sí, sí, they’re well. But you won’t see them for a few weeks—they’ve been taken up into SnowDancer territory to do high-altitude training.” A grin that was the clouds parting after the blackest storm. “Oh, what a surprise they’ll get when they come down the mountain!” Though Yariela’s eyes were yet raw from her tears, her laughter was as familiar as the sky, a balm to Soleil’s soul.
“Salvador has bloomed here,” Yariela continued. “The cubs usually stay with him, consider him their adopted papa, but we decided to give him the weekend off because he has gone courting.”
This time her smile was that of a gleeful cat. “A human who builds ships. Can you imagine our Sal on a boat? She is as sweet as him, though—and the cubs already adore her. They’ll make such a happy family. You’ll be the indulgent tía that spoils Razi and Natal, I think.”
Overwhelmed in the best way, Soleil lifted her hands to her mouth, dropped them on a crash of startled joy. “Oh, yes! I’ll be the one who takes them on wild little adventures and lets them eat junk food.”
“Yes, this is just as it should be.”
“Abuela?” Soleil took Yariela’s soft wrinkled hand. “You vanished from the forum.”
“I have been sad for a long time, my Leilei.” The older healer rubbed at her breastbone. “Sick to the heart. You see how I am.” She waved a hand over her body. “So old and faded, though in years I should yet have a third of my life left to live—others of my years are active and lively. But my soul sickness … it bled into my bones.”
She patted Soleil’s hand. “I never had cubs of my own, but my bonds to the pack kept me happy. But even those bonds wouldn’t have held me to the world much longer after the passing of my mate. I was fractured in the very soul.
“Then your grandfather walked into my home with a silent niña at his side, and I knew why I must live.” Running her palm over Soleil’s head, she beamed though her eyes were wet again. “You became a piece of my heart, my Leilei. I could barely go on when I thought you dead, even your body lost to us, so that I could not say good-bye to mi niña preciosa.”
Tears rolled down her face. “I no longer had interest in much. I had to use what little energy I had left wisely—making sure the cubs settled well into DarkRiver, and learning to feel something akin to happiness, because Razi and Natal would be sad if I didn’t.”
Soleil hugged the woman who had loved her until she stopped hurting, and she cursed Monroe for his cruelty in what he’d done to her. He’d known he would shatter Yariela’s heart when he disowned Soleil, yet he’d done it all the same. And he hadn’t even had the guts to tell Yariela of his actions.
Soleil would hate him to the end of time for that cruelty, and she wouldn’t feel bad about it.
