Page 52 of Storm Echo

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 ofherPsy. 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.

Shefeltmore 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’veneverleft 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.

---