Page 51 of Storm Echo

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 youwouldgo 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, couldfeelagain.

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’swhat’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, hewantedit. 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 ithadto 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’dsavedthem.

---