Page 53 of Storm Echo

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 becausehedecided 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’dlovedher.

“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.

But as of this moment, she was out of time.

She’d sensed the faint hum of a car coming closer half a minute ago, now heard the engine shut off.

The alpha of DarkRiver was here.

Chapter 27

I don’t know how Lucas Hunter does it. Then again, he’s a cat. They find the strangest things funny.

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