me all you want. It makes me feel like I’m useful for something.” Brushing back her damp hair, he held her as long as she wanted before they began to walk again.
Mercy’s water broke a minute later.
The contractions were coming so close together by the time Tamsyn reached them that the gaps were measured in seconds rather than minutes. They didn’t make it inside. The pupcubs were born in a rush on the soft grass outside the cabin, Mercy’s hand gripping Riley’s and her back braced against his as Tamsyn caught their impatient children.
Who all decided to come out pretty much on top of one another.
Wiping off their faces, the healer placed the children in Mercy’s trembling arms. Riley slid his own under hers to help her hold them safe. “Hello,” Mercy whispered, a softness to her that, until this instant, only Riley had ever seen.
She kissed each squalling face in turn before looking up at him. “You’re a daddy now, wolf.”
His smile felt as if it would crack his face. “Hell, yeah.”
“Come around,” she murmured as the pupcubs quieted under their mother’s touch, at the skin-to-skin contact that was so important to newborn changelings. “They need to feel their daddy’s touch, too.”
Easing away his bracing hold, he came around to the side so he could support Mercy with one leg behind her back and still be able to hold their babies. He undid his shirt almost without thought and then Mercy was putting all three pupcubs in his arms. The “voracious hooligans” were strong and healthy but tiny. He nuzzled each soft face, drew in their scents, felt his heart expand again to make even more room for these three precious souls.
Tamsyn, who’d been taking care of Mercy, finally nudged them up and into the house. Only when all three pupcubs were snuggled up against Riley in the bed, skin-to-skin, did Mercy step into the shower for a minute.
Dressed in one of his T-shirts afterward, panties on underneath, she made a beeline for their babies. “Look at them. They’re so perfect.” She took a tiny foot, kissed each toe. Then did the same for the other two pupcubs as Tamsyn smiled and left them in privacy.
When Mercy took a pupcub and the baby whimpered at the touch of cotton, she tugged off the tee and snuggled their child to her heartbeat. The baby quieted at once. “Riley, we made three gorgeous babies,” she whispered in open awe, her eyes shining.
With her hair cascading in red waves over skin of cream and gold, and her face luminous as she looked first at one babe, then leaned over to kiss the loosely fisted hand of another, the head of the third, Mercy made his heart stop. “We did,” he managed to say, juggling the two pupcubs he held over onto one arm so he could close his free hand over Mercy’s nape. “You’re amazing.”
A sparkling smile. “Never forget it, wolf.” Leaning in, she nipped at his lower lip. “I want to hold them all again.” She situated herself in a slightly leaning position against the headboard, pillows piled up behind her, then Riley placed the other two pupcubs against her.
Their tiny faces seemed to smile, their soft hands spreading on her skin.
Riley watched over them, feeling a joy so deep that neither part of him could articulate it. His mate was safe, as were their pupcubs.
Riley Aedan Kincaid could ask for nothing more.
Letters to Nina
From the private diaries of Father Xavier Perez
September 27, 2081
Nina,
Our city has been at peace for months.
The changelings won the battle that shattered that peace earlier this year, but both my friends believe this is only a temporary lull—change is building with ever-increasing momentum in the PsyNet, the network that connects every Psy in the world but for the rare few who have defected.
“An earthquake is coming, Xavier,” one of my friends said to me just hours earlier. “Only the strong will be left standing when it’s over.”
I pray for the souls caught up in the turmoil, Psy, human, and changeling alike. I’m no longer full of hate toward an entire race. They are as good and bad, as perfect and flawed, as any one of us. In understanding that, I’ve found a kind of peace, too.
But my heart, it still hurts in the night from missing you. It’s been so many years now and still I turn and look for your smile, still I reach for your hand. I know I always will.
Your Xavier
Chapter 50
LUCAS AND