by Nalini Singh
“Oh, good.” Julian sighed. “’Cause she really smells like a girl right now.”
Sascha’s shoulders shook at the mournful statement. Tightening her stomach to hold in the laugh, she said, “She is a girl, you know. Will you still play with her?”
“Yes. She’s our baby,” Roman said, eyebrows drawn together and arms folded.
Julian’s nod was just as serious. “We even made her a present.”
They scrambled off the bed together. Rising, Sascha walked into the living/kitchen area with Lucas to find Tamsyn preparing a pot of coffee and one of hot chocolate, the healer as at home here as Sascha was at Tamsyn’s house. A tin sat on the counter, likely something delicious Tamsyn had baked that morning.
“Dad.” Julian tugged on his father’s hand where Nate leaned against the wall nearest the kitchen area, tall and with a few strands of silver in the deep, deep brown of his hair. “We want to give Naya her present.”
Nate reached into the pocket of his hooded sweatshirt and brought out a gaily wrapped package. Taking it, Julian grabbed his brother’s hand and they ran over. “This is for Naya.”
Lucas accepted it on the baby’s behalf. “Thank you. Shall we open it?”
Two identical nods.
The package was closed up with so much tape and paper that Lucas had to slice out his claws to cut it open. “Ready?” he said to everyone.
“Yes!” Eyes bright, the boys were all but hopping up and down.
Lucas upended the open package and into his palm dropped a surprisingly pretty necklace made of multihued beads.
“That’s beautiful,” Sascha said, knowing she’d keep the gift safe until Naya was old enough to appreciate it.
“They chose all the beads themselves,” Tamsyn told her in open pride.
“Dad helped us put them together.” Julian went over to lean against his father’s leg.
Reaching down, Nate ruffled his hair. “Tell Sascha and Lucas what the beads mean.” The senior sentinel glanced at them with eyes the same shade as his sons. “They came up with that on their own, too.”
Sascha settled down into a large cozy armchair with Naya, the twins snuggling in on either side of her. Then Roman took the beads. “This is for Sascha darling,” he said, pointing to the black and white beads at the center.
“For your eyes,” Julian elaborated, then pointed to a green bead next to the black. “And this is for Lucas.”
“But the black one is kind of for him too, since he’s a panther,” Roman said, while Sascha listened, astonished. “So you have to share that one.”
“What about the brown ones streaked with blue?” They bracketed the green, white, and black.
“That’s us!” the twins said in unison. “Didn’t you know?”
“Well that makes sense,” Lucas said, having come around to lean on the back of the armchair. “Since Naya’s your baby.”
Roman gave a satisfied nod. “And this one is Mommy and this one is Daddy.” Both beads were a gorgeous cerulean blue. “Because Mom makes everyone happy and Dad likes it when Mom is happy, and it’s like when the sky is sunny and bright.”
Sascha’s eyes burned. Sensing it, Lucas ran the knuckles of one hand over her cheek and said, “Have you got everyone from the pack on there?”
That caused Julian to slap his forehead. “No! There are too many people!”
“It would be this long.” Roman threw his arms wide apart. “We’ll make her one for her birthday next year with more people.” Then they named the other packmates represented on this first necklace.
By the time they were done, Sascha was utterly undone. Kissing them each on the cheek, she said, “You’re wonderful. Naya is so lucky she’s your baby.”
Suddenly shy, they ducked their heads against her.
“Here.” Tamsyn held out her arms. “Let me cuddle Naya for a second. I think my monsters want a hug from you.”
Sascha passed Naya to the caring arms of the woman who’d helped her and Lucas’s precious baby be born. Her lap was immediately filled with little boy. Smiling, she cuddled them close. The moment lasted half a minute before they scrambled off to run outside to play in the trees.
When they ran back in five minutes later, while Sascha was sipping the hot chocolate Tammy had poured her in lieu of coffee, Naya cradled in the crook of Lucas’s arm, both were in leopard cub form.
“Boys.” Nate’s tone made them freeze, Roman with one paw raised off the wooden floor, Julian with his tail arched. “Did you take off your clothes before you shifted?”
Identical guilty looks, their eyes a stunning green-gold in this form.
Groaning, Tamsyn said, “There go two pairs of brand new jeans.” She scowled but it held no heat. “I ought to dress you both in potato sacks.”
Apparently realizing they weren’t in too much trouble today, the cubs ran over to jump up on the sofa and nuzzle their mom in apology. Tamsyn kissed their furry faces, while Nate shook his head, amused affection in his eyes. “You’ll have to go through this, too,” he said to Lucas and Sascha. “They’re so good about learning other things, but the clothes keep catching them out.”
Sascha grinned at Lucas. “I can’t wait to see Naya shift.”
“Me too.” Lucas’s grin was as deep as her own. “I have a feeling she’ll be a panther, too.”
Having had a play-fight with their father in the interim, the twins ran over to jump up on the arms of the chair where Lucas sat. Perching carefully on either side, they sniffed at Naya, patted her with their paws—claws carefully sheathed—then jumped back down to curl up beside their parents.
Where Julian shifted in wild sparks of color, his face a scowl. “She’s still sleeping!”
“I’m afraid she’ll sleep a lot for a while,” Sascha told him, the love she felt for these two boys who’d shown her joy before she’d ever imagined she might have a right to it, an ache in her heart. “You’ll have to be patient.”
Cuddled up against Tamsyn, Julian looked at his brother. Roman made a small growling sound. Julian growled back, then turned to Sascha, conversation apparently completed. But before he could tell her what had been decided, Naya opened her mouth on what sounded like a tiny, tiny baby growl.
Instantly on alert, Roman ran over to jump on the chair arm again while Julian shifted before joining his brother. Where two pairs of green-gold leopard eyes looked into one pair of bright green, the moment frozen in time. Then Julian patted at Naya’s fisted hand with a careful paw. The baby reached out, clutched at him.
Julian huffed in laughter as Roman nuzzled the baby’s face. Naya sneezed, making Julian laugh so hard he fell off the chair arm, while his brother jerked back...then touched her with his paw. This time, the baby got a bit of his fur in her tiny grip. He could’ve easily pulled away, but he didn’t, curling up against Lucas instead.
Scrambling up to his former position, Julian licked at the baby’s other hand. Instead of being frightened, Naya’s lips curved in a baby smile. Linked as she was to their child on the mental plane, Sascha could feel her contentment, her sense of safety. Naya knew she was with Pack.
Tamsyn shook her head. “Watch out,” she warned. “Your Naya is going to be led off the straight and narrow as soon as she can crawl.”
Nate took his mate’s hand, brought it to his mouth and pretended to bite. “Careful what you say about my cubs.”
Leaning into his embrace, Tamsyn said, “Where do you think our children got it from, Nathan Ryder? Hmm?”
Nate squeezed her. “In that case, Naya won’t need any help. Luc pulled some pretty spectacular stunts of his own as a kid.” A raised eyebrow. “Didn’t I once have to fish you naked out of a mud pool?”
Lucas scowled. “I was eight! And it was a very nice mud pool. I don’t know why you had to steal my fun.”
Delighted at this new glimpse into Lucas’s past, Sascha went to ask Nate to elaborate when she became aware of two sets of pricked ears. The others realized it at the same time. Tammy poked Na
te in the ribs. “Get the hose ready. I see more mud-bathing in a certain twosome’s future.”
Nate pretended to wince...and winked at his boys. “I’ll show you the best spot.”
“What do you know about the best spot?” Lucas countered. “I know the best spot.”
The twins heads went from one to the other, eyes bright. And Sascha wanted to pounce on everyone, enclosing them in a huge hug. Naya would grow up loved and a little wild, with two friends who’d teach her to be naughty and to play and Sascha couldn’t wait to experience it all. Complete with a mud-coated cub who had her daddy’s green eyes.
Copyright © 2013 by Nalini Singh
Grocery Shopping
Author's Note: This small vignette slots in during the peaceful lull after Kiss of Snow, soon after Naya’s birth, and while Lucas and Sascha are still living in the cabin below their aerie.
It's a fun and sweet glimpse into the lives of the characters in a quiet moment in the midst of the often chaotic and staggering changes currently shaking their world. It's one of those moments we never see in a book, but that is part of the everyday fabric of the characters lives. I love writing these, and I hope you enjoy reading them.
If you’re new to the Psy-Changeling series, this story features Lucas (alpha of the DarkRiver leopards and a man who shifts into a black panther in his animal form), and Sascha (Lucas’s mate and a cardinal empath - she has the power to heal wounds of the heart, to take the most painful of emotions and neutralize them).
And of course, it includes the recently born Naya.
Grocery Shopping
By Nalini Singh
“We need to go grocery shopping.”
Lucas looked up from where he was watching a football game on the comm screen, his feet up on the ottoman and a bottle of unopened beer in his hand. “You know,” he said, solemn as a priest, “there’s a spare mobile comm in the other room. If you enter what you want, they have this thing called delivery. Right to the edge of the pack’s forested territory.”
Sascha made a face at her gorgeous, infuriating mate with his deep black hair and vivid green eyes. “Why do you always torment me?”
His smile was feline. “Because your love of grocery shopping fascinates me.” Swinging his feet off the ottoman, he put his beer aside with a loud sigh. “Didn’t we just go last week? What do we need?”
“Diapers.”
Lucas gave a pointed look in the direction of the nursery—currently full of so many baby supplies courtesy of their packmates that he’d started talking about opening a store. “Diapers.”
Bending over the bassinet she had on the table, where she could talk to Naya as she finished writing up her notes about a pack project, Sascha rubbed their baby’s tiny nose. “Your father is making fun of us. What shall we do to him?”
“Since when does Naya like grocery shopping?”
“Since she was born.” Melting as Naya’s soft fingers closed over her own, she made those nonsensical mother sounds she’d never before understood, but now knew intimately. “She’s my daughter, after all.”
A growl from the panther she adored beyond life.
“Just because you’re a telepath, don’t think you can fool me. I know my girl has better sense. She likes football.”
Sascha picked up the bassinet. “I’m going out to the car.”
Muttering under his breath, Lucas got up. “I can’t believe you’re making me miss the rest of the game. It’s the first one I’ve had time to watch live all season.”
“Want to know the score? 5-2, the red team will win. Faith told me.”
He narrowed his eyes at her mention of the gifted foreseer. “Very funny.”
She grinned and leaned forward to kiss him. “You and Naya can watch the rest in the car. I’ll drive.”
Nipping at her lower lip for her impertinence, he took the baby from her. “Come on, princess. Let’s go indulge your mother’s strange fetish.”
Sascha started up the car and waited while Lucas got into the passenger seat after securing the bassinet into the special seat in the back. He flicked on the small comm screen on his side, and reclined back to watch the game as she pulled out. It made her happy that she was about to head out to do something so mundane as grocery shop with her slightly surly mate while their baby slept in the back.
Lucas’s mood was even darker by the time they arrived. His team (the red one) had lost.
Nuzzling a kiss to his neck when he bent down to get Naya, she drew in the warm, masculine scent of him. “I love you even when you’re snarly.”
He handed her Naya. “I’m going to need more petting after this expedition ends.” A gleam in his eye that said he was going to take advantage.
Then again, Sascha wasn’t averse to being taken advantage of by her mate. “I’ll see what I can do.” She snuggled their baby, kissing her sweet face as Lucas undid a few buttons on his shirt, before taking Naya back and placing her against his skin, his left hand almost totally covering her tiny back, his other one cradling her head.
Changelings almost always carried their babies so close, and Sascha thought it was wonderful. Their baby would never ever wonder if she was loved, wanted. Right now, Naya was wide awake and listening to her father’s steady heartbeat, her little hand curled up on his skin, even as her mind touched Sascha’s.
Even so small, Naya was as curious and as tactile as any feline changeling—but she was also showing signs of strong psychic abilities. What shape those abilities would ultimately take remained an open question, but there was no doubt in Sascha’s mind that their daughter would grow into an extraordinary woman.
I’m here, sweet baby, she telepathed, her heart huge with love for her child and her mate both, then went for the hover cart.
Shifting his hold so he was supporting Naya with one muscled arm that likely barely felt her slight weight, Lucas said, “Give me that. You know the man controls the cart.”
“Right, how could I forget that rule?”
Lucas growled at her again, but she saw the panther’s amusement in his eyes.
Holding Naya safe and protected, he easily handled the cart as they walked down the aisles of the old-fashioned grocery store. Even though most people opted for delivery, there were enough that wanted the physical experience that boutique places like this thrived. Heading straight for the fresh goods aisle, she picked a small pumpkin, tapped the outside. “Lucas, does this sound right?”
Lucas murmured a response, but he was far more fascinated by Sascha than he was by the pumpkin. The stunning night-sky eyes that marked her as a cardinal dramatic against skin of dark honey, and ebony hair tumbling over her shoulders, she had such delight in the whole shopping process, wanted to touch and smell and feel everything. She was always the first to line up at the taste centers, often had long conversations with the produce manager about the best vegetables.
“Your mother,” he whispered to Naya as Sascha frowned at a bunch of spinach, “is the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
He felt a curious mental touch, knew it was his daughter. “Of course you’re the prettiest girl.” And a piece of his heart that existed outside his body. As it did with Sascha.
Sensing eyes on him, he looked up, saw another male with a baby cuddled to his chest. Lucas immediately identified him as a deer changeling named Theo, one of the more dominant bulls; as the alpha of the strongest predatory changeling group in San Francisco and the surrounding areas, it was Lucas’s job to know these things.
Theo wandered over when their eyes connected. “Hey, Luc. I heard your mate had given birth. Little girl, right?”
“Yep. How’s your boy?” Theo’s child had been born a month or so before Naya.
“Laid back but stubborn.” A proud grin. “According to my mate, he clearly takes after his father.”
They stood there in companionable silence, watching the women. Even if Lucas hadn’t already known, it would’ve been clear from their scents which family belonged to Theo: his mat
e, a slender woman with a sleek cap of black hair streaked with red and skin of deepest brown, held the hand of a pigtailed little girl. The two were in serious discussion over the grapes. Sascha smiled at the girl as she reached them, and a second later, they were all chatting away.
“Women,” Theo said.
Lucas nodded. “Tell me about it.” Then he grinned, having caught the twitch of the other man’s lips. “How long do you think it’ll take before they figure out we actually like doing this?”
“Hopefully never.” Theo rubbed his son’s back in a gentle motion. “Half the fun is in being coaxed to come along.”
Naya made a ‘pay attention to me’ noise, so Lucas looked down and kissed the top of her head, while inside him, the panther batted its paw gently at its cub. “Shall we walk, pretty girl?”
At the same time, Theo bent to catch the hand of his daughter as she ran over to him, her face shy as she looked at Lucas. When he smiled, she gave him a little wave. Her father stroked his hand over her hair just as his mate called him over.
“See you again sometime, Luc.”
Saying good-bye, Lucas walked across to Sascha. “Done?”
She scowled. “We just got here. Behave or I’ll cook tonight.”
“That’s just mean.” Tugging on an ebony curl, he sighed. “Fine, let’s go get the diapers.”
“We don’t need diapers. We have enough to diaper the entire nursery school,” Sascha muttered, moving on to the oranges. “Touch this, Lucas. I love how it feels.”
He did, enjoying seeing the world through her eyes. Never, he thought, would Sascha lose her wonder in sensation, not after having been deprived of it for so very long. “You told me we needed to come out to buy diapers,” he said with a straight face, realizing she’d forgotten her fib.
A pause. “Did I?” Smile innocent, she took his hand. “I think Naya wants you to talk to her.”
His panther was impressed with her sneakiness. “You’re a cat under that Psy skin, Sascha darling.”
“Thank you.”
Wrapping his arm around her, he dragged her close and claimed a kiss from his unrepentant mate. “I’ll go get the cart. How many oranges do you want?”