Healing His Soul's Mate (18 page)

Chaos. No other word described the amount of people who had been through the small cabin doors. He suspected another addition to the cabin would be on the horizon. Cemil, who appeared refreshed and at peace, moved from babe to babe unable to get enough of any of them. Sarka made an appearance making the right sounds of oohs and ahhs, but her blessing of protection had been heartfelt and strong. Sage, exhausted from the birth, had been the first to leave when the members of Rekkus’ team came in to meet the newest island’s inhabitants. And everyone from the kitchen staff to the cleaning crews wanted to see the babies.

Three perfect babies, each with ten fingers and ten toes. The boys, both dark haired and golden eyed fussed when one of them was too far from their sister. They seemed to be connected and, like their daddy, had a protective streak a mile wide. Neither had shown the sign of who would be the alpha and who the prime. Time would tell. Kalina, much like her namesake, remained quiet. Her white-blonde hair led Cyrus to believe when she shifted she would resemble her deceased aunt, a white tiger.

Myron had been the last to come down. She needed to wait until the babies had been bathed to appease her Romney traditions. Pulling a glass bottle from her bag, she asked, “May I?”

Rekkus nodded and Dana looked confused. “She wants to place some oil on the babies?”

Dana’s brow furrowed.

“I only wish to strengthen them.” She laid the three swaddled infants on the bed before Dana. She spoke in Romani, blessing each child as she rubbed some oil onto their little foreheads. Rhys, who already showed his father’s temperament, made a disgruntled noise. She laid three amulets into Dana’s hand. “Place these over their cribs.”

She stayed for a bit, loving on the babies and telling them just how best to make their father crazy, making sure Dana had eaten. Cyrus assumed at the orders or the head chef Cherry and her assistant Reese who had sent up more food than Cyrus could imagine anyone could eat. Seven turkey sandwiches with cranberries had been devoured with no hesitation by the new mother.

“I’ll have a few more sandwiches sent down.”

“A good idea.” Rekkus took the empty plate and handed it to Myron before climbing in the bed next to Dana.

Cyrus looked around the room. Everyone left except Rekkus, Dana, and the babies. He hated to leave, but the time had come. He would use the excuse to bring more food down to come back. Besides, they might need extra hands through the night. “I’ll give you some peace.”

“Stay, please.” Dana halted him as he moved to place the baby beside her. “We need you. Both Rekkus and I are exhausted, and we love everyone here, but you we trust above all others.”

He didn’t know if the words were spoken for her or because she understood he needed to hear them, but they were a balm for his soul.

Rekkus slept like a kitten beside the mother of his cubs. Cubs who hadn’t shifted yet. Serena agreed to come over throughout the night to sing to the babies to ensure it. Perhaps tomorrow they could make their first shift when mama’s strength returned, but for tonight she worked on breastfeeding baby A, while baby B slept in a peaceful milk coma on his daddy’s chest, and he got time with the pink-swaddled baby C.

How did you express the joy of touching someone and something so full of innocence and peace? Even when the babies cried, they did so out of necessity and not pain. When Dana suggested he lay the baby skin to skin, his heart melted. Glancing over at her, he could see her fading. Could he protect for her what she held dear because, in all this world outside Rekkus, she trusted only Cyrus.

He felt…honored.

“Can you bring me my glass of ginger ale?” Dana asked, close to falling asleep, careful not to wake Rekkus, or the two slumbering dark-haired identical twins.

Of course he smiled and moved around the bed to the side table. As his bare fingers touched the metal filigree decorating the glass, pain as he never experienced ripped through him as he fought to remain standing. He failed, going to his knees as he clung to Kalina still in his arms. Rekkus leaped out of the bed with an instinct of a father, cradling one child while reaching for the one Cyrus struggled to hold on to. In a second, Dana had all three babies safe in her embrace while Rekkus pulled his friend to his feet.

“Oh my god.” Dana, concerned but held in place by her young, asked, “Are you okay?”

“How did you endure it?”

Cyrus was unable to let go of the item, he read, and Rekkus had to pry the cup from his hands. He couldn’t catch his breath as the pain Dana had suffered during childbirth racked through him. Her fear, not of the pain, but insecurities she couldn’t do it, she couldn’t make it, and she wasn’t strong enough. Doubts overrode her need to birth her babies. Fear of letting them all down. Then the overwhelming ripping pain of a contraction all over again, followed by sheer exhaustion. The endless grueling cycle showed no signs of ending.

Dana’s tears ran down her cheeks as she reached for him. “Touch me.”

“It doesn’t work like that. It has to be an item.” Rekkus spoke for Cyrus when it became obvious he could not.

She grabbed his hand, lifting it to the hemp necklace she wore around her neck, a simple yet beautiful design with three stones in it, one for each baby. “Rekkus made this for me out of love. He placed it on my neck as they handed me Rhys. Touch this.”

“You know my pain already,” Rekkus encouraged.

Cyrus did know Rekkus’ pain as well as experienced it in ways Rekkus hadn’t seen. He had been asked by the Syndicate to discover the truth of the black tiger streak massacre. He had seen it all. The pain, the hatred, the insanity. But he told the Syndicate one simple truth. Rekkus’ mom had gone insane and taken out the streak. The rest, no one, not even Rekkus, needed to bear.

“And mine.” She indicated the glass.

He reached up, hesitant to touch anything of hers without his gloves. But when he clutched the necklace, it overwhelmed him again, this time not from pain but love. Love far stronger than he could have imagined. First, a wave of Rekkus’ love for his mate, not simply the sexual desire—though he experienced that, too—but a soul’s burning need to be with her and a selfless affection to put her before his every need. Then Dana’s love for Rekkus, deep and complex, a mother’s care so strong she could endure anything and would all over again. And joy no one person could contain. Finally, the pain was all but forgotten.

Pulling back, he smiled a real smile not one he forced to ease his family, but real joy. “Thank you.”

Dana leaned forward and kissed his forehead. “No, thank you. For, without your need to help others, I never would not have found my family.”

“Get some sleep, you two.” He wasn’t sure how he would manage three babies, but as Rekkus laid back on his side, pulling Dana into his body, she pulled two of the babies into her embrace. He didn’t have to ask or be told. He grabbed the baby who lay wide awake. “Rhys Cyrus Duteigr, it’s time for me to tell you all about life here on this island.”

The baby looked up, wide golden eyes staring at him, and as the baby’s little hand wrapped around one of Cyrus’ fingers, something in his heart eased. Perhaps the time had come to live again. And he had three little ones to help him relearn how to do it.

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Prologue

Serena didn’t dare face her mother. Either she would tell her matriarch off, laugh in her face—or, worse, burst into a sea of tears. The final would be a humiliation she couldn’t quite deal with. For the last two centuries, Serena had listened to her mother lament to their chorus of mermaids how incompetent and embarrassing her middle daughter proved as both an heir apparent and a mermaid.

True, Serena hadn’t done her duty to either her queen or her people. She had failed to secure the line of succession. Serena didn’t understand why, but when she was born, the old sea hag had declared she would be the strength of her people. She would bring about change, and she would succeed to the throne. Serena had long ago decided someone had misheard. Serena would never be the strength of anyone and didn’t see why the old woman of the sea had the power to decide who would be next on the throne. She certainly hadn’t shown the strength her people thought she should have when she’d helped those shipwrecked men out of the watery depths.

“This is the last time you will embarrass me.” Her mother’s voice boomed through the cavernous throne room.

“I can’t kill a man whose only sin is being a man.” Serena looked at her mother and wished she hadn’t; her striking beauty became cold and harsh.

“They pollute our waters, rape our food source, and you can’t protect your people by dragging the few worthy specimens to us so we can mate?”

“Not when mating with them means they shall take their last breath!” Having known the pleasure of para men on more than one occasion, Serena had yet to understand why her mother and sisters were so keen on seeing any man die after giving a mermaid what she wanted. “I will find a man on land and mate with him, but I will not kill one.”

“You have one year from this day to do just that. You will secure the line, or we’ll force the mating on you, Serena. Do what you have to, but you had better be with child by this time next year.”

“I can’t.”

“You will. Do not defy me on this.” Her mother snubbed her, in a show of passive-aggressiveness she spun away, flipping her tail forward and away from Serena.

Gasping, Serena understood the meaning. When a mermaid did this, the recipient of the gesture was no longer worthy of her attention. For all intents and purposes, she’d been cast out until she fulfilled her destiny. Serena barely paid heed to her sisters turning tail from her as well. Not one of them had the scales to stand up to their mother.

With all the power she possessed, Serena kicked out of the great hall and toward the surface. Moving faster and faster, she focused on the sun’s light twinkling above her. Cresting, she threw her long blonde hair back with a flick of her head, tresses drying as they hit the air. And then, she let her anger mount. She hit the ocean surface with her fist and screamed with all the sorrow her soul allowed. She wanted to sing, but any sailors in the area would succumb to her sorrow.

“Serena.” The whisper seemed to come on the breeze. Her eldest sister broke the water’s barrier. Unlike her, Serafina had never enjoyed the air or the sun. Taking Serena’s wrist, Serafina dragged her back down into the depths into a cave they had played in as girls. Coming out of the water into the dark recesses of the cave, Serena followed her sister to the area lit with pools of bioluminescent fish. “There is a place run by other paras. They might be able to help you.”

Serena pulled free. What hope did she have if even the meekest of sisters couldn’t be on her side even in private? “Help me kill someone?”

“No. Help you break the curse that forces us to kill a man to get with child.”

Moving to the clear pool in the center of the cave, Serafina ran her fingers through the water. The image of a small island appeared in the pool. “They heal people. Perhaps they can heal you or at least help you to find peace with your destiny.”

“I want nothing to do with this destiny.”

“You have very little choice, my sister. This place can help. I just know it. It’s called the Wiccan Haus.”