“Her name is Selina and she’s your lardidan angel.” Kensie smiled broadly at him.
“My what now?”
“Your lardican angel.”
“My garbage can angel? My cardigan angel? Will she make me sweaters or make me take out the trash? I am so confused, princess.”
Kensie laughed. “No, silly! She’s your lardigan angel. She watches you while you sleep and makes sure you don’t fall down and skin your knees and watches so nobody puts bad stuff in your food before you eat it.”
Mac raised an eyebrow. “Oh, you mean my guardian angel?”
“Yes, that’s what I said. Guardian angel, yes, yes,” Kensie clapped her hands then settled in his lap. She put her head on his chest and patted his arm with her little hand. The pups had already made themselves comfortable and were starting to fall asleep.
“She said you were sad. Why are you sad, Mah-cheese?” Kensie asked. She moved her hand and placed it under her cheek on his chest. He hadn’t heard her nickname for him in decades. She had loved macaroni and cheese and when she learned that was a part of his name, she thought it was the best thing ever, but she’d never quite picked up the “k” sound of the name, so “Mah” it was. His heart squeezed a little at hearing it again.
Mac sighed. “I’m not sad, princess. I am happy right now. Really happy to be with you.”
“But the angel said you were sad. She said you were scared to have babies. Why are you scared to have babies, Mah-cheese?”
Mac tipped his head back on the rocking chair. His motion knocked the plastic top hat off his head and he briefly watched it as it fell to the floor.
He took in a deep breath. “I’m not scared to have babies, princess. I just…” He paused. He was trying to find the right words to say to his baby sister, words she could understand.
“You’re scared that if you have babies, the bad man will come and take them all away. Like he did with me and Mama.”
Mac said nothing. He shifted in the chair and wrapped his arms around his sister and the fuzzy little pups. The honey-colored pup nuzzled her nose into the crook of his arm.
Kensie’s voice was small and quiet. “She said she wished that all that never happened, but she couldn’t do anything to stop it. She was so sad, Mah-cheese. She said she wished she was there to stop him from hurting me and Mama, but she was too far away.” She shifted a little in his lap. “She said everyone cried in her big house in the sky because the bad man hurt all the girl babies and their mamas. But lots of them came back and went to go be with new mommies and daddies, so it wasn’t so bad.”
Mac’s brow furrowed. What was she talking about? “What? Why was this, princess? Who was sad?”
“Your guardian angel. She said she was too little at the time to help us when the bad man came. She didn’t have her wings yet and she was too far away.”
Something suddenly clicked in Mac’s mind. The voice in his head. Was that her? Had his guardian angel been speaking to him?
“Yes, that’s her. Her name is Selina and she’s pretty and funny and really smart and always has the yummiest bubblegum,” Kensie said.
Mac hadn’t realized that he had asked the question out loud, but it didn’t matter. All of this seemed too crazy to believe, but, then again, it didn’t. For one thing, he was sitting in a rocking chair with two sleeping wolf pups and his baby sister…the same baby sister who was killed many years ago. The feel-goodness he had earlier was still there and he wanted to hold on to it for as long as he could, even if all of this was a dream.
“You said she said lots of them came back,” Mac said, as he slowly began to rock the chair with one foot. “What’s that mean, princess?”
“Selina said all the babies in the whole wide world live in her big house in the sky and sometimes, if they come back when they aren’t s’posed to, they can go back and live with new mommies and daddies. But only if they want to.”
Mac thought about this for a moment. “Did you want to come back, Kensie?”
She shifted on his lap but remained quiet. Mac didn’t say anything else. He felt if she wanted to tell him, she would when she was ready. He rocked them all in silence for a few minutes and watched the rays of light that were streaming through the window.
He rocked and rocked for what seemed like forever, as the light began to fade as it grew later in the day. In the stillness and quiet, he closed his eyes and listened to nothing but the sound of Kensie breathing and the soft little snoring sounds coming from the pups.
“I didn’t want a new family.” Kensie’s voice almost startled him. She had been quiet for so long that he thought she had fallen asleep.
“What do you mean?” Mac asked. He tipped his head down and kissed her on the top of her head. “Why would you need a new family, princess?”
Kensie was quiet again for several minutes before she answered. “Selina said, if I wanted to go back, I had to go to another family. I didn’t want to go to another family, Mah-cheese. I wanted you and Daddy and Mama! I didn’t want to go and live with anyone else. Who would help me take care of my dollies and my teddy bears? Who would write all their names on their nametags? What if I forgot all their names, Mah-cheese?” Mac felt her little shoulders shudder. She had started to cry and it broke his heart.
He wrapped his arms around her and the pups then stood and walked over to the bed. He set the pups at the foot of the bed, then sat down and pulled the feather boa from his neck and tossed it to the floor. He wrapped his arms around her tiny little body as she wrapped her arms and legs around him and buried her face in his neck.
She cried for several long minutes and he felt her tears dampen his shirt. If he had to, he’d sit there and let her cry on him forever. He patted her on the back and made soft shushing sounds. She eventually settled down, then hiccupped and sniffed. Then she wiped her nose on his shirt.
“You feel better now, pretty princess?” He switched from patting to rubbing her little back between her shoulders.
She sniffed, then nodded her head.
“It’s okay that you didn’t come back, princess. I understand that you didn’t want to go and be with another family. That’s okay. That might seem scary, going to live with other people, with strangers,” he said, his voice soothing and soft.
“Selina said I could watch them and see who they were, in the water pool thingy. But I didn’t want to. I wanted to eat cereal with you.” Kensie suddenly sat up, her eyes grew big and wide, as if she had just thought of something. “Oh, my goodness! Guess what?”
Mac blinked at her sudden cheeriness. “What, princess?”
“She showed me your house! I saw all the toys! You saved them all! Did you eat all that cereal? Was it fifty zillion boxes? There were soooo many toys!”
Mac smiled, his heart instantly full. “No, it was fifty bajillion boxes, and I absolutely ate all that cereal, and, of course, I saved them all. Who else would I give them to?”
“You can give them to your babies one day,” she said, her voice matter of fact. She reached up and held his face between her little hands. “She said that it wasn’t your fault. There was nothing you or anybody could do. You’re big and strong now and you can fight the bad man.” Kensie patted his cheek. “Nothing bad will happen to your babies. She said they are safe now and you will keep them safe when they are with you. No one will take them away from you, Mah-cheese. Never ever.”
Mac closed his eyes, tipped his head forward, and touched his forehead gently to hers. He could only hope what his sweet baby sister said was true. And maybe one day he could believe it.
*
Selina watched the babies with a frown. Convincing them to go back home was more complicated than she thought. But everything was always more complicated than Selina thought it was. Heaven love her, she had pulled off some crazy schemes and fantastic plans in the past and usually she meant well, but this one was…this one was just, whooo.
The problem was that Kit and Kyla really liked it here, as most babies did.
That was one of the reasons why some babies stayed for as long as they did before they were born, as well as why they’d stay even longer after they returned, if they did.
Souls who came back to the Mitera as babies were usually ones who had passed away before their life’s journey was over in their chosen realm. So, by Heaven’s law, Kit and Kyla weren’t even supposed to be in the Mitera. But Kit had accidently found a pendant that was lodged between the couch cushions in Mac’s house (presumably left there by accident after a visit between Willow and Mac’s mate, Rogue) and, well, that’s how he and Kyla ended up in the predicament they were in now. But it was all started by Selina. And right this moment, if she didn’t do something fast, it was about to bite her on the butt. Crap.
Years ago, when she was given charge over Kit and Kyla as their guardian angel, she knew there was something really special about them but she wasn’t really sure what it was at the time. But, then again, she always thought her charges were special. She thought Mac was special when she became his guardian, too, many, many years before that, and it utterly devastated her and broke her heart when Kensie and her mother were so viciously taken from him. And it hurt her even more when part of his heart seemed to shrivel up and die with them.
For a long time, Selina worried about Mac. She had wondered for so long if he’d find his One True Mate. Even as his guardian angel, there were certain parts of her charges’ destinies she wasn’t privy to, so once he met his mate, Rogue, Selina jumped for joy and instantly fell in love with her, too. Rogue was Selina’s kind of girl: hot, sexy, fun, and she took no crap from anyone, Mac especially. But he needed that. Mac loved Rogue to the moon and back and she really kept him on his toes. And speaking of, Mac had definitely kept Selina on her toes with some of his crazy antics throughout the years, but, when you’re the guardian angel of a badass, well, that just comes with the territory.
But Kit and Kyla? Well, this was different.
Kit and Kyla had powers that even their parents, Ella and Trevor, didn’t know about yet. Amazing powers like teleportation and inter-dimensional travel. Powers that they would learn to fully understand and use properly when they became young adults and they were partnered with their Citlali guides (their spiritual guides). As babies, even with as incredibly intelligent as they were, they were still babies with an amazing power that they had no idea they even had at first or could use. That is until Selina told them about it in their dreams one day.
And then accidentally told them they could use it. And now, here they were.
Selina sighed. “Kit. Look at me, baby.”
Selina was sitting on the floor next to the viewing pool with Kit in her lap. He was twisting and twirling her long and silky braid in his hands, effectively ignoring her. Kyla was lying on a soft, plush blanket next to them and was keeping herself entertained by chewing on, or rather gumming, one of the wolf pup’s ears. Said pup was next to her on the blanket, seemingly unbothered by the baby’s oral invasion.
Selina tilted her head in Kit’s direction as he tugged her braid. “Kit, sugar pie. You have to go home, honey. I know I told you both that you could visit, and you totally could, but if you don’t go home soon, you and Kyla will be stuck here. And there’s nothing I can do about getting you home after that. Well, short of an angelic intervention and, Heaven knows, we realllly don’t need to get into that. I don’t even have time for all that paperwork.”
Kit tilted his head to the side then looked down at Kyla. She had stopped chewing on the pup’s ear and was listening intently, watching them both with wide eyes.
Ok, Selina thought, maybe now we’re getting somewhere. She pointed to the viewing pool. “Look over there, honey. I want to show you something.” Selina knew what she was about to do wasn’t very nice but she had to pull out the big guns. They were running out of time. Fast.
No home.
Kit’s voice rang out clear in Ruhi, a wolven language, in Selina’s head. They were powerful and very smart babies, but they still had the basic communication cognition of a regular toddler. A very stubborn toddler, at that.
No. No home.
And now, of course, Kyla had something to say. Selina groaned.
“No, no, babies! You have to go! You’ve already been here long enough. If you stay too long, I won’t be able to get you back! Look…” Selina waved a hand over the viewing pool. Kit leaned over to look and Kyla let go of the wolf pup and crawled up to the edge. That water shimmered for a bit, and, when it cleared, it showed a man hugging a woman to his chest.
“Look, who’s that?” Selina said, as she looked at Kit’s face. Kit looked at the man in the water as the man turned his head in their direction.
Papa? Kit frowned. Kyla blinked as she looked closer at the viewing pool.
“Yes, yes! That’s Papa. And Mama, too. And they are both sooo worried about you,” Selina said, with exaggerated sadness. Rhyann and Leigh had been standing off to the side, behind the babies. Rhyann rolled her eyes and shook her head.
Mama sad? Kyla looked at Selina with big eyes that were beginning to water.
“Oh yes, Mama is very sad. Papa is, too. Look!” Selina pointed to the pool again. Trevor had his arms wrapped around Ella’s shoulders and was hugging her tight.
Mama cry? Kit blinked and sniffled. Ok, she’d have to wrap this up. She just needed them to go home, not psychologically damage them.
“Oh, no! I don’t think Mama is crying, not yet. But if you go home now, I’ll bet you they’ll be so happy to see you! No tears, nope!” Selina smiled at Kit brightly as she watched a fat tear roll down his round little cheek. She mentally punched herself. This was wrong on so many levels, but it had to be done.
Kit looked at Kyla. Kyla nodded at him then looked at Selina.
Okay. Yes, home now. Kyla gave her watery smile. Selina could see the overwhelming love the babies had for their parents and it squeezed her heart so bad she couldn’t even breathe for a second, but she quickly recovered.
“Whoo hoo! Great! Okay, here’s Leigh again.” Selina handed the Mitera angel the babies. Leigh frowned at her and settled a baby on each hip. Selina avoided eye contact with her as she waved at the babies. “She’ll take you to where you need to go to get ready to go home, okay? I’ll see you in your dreams, babies!” She kissed each baby on their wet cheeks. Tears had rolled down their faces but they were smiling.
Bye, Lina. She heard their voices as Leigh carried them away.
She waved. “Bye-bye, sugar pies!”
“You are a terrible, terrible person.” Rhyann sat on the bench next to the pool. “Only a completely crazy and terrible person would show babies a view from two weeks ago.” Rhyann waved her hand over the water. “And then manipulate it.” The same image came up, of Trevor holding Ella. But this time, a few seconds later, Ella turned her head and smiled lovingly at her husband, then gave him a sweet kiss.
“I did NOT manipulate it. I simply slowed it down... and cut this part out, but, whatever,” Selina sat and slumped down on the bench. “I had to do something. If they stayed here any longer—”
“They would have been stuck here until they were reincarnated and sent to live with another family. Yes, I know.” Rhyann sighed.
“Even with as powerful as they are,” Selina said. “They wouldn’t have been skilled enough to know how to go back, they’re just too young, and they don’t have the training.”
“Uhm hm,” Rhyann mused. “But you do realize if you had just not told them about it—”
“Yes, yes! Gah! Bleahk! Blame me for everything, why don’t you? But anyway, that’s done. Now we just have to send Wolfiekins Sexyface home and our job is done.” Selina stood up quickly, grabbed Rhyann and shoved her in front of her, pushing her as she went.
“Wait, what? What do you mean, ‘we’? This has always been YOUR mess, Selina.” Rhyann dragged her feet, but kept moving. She flared her wings out and accidently on purpose knocked Selina in the face.
“Ugh, pffbbtt,” Selina sputtered, cat
ching a mouthful of feathers. “Your wings taste terrible. You need to drink more water. Or maybe use a more delicious body wash.”
“Wait, what? I do—” Rhyann began to protest.
“No time for chitchat! I told you there is no me or you, there is only ‘we’ and we have a bit more work to do. Sir Fuzz-A-Lot needs to go so he can get those babies back to Ella and Trevor. Let’s go!!”
Chapter Six
Mac sat with Kensie on the bed for a long while. He gently stroked her hair as he watched the sleeping pups as his feet. He thought about his baby sister’s words and wondered if he’d make a good dad.
“Oh, Mah-cheese, you’d be the bestest daddy!” Kensie sat up again. She gave him a pat on his chest and then wiggled off his lap. He knew he hadn’t said anything that time but didn’t dwell on it as he watched her as she ran to the toy chest again, this time returning with a deck of cards, which she placed on the little table. “Come play Go Fish with me!”
The pups stirred but otherwise didn’t move when Mac left the bed and sat down at the little table again.
“Hm…do you have a… acorn?” Kensie said, her brows furrowed in concentration.
Mac passed her a three of spades. “Oh, thank you!” she said.
“Do you have a seven?” Mac asked. Kensie passed him a King of Hearts. He smiled and took the card.
They went back and forth like that for a long while. She asked him for a pumpkin. He passed her a four of clubs. He asked her for a two, she passed a Joker. It was nice and he
was enjoying himself.
When he thought their time would never come to an end, she began to yawn. He looked up from his cards and noticed that it had started to grow dark outside. Where had the time gone?
Then he noticed how tired Kensie looked all of a
sudden. “You sleepy, princess?” Mac asked, as he watched Kensie rub her little eyes.
“Yeah,” she said with a yawn. “Selina says you have to go get the babies now.”
One True Mate: Shifter's Lullaby (Kindle Worlds Novella) Page 4
