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“Great! We’ll plan a science, pancake, welcome party!” Josephine sounded like there was nothing else more important in the world, and every single one of his friends nodded as if it was now the top mission in their lives.
It filled Kier with warmth yet again to know he was part of such a wonderful clan. He wasn’t just proud to call these men fellow shifters or friends. He truly thought of them as brothers. They were here to support him and his family. They’d been his backbone when he’d felt crushed by the past month, and now they were going to do this for him, or at least help him do this for Misty.
“Are you…are youcrying?” Tavish asked, shocked.
“Leave him be,” Josephine chided.
“It’s perfectly acceptable to cry over one’s child,” Trace said. “I get teary eyed all the time over the boys.”
“Probably because they’re beating the shit out of you, biting you, climbing on you, tearing your hair out, trying to burn your place down, getting up to all sorts of general evil and no good.” Tavish elbowed Trace in the ribs and he grinned.
If there was proof of the power of family and love, it was Trace. He’d once been one of the most withdrawn men Kier had ever known. He was wounded by his past, but Josephine and his twins healed those wounds when no one else could. It didn’t matter that the boys were extremelyfull of energy and shockingly mischievous.
Trace laughed that off. “Oh, no doubt. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Those boys are the light of our lives.”
“I thought being a doctor was my calling,” Josephine said, lighting up when Trace’s arm tightened around her. “But then I met Trace, and we had the twins and I realized that having a family was equally important. We’re happy to make this happen for you, Kier. You and Taylee.”
“And anything else you need, you just ask,” Tavish tacked on, all joking aside.
Trace and Rory nodded solemnly.
Any shifter in Greenacre would make the same promise to him.
Kier felt like he’d watched Taylee be reborn last night, not just when she was painting, but when she was with Misty. He watched her transform the first time she held Onyx after giving birth. Again when she held her for the first time after the accident. He’d never seen himself have one of those moments because he’d never looked at himself from anyone else’s eyes, but this was one of those moments when he felt it, inside and out, that light of something new and wonderful happening.
This time, he didn’t bother blinking back the tears. It was perfectly acceptable to cry for any reason, but this time, it was out of happiness, and god knew, he needed the sun to start coming out after a hard month of storm clouds blotting out the skyline.
Chapter 5
Taylee
The silence of the woods came from all angles, pressing in on her and Onyx. Her daughter was preternaturally still in the baby sling she’d strapped to her chest. She loved being outside, but she didn’t make a sound amongst the trees. She just listened and stared, studied and learned.
When she realized that she was humming a song she didn’t even remember, but somehow knew, and knew where it was going—not the words, but the tune, she paused. Her voice breaking off like a gust of wind. She stopped too, but then she started walking again, humming as she went.
After she’d woken up for the morning, Onyx was fussy. Pushing a stroller through the woods wasn’t an option, or at least not an easy one, so Taylee strapped on the baby sling and they headed out together.
“You’re going to get to see your big sister again this afternoon,” she told her daughter in a whisper as she walked along a path of her choosing. There were no paths carved into the woods or into their land. She picked her way through with care, dodging branches, roots, fallen trees, old logs, boulders that sprang up from the earth, and the slippery moss that grew over everything, no matter what the season. With all the rain lately, the forest floor was boggy and released an earthy aroma with every step.
“You had so much fun yesterday.”
Onyx didn’t respond with any of her usual baby babbling, so Taylee went back to humming.
Yesterday was the first day they’d gone to Greenacre. Clay was kind enough to drive them and pick them up. He was still nervous, she could tell, taking anyone anywhere after the accident. He was struggling with that too, she knew. His guilt about something he couldn’t have helped. It certainly wasn’t his fault. There were a thousand things they both wished they’d done differently that morning, but it couldn’t be changed. Their mom always said it just had to be born and he might as well get back up on the horse and take her in the used truck he’d got in Seattle the week after the accident to replace the ancient one.
She’d been nervous and shy going into Greenacre, and Clay had been visibly uncomfortable, but he wasn’t late picking her up and he made enough small talk on the way home to distract both of them. She’d had a wonderful time. Onyx did too. Even though it was pouring rain, they’d sat at Kier’s table, and she’d done her best to give a lesson on sketching. She’d come armed with a bag her mom packed full of pencils, charcoal, sketchpads, and more. She’d taught and drawn from something inside herself. It came to her spontaneously, her mind connecting with her soul and her talent and her hands.
Even Kier attempted a drawing, Onyx bouncing on his knees, grabbing at the pencils and the charcoal the whole time.
“I think you’re going to be a wonderful artist, baby girl. Your grandmother sure hopes so. She’s going to have you painting before you can even walk, just wait.”
A little stream of babble answered that statement, and Taylee took that for excitement. Onyx was always so animated whenever she saw any kind of art going on—though it was more the activity all around her, rather than being able to make any sense of what was happening on the paper that got her so excited. She might just be a baby, but Taylee could tell the difference in her reactions. She loved mealtimes, toys and the outdoors, but they didn’t compare to how animated and overjoyed Onyx was whenever she saw people. She truly loved her grandma and grandpa, her uncles and the other people in the community. Taylee still hadn’t made an attempt to see her friends, but she would. She was going to make an attempt to do everythingnow that her anger and self-pity weren’t holding her back.
Out of everyone in the world, though, Onyx got crazy happy to see her daddy and Misty.
Yesterday, when Kier walked her to the car, he’d explained to her about Misty’s surprise party. They were having a village-wide pancake breakfast, which she knew about, but she didn’t know that it was in her honor. Everyone would be there at nine to set up, but he’d told Misty it started at ten, so everyone would be there already.
“It’s going to be so wonderful.” She brushed her hand over the fuzzy little pink beanie Onyx was wearing. She was bundled up in a sweater her mom knitted, wearing little booties and warm fuzzy leggings that her dad had picked out online and ordered. “Misty’s going to love it. You’ll love it too.”
