Exclusive Extra: Psy-Changeling Short Story
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Author’s Note: This little slice of life takes place about a month after the end of Allegiance of Honor. If you haven’t yet read the Psy-Changeling series, all you need to know to understand this short is that Mercy (a DarkRiver leopard sentinel) and Riley (a SnowDancer wolf lieutenant) are mated, and have just become parents to triplets (who everyone calls the pupcubs). :-)
A Perfect Moment
By Nalini Singh
Mercy pressed her lips together, her stomach aching with withheld laughter. Angling her head to catch her mate’s eye where he stood at the kitchen counter guzzling a much-needed cup of coffee, she waved him over, then pressed a finger to her lips. Riley was a wolf lieutenant, the most senior lieutenant in SnowDancer; he could stealth almost as good as a cat.
She watched him move with ferocious pride, a deep warmth inside of her. She’d fallen in love with him for his heart and his loyalty; but she’d tumbled impossibly deeper after seeing how he was with their babies.
Riley Aedan Kincaid knew how to love.
Passing her the refilled mug of coffee so she could take a big gulp, he jerked up his chin in a silent question. She stepped lightly back from the doorway and nudged her head so he’d look inside.
Eyebrows raised, he poked in his head—and was grinning when he emerged.
Her stomach dipped. Damn but she loved her mate’s smile.
She knew exactly what had put that smile on his face today: her three hooligan brothers. Bastien was sacked out in an armchair, his auburn hair sticking up every which way, Sage was sprawled on his stomach on the bed, while Grey had shifted into leopard form before he fell into a sleep so profound that not a strand of fur stirred on his usually active body. He’d curled up at the foot of the crib that held the triplets.
Their precious pupcubs. Loved by two entire packs—and by Mercy’s brothers.
Three adult hooligans watching over three baby hooligans.
Eyes meeting, she and Riley tiptoed away from the door—all the way out to the verandah of their home in the shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains, halfway between the territories held by SnowDancer and DarkRiver. An open green space sprawled in front of them, beyond it a forest dark and tall—and home to the wild creatures that were as much a part of them as their human sides.
The first breath of summer or not, the weather was crisp at this elevation, the red-orange sky acute in its clarity. “So this is how we win wars?” Riley murmured after they’d pulled the door near-to-shut behind them. “I just throw babies at the enemy and let the kids wear them out?”
Chuckling, Mercy leaned into his side, her mate so solid and built of honor unflinching.
He put his arm around her at once, nuzzling at her hair with his heavily shadowed chin. Per his brother, it had gone beyond shadow into beard territory. Mercy didn’t care what they called it; she wanted to pounce on Riley whether he was rough and mussed, or clean and buttoned up.
“We’ll have to wake the demons soon,” she said. “Kirby and my grandparents are coming over with dinner.” Bastien’s lynx mate had promised Mercy her favorite cake for dessert, and Mercy was fairly certain she could devour the whole thing.
Catching two hours of uninterrupted sleep had taken priority over eating today.
To say that having three babies at once was overwhelming might be a slight understatement. But Mercy and Riley were lucky—beyond lucky—to have so many helping hands.
What made it all the better was that those helping hands understood that their small family needed time alone as well. So tonight, after the dinner, it’d be just Mercy and Riley and the babies—and given their children’s current sleeping schedule, they’d probably be more than ready for a nap by the time lunchtime rolled around and Riley sister, Brenna, and her Psy mate came over to babysit for a few hours.
It was more than likely someone else from SnowDancer would tag along. Last time around, both of Riley’s siblings had turned up, along with their mates. The babies had cooed at the quartet as if they weren’t hooligans-in-training who liked to keep their parents up all night.
Riley ran a hand down her back, over the soft cotton of his T-shirt. She’d stolen it to wear because she liked being wrapped up in his scent. It was so big on her that it hung past her shorts.
But right now, she had access to the real thing and she intended to take full advantage. After placing the empty mug of coffee on the verandah railing, she slid her arms around him and snuggled deep into the solid warmth of his body.
He cuddled her in turn, her big bad wolf who held their children with a tenderness that destroyed her. Yesterday, she’d woken bleary-eyed at still-dark-o’clock to see him whispering to Belle as he cradled her in his arms. His love for their daughter had been writ large on his face, his eyes amber with the wolf’s affection.
He was the same with the boys, and though she knew he’d never make the mistake of believing their daughter would be anything but a firecracker, she also knew that he’d have to fight his overprotectiveness in the years to come. And he would fight it. She could foresee a time when he’d teach Belle hand-to-hand combat, and how to use her body in both human and changeling form to overpower an attacker.
That was what made Riley such a good lieutenant and such an extraordinary father: he understood his weaknesses and did everything he could to ameliorate them. And he wasn’t afraid to lean on Mercy if he needed it.
“They’re so tiny,” Mercy said now, because she wasn’t that different from Riley. “I’m going to do everything in my power to be like my mother was with us—I want our babies to run wild.
“I want them to get into mischief in the forest, and to skin their knees and climb trees and come home dirty and bedraggled and happy. But then I see how tiny they are, and oh, it’s hard.”
Riley rubbed her back again. “Don’t worry, kitty-cat. Ava tells me that it’s different once kids start to walk and talk and shift. Suddenly, they’re not helpless babies anymore, but feral little creatures who magic dirt out of nowhere and think a bath is the embodiment of torture.”
Mercy snorted out a laugh. She liked maternal wolf, Ava—and she loved Ava’s two children. Elodie was still very young, but Ben was definitely in the troublemaking phase of life. Half the time when she saw that pup, he had dirt on his face, or a rip in his clothing, or was just flat out naked because he’d shifted without taking off his clothes.
Glee often danced in his eyes.
“Given our children’s genetics,” she said with a grin, “there’s a chance we’ll have one sensible child alongside two feral ones.” Riley was the most solid and rooted person she knew; if they were lucky, he’d passed on that nature to at least one of their children. “Perhaps the sensible one will keep them under control.”
“Why only one sensible child?”
“Because you also have Drew in your family tree.”
It was Riley’s turn to laugh, the sound a rumble of warmth and his brown eyes going wolf amber. “You have a point,” he said at her mention of his younger brother.
Who, no surprise, got along with her brothers like a house on fire.
They were quiet for a moment, caught by the colors of the sunset against the Sierra sky. She felt content, happy in a way that went beyond the heart and into the soul. When she rose on tiptoe to nuzzle Riley’s neck, he shifted his hand to under her T-shirt to stroke the curve of her hip, petting her with a wolf’s wild affection.
“Two more weeks,” she murmured, her voice husky. “Then I’m ravaging you Mr. Kincaid.”
He groaned, his body already hard against her. “Why do you live to torture me, kitty-cat?”
She rubbed her face against the bristled line of his jaw. “I’m torturing myself too.” Pressing a kiss to that square jaw, she made herself come down on her bare feet, made herself behave. Changelings healed far faster than humans or Psy after giving birth, but Mercy had given birth to triplets.
The healers had been stern in their warning that she not rush things.
“You know,” she said slowly, “we can blame our families and packs for our sexual frustration.”
“We can?”
“Yes. If they weren’t helping us with such enthusiasm, we’d be so exhausted that intimate skin privileges would be the last thing on our minds.”
His laughter was a caress on her leopard’s fur, his kiss hot and deep as he wove his fingers into the red fall of her hair and cupped the back of her head. “So,” he said, his eyes that wicked amber, “how many were we thinking of stopping at? Seven?”
She elbowed him, hit rock hard muscle. “Don’t even think about it.” But her cheeks creased, because they did make adorable babies. “We should go get presentable while we have a chance to have a shower.”
Riley’s eyes gleamed.
Stepping back, she waved a finger at him. “None of that. Or I’ll be in trouble with Tammy—and no one wants to be in trouble with her.” DarkRiver’s healer was a woman with zero fear when it came to the pack’s dominants. She’d even threatened to bench their alpha after he was injured. “No funny business, Riley.”
“Nobody said anything about petting,” her mate murmured, stalking her as she backed into the house.
They went silent where her brothers might hear them, their eyes locked as she continued to walk backward all the way into their bedroom.
Her cat playing with his wolf.
Riley followed her in, locking the door behind them. And then, even though their current idea of a luxurious shower was five minutes instead of thirty seconds, he proceeded to drive her crazy with his hands and his tongue and his love. Until she was all lazy muscle and limp compliance as he washed her hair, at the same time giving her a scalp massage with those strong, capable hands.
“I owe you one,” she purred, her cat rubbing up inside her skin in an effort to get even closer to him.
He stroked his hands over the slick curves of her body, pressed a kiss to her throat. “I plan to collect.”
They both paused at the exact same instant. And said, “Ace is crying” in unison.
Out of the shower before they’d finished speaking, they threw on robes before padding to the nursery—to find a sleepy Bastien with Ace against his chest. He was petting the baby’s butt with one big hand. But Ace was having none of it, his little face scrunched up and red.
“I think he wants one of you,” Bas said with a yawn.
Riley plucked their boy from Bastien’s chest with a low rumble of sound that had Ace hiccuping out of his tears. Where a human might’ve seen intimidation, Mercy understood the truth: that had been the wolf’s comforting rumble to his child. A child who curled up contentedly against his chest even as Riley’s hair dripped water down his neck and into his robe.
Mercy’s own hair was a thick dampness against her back. She was about to run into the bathroom to get a towel when Belle decided to wake with her signature yell. Not a cry. This little hooligan child didn’t really cry. She yelled in a very demanding fashion. When Grey rose on all four paws to nose at her through her crib, she gripped a tiny hand in his fur, and yelled some more.
“I’m coming, Your Highness,” Mercy said with a laugh before scooping her up. “Grr.” She play growled against her daughter’s stomach, and Belle immediately smiled. According to the healers, that was probably gas, but Mercy knew her kiddo. That was a smile.
The last baby in the crib stretched out his arms, and yawned.
When Micah opened his gorgeous dark eyes with a sleepy smile, Mercy was dead certain that he was wondering what all the yelling was about. “I’m pretty sure he’s the sensible one,” she said to Riley.
“Per every older member of the pack, Drew was the easiest baby ever,” Riley pointed out, leaning down to scoop Micah up into his other arm—where Micah wrapped one hand over Ace’s.
Mercy sighed, her ovaries melting. All three had a habit of doing that. Holding hands anytime they were close.
“And,” Riley added, “didn’t your mother say the same about Grey?”
Grey’s ears perked up; he came to rub his body against Mercy’s legs with the affection of a younger brother for a sister who’d tear out the heart of anyone who dared hurt him. “God, you’re right,” she said, giving Micah a second look—and then of course getting distracted by how adorable he was, and reaching out to bop him on the nose, before rubbing a knuckle over Ace’s little chin. She then pressed a kiss to Belle’s soft cheek.
She loved her babies. So much. Even when they woke her up at three o’clock in the morning, then at four and for good measure, at five, too. She couldn’t wait to see the mischief into which they’d get as they grew. She and Riley had both grown up with siblings who'd been their friends, too, and she wished that bond for their own children.
Now, her brothers wandered out of the nursery. Bas scratching at his overnight beard, Sage mumbling “Coffee,” and Grey yawning to reveal sharp leopard teeth.
Leaving Mercy and Riley alone with the pupcubs.
“Sometimes,” Riley said, “I love them so much that it feels as if my body isn’t big enough to hold it all inside.”
Mercy’s throat grew thick, her eyes hot. “It is and it will,” she murmured to this man of hers who had a heart bigger than Texas. “Our babies are so lucky to have you for their father.”
“I don’t hold a candle to their mama.” He leaned down to press his forehead against hers. “There’s no other woman with whom I’d want to be on this adventure. I love you, kitty-cat. I will till the day I go to the earth. And then, I’ll love you in the next life.”
Mercy blamed her tears on post-pregnancy hormones.
Riley kissed them away, and as they stood there barely dressed, with their hair dripping water onto the carpet, and their babies sleepy and warm against them, Mercy could think of no more perfect moment.
© Copyright 2022 by Nalini Singh
For more information on the Psy-Changeling series, click here. Mercy and Riley's story begins in Branded By Fire.
