Page 63 of Shifting Years
"You don't have to tell," said Kim.
"Yeah, we do. It's our price and you don't leave magic wanting or witches hungry." He forced a smile. "It wasn't all bad. I had an angel to brighten my day before the darkness came."
***
Chapter Twenty-Three
Spring of 1977
Mike
Omegas were short, and that was a blessing. I never had to lean down to hold my little daughter's hand. Her clipped-back blonde hair, adorned with a small flower, fluttered in the breeze. She already turned five and I could have carried her easily, but she was an independent little thing who would 'just die' if someone saw her.
Where did she hear that phrase?
Her vocabulary was advanced for her age, though she still struggled with words longer than two syllables.
My Angel stared intently at the newspaper in my other hand. "In… inner. Inter pride?"
"Enterprise," I said slowly and held the paper out for easier reading. There she was, the space shuttle, named after the starship from my favorite show. Some things didn't happen, and heroes got assassinated or died, but our sci-fi future would come for sure. By the end of the eighties, we'll have people living on the moon.
"Going into space?" she asked, carefully sounding out the words. When I nodded, her face lit up. "Can I go?"
My throat tightened as we passed the newly opened stores. "You can doanythingyou want."
"Like turning into a doggie?"
"Well, a wolf but…"
She closed her icy-blue eyes in concentration before opening them. "I can't."
"Youcan,but one day. After you find a mate."
"Ewww…"
I sighed in relief, mentally thanking the universe. She didn't ask more, and it wasn't a conversation I was ready to have.
"We should hurry. Aunt Mary and Penny are waiting at their cabin."
She slowed down, refusing to budge. A human would wonder if something had happened on an earlier visit, but no shifter ever harmed a child. "Daddy, Penny playsdisco."
"But not KISS!"
"No."
Normal music was Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, and The Grateful Dead. KISS? They were loud screamers dressed as clowns, setting off explosions on stage. People said they were Satanic, but I've been called that myself.
"Aunt Mary wants to smush Penny's ABBA records."
"Smash," I corrected. "But she doesn't really want to. Sometimes people don't like the same things, and that's okay."
She smiled, as if hearing something, and ran toward their cabin, past blooming rose bushes, as fast as her tiny feet would carry her.
Mary came out with her short black hair as did Penny with her long blonde hair flattened straight and pulled back into a ponytail. She would have looked six months pregnant if she were human. Her shifter biology meant she was two months in. Mary handed my daughter a chocolate chip cookie with a smile and waved back.
I wanted to stay, but they needed the pupsitting practice. Nine times out of ten, female shifters had girl pups. I hoped she'd have someone near her age to play with. It's only been us and her aunts. The other female shifters had far older daughters.
I hope she's not lonely.She was already different being the only little girl her age and having one father.Technically two.
