Piper (Queen's Birds of Prey 4)

“What is it you want me to do?” Mercy moved back the covers that Joel had put over her and handed Piper the baby. “You’ve had her? Well, that sucks. Why didn’t you say so?”

“There’s more. If Joel would have known that, I would never have gotten rid of him. This little bit was difficult enough without scaring Joel into having a heart attack. The man was about to bounce off the walls.” Not sure what she meant, Piper’s heart jumped when Mercy cried out with pain again that there were going to be twins. “The second baby is ready to be born. I’m so glad you’re here with me.”

It didn’t take long for the second, then the third child to be born. A daughter, then a son, and another daughter in order of birth. Their magic was strong, Piper knew. All three of them were going to be powerful beings. After cleaning them up, the babies were laid on the big bed with their mom.

“Joel is going to be such a good dad. Don’t you think?” Piper told Mercy she thought so as well. “I love him so much. And now I have three little ones that we’ll share. Miley is going to love it.”

“I’m sure she will. Where is she, anyway? I’d have thought you wanted her in here with you.” She looked away. “What is it, Mercy? Why isn’t she here with you today?”

“We had a fight. Not really a fight, but a disagreement on her being able to date. I said no, but she went to her father, and he said it was all right.” Piper asked her why he would allow her to date. “It’s not a real date, I found out later, but a bunch of her friends meeting for pizza. I swear to you, she never told me that part. That’s when she told me I was mean to her, and she was never speaking to me again.”

“May I fix this?” Mercy cried. Hard sobs that made her own heart hurt with it. “Mercy, I’m going to fix this. I promise you. I’ll have her come to tell you how sorry she is too.”

“Don’t force her into anything.” She said that she’d not. “The only reason I’m letting you do this is because I’m feeling too emotional to talk to her right now. I so wanted her here when I— Oh, Piper, she hurt my heart so badly.”

Piper held onto her sister as she cried. This was a side of Mercy she’d never experienced before. Reaching out to Grant to tell him that Joel could come in, she also told him what she was going to do next. All he said to her was not to kill the little girl.

I’m not able to, remember? He said that didn’t mean she’d not try. Yes, I might try. I’ll be around later. I’m talking to her right now.

Chapter 8

Piper didn’t bother asking to see Miley but just looked for her. When she found her down at the dock, watching the boats coming in for the day, Piper sat down beside her. She was ready to blast her when she spoke first.

“I ruined everything, Aunt Piper. Not only that, but I’d not be the least bit surprised if Mom sends me off to military school after what I did yesterday.” Piper told her that Mercy was crying when she’d left her. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me anymore. I fight against everything. Even if she told me to do my homework, something I love to do, I’d just not do it because she told me to do it. Now, I’m sitting out here with no idea how I fix this.”

“Do you want to?” Miley just stared at her. “I think that is a good question. Do you want to continue to sit out here feeling sorry for yourself, or do you really want to fix this? Because from what I was told, you were a fucking bitch to the woman that not only healed you but also took you to her heart. That isn’t a way to get on any of our good sides.”

“She’s all I ever wanted in a mom. I have everything I could ever want from her too. Not just material things. I mean love, and she loves my dad too. Mom loves my dad, and now they’re going to have a baby. They’re so happy.” Piper didn’t mention that the babies had been born. She’d tell her later, she thought. “Getting ready for the new one coming, Mercy has tried her best to get me involved. And you have no idea how much I wanted to be. But a part of me felt betrayed that they’re going to all this trouble for them.”

“You think they didn’t do anything for you?” Miley just shrugged her shoulders. Piper gave her a hard slap to her face, and Miley held her cheek and started crying. “What the fuck? You cannot just sit there and tell me that Mercy didn’t bend over backwards for you. Even after she was tossed out of your father’s home, she continued to help you. That’s not even talking about her healing you. Christ, I should just let you sit here until you rot. To think that I was so excited to have lunch with you sometime soon.” Piper stood up. “If it’s anything at all to you, your...no, Mercy has given birth. While you sit here on your ass, shrugging off how you think she helped you, she’s sobbing her fucking eyes out because you weren’t there when it all occurred. You should be beaten.”

Piper shifted and took to the skies. It was in her to go and shit on the girl’s head. Flying as far from her as possible while still being able to keep an eye on her, Piper landed outside the home of Benson and Molly. She wanted to talk to Molly in the worst sort of way.

Molly was the mother she’d never had. Not that she even remembered a time when she’d had a mom, but Piper had been going to her regularly over the last few weeks. As soon as she was let into the house, Molly told her to come into the kitchen, then smacked her on the back of the head when she was seated.

“What was that for?” She told her that she had spoken to Miley. “I did. But I don’t understand how that is deserving of a pop to the back of my head.”

“Would you like another pop?” Shaking her head, Piper told her what had happened. “I’m going to allow this of you this one and only time. Because you don’t know. You and the others have no idea what it’s like for a teenager. Miley is going through something that none of you have experienced, nor will you ever. She’s changing daily. Her heart is taking a beating too. Teenagers, humans and shifters alike go through this sort of thing all the time. They’re not mean. They’re confused. I’m sure you didn’t help matters one bit by making her cry.”

“She hurt Mercy.” She said that Mercy was next on her list. “This is insane. I came here to talk to you, and you’re yelling at me. I don’t like that.”

She hit her again. “Listen to me. Or better yet, reach out to that little girl and tell me what you’re feeling from her.” She did and was astonished to hear that Miley was as depressed as she’d ever felt a person to be. “That’s not entirely on you, but a great deal of it is. Lucky for you that I love you, or I wouldn’t have helped all of you out. When you have trouble with someone, do you accuse or ask questions first?”

“So that you don’t hit me again, you tell me the answer to that.” Piper was beginning to hate the fact that she’d come here when Molly hit her anyway. “What the fuck am I supposed to do?”

“You reach out for help. I’m trying to tell you something here so that when you have children, you’ll have a better understanding of things.” While she was still listening to Miley’s thoughts, terrified about them, she felt the moment that someone else sat down beside her. She told Molly. “That would be Tracy, a girl that has had it much rougher than Miley has, yet has gone through the same changes she is experiencing. They’ll get this worked out. The two of them will. Not you.”

“I was asked to go there by Mercy.” Molly told her again that she would talk to Mercy. “If having kids is this much work, I’m not sure I want any.”

“You’ll have them, but you’ll get to see them grow and develop into where those two are now. A daughter of yours will be with you forever, through changes that you can talk to her about. Never go to another parent’s child to help them out, Piper. That is walking on dangerous grounds. What if you had said something about her mom? Something that you wanted to impart to her that would get Mercy in deeper trouble than she is now? Because you can’t fix hormones.”

“I’m not going to have any girls then. Fuck that shit.” She dodged the smack to her head this time but didn’t count on her smacking her hands. “You’re very violent. Did you know that?”

“I do know that. I believe you bring that out in me.” Molly smiled at her. “However, you should know that it’s worse with boys. My goodness. They have their voices change, hair sprouting out in places they didn’t before. They’re half man and half child. They’re ten times worse at puberty than girls are. But you know what? They get through it, and if you’re anything like the mother I know you’ll be, you’ll have a better man than you might have thought.”

Piper thought of the things she’d said to her niece. They weren’t horrible, but they weren’t very helpful either. Standing up, she sat back down because it occurred to her that she didn’t have any idea how to fix this with her. Or even if there was a way to fix it. She looked at Molly. Piper truly did love this woman as she might well have loved a mom.

“I need your help.” Molly said they all did. “Please help me. I know I should have...I will stay out of other families’ troubles from now on. No matter how tempting it is to try and fix things.”