The Spirit Guardians Book 3: Fated

Chapter 7

"And then the big bad wolf huffed and puffed—"

"No, no!" came the annoyed shout from the toddler sitting in bed. Elijah stared at Marc with puffed cheeks and a dubious look as he cuddled his teddy bear close to his body.

"What?" Marc asked, pausing his place in the storybook.

"That's not how Mommy does the voice," Elijah complained. "I want Mommy to read that part."

"Mommy's already asleep. She had a long day. If you tell me how she does it, maybe I could try?" Marc suggested. He'd promised Cassie he'd put Elijah to bed just as well as she did, but he was only ten minutes into storytime and already losing his patience. Why couldn't he have a strong connection like Cassie did with him? Why was she 'Mommy' and he was just 'Marc?'

He's not my child, Marc had to remind himself. There were days when he had to tell Cassie that too. He knew she wanted to raise Elijah as best as she could, but there was no denying that Elijah would always be Miguel and Irene's child, whether she liked it or not.

"It's not the same," Elijah complained.

"I'm sorry. Can I keep reading?" Marc asked.

Elijah took a sip of milk from his nightstand. "Okay."

Marc did just as Cassie told him to. He read Elijah two storybooks, made sure he finished his glass of milk, and tucked him in. As Marc shut off Elijah's lamp, he lingered for a moment. He knew Cassie always liked to kiss Elijah on the cheek, but the toddler was already turned away from him.

Marc let out a sigh. "Good-night."

"Night, Marc," came a quiet voice from Elijah's bed.

Marc quietly shut the door and headed down the hall, feeling exhausted himself. He quietly entered into his darkened bedroom and grabbed a drink of water to quench his dry throat from doing his best to be vivacious in story-telling. He grumbled to himself, knowing deep down that he'd never be able to have as strong of a relationship with the toddler as he liked.

Marc crawled into bed, careful not to disturb Cassie, but he heard her moving shortly after he rested his head on his pillow. He felt her arms wrap around him from behind, and her forehead gradually pressed into his back.

"Are you okay?" she murmured quietly. "You feel tense."

"Yes," he said. He brought the hand resting near his chest up to his lips so he could kiss it. "You should be asleep."

"I swear I was sleeping before you came in! How did putting Elijah to bed go?" she asked.

"Good," Marc said, turning his body to face her. "Now you go back to sleep."

"Okay, okay," she said, slowly shutting her eyes.

Marc let out a sigh before shutting his. Even when he could feel Cassie's breaths becoming calmer again with deep sleep, he still felt wide awake with anxious thoughts running through his head.

...

"So are you going to tell me what's up or not?" Cassie asked as they rested on the porch steps after a morning training session. She began to drink her bottle of water immediately after asking the question.

"Nothing's wrong!" Marc argued.

Continuing to drink, Cassie gently slapped his shoulder and brought the water bottle away from her lips. "You seemed stressed last night. Don't try to hide stuff from me. We've been dating almost three years," Cassie argued.

"You're going to think it's stupid," Marc muttered, fumbling with his hands.

Cassie eyed him.

"Fine...fine. I just wish I could get along with Elijah as well as you do. Last night he made this big deal about how I didn't read one of his storybooks a certain way. I know that doesn't mean much, but...I wish he could look up to me like how he looks up to you," Marc admitted, turning his gaze away to hide the embarrassment gathering in his cheeks.