Page 107 of Primal Mirror

After squeezing her nape, he went ahead.

The hatch had exposed a well-made set of stairs. Nothing rickety. These were gleaming clean plascrete. Despite Auden’s ability to open the entrance, he scanned the stairs using the same device he and Rina had used to clear the rooms. Security was about taking the extra step, looking behind each door twice.

“Clean,” he said.

“Because only people with the right DNA can get in,” Auden said, the ice now a mere element of her voice rather than all of it. “Why DNA encode access for a woman who had brain damage?”

Remi had no answers for her, but—“We find out tonight.”

Auden’s jaw grew hard. “Yes.” She put a hand on his arm when he would’ve entered the hatch. “I go first. There may be a secondary DNA confirmation on entry—the way these systems work, I should be able to take an unknown individual with me if I go first.”

Every one of Remi’s instincts struggled against allowing her to go first into possible danger, but he knew the kind of high-end system she was talking about—if anyone might have one in the house, it would be the Scott family. “Go,” he said, muscles bunched in readiness to haul her out at the first sign of danger.

Auden didn’t hesitate, and took three steps down. “Now.”

Remi stepped in after her.

Nothing happened until they were at the bottom of the short flight. At which point, Auden reached to her left and pressed her thumb against another small depression, and the hatch slid shut above them.

The lights brightened at the same time, to reveal that they stood in a small room in front of the heavy steel cage of an elevator. The doors gleamed at them, their mirror images grim-faced.

Auden stepped forward and touched another depression, while Remi did a second scan.

“Still clean,” he said, slipping the device into his back pocket.

“We can talk,” Auden confirmed. “No one would dare monitor me in such a way.” Once again, her voice had shifted to a far icier version of the one he knew, but the fire in her gaze was his Auden, the way she stared at the doors to the elevator pure rage.

“What’s happening, Cupcake?” He deliberately used his private little name for her, wanting to touch that part of her that got all soft and happy when she heard it.

“I don’t know. But I’m me. The me that would die for Liberty—and kill for her.”

The last came out as grim as the cold dark of midnight. It didn’t bother him. He’d kill for little Liberty, too, would kill for any of the cubs in his pack.

He let his claws slice out as he brushed her cheek. “Let’s go find the fuckers.”

Her smile was deadly.

The lift doors opened at that moment.

Remi was already in position to attack should they find a threat, but the woman in the cage wore white scrubs with the Scott logo on the pocket and was holding an organizer. She was blond, about five feet four, her build stocky. And Remi hadn’t seen or scented her in the house even once since their arrival.

Her pupils expanded as she stared at Auden. Her gaze flicked to Auden’s belly, then back up.

“The plans have changed,” Auden said, the words clipped and remote and coming from the part of her that wasn’t her…but that had become infected with her love for her child. “The infant didn’t survive. We have to complete a permanent transfer to this brain.”

“Oh no.” The nurse or doctor shifted back, so Auden and Remi could step inside the lift with her. “Did Dr. Verhoeven authorize it?” A hesitant question as the lift doors closed. “You know he has significant concerns about this brain even though you prepared the telepathic interlock over many years.”

An ugly truth emerging in the recesses of her mind, Auden looked at the other woman without speaking until the blonde dropped her gaze. A pulse jumped in her neck, faint perspiration breaking out over her upper lip.

“I am making the decisions now,” Auden said, sick to her gut. “You would do well to remember that, Nurse Lomax.” The name fell from her lips as if she’d always known it.

“Yes, of course, sir.” The woman tapped at her organizer. “I was actually on my way to consult with the doctor. Your brain patterns are destabilizing even further.”

“How bad?” she asked, as the other part of her retreated without warning, but Auden didn’t need her anymore.

The monstrous truth was taking darker and darker shape inside her mind.

“A fifty percent decline in a matter of hours.” The nurse dared meet her gaze. “We might lose the pattern altogether if we don’t finalize the integration tonight.”

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