Page 113 of Primal Mirror

So she surrendered to the primal storm without fear for RainFire, and that storm was far more violent a foe than Shoshanna had ever faced. Her mother withdrew in an effort to regroup, retracting her hooks from inside Auden as she did so.

But the hunters on her tail continued to chase after her, the pack’s rage coalescing into a black mass that suffocated Shoshanna until she whimpered and screamed in a tiny corner of Auden’s mind.

Good-bye, Mother, Auden said.

Because Remi’s storm? It was waiting for her to make the choice, a crouched leopard that quivered with bloodlust.

Only one choice would protect not just Liberty, but all the Libertys to come.

Auden ended her mother with a fine blade of rage that slammed into Shoshanna’s psychic core, causing it to implode. The rage that was Auden and Remi and RainFire didn’t permit the pieces of Shoshanna to escape. Instead, they watched like the cats they were, until she disintegrated into nothing, no trace remaining of the woman who’d once been Councilor Shoshanna Scott.

Auden’s mother was dead. This time, forever.

* * *

• • •

REMI snarled when the doctor tried to put some kind of net on Auden’s skull. “Get that the fuck away unless you want your arm ripped off!”

The doctor halted, hovered. “I’ve done what I can for the body, but she needs this to stabilize the transfer. She was very clear about that!”

Remi saw Charisma Wai reach toward her lower back at the same instant. The aide was on the other side of the bed and quite a distance away—but Remi was an alpha leopard. He vaulted over the bed and slammed Charisma to the wall before she ever touched the weapon, much less attempted to fire it.

Her head hit the wall so hard that it left behind a streak of blood as she slumped to the floor. The weapon clunked uselessly to the hospital-grade plascrete.

He turned to the doctor, claws out. “The instructions have changed.”

“Yes, of course.” The doctor babbled, right as alarms began to shriek throughout the facility. “I didn’t realize. I’ll do whatever the Councilor wishes, of course.”

Remi had never wanted this man anywhere near Auden, had only permitted him to work on her because she would’ve otherwise died. “You are no longer her physician. Don’t touch her unless you want to end up like Ms. Wai.”

“She’s hemorrhaging badly—I’ve only temporarily stabilized her.” Dr. Verhoeven hovered over Auden. “I can—”

But Remi had already scooped her up in his arms and was racing out at a speed no Psy could ever match. He wasn’t surprised to find Rina running toward him in leopard form. The sentinel would’ve felt it when he leaned so heavily into the pack the instant he’d felt he could get to Auden through a bond strange and oddly young.

He’d known then that his team were fine. None of them had leaned on him in turn, had just given and given.

“Teleport!” he yelled at her—and hoped the Arrows would have the capacity to help them. Because if they didn’t, then he would have to trust Auden to the same doctor who’d caused her harm after harm. “Dr. Bashir!”

Changing direction, Rina raced back up.

The hatch was open when he reached it; Wai or the doctor must’ve left it open in their rush, giving Rina an easy entry. Lift must not be DNA encoded. Whoever had installed the security system had probably considered it overkill when entry was so difficult.

He took the final stairs three at a time.

It wasn’t an Arrow who waited for him in the basement—alongside Rina who’d shifted back into leopard form after making the call for the teleporter’s assistance.

Remi hadn’t even known she had this particular number.

Kaleb Krychek didn’t speak, and didn’t wait for Remi to reach him. Remi was mid-run when he emerged into the center of a high-tech treatment facility, Krychek and Rina at the same distance from him that they’d been in the basement.

Fuck.

He got it, what people meant when they called Krychek a power.

Shoving that realization aside, he put Auden on the stretcher Dr. Bashir himself was pushing into the room. The surgeon might not know much about obstetrics, but he’d had plenty of training in trauma injuries thanks to his links to the Arrows, and he got to work on Auden at once.

Remi refused to leave the room, but shuddered back against the wall while the medical staff worked.

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