Page 78 of Primal Mirror

“In a stroke of luck, the Arrow doctor we had with us is a neurosurgeon who’s worked with experimental tech, and I was troubled enough to show him the scan—don’t worry, he might have an ego, but he takes medical confidentiality seriously, so he won’t talk about it.”

Auden nodded, her faith in Remi and this healer a thing unshakable. If they said she could trust the Arrow doctor, then she could trust the Arrow doctor.

“He says all signs are that it’s dead, effectively burned out,” Finn added. “And the way your brain’s scarred around it, it won’t migrate and cause further damage.”

Auden’s chest rose and fell in a deep inhale and exhale. “So, that’s good news.” Warmth began to flow through her blood…until she felt Remi’s hand on her lower back, his eyes leopard when they looked into hers.

Heart thunder, she found herself breathing fast and shallow. “What is it?”

Remi’s voice was a rumble against her. “Finn did the standard birth DNA panel on your cub to check for genetic diseases.”

“It’s so we can handle anything treatable straightaway,” Finn said.

Auden hadn’t realized she’d turned into Remi until her hand clenched hard on his T-shirt. “Did you find—”

“No.” The healer held up a hand. “She’s got a clean bill of health. But the thing is…she wasn’t created from your egg.”

Auden’s mind vanished in a white haze that blurred all light and sound. She was conscious of Remi speaking, of the growl in his chest, of the way he held her close to his warmth, but she felt distant, removed from it.

Then came a flutter inside her mind, and with it a roar back to the bright colors and even brighter emotions of reality. “I don’t care,” she said, her voice hard. “She’s my baby. I love her until I can’t breathe. No one is ever going to take her away from me.”

“What did I tell you?” Remi’s chin on her hair, his fingers massaging the stiff tendons of her neck.

Finn rolled his eyes, his lips kicking up at the corners now that he’d delivered the news that had clearly been weighing him down. “That Auden would tear off the head of anyone who tried to say this cub wasn’t hers.”

Auden’s chest filled with air again. She hadn’t known how much she craved Remi’s approval of her as a mother until she got it. Because he was changeling, a creature of family and loyalty. More, he’d had a mother he loved. He understood what it meant to be a good mother, a mother who protected and shielded.

That he saw that in her? It made her feel bigger, stronger, worthy of her child.

“No argument from us on the cub being yours.” Remi’s hand continued to massage the tension out of her nape, the act so luxurious that it felt decadent to indulge in it in front of Finn, but she couldn’t make herself move away. “Your love for her fucking shines, Auden.”

Chapter 32

My mother is dead, Mr. Krychek. A result of a genetic flaw that was unfortunately never picked up. She died of sudden neurological failure and her body was cremated soon after the authorities signed off on her death. I am now in charge of Scott family operations.

—Auden Scott to Kaleb Krychek (20 August 2083)

AUDEN SHUDDERED, HER hand flexing open on the soft fabric of Remi’s T-shirt—but she stayed cuddled to the wild heat of him, her body and mind craving his touch. “You both know I have mental issues,” she said, her eyes on her precious girl. “But they’re not genetic. I don’t understand why the family wouldn’t just use my own eggs. Is it possible they were having trouble fertilizing my egg?”

Finn’s eyes met Remi’s.

And she knew. Twisted and an unimaginable violation though it would be, it was the only thing that made sense in that house, in that family. “Whose egg?” Ice in her blood, in her veins. “Just tell me.”

Though Finn was the healer, she looked at Remi.

He didn’t make her wait. “You’re half-siblings. You share maternal DNA.”

The cold inside her continued to spread. “My mother’s egg?” she said, to be certain.

“I triple-checked.” Finn’s voice. “There’s no mistake. My system kept flagging her DNA as a sibling match to you, and I thought it was a glitch. It isn’t.” A rough exhale. “We managed to get hold of Shoshanna’s DNA profile, compared it against both you and the cub to be certain beyond any doubt.”

One day, Auden thought, she’d ask Remi how RainFire and the Arrows had become such friends—because no one else could’ve gained the pack access to a former Councilor’s DNA profile—but today, her mind had no room for anything but the cold reality of the decisions made for her when she’d been unable to protest or even understand what was going on.

“Shoshanna must’ve frozen her eggs at some point,” she said, her mind an ice sheet unbroken. “It could’ve even been a requirement of the family when she was younger.” The Scotts, after all, were all about bloodlines.

She nodded, working it through; the cold inside her made it easier to think. “My mother must’ve hoped to produce a child with more active abilities than mine. Continuing the primary bloodline rather than defaulting to my cousin. I was a convenient incubator.”

That didn’t matter.

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