Page 38 of Primal Mirror

And Remi walked out into the clearing in front of the cabin. It was still damp from the night’s rain, though the sun was starting to spear through the clouds. The soft morning light made Auden’s skin glow as she opened her front door to step out and for a moment, he was stunned by her radiant beauty.

Then he saw her eyes. Frigid. Hard. Flat.

“What are you doing on my property?”

He went motionless at the unwelcoming question asked in a voice that was “off” in a way that made his claws prick at his skin. “Being neighborly.”

“I have no need of company.” She stared at him with an eerie lack of recognition on her face.

Spine locking as he thought of her vacant stare on their first meeting and of how she’d told him of a head injury, he said, “Do you know who I am?”

“I assume you must be a changeling to be so at home in these feral surroundings.” She looked around, almost as if she didn’t know what she was doing here herself.

Inside his skin, Remi’s leopard opened its mouth, its incisors glinting. A reaction to her scent…to the teeth-aching metal in it.

Metal that hadn’t been present the last time they’d met. It wasn’t a contact scent, either. This was hers—except how could it be? A person’s true scent—the one created of the total sum of their parts—didn’t change in a matter of days. It wasn’t like perfume that could be washed off or applied at will.

“Why haven’t you left?” the woman with Auden’s face demanded. “I’ve made it clear I don’t want your presence on my land.”

Every instinct Remi had screamed that something was wrong.

Holding up the cooler as he considered his next action, he said, “A gift from the pack, to establish friendly relations.”

“I have all the nutrients I need, so I’m unlikely to consume anything within if the gift is of food, but I appreciate the gesture.” Words so encased in frost that they raised the hairs on his arms—and made his leopard pace in dislike and confusion both.

Much as he’d prefer an easy explanation, this wasn’t another woman, a secret twin. She did carry Auden’s scent except that it was mangled and altered on a level he’d never before experienced.

Could the change be a sign of serious mental instability in Psy?

Hit by a sense of loss for something he’d never possessed, every muscle in his body threatened to turn rock-hard. “I’ll leave it with you anyway. My cook included high-energy items that might come in useful if we get another storm and you run out of supplies.” A total lie; he’d packed the cooler himself, and he’d brought treats for the vulnerable woman who carried aloneness in her skin, not useful items for this stranger.

“I’m leaving as soon as I can arrange it, so it will go to waste, but once again, I appreciate the gesture.” Auden’s doppelgänger smiled…and it made him want to shake her, force her to divulge what the fuck she’d done to Auden.

Because that practiced curve of the lips complete with eyes that warmed? It wasn’t an inept grimace made by a Psy trying to interact with a changeling. No, this smile would’ve passed as normal to most people.

It was as psychopathic in its smoothness as Auden had been awkward.

Remi’s growl threatened to escape his chest. “Shall I place it inside your doorway? I won’t have to step into the cabin.”

“There’s no need. I’ll take it.”

“It’s pretty light,” he assured her as he handed it over.

She gasped and swayed the instant her fingers closed over the handle, the blue of her eyes eclipsed by a wave of black.

* * *

• • •

—WARMTH, laughter—

—satiation—

—green-gold eyes, small paws—

—impatience—

—a big male hand, a sense of home—

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