Page 76 of Primal Mirror

That they’d protect her was a given.

Reaching inside, he stroked the baby’s arm with his finger, his protectiveness in overdrive.

His leopard rumbled again, and the cub seemed to smile in her sleep.

He could swear he felt her inside him, same way he could feel every other member of his pack. He’d asked Lucas once, if that changed as the pack grew, if the bond became weaker. The alpha’s answer had always stuck with him: “An alpha’s heart is big enough to encompass every single member of his pack, Remi. So long as he lets that heart grow and grow until the love inside hurts—and he never flinches from that hurt.”

Remi could do that. He wanted to do that.

What he did next, however, wasn’t the act of an alpha, but of a man looking after a woman who was far more to him than he could permit her to guess while she was so vulnerable. Taking out his phone one-handed, he called their chef. “Fabien, can you put together a plate for Auden? She’s partial to your pastries. Don’t forget to use gloves and the 3D-printed serveware I made for her.”

“I’ve got all her items in a separate spot,” Fabien assured him in his French-accented English. “I’ll add a glass of the nutrients we keep for the squad. Arrows say those are still the best to give Psy a jolt of energy after a big drain, and I think our new maman could use it, non?”

“Good thinking.” Tamsyn had also mentioned that Psy brains required energy of a kind the nutrients were designed to provide in a far more efficient fashion than ordinary food. “Send a couple of extra sachets that she can mix up at will.”

“Will do. How is our cublet?”

Of course every single member of his pack wanted to cuddle and hold Auden’s baby, but they understood why they couldn’t. Little Jojo had nodded solemnly when he’d described it to her in terms a child could grasp. “I got it, Remi. The cub got borned out of her mama’s belly before it was a full baby. So that’s how come it’s gotta stay in the ’firmary.”

He’d grinned and tapped her on the nose, while Jojo snuggled in for a cuddle. “Exactly right.”

Finn walked back through the door at that moment, his eyes immediately going to the empty bed. When he raised an eyebrow, Remi nudged his head toward the back. “I think she’s ready for that tough conversation,” he said, his gut tense as anger beat a rapid tattoo at his temple. “She’s worried Wai won’t wait to contact her, and I think we need to know what we’re dealing with before then.”

Finn rubbed a jaw as bristled as Remi’s; neither of them had been in any frame of mind to think about grooming for the past two days. “She’s in better mental shape than I expected, so I can’t see any reason to hold back.”

After checking the readings on the incubator, the healer said, “Adorable, isn’t she?” He placed his hand against the plas, his own leopard rumbling.

The lights flickered in a different pattern from when it was Remi.

“Already have a favorite, do you?” Finn grumbled. “And after all I did for you. That’s gratitude for you.” Gruff words, but his tone held nothing but affection.

The baby, Remi knew, was soaking it all in. No, he didn’t have scientific proof, but he was an alpha. He knew. He felt her happiness, her sense of contentment…and when Auden was near, a calm absolute and unbroken. “How long will she need to be in the incubator?”

“I’d say a couple of weeks,” Finn said, moving to strip Auden’s bed as he spoke. “Some cubs need longer, some shorter, but her lungs are well-formed, so she might graduate out of it faster.”

A stir of sound as the door opened on the other side of the room, the scent of soap and body lotion hitting Remi’s nose, but below all that was the scent of Auden. Just Auden. Warm, strong, enigmatic Auden.

She swayed on her feet. “Whoa.”

Remi was by her side before she could topple over. “Lean on me.” He supported her all the way back to the bed—which Finn had fitted with a crisp new sheet at the speed of light.

Once at the bed, he just lifted her onto it.

“How do you do that?” she muttered, while Finn settled her with a pillow behind her back.

Remi was about to stroke his hand over her cheek when he caught the scent of food. Going to the door, he took the tray from the juvenile—who was wearing gloves Fabien must’ve given him. “Thanks, JD.”

Jojo’s brother made a sign with three of his fingers that was the newest rage among his age group. “Cub awake?” His leopard in his eyes, eager and bright.

This one, Remi thought, was going to grow up to be a soldier, one of the protectors of the pack. “Cubs that small just sleep and sleep and sleep some more.”

“Wow, and Mom says I’m bad.” He raised a hand. “I gotta buzz. School. When can I go into full soldier training?”

“When you’ve graduated and decided on your other specialty.” That was another thing he’d picked up from DarkRiver: to increase the pack’s intellectual capacity by ensuring that each and every packmate studied a skill, trade, or profession.

Lucas, for example, had an architect, multiple engineers, builders, an accountant, and more in his pack—all of which fed directly into the pack’s success when it came to their construction arm. Then there were the teachers, chefs, and even a budding chemist. And that wasn’t anywhere near the full extent of the pack’s basket of trades and professions.

Tamsyn was a qualified doctor as well as a healer, a path Finn had also taken. Remi hadn’t made an exception for himself, either—in his final year as a driver, when the ache to set up his own pack had become overwhelming, he’d put his nose to the grindstone to do an intensive course in business management. Because being a good alpha meant learning to deal with every weapon—even the political and business ones—so that no one could take advantage of his pack.

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