Page 77 of Primal Mirror

“I’m gonna be soooooo old,” Jayden groaned before limping off in an exaggerated fashion, his back bowed, and one hand pressed to his spine. “See, this is how ancient I’ll be. Oh my bones! Where’s my cane? Get off my lawn, you feral cubs!”

Leopard huffing at the juvenile’s dramatics, he carried the tray over to Auden. She’d drunk half a glass of nutrients and had a croissant in her hand in under a minute. She ate one-handed, her other hand inside the incubator, stroking her baby.

Remi glanced at the mobile comm that Auden had told him his mother had bought specifically for him. The knowledge made him warm inside, the memory of his mother’s love a bigger force than his grief. “I’ve got to go handle a bit of pack business. Back in twenty so we can talk.” He met Finn’s eyes.

The healer gave a subtle nod, while Auden continued to alternately coo at her baby and make sounds of orgasmic delight at the food that went straight to parts of his body that he needed to put the brakes on.

He almost ran out of the infirmary.

Just as well that the business he had to deal with was a comm call with a hard-ass human who thought he could underbid for RainFire’s services as security specialists just because they were newer on the block. “Your loss,” Remi said laconically, leaning back against the wall opposite the comm screen. “I’m sure the cut-rate guards will put their bodies in the line of fire for you just fine.”

The man blustered for another few minutes before agreeing to their rates, and Remi told him the contract would be coming through. Angel, who’d been standing out of visual range of the potential client, groaned. “He’s going to be a nightmare of a client.”

“I know—but man is connected.” It was the only reason Remi hadn’t already booted him. “Just think of all the work that’ll flow our way when people start to notice that his guards are top-tier and discreet.”

While their mech arm was part of their long-term business strategy, RainFire had had to come up with something with which to quickly generate income the first couple of years of their existence as a pack. Because a pack that couldn’t look after its people was doing those people a disservice. Better for it to dissolve and for everyone to go their own way.

They’d had a packwide meeting that included every single adult in the group, figured out the skills at their disposal—and realized they had a significant number of people with experience in security.

Angel had run security for a major racetrack.

“He also has close associates in the indi-mech industry,” Remi added when Angel continued to look dubious. “Try not to strangle him.”

“No promises,” Angel muttered as the two of them left Remi’s aerie.

Angel then took the tree road to go meet with his security team, while Remi jumped down to the forest floor, his goal the infirmary.

He heard Auden’s voice before he entered the part of the structure that held her and her baby. She was touching and talking to her child, but shot him a smile. He hated that she’d smoothed her hair back into a tight knot that took all the energy out of it, but if that was what made her feel safe, that was what made her feel safe.

Her clothing was simple enough—a white shirt, below that sweatpants. Hugo and the other maternals had done a good job with the spare clothing they’d put together for her. The shirt would pass muster in any comm conference, and no one was going to see the sweatpants except for those in the infirmary.

Not wanting to wipe the soft joy off her face, he nonetheless knew it was time. “Auden, we need to discuss something.”

* * *

• • •

AUDEN’S heart squeezed into a knot small and agonizing. Removing her hand from her baby’s skin after one last touch, she faced Remi. “I know. I’m a security risk, aren’t I?”

But he frowned and shook his head. “Not if you stay in this cube. I don’t want to cage you, but—”

“Telepathic images for teleport locks,” she interrupted. “I get that. It’s smart. And with what’s going on with my memory blanks and personality changes, I can’t be sure about my ability to protect your pack.” Never would she want to bring any harm to Remi and his pack, people who had protected her and her baby even though most of them had never even met her.

She spread her hand over the clear plas top of the incubator. “I don’t want to go anywhere anyway. I want to be with her every second. I’m so afraid that I’ll lose myself, that I won’t know she’s my baby, that I’ll forget how to love her.” A painful thickness in her throat, she looked at where Finn sat at the other end of the room in front of a small but impressive computer station. “Did Remi tell you?”

The healer nodded. “Yes. I’m sorry we—”

“No, you had to know.” Auden kept finding herself interrupting them—because if this wasn’t about security, then it had to be about her brain. She didn’t want to know, didn’t want to hear, a child clapping her hands over her ears.

“I could’ve come out of the birth in an altered state, could’ve hurt my baby while not myself…but I suppose any personality I inhabit is me, which means the ugliness that comes out is me, too.” It was an awful thing to accept about herself.

Finn rolled his chair over from across the room, his expression solemn in a way it hadn’t been since she woke. “There’s another thing, Auden. The graft you said went into your head?”

Mouth dry, Auden nodded. There was nowhere left to go, nothing left to say to stave off the inevitable.

“It’s still there. Encased in scar tissue, but present. I’m guessing they couldn’t get it out without destroying part of your brain.”

Auden blinked. She’d expected to hear of new neural damage, not old scar tissue. “Frankly I’m surprised that stopped them,” she said on a roar of relief. “Do you think there’s any danger of it going active?”

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