Page 79 of Primal Mirror

This child had grown in her womb. Auden had felt her mind wake, and even now the baby murmured baby ramblings that were a sweet whisper inside her. “I don’t care about her DNA,” she reiterated, stepping away from Remi to touch her child once more. “I won’t ever hide the truth from her, but I won’t treat her as anything but my precious baby, either.”

Neither man challenged her, though she knew the psychological impact of what her family had done would hit her hard at some point. She just had to make sure it never hit her baby. She’d make it sound like she’d chosen to be the surrogate to ensure her sibling had the best in utero care, tell her baby that she wouldn’t permit anyone else to carry her.

“Will it hurt her?” she asked Finn, this healer who understood emotion. “When she’s older?”

“Not if you tell her the truth from the start,” Finn said. “Make it a naturalized part of her life. Surrogates are common enough, and though carrying your own half-sibling is unusual, children are adaptable. If you tell her the truth in an age-appropriate way, she’ll probably simply accept it and only ask questions at an older age, when you can discuss it with her with the help of a healer or an empath.”

Rage simmered in Auden, washing away the ice and leaving embers dark and violent in its wake. “They hurt her before she was even born,” she bit out. “Created her because they decided my mother’s genes mattered more than her psychological well-being.” At least now she understood why this baby was so important, why her family would do anything to keep her. “What about the paternal DNA?”

“No match on any system I could access,” Finn said, “so whatever you were told might be the truth.”

“A high-Gradient telepath with zero signs of any other minor abilities,” Auden murmured. “Yes, that makes sense if they were determined to produce another high-Gradient Tp.” It also made sense that they’d left Henry out of the equation. It might’ve been as simple as the fact that his genetic material hadn’t been saved. But she had the feeling it was more because that match had produced a psychometric.

Better not to risk the same a second time around.

So Shoshanna had chosen a family of telepaths so pure that—per Auden’s memory—they hadn’t had a non-Tp in the line for at least two generations. Pair that with Shoshanna’s genetic profile, and whoever had done the calculations had been right: Auden’s baby was going to grow up to be one hell of a powerful telepath.

“Do you know why I started to improve, neurologically speaking?” she asked Finn, very conscious of Remi’s prowling presence as he walked around to the other side of the incubator. “Any indication on the scans?” Because Auden needed to know if she would regress—and how much time she had to make sure no one would ever have a chance to harm her child…or the alpha who had enfolded that innocent life into his heart.

She’d hurt anyone who dared touch him.

“No, but it might be related to fetal stem cells released by your baby,” Finn muttered, wheeling back to grab his organizer. “All the decades of research and there’s still not a ton we know about them. If it was that, then the effect should be permanent—they would’ve physically healed the damaged parts of your brain.”

Auden wanted to believe him. Dr. Verhoeven had theorized the same thing…but her baby was Psy. A Psy with a mind so piercing at such a young age that she had to be on the verge of being a cardinal. 9.8 or 9.9. It was as likely that the effect was a psychic one, and that it would fade now that her child was no longer somehow compensating for her mother’s neural damage.

A small beep sounded on Finn’s wrist unit, the screen flashing yellow. The healer rose to his feet. “Non-emergency injury, but I’ll go take a look and see what’s happened.”

Finn’s eyes met Remi’s on the way out, and Remi saw the anger in them. Finn was fucking pissed at what had been done to Auden by medical staff who should’ve done no harm.

Removing her hand from the incubator after the healer had left, Auden turned to him. “Remi?”

“Yeah?” It came out rough, his need to pull her into his arms a storm.

“What I said, about the need for a successor?” The blue of her eyes was a turbulent storm against the lush dark of her skin. “It makes sense, but the doctor said something to me on my last checkup that I can’t forget. He said that I couldn’t know how long ‘this brain’ would function.”

“What?” Remi scowled. “Like you can replace it like a tire on a car?”

A nod from Auden. “That was my thought process. It’s an entirely strange way to discuss my possible neurological decline now that my baby isn’t assisting me in staying functional.”

Remi said fuck it and hauled her against his chest. She needed to be held and he was going to do the holding.

Her arms came around him, gripping tight.

“You’ll be fine,” he said, and they both knew it was more hope than true knowledge. “Finn and Dr. Bashir found absolutely nothing, no signs of any new damage.”

Auden’s reply avoided answering him. “The brain discussion, there’s something behind it. Because it’s not just that. All the scans I remember having? They weren’t only tech-based. I had psychic scans, too. I have only vague memories of those, but what reason would there be for a psychic scan of my brain when the damage was physical?”

Her fingers clenched at his back. “Charisma might be paying lip service to my supposed status as CEO, but I’m an ignorant pawn on the chessboard.” Heat in her voice now, nothing even close to defeat. “I won’t let them win.”

Shifting back without letting go of him, she met his gaze. “I need to be certain my baby is safe before I fragment again into that other Auden…or Audens. I don’t know how many pieces of me exist, how many different Audens there are. Right now, I’m holding on to me, and I need to utilize that limited window of time.”

Remi growled. “Your family will get to your cub over my fucking dead body. RainFire might not be a power, but we’re leopards. We can take her and disappear into the wild and no one will ever find her.”

Auden’s pupils flared. “But what kind of life would that be for her, for you, for your pack?”

“The Arrows have also offered to take her, protect her.” It would tear out Remi’s heart to let go of this child who’d been placed in his care, but he’d do it if it would protect both her and the children of the pack.

Fisting her hands, Auden shook her head. “So much kindness,” she said, her voice rough. “So many strangers helping us.” A tremor. “No one ever warned me that the outside world could be so good.”

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