Page 86 of Primal Mirror

A flush on Finn’s cheekbones, his smile a touch lopsided. “She’s a sweetheart, and her mama’s a fighter.” Leaf green eyes on hers. “Never forget that, Auden. Your baby is safe here because you made sure she would be safe. Don’t ever allow any other voices to make you forget.”

Auden swallowed. “I’m so afraid,” she whispered to this healer who had renewed her faith in the medical profession after Dr. Verhoeven had annihilated it. “That the voice that makes me forget will be my own.” A sharp, cold splinter who thought with manipulative pragmatism.

Finn’s frown was deep. “Bashir got me into multiple PsyMed databases. I’m digging deep to find you answers and a solution. Don’t you dare give up on me.”

Auden knew his hope was genuine, his intent pure, so she said, “Never.” But she also knew that a fragmented personality couldn’t be welded back together. Prior to Silence, people like her had either stumbled through a short life—or, if one personality was a violent one—were locked up in institutions.

After Silence, the affliction had “vanished.”

Auden wondered what this good doctor, this good healer, would say if she told him that her race had eliminated the problem by executing those with it. Should anyone look up individual names, all they’d find in the records was the unremarkable. Death by misadventure or by natural causes.

No acknowledgment of psychological illness.

Not even a hint of murder mandated.

And nothing to challenge the Council’s position of Silence being a resounding success.

The door opened on her dark thoughts, Remi walking in. And her entire being felt as if it had lit up from within. Her baby made a tiny movement at the same time. “She knows you’re here,” she said to Remi, as Finn rolled his chair back to his workstation.

Remi stroked the baby’s fisted hand.

Liberty’s fingers opened and she gripped at his finger. When he chuckled, the sound was a reverberation through Auden’s bones.

“Can I hold her?”

After Auden surrendered Liberty to his careful hold, they just adored her together until Finn said it was time to put “the kitten” back in the incubator. After that, Remi chatted to Finn while Auden got herself refreshed and into proper day clothes.

The healer was gone when she returned.

“I have a proposition for you,” Remi said, brushing his knuckles over her cheek in a gesture that melted the coldness inside. “But first, food.”

Only then did she notice the tray sitting on Finn’s desk, loaded with pastries and a hot nutrient drink. She sat down in Finn’s chair, knowing he wouldn’t mind, and took a sip of the drink before gorging herself on the pastries. “I think I’m going to get fat,” she said around a mouthful. “I never had to worry about weight before—Psy nutrition regimes are calibrated for exact nutritional needs. But I can’t stop eating these.”

Grinning, Remi leaned against the wall to one side. “Cupcake, you’ll be even more gorgeous in your cuddlier form.”

Her cheeks heated, her toes curling inside the fluffy hand-knitted socks that a member of the pack had made for her. It delighted her that they were a sunshine yellow. “Finn’s really good at getting people to talk. He doesn’t even do anything and it comes out.”

A scowl on Remi’s face. “Healers are like the fucking truth serum on steroids.” Gruff words, but the love, the affection beneath them, it was potent. “What did he make you spill?”

Auden stared at the pastry in her hand. “Fear,” she admitted. “It gnaws at me, the idea that one part of me might betray the other part—betray Liberty.” Swallowing hard, she met Remi’s gaze. “I couldn’t ask this of him, because he’s a healer. He couldn’t do it.”

Remi’s face went motionless, his eyes switching to those of his leopard.

“Liberty comes first,” Auden said. “If I become any kind of threat to her, you take me out of the equation.” Dropping the unfinished pastry to the plate, she gripped his hand. “Please, Remi. I’m asking this as her mother, as the woman who loves her beyond breath, beyond life. If another part of me does anything to hurt her, it won’t matter if I come back. I’ll have died already.”

Remi’s fingers tightened on hers almost to the point of pain. “I promise.” A harsh statement.

All the air rushed out of her. “Thank you for not arguing with me.” Because she’d never change her mind on this.

“No point.” He cupped her cheek. “And no reason to—because you know what? I’m betting on this Auden. The one who has so far outsmarted the entire fucking Scott family to keep her child safe. This Auden, my Auden, is going to win. I’ll never have to act on my promise.”

His faith was a lightning bolt in her blood, electrifying her senses and making her believe, too. Because she had outsmarted her family, outsmarted Charisma. She’d won this round—the most important round. Liberty was safe.

“I’ll win,” she vowed, and picked up her pastry. “Not only will I win, I will crush them under my fluffy yellow foot.”

His grin was a primal thing. “That’s my girl.”

“What did you want to talk to me about?” she demanded after swallowing a bite, her blood yet hot.

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