Chapter 14

Chapter 14

"You're no alpha. You're a coward!"

—Gina Denier to Rhett Farley, alpha, WhiteMountain (defunct) (9 April 2070)

"THERE HE IS," Phoebe whispered, her cheeks going pink again.

Remi saw at once why she'd been distracted. The young male was tall and muscled, with thick auburn hair that he'd had cut neatly along the sides, but left long enough up top that it held a wave. The naturally cream tone of his skin held the slightest golden tan, and his jawline was square, his eyes a rich dark blue, his smile bright and engaging. And poor Phoebe was a juvenile running on hormones.

Their visitor was also a powerful dominant.

Leaving Phoebe just outside the door, Remi walked over, hand outstretched. "I recognize that familial scent thread. Kit Monaghan, right?" Around twenty-three years of age if Remi was correctly remembering what Rina had said.

Kit's smile deepened. "That's me." He threw Phoebe a sheepish glance. "Sorry I didn't introduce myself."

The blushing teenager shuffled her feet.

Deciding to save her from melting into the floor, Remi nodded at her to return to her post. She drew out her short journey, throwing little glances back at Kit the entire time. Man was going to cause carnage among the single women of the pack.

"Rina's told me a lot about you," Remi said after they broke their handshake.

"She's been telling me about RainFire, too. I hope it's okay for me to drop by?"

"Of course it's fine. Have you checked in with Lucas?" Rina's younger brother was part of DarkRiver, a youth with the scent of a future alpha who'd gone roaming to stretch his wings, figure out who he wanted to be.

DarkRiver had made it clear to Kit that he didn't have to take up the mantle of being an alpha if that didn't suit him. Lucas had become alpha too young for ugly reasons, and though he'd been ready and willing to step into the role, he also understood what it did to a young man to carry that much weight on his shoulders.

"Kit's one of mine," the other alpha had said to Remi. "He'll always have a home here, never be forced into a choice."

He'd held Remi's gaze with the panther green of his own. "What your pack did to you was unacceptable. You were a cub , younger than Kit by years—any threat your alpha felt from you was due to his own inadequacies. You need to not only understand that but internalize it, so you're never at risk of repeating the mistake."

Remi had appreciated the blunt talking-to, even though he was well aware his flaw was a protectiveness that could turn into a cage. He wasn't one to push any child out of the nest. But Luc's job had been to ensure Remi ended up a good alpha. That meant making sure he was aware of his own shit.

It wasn't until now that Remi realized a part of him had worried that he would react negatively to a young alpha in his pack, that he'd been fundamentally damaged by his own alpha's decision to kick him out at a bare seventeen years of age. Instead, his leopard prowled against the surface of his skin, intrigued by Kit's strength—and painfully aware of his youth.

For the first time, he really got it, understood how fucked up the WhiteMountain alpha's actions had been. Because Kit was a gift to DarkRiver, a strong male loyal and true, who might one day extend their circle of allies to an entirely new pack. But right this moment? He was still young, needed guidance and support as he grew into his skin and his power.

Remi slapped the younger man on the shoulder after Kit confirmed that he'd alerted Lucas he was back in the country. "I'll introduce you to the others here. We're not heading up to pack territory until late tomorrow. You okay to wait? You can stay with us—we have some simple sleeping quarters on the second floor for the short term." Mliss and her official staff of three had proper apartments next door.

"No problem. But can you not tell Rina?" Kit's leopard gleamed in his eyes. "I want to see the look on her face when I walk out of the trees."

"I'm a cat. Of course I'm good with startling her."

Kit's laughter made poor Phoebe all but combust on the spot before Remi took their visitor through to the back to introduce him to the others. Yet as he watched Kit win them over with the generous warmth of a leopard who'd been raised in the heart of a healthy and loving pack, he found himself thinking of Auden again.

His claws pricked his skin, his leopard's lip curling in a snarl.

He had to let that little obsession go. Because the chances of Auden returning to the cabin anytime soon were close to nil. That she'd come even once while so heavily pregnant, though…it made Remi wonder. Why would a woman leave her home at such a critical time if that home was a safe place for her?

···

AUDEN sat in her office staring at her computer. She hadn't done much on it…ever. She hadn't even had an office until she was moved into her mother's care.

Why she'd been given one, she didn't know.

Perhaps as a backdrop to a meeting, should it be necessary. Because at that point, she hadn't had enough mental capacity to utilize any of the systems. Oh, she could pretend for brief fragments of time, but nothing sustained.

That history did, however, mean that this computer was unlikely to be monitored by anything aside from the generic Scott security system that kept out hackers and the like. She hadn't had a chance to test it yet, having done any prior computronic work on an organizer given to her as a young teen that was clear of any bugs because, quite frankly, it was too old and clunky to run the software.

Unfortunately, its age also meant she could no longer really use it except perhaps to visit the forum. As for the other organizer she'd managed to source, the one with specs high enough for everything, she had no plans to link it to the Scott system—at least not until she was ready to sacrifice the device. For now, it was clean, and she intended to keep it that way.

So it would have to be this computer. Inhaling a long breath, she started up a security check using what she'd learned as a teenager prior to the neural damage. Computronic security had been a necessary part of her studies.

"We might exist on the PsyNet," her father had said, "but we can't do business on the Net alone. For one, not all data can be stored there. You must know how to secure your devices."

That advice had ended up prescient, given the continued fragmentation of the PsyNet. With the foundation in the midst of a mass collapse, nothing stored in its psychic fabric was safe, not even the most well-constructed vault.

Her computer proved clear of babysitters or spies.

She remained circumspect in her research into RainFire. Nothing that couldn't be explained away as her attempting to educate herself about her neighbors. There were no pictures of the pack members online, but she did find a small article in a business journal about their indi-mech arm.

Per the journalist, RainFire Mech was "an increasingly strong player in the lucrative and underserved niche." It also looked like their current clientele—the ones the journalist had been able to interview anyway—were very happy with their work.

She checked her mother's holdings, the information available on their unrestricted internal network. She'd remembered correctly: Shoshanna had bought a majority stake in a company that needed individualized pieces of mech on a regular basis. And from the look of things, their current supplier was charging above market rates, likely because they were entrenched and believed they had no competition.

Her heartbeat kicked up a notch.

"Auden?" Charisma stood in the doorway, a strange expression on her face. "I thought I imagined you there."

"I haven't been here often, have I?" Auden said lightly, because she needed to keep Charisma on her side while she set up her plan. "I barely fit behind the desk as it is." She indicated her belly, careful not to cradle it, careful to be the perfect Scott.

"Why are you putting yourself to such discomfort?" Charisma walked over. "I could have provided you with a new organizer."

"I was curious about the RainFire leopards."

Charisma went motionless. "Did they approach you?"

Auden found herself saying, "No." Then she played up her naiveté, leaning into how Charisma had viewed her for years. "I just saw the information in the dossier you gave me."

"Oh yes, of course." Charisma's spine relaxed. "I do recall looking the pack up. They're fairly insignificant."

"Yes, but read this." She called Charisma around to her side of the desk and indicated the article.

"Hmm," Charisma murmured. "Interesting area for changelings."

"That's what I thought. Then I remembered a deal of Mother's, and glanced over the files. See the latest invoices on this work?"

Charisma examined the paperwork, then gave Auden a long and penetrating glance. "Your memory is excellent," she said in an eerie tone that Auden couldn't pinpoint.

It took effort to keep her voice even, to not give in to the shiver that threatened to rock over her. "Mother took me to tour a warehouse once, a long time ago. We didn't often do things together, so I remembered." A wholesale lie, but one Charisma had no way to check—not after so many years.

The other woman's attention was back on the screen. "I see what you mean on the pricing. Our supplier is getting too comfortable, isn't he? I need to get the general manager there to tighten the negotiating screws."

"I was thinking we switch to RainFire," Auden said before she could second-guess herself.

Charisma's eyes were unblinking when they looked at her. "Scotts have never worked with changelings."

"It's strategy." The words fell off Auden's tongue with a speed that made her blood run ice-cold. "We give one contract to the cats and our prior supplier will come crawling to us with a better deal than we could ever negotiate. If we even want to stick with them, because here's what else I found."

She showed Charisma another four-paragraph article that most people would've missed; it spoke about the innovations RainFire had made for another company that had led to increased output and a resulting rise in profit.

The CEO had nothing but glowing praise for the leopard pack.

"I don't think our current supplier is doing any R&D," she said. "We contract RainFire before anyone else of our size or caliber finds them, and we can monopolize their skills while our competitors rely on companies with outdated methods of design and composition. Doesn't matter if they're changeling, human or Psy, the family needs to control the market on the components in order to surge ahead."

Charisma didn't smile—she had been too deep into Silence for too long, but her expression warmed in a way that was as close to a smile as she might ever get. "That's the same call your mother would've made," she said, a whisper of awe in her tone. "Small, intelligent moves with the long term in mind. Brilliant, Auden."

Her cheeks frigid, Auden closed down the computer. "Thank you."

"I'll action it." Charisma made a note in her organizer. "Per the file I just pulled up, our old contract expires within the month, so we'll have to move fast—and hope the pack has enough capacity to accommodate us."

"I think they'll make the capacity with a contract this large." Pushing back from the chair, she rose to her feet to stretch her back. "Since I discovered this, what do you think about me dealing with the cats?"

"I'm afraid you're in too exposed a state," Charisma said, her voice gentle. "We can't have you at risk."

"We could meet here." Auden didn't back down. "I really do need to start doing things, Charisma. I know I'm not the intended heir, but I am meant to be our face for the time being—and I appear to have full cognitive abilities at this point."

Charisma's pupils expanded. "Yes"—a soft voice—"and you are the direct line descendent. Your cousin is a substandard replacement."

This is it. The fault line.

The voice inside Auden's head was cold and manipulative…and not her own.

Her gorge threatened to rise.

"Yes, and if I'm no longer disqualified by the state of my brain, then no one in the family will argue against a deviation from the transfer document," Auden pointed out past the churning in her gut, because this was about her baby, about the innocent life she'd promised to protect. "I was created for and trained for this position by both my parents."

"Yes, you're right." A firm nod. "Yes, Devlin has had nowhere near your level of training—and you were Shoshanna's chosen heir before…"

Auden waved that off before Charisma could walk herself back from her decision. "It would've been a useful thing had the experiment worked," she said. "As it is, it proved a temporary problem, and I'm now at full capacity."

"What about your physical status? It's not safe for that to be made public."

That risk wasn't imagined. The Scotts had made a lot of enemies, many of whom wouldn't hesitate at acting against a pregnant woman. "We make RainFire sign a confidentiality clause backed up by the promise of a ruinous financial penalty." Once again, the words came from a part of her that felt colder and more mercenary than she'd ever believed herself to be. "They don't have enough money to risk it."

"I should've thought of that," Charisma said, but it was with something akin to pride in her tone. "You truly are your mother's daughter. She would be proud."

Auden was going to throw up any second. "So we're agreed?" she managed to say. "I'll deal with RainFire?"

"Yes—but not here," Charisma said. "We have a public building we can utilize. And to assure there is no attempt at interference from inside the house, I'll make it so neither Hayward nor Devlin knows about the meeting until it is fait accompli."

They have no real power , Charisma telepathed, but they could cause you physical harm. Especially as neither ever thought to come so close to the throne.

Auden nodded. You are a true soldier, someone on whom I can rely.

Charisma's spine grew straighter in front of her, her face aglow. "I'll start work on this now, sir."

Auden barely managed to wait until after the aide had pulled the office door shut behind herself before she ran to the private toilet attached to the office, and threw up the contents of her stomach. The shudders that wracked her were hard and raw and she worried that they were hurting her baby.

Which was why, after she'd cleaned up, she went and saw Dr.Verhoeven.

"Nausea at this stage of the pregnancy is unusual, but it does happen," he told her. "As for the fetus, its readings are within the normal parameters. You should, however, hydrate yourself with nutrient-enriched water."

After thanking him, Auden grabbed a bottle of the prescribed water, then made her way out to the back of the property. The air was crisp and cold, the manicured lawn a bright green that seemed unreal, the trees at the back neat and tidy.

Not even a hint of the wild forests of the place RainFire called home.

That Remi called home.

She tried to focus on that, on the fleeting peace she'd found at the cabin, but all she could think about was how those words, those manipulations had come so quickly to her tongue. Her father hadn't been like that, and he was the one who'd raised her for the most part. Even though she knew he'd hidden a lot of his evil from her, she wasn't wrong in her judgment of his overall personality.

Henry's household had been more martial, less political. He hadn't been the one with the silver tongue in his partnership with Shoshanna. That had been Auden's mother. And today, that had been Auden.

So slick, so cold, so nauseatingly serpentine.

Realizing she was in danger of hyperventilating, she began a slow walk across the lawn. She wanted to cradle her bump, wanted to reassure her baby with loving contact, but all she could do in this place where others might be watching was touch her baby's mind. I'm here. I'm your mama. You're safe.

The baby's brain wasn't yet developed enough to understand those words, but Auden hoped it would understand the emotion behind them. Because Auden wasn't hiding anything when it came to the child in her womb. Her baby would never wonder if she was loved—Auden would drench her world in love.

But to do that, she had to stay healthy and in control. She couldn't let her distaste of how efficiently she'd just manipulated Charisma get to her. The pregnancy had awakened some primitive part of her brain, she told herself, a part that was ready to use every tool at its disposal—including Auden's memories of her mother.

Because while Shoshanna hadn't been part of her day-to-day life, Auden had spent time with her in her teen years. She'd seen her mother work, seen how she made people do what she wanted without making any demands. Something inside her had clearly filed away those memories for an instance when they'd be needed.

Now they were.

Auden wasn't going to flinch from using them.

"I'll do anything for you," she whispered to her child. "Cross every line without hesitation."

Auden would fight for her as no one had ever fought for Auden.

Even if that meant playing a dangerous game with an alpha leopard with eyes of a primal yellow-green.