Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Remi Denier: Alpha of the RainFire leopards.

Never say we don't keep you in the loop, our dear wild women. Because it appears our friends in RainFire have been hoarding this gorgeous feline specimen all to themselves. But our intrepid journalists go where even bears fear to tread in order to keep you informed.

Eyes of a pale brown shot with gold and filled with light, a charming smile that makes us want to rip off our panties, and hair so many shades of brown that it's a leopard's fur in human form, Mr.Denier is a tall bite of gorgeous hunk.

Rawr.

And yes, ladies, the man is single. Not only that, but he's got serious claws if he's set up a pack and held it against all comers—including multiple other predatory changeling packs in the region. Surely he needs a mate to keep him warm on those cold mountain nights.

Who here is ready to volunteer for this onerous, onerous task?

—From the "Scary but Sexy" column in the September 2083 issue of Wild Woman magazine: "Skin Privileges, Style the Arrows considered him a rock-solid friend and ally; and not a single member of RainFire would give a second thought to picking up the comm and calling him if they needed their alpha.

Each and every one knew Remi would come, that Remi kept his promises.

But emotions weren't that easy. Because tangled around his worry about what he'd be like with the woman he loved was grief old and deep. Losing the only person who'd stuck by him from childhood, it had wrecked him. He'd had no pack to fall back on, no family who'd embrace him. Only Angel, a friend new, the bond between them in the process of forming.

His mother's death had left him hollow and adrift, a leopard without a home, a changeling without a pack—because he wasn't going to take advantage of their foster pack's kindness by saddling them with a dangerous dominant who had no loyalty to them, and who was, quite frankly, angry and messed up. A part of him had broken the day they put Gina Denier into the earth, the fracture a permanent part of his psyche.

His leopard had learned that love on a personal, private level equaled pain so deep it was beyond blood and bone. And now he was falling for a woman who might cease to exist, her brain injury eroding her sense of self until only the cold darkness remained.

"You're thinking too far ahead," he muttered to himself. "Focus on the bed."

"Did you say something?" Auden licked a bit of cheese off her finger.

His groin tightened, the most primitive part of him in no doubt about what he felt for this woman with the eyes of luminous blue who'd walked into his life without warning. "Just figuring out the join," he said, and put his head down to work. "How did you escape Ms.Wai's iron grip?"

"I didn't tell her until you were almost there. I also let her know the doctor diagnosed me with stress." She swallowed a bite. "I don't know how long she'll stay away. The attention on my baby"—her free hand cradling her bump—"it's intensified even further since we spoke at the factory. I can't think of any good reason why they'd want her so badly, but they do."

"What about the father?" Remi asked, his leopard annoyed at the idea of anyone else having even a vague claim on Auden and the cub. "I know Psy do business deals to create children, but is it possible he has some special ability they believe the cub might inherit?"

But Auden shook her head. "I had the same idea, but he's a pure telepath. Extremely high-Gradient—9.7—but that's not rare in terms of the donors my mother earmarked for me. Not a single unusual thing about him. All his medical and psychic records are on our system and will be updated until my baby is of age. Part of the fertilization agreement."

Remi shook his head. "It's much more fun making cubs the old-fashioned way."

A whisper of scent from Auden that made his entire body tighten. Strangling the desire that crept over his skin, he said, "Bed's done. Come test the frame so I can put the futon on it, and then you can tell me what you think might be going on, and we'll come up with a plan to help you and your child." Because Remi was in this to the end.

For Auden. For her cub.

And for the whispered promise of a future that clawed at his heart.