Chapter 41

Chapter 41

I need the strike team ready and waiting to move on my mark.

—Charisma Wai to the head of Scott household security (five hours ago)

REMI HATED THE feel of this house. It ruffled his leopard's fur the wrong way and made him want to tear it down, start again. Place was elegant on the outside, but so damaged by decades of loneliness and ice and secrets that it couldn't be renovated to a better state.

The cold was in the walls itself.

He'd wondered how Auden could bear to touch it, had asked her earlier without pressing on the wound. "What about all the contact points in this house?" he'd said, after he'd stroked her to bone-melting softness before they fell asleep. "I've seen you touch things without any impact."

A yawn before she'd answered. "Seems to happen with psychometrics and their long-term residences. Might be a survival instinct. We stop sensing the space and things attached to it unless we make a conscious effort. I only had trouble during my pregnancy but I had trouble with everything then so was hyper-conscious of any direct contact."

Another yawn, her eyes closing. "I do pick up imprints from any new object placed in the house, which is why I usually avoid new things until they're at least a year old—there's a scientist in the psychometric group I belong to online, and his theory is that our brains connect a new object to our residence after a period of time, at which point they become safe."

Her voice had turned into a near-mumble. "An artefact of evolution, he says. Only those psychometrics who had this ability to nullify their domestic environment surviv…"

She'd fallen asleep in his arms, her hair wrapped up in a silk scarf of a simple gray, and her face soft in rest, but—and despite the pleasure they'd shared—the shadows under her eyes no less deep. He'd known she'd dream of Liberty, would wake with worry for her child's future heavy on her heart.

He'd held her as he slept himself, confident that Rina would alert him to any threat—and confident, too, in his own instincts. Remi's leopard would never allow an intruder to get close.

Now he held up a hand, then pointed ahead at a spot in the wall that held a surveillance device. When he made a downward motion, he heard Auden go flat on the ground. They'd discussed this after they'd woken, with Remi having already mapped out their entire route.

It infuriated him that she had to sneak around her own fucking house, but he was willing to play this game to find out why Charisma Wai and her pet doctor wanted a tiny, vulnerable infant enough to impregnate Auden. She hadn't spelled that out to him, but she hadn't needed to—he'd figured it out given all the other pieces of information.

These people had stolen even her consent.

They crawled five meters before he gave the signal for Auden to rise, but neither one of them had made a move to get up when he caught the sound of a voice. He held up his hand again, signaling Auden to stay down.

Less noise that way, less chance of attracting attention.

Cocking his head, he tried to pinpoint the source of the sound…and realized it was coming from the partially open door of the room three doors up to the left. No light showed through, and he couldn't quite hear what was being said, but it appeared Charisma Wai remained where Rina had last spotted her—in her office.

He made a quick decision.

Rising in a smooth motion, he turned and all but lifted Auden up onto her feet, to lessen the chance of extraneous noise. He put a finger to his lips afterward and had her follow him to the other side of the hall and nearer to the door. He could hear parts of the conversation already, but aware that Auden's hearing was less acute than his, he took them to right beside the door.

A careful glance inside told him why he couldn't see any light—Charisma Wai was sitting in a chair at her desk, with the desk lamp illuminating only the immediate area.

She wasn't alone.

Though Remi could only see the back of her companion's head, it wasn't hard to identify him from the conversation: the doctor who'd violated Auden. Verhoeven was the person Rina had heard open and close the back door.

"…neurological recovery is remarkable," he was saying, "and something I'd write a paper on in other circumstances."

"Will the drug you've suggested risk her brain?" Charisma Wai asked.

"No. I'd never permit that. It would nullify the point of the entire project."

"This brain isn't the important one," Charisma said, her tone offhanded. "We need the infant."

"Have your hunters had any luck locating it? I did look on the PsyNet, but Auden's entire mind is surrounded by an impenetrable shield, and the child will be within that."

"No," Charisma gritted out. "We should've embedded a tracker in the infant in utero, as I suggested."

Remi met Auden's gaze, saw the rage within, and shook his head. These two would pay, but they couldn't risk tipping their hand just yet.

Auden squeezed her eyes shut, but stayed in place.

"The risk was too high," Verhoeven said. "But regardless, we must confirm if the temporary transfer is complete. Have you worked out how we can get Auden to the infirmary for the necessary tests without her bodyguards?"

"No point in subtlety. A strike team is assembling to move in within the hour. Changelings are fast, but bullets and lasers are faster."

Remi's claws pricked at his skin, but he shook his head at Auden again when she bared her teeth in a snarl. Not yet. Let the assholes talk.

"Is that wise?" Verhoeven asked. "The death of an alpha changeling will cause political ripples."

"He's acting as a bodyguard. He got in the way of an assassination attempt. And it isn't as if his pack is powerful enough to take on this family." Charisma's voice was unconcerned. "As for Auden, I don't know. She has knowledge she shouldn't have, but she also responds in ways that aren't quite right."

"A partial integration?" the doctor said. "In all honesty, I'm finding it increasingly hard to connect on the other end so I can't confirm. The psychic fragmentation has picked up speed. If the integration has failed with Auden, we need the child as soon as possible."

A tapping sound, nails against a wooden desk. "She should've never attempted Auden's mind again. It was always meant to be the infant. Undamaged. A pristine canvas."

"Unfortunately, we are not the ones making the choice."

The scrape of a chair. "We need to rest, be ready to move after the strike team has done its job."

Remi nudged at a trembling-with-anger Auden to move down the hall. He followed her in a stealth of shadows, blending in with the dark like the cat under his skin. He could feel her desperation to talk to him, discuss what they'd just heard, but fury or not, she held to their plan and maintained complete silence all the way to the basement storage area.

Once there, he put his lips to her ear. "Liberty is safe. Whatever happens, these bastards will never get their hands on her. My pack will rip out their throats before that and Zaira will join in."

"Yes." Then she turned, took his face in her hands. "And I will shoot them dead before they ever get a bead on you or Rina." Fury in the kiss she laid on him, a depth of protectiveness that was rarely directed toward Remi.

He was the alpha. He was the protector.

Except, it seemed, to his mate. Because of course that's what she was to him. Some part of him had known that since the start; that was why he'd allowed her touch that first day, and why his leopard had reacted so badly to her apparent inability to be the partner he needed.

"No more." Auden's whisper was rough and low but potent. "We find out tonight, even if that means we hold Charisma and the doctor down and inject them with their own fucking drugs!"

He growled in agreement before pulling out his phone to send Rina a text alerting her to the incoming strike team: Prep our people, but don't move until the last possible minute. We need them to believe we're exactly where they think we are for as long as possible.

Not expecting an answer given her current form, he slid away the phone, then hunkered down to begin searching for an access point.

Auden's hand on his shoulder, her leg pressing into his side. "Switch is on the wall to the left, behind the shelf that holds the long-life protein bars." Her voice was ice, the hand on his shoulder warm. "There is no threat immediately underneath the hatch."

The hairs on his nape rising, he looked up into those eyes of moonstone blue, and saw a woman of frigid control looking back at him…but beyond the control burned the rage of her need to protect those she had claimed.

Bleedover.

With Auden in control. Because his fucking mate wasn't about to allow anyone , even another part of her psyche, to get in the way of her protecting her people. That metal in her scent? It had returned, but as such a fine thread that it had no chance of overpowering her.

Rising, he crouched down by the shelf she'd indicated, removed the two boxes of protein bars…and there it was. A slight depression in the wall that would be invisible if you weren't looking for it.

Heart thumping, he pressed his thumb to it.

Nothing.

"It's DNA encoded." Coming down beside him, Auden put her thumb to the depression.

The hatch slid back with soundless precision.

Looking at it, Auden's eyes narrowed. "Let's go find out who the fuck is trying to hurt my child and my man."

Remi's leopard rumbled in his chest, furious with pride, his own anger claws against his fingertips.

After squeezing her nape, he went ahead.

The hatch had exposed a well-made set of stairs. Nothing rickety. These were gleaming clean plascrete. Despite Auden's ability to open the entrance, he scanned the stairs using the same device he and Rina had used to clear the rooms. Security was about taking the extra step, looking behind each door twice.

"Clean," he said.

"Because only people with the right DNA can get in," Auden said, the ice now a mere element of her voice rather than all of it. "Why DNA encode access for a woman who had brain damage?"

Remi had no answers for her, but—"We find out tonight."

Auden's jaw grew hard. "Yes." She put a hand on his arm when he would've entered the hatch. "I go first. There may be a secondary DNA confirmation on entry—the way these systems work, I should be able to take an unknown individual with me if I go first."

Every one of Remi's instincts struggled against allowing her to go first into possible danger, but he knew the kind of high-end system she was talking about—if anyone might have one in the house, it would be the Scott family. "Go," he said, muscles bunched in readiness to haul her out at the first sign of danger.

Auden didn't hesitate, and took three steps down. "Now."

Remi stepped in after her.

Nothing happened until they were at the bottom of the short flight. At which point, Auden reached to her left and pressed her thumb against another small depression, and the hatch slid shut above them.

The lights brightened at the same time, to reveal that they stood in a small room in front of the heavy steel cage of an elevator. The doors gleamed at them, their mirror images grim-faced.

Auden stepped forward and touched another depression, while Remi did a second scan.

"Still clean," he said, slipping the device into his back pocket.

"We can talk," Auden confirmed. "No one would dare monitor me in such a way." Once again, her voice had shifted to a far icier version of the one he knew, but the fire in her gaze was his Auden, the way she stared at the doors to the elevator pure rage.

"What's happening, Cupcake?" He deliberately used his private little name for her, wanting to touch that part of her that got all soft and happy when she heard it.

"I don't know. But I'm me. The me that would die for Liberty—and kill for her."

The last came out as grim as the cold dark of midnight. It didn't bother him. He'd kill for little Liberty, too, would kill for any of the cubs in his pack.

He let his claws slice out as he brushed her cheek. "Let's go find the fuckers."

Her smile was deadly.

The lift doors opened at that moment.

Remi was already in position to attack should they find a threat, but the woman in the cage wore white scrubs with the Scott logo on the pocket and was holding an organizer. She was blond, about five feet four, her build stocky. And Remi hadn't seen or scented her in the house even once since their arrival.

Her pupils expanded as she stared at Auden. Her gaze flicked to Auden's belly, then back up.

"The plans have changed," Auden said, the words clipped and remote and coming from the part of her that wasn't her…but that had become infected with her love for her child. "The infant didn't survive. We have to complete a permanent transfer to this brain."

"Oh no." The nurse or doctor shifted back, so Auden and Remi could step inside the lift with her. "Did Dr.Verhoeven authorize it?" A hesitant question as the lift doors closed. "You know he has significant concerns about this brain even though you prepared the telepathic interlock over many years."

An ugly truth emerging in the recesses of her mind, Auden looked at the other woman without speaking until the blonde dropped her gaze. A pulse jumped in her neck, faint perspiration breaking out over her upper lip.

" I am making the decisions now," Auden said, sick to her gut. "You would do well to remember that, Nurse Lomax." The name fell from her lips as if she'd always known it.

"Yes, of course, sir." The woman tapped at her organizer. "I was actually on my way to consult with the doctor. Your brain patterns are destabilizing even further."

"How bad?" she asked, as the other part of her retreated without warning, but Auden didn't need her anymore.

The monstrous truth was taking darker and darker shape inside her mind.

"A fifty percent decline in a matter of hours." The nurse dared meet her gaze. "We might lose the pattern altogether if we don't finalize the integration tonight."

"Just as well I'm here then," Auden said.

—how long this brain will function—

—integration—

—a pristine canvas—

—telepathic interlock—

—destabilizing—

Her gaze met Remi's, and in the feral green-gold of his eyes, she saw the same realization as her own.

The doors opened in front of them.

When Auden stepped out, the nurse hesitated. "Should I fetch the doctor? He's the only one you taught to oversee the mechanics of the integration—and he needs to be on standby in case of heart failure, as happened the first time you attempted a full transfer to this brain as a stopgap measure."

Heart failure. And they wanted to do the same thing to her tiny, fragile, cherished baby?

Auden would murder each and every one.

The other part of her surged to the surface before she gave in to maternal rage—because that part had merged with her core nature, was her now. And that part loved Liberty, but could keep a cool head at the same time even in its murderous rage.

"Verhoeven can do nothing," she said, frigid contempt in her tone. "His job was to maintain the pattern and the fetus—both tasks at which he has failed." Her tone of voice made it clear that the doctor would not appreciate the cost of failure.

The nurse went pale.

Silent or not, everyone valued their skin.

"Yes, sir." The nurse stepped out. "Should I come…?"

"Yes," Auden said, as the other part of her faded out, a wave surging in and out. "You may as well give me a full update while we walk. I haven't had a chance to read the latest report."

She was aware of Remi falling into step behind them.

When the nurse glanced back and hesitated, Auden said, "He's mine," and the words felt right in the purest sense, with no connection to power or control. He was hers…as she was his. And Liberty was theirs. A symbiosis of love. "You can speak freely."

"Yes, sir," the nurse said with compliant obedience, and led her into a long and scrupulously clean tunnel before beginning a rundown using complex medical terminology that went right over Auden's head.

But one thing was clear: the nurse was talking about a person.

A person whose brain patterns had begun to falter.

A person who needed a new brain .

A person who everyone in this household was doing everything they could to assist in what was, quite frankly, an insane endeavor. Because even the most powerful Psy in the world couldn't just move their consciousness into another brain.

She felt no surprise at all when they emerged into a large chamber with white walls, two hospital beds, and masses of complex medical machinery to see the emaciated form of her dead mother.