Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 128413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Auden’s chest filled with air again. She hadn’t known how much she craved Remi’s approval of her as a mother until she got it. Because he was changeling, a creature of family and loyalty. More, he’d had a mother he loved. He understood what it meant to be a good mother, a mother who protected and shielded.
That he saw that in her? It made her feel bigger, stronger, worthy of her child.
“No argument from us on the cub being yours.” Remi’s hand continued to massage the tension out of her nape, the act so luxurious that it felt decadent to indulge in it in front of Finn, but she couldn’t make herself move away. “Your love for her fucking shines, Auden.”
Chapter 32
My mother is dead, Mr. Krychek. A result of a genetic flaw that was unfortunately never picked up. She died of sudden neurological failure and her body was cremated soon after the authorities signed off on her death. I am now in charge of Scott family operations.
—Auden Scott to Kaleb Krychek (20 August 2083)
AUDEN SHUDDERED, HER hand flexing open on the soft fabric of Remi’s T-shirt—but she stayed cuddled to the wild heat of him, her body and mind craving his touch. “You both know I have mental issues,” she said, her eyes on her precious girl. “But they’re not genetic. I don’t understand why the family wouldn’t just use my own eggs. Is it possible they were having trouble fertilizing my egg?”
Finn’s eyes met Remi’s.
And she knew. Twisted and an unimaginable violation though it would be, it was the only thing that made sense in that house, in that family. “Whose egg?” Ice in her blood, in her veins. “Just tell me.”
Though Finn was the healer, she looked at Remi.
He didn’t make her wait. “You’re half-siblings. You share maternal DNA.”
The cold inside her continued to spread. “My mother’s egg?” she said, to be certain.
“I triple-checked.” Finn’s voice. “There’s no mistake. My system kept flagging her DNA as a sibling match to you, and I thought it was a glitch. It isn’t.” A rough exhale. “We managed to get hold of Shoshanna’s DNA profile, compared it against both you and the cub to be certain beyond any doubt.”
One day, Auden thought, she’d ask Remi how RainFire and the Arrows had become such friends—because no one else could’ve gained the pack access to a former Councilor’s DNA profile—but today, her mind had no room for anything but the cold reality of the decisions made for her when she’d been unable to protest or even understand what was going on.
“Shoshanna must’ve frozen her eggs at some point,” she said, her mind an ice sheet unbroken. “It could’ve even been a requirement of the family when she was younger.” The Scotts, after all, were all about bloodlines.
She nodded, working it through; the cold inside her made it easier to think. “My mother must’ve hoped to produce a child with more active abilities than mine. Continuing the primary bloodline rather than defaulting to my cousin. I was a convenient incubator.”
That didn’t matter.
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.”