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)
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.
Chapter 15
“You are going to be the most dominant person in the room a lot of your life, Rem-Rem. That doesn’t mean you will be the most important. The coward we once called alpha has forgotten that; he thinks he’s the only one who matters. An alpha who thinks that way? He’ll crush his pack’s heart under his boot.”
—Gina Denier to Remi Denier (circa 2070)
MLISS RAN INTO the meeting room just as a T-shirt-and-jeans-clad Remi finished writing up his final set of notes before he could head home. “You will never believe this!” His calm and cool COO was literally dancing in her high heels.
Fascinated, Remi tried to come up with the most outlandish answer possible. “Nikita Duncan wants to hire us.”
Mliss’s grin was feline all right—of the Cheshire cat variety. “Not Duncan. Scott.”
He all but ripped away the piece of paper in her hand. It took him two read-throughs to confirm it said what he thought. “They want us to send in a bid for all their indi-mech needs?”
“Yes! Within the next two weeks, though they’re willing to extend the time period a fraction, since they understand this is an enormous ask.”
Remi’s heart thundered, his leopard prowling to the surface of his skin. The human part of his mind, however, was calculating the odds of this being a coincidence and coming up with no fucking way.
He couldn’t, however, see the time he’d spent with Auden as any reason to be suspicious—likely she’d started to research RainFire, stumbled across their mech arm, and decided the pack might be useful to the Scott group of companies.
“No ethical considerations, either,” Mliss said. “At least not on the associated projects—I know the Scotts have a rep so I dug hard, but every one of these operations seems above board and routine.”
“Send me all the details.” It didn’t matter that business wasn’t second nature to Remi. He had to stay on top of everything with which the pack was associated. RainFire was too young to take any risk that could affect their reputation.
All final calls in the pack were his, good or bad.
As Mliss had said, the Scotts had more than one skeleton in their closet—but from what he’d picked up through the Arrows, most of those skeletons had to do with politics and power. Their business enterprises were prosaic enough, and included significant holdings in computronic and mech fields.
On top of that, Shoshanna was no longer in charge.
I bet I could do it. Not step on it. Catch it.
She was happy the last time she wore that watch.
Can I shoot now?
Remi growled silently at himself. Because despite that strange hour he’d spent with Auden, he didn’t know her. Not as anything but a woman who couldn’t shoot and who cradled her pregnant belly with a near-feral protectiveness. He’d stake his life on that being real, even if every other thing about her was false.
Auden Scott would battle to the death to protect her child.
“Can we fulfill their needs?” he asked Mliss through the chaos of his thoughts. “Do we have the capacity?” A huge deal like this could pay off their business loans within the year, but only if they could produce the goods.
“I don’t know. We’ll have to do a breakdown.”
“Get everyone in this room. We’ll figure it out before I head home.”
Two hours and a ton of calculations later, the consensus was that it was doable if they trained five to seven more of their people on the low-level work. Remi knew they’d get volunteers for that gig from younger packmates keen to get experience on the floor.
“Do it,” he told Mliss. “Work with Theo to put together a draft proposal, then send it to me. I’ll put out the word that we have openings and ask for applications to be sent to you, Ru.”
Having joined in from the factory floor, Rulinda Bay, their head of engineering, gave a quick nod. Her silver hair shimmered in the overhead light, the lines on the pale skin of her face speaking of a lifetime of experience. RainFire had gained her expertise because she’d decided to move packs to stay close to Asher and her two other grandcubs; she’d brought her mate—a robotics expert—along with her.