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)
“Yes, but I stumbled into a back-end spot with a small outfit, and they let me try out for a novice position when they realized I had excellent reflexes. Turned out I was a natural on the track—took us to a championship trophy in my fifth year as a driver.”
“You retired while at the top?”
“It was time,” he said, his voice firm. “Look down.”
When she did, she saw a ribbon of light in the moon-washed silver of the world. Wonder in her veins. “What is that?”
“Park path. Town lights it up at night. Some of the pack like to go down there on romantic dates.”
Auden bit down hard on her lower lip, wondering what it would be like to walk hand in hand with Remi along a softly lit path. Her baby kicked right then, as if reminding her that she had other priorities.
Looking down, she stroked her belly. I never forget you, my baby.
The sensation that came back to Auden was of happiness…and comfort. Safe. Her baby felt safe and warm and content.
It made her throat tight.
“Cub doing all right?”
Her heart did that freefall thing again at the open concern in his tone. “Yes. It’s just a little uncomfortable being in this seat in my current shape.” She met his eyes, told him without speaking that there was so much more she wanted to tell him.
“Won’t be long now.”
They didn’t speak again the rest of the trip, all the words they couldn’t say building in the small space until they became a pressure as inexorable as the feel of Remi’s shoulder against hers.
Auden didn’t move. Didn’t want to move.
She wanted to sit in this cockpit together forever, and imagine that he was hers…and that she could trust him without question, without hesitation. Inside her mind, a sensation bloomed—but it wasn’t the one that felt wrong, outside of herself.
This was a flutter, an innocent touch.
Reaching out to Remi.
Auden blinked rapidly, her eyes burning. Even her baby was attempting to touch Remi.
* * *
• • •
REMI brought the chopper to land with an inward grunt of satisfaction. Soon as it was down and locked in position, blades slowing to a stop, he jumped out and ran around to the other side to help Auden out.
Neither one of them spoke, but she didn’t wave off his help this time and he all but lifted her out. Even so pregnant, she weighed nothing to his changeling strength. After shutting the door to the chopper behind her, he took her lead as she ignored the cabin’s back door to walk around the side.
When she rubbed at her back, he realized she had to be stiff. “Let me,” he said, his voice rough, but didn’t touch her.
Not until she met his gaze…and dropped her own hand, the air a shiver between them.
Auden is off-limits, he reminded himself. You protect, you don’t take. Not her. Not until she’s in a space where her consent means something.
But not about to allow her to hurt when he could help, he rubbed with firm downward strokes as they continued to walk in the glow of the heavy silver moon. “It was time for me to build a pack,” he said, finishing the conversation he’d cut short in the cockpit because these words weren’t for any ears but hers. “That’s why I stopped racing. I only ever did it in the first place because I figured I’d be a shit alpha.”
Auden halted. “But why?” Her features scrunched up into an expression so confused it was adorable. “I knew from a single touch of that chair you gave me that you’re beloved as an alpha.”
He shrugged even as his leopard rubbed against his skin, wanting her petting words to turn into a petting touch. “My father abandoned me when I was five, and that kind of desertion is all but unheard of among changelings.”
Most changeling species didn’t become fertile except when mated or in a long-term relationship. With leopards, that rule was an absolute. As a result, every cub was seen as a gift, a treasure.
Or that was how it was supposed to be.
But Remi’s father had decided he didn’t want to live up to the commitment he’d made to Remi’s mother and their son. “Then my alpha kicked me out when I was only seventeen.” No one had stood up for him because Rhett Farley had surrounded himself with the weak. “I was a messed-up kid who had no idea what to do with all the dominance inside me. If I hadn’t had my mother, I’d have been fucked up to all hell.”
“She sounds like an amazing woman.”
“She was.” Remi’s chest squeezed hard enough to hurt. “Biggest heart of us all—and the irony of it is that it was her heart that killed her. A rare genetic mutation that stole the light from her eyes in the prime of her life.”