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)
Aden thought Alejandro was safe to permit knowledge of RainFire.
That was good enough for Remi.
Turning on his heel after Zaira vanished into the night, he went toward the infirmary and caught sight of Finn heading toward him. “Both asleep,” the healer said. “Auden barely managed to stay awake long enough to cuddle Liberty even after all the nutrient drinks Zaira pumped into her through the day—the shield stuff must be heavy-duty mental lifting.”
Remi grumbled. “I wanted to say good night.”
Rolling his eyes, Finn yawned. “Go. You won’t wake Auden, and Liberty falls asleep as fast as she wakes at the moment, so you’re safe to pet her a little.”
“You need sleep, too,” Remi said with a scowl, and shook his head when Finn went to argue. “Go to sleep. That’s an order from your alpha. Who else is on medical watch?”
“Sass.” Another jaw-cracking yawn.
“Then we’ll be fine—I’ll help her keep an eye on the patients, and we’ll wake you the instant anything goes wrong.” He squeezed the other man’s shoulder. “Shut-eye before you fall asleep mid-operation.”
“As if I’d ever,” was the grumpy response before Finn walked over to his home—the aerie closest to the infirmary.
Once inside the cubes, Remi told Saskia what was up—to the shake of her head, the rich scarlet of her hair in a neat French braid. “Hugo told him that before he went off shift, and I told him that two hours ago, but would the stubborn man listen to us?”
“Healers,” they said in unison, and laughed.
Remi cupped her face afterward, her skin the hue of cream, and said, “And you, Sass? You doing okay?” She and Hugo were both so efficient that it would’ve been easy to forget that they, too, needed their alpha’s attention—except not forgetting was Remi’s job.
“I’m wishing Rina’s little brother was a few years older so I could lure him to my aerie without guilt,” Saskia said with a wicked glint in her eye. “Then again, he might be into older women.”
Chuckling, Remi touched his lips to hers in a kiss that had nothing to do with romance and everything to do with affection, his protective instincts toward the healers in the pack a thing unbound. “I have no comment on that,” he said after cuddling her close. “Just remember that Rina knows where you sleep.”
Saskia’s shoulders shook in his embrace. “Excellent point.”
After a couple more minutes speaking to the nurse, he went to check in on Auden and Liberty. Their cube was quiet and dark, the only lights coming from Liberty’s incubator, and the soft night lights built into the skirting of the walls.
Auden was frowning and tossing in her sleep, her curls tied up in what appeared to be a silk scarf that looked like something Saskia would choose for herself. Since he’d briefed all the medical staff on Auden’s needs as a psychometric, it had to be brand-new and machine-made—Sass wouldn’t have risked giving Auden a used one. He had good people in his pack—and they appreciated a mother who fought for the happiness of her cub.
“Shh,” he murmured with a brush of his palm over her cheek, rumbling deep in his chest in the way he’d noticed she liked. “I’m here. I’ll watch over her.”
A sigh, her body turning into his.
He stroked her back until she was in a deep sleep, then turned to Liberty. He’d kept an ear out for the cub from the start, but she hadn’t woken. Now he touched her through the little circle in the incubator, and felt her in his heart. Strange, but it was almost as if she was blood-bonded to him, same as Finn and his sentinels.
A memory of the rich scent of blood, of a child born while her mother clutched at Remi’s hand and begged him to protect her baby. Of Remi’s claiming of the baby as one of his. Of a tiny life Remi could feel as he could feel every member of his pack.
“You’re mine, aren’t you, little one?” he said, certain beyond any doubt that Liberty was linked into the PsyNet through her mother and into RainFire through him. No one had to tell him if it was possible—he knew.
It was a long time later that the baby whimpered.
Aware by now how long she needed to spend in the incubator, Remi knew it was safe to take her out for a cuddle. “Hey, now,” he rumbled as he picked her up after tugging off his T-shirt so she’d have skin-to-skin contact. “What’s this, hmm?”
She settled the instant she was against his chest, her little hiccups adorable. Smiling, he nuzzled at her, felt her smile in his heart. And for a fragment of a heartbeat, he saw a glittering blue spiderweb in his mind, a creation lovely and eerie…and so real that he knew he hadn’t imagined it.