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)
Remi growled softly in satisfaction before jumping off the branch to run back to his pack—and to the vows he’d taken to protect and shelter each and every individual within it. Those same vows meant he couldn’t get back to the cabin the rest of that day, or the next. Having foreseen that, however, he’d ordered his people to do extra sweeps, keep an eye on her from afar and make sure she was safe.
Then Theo reported that Auden had flown out in her jet-chopper, and that was that.
Or it should’ve been.
Those moonstone blue eyes haunted Remi…as did the strange dream born of his leopard’s memory of her funhouse mirror of a scent. It made Remi wonder if the cat had seen something the man had missed, if the woman who’d said she could catch his tail—and had instead caught his interest—had been the best mask of all.
Chapter 13
A9: I’ve recently come into contact with a changeling group and had an opportunity to sense an old changeling imprint. It was less…visceral than other imprints of a similar age on the same surface. I’d like to hear further from those of you with experience with changeling imprints. Is this normal?
Jervois: I’ve never had the chance, but I’m curious to hear from the others, too. My family is considering a business venture with a small changeling group, so I might come into contact with their imprints. I would like to be prepared.
TNS: I’ve had multiple opportunities to sense changeling imprints. A9, your experience is similar to mine. We can still read them, but not at the depth we can Psy or human. And in passive mode, I find that I’m not discomforted at all in even heavily changeling-imprinted spaces. I’ve theorized it’s as a result of their natural shields.
Jervois: That is intriguing to me. After all, Psy have heavy shields, too. Why are we impacted so strongly by our own race then? Humans, it makes sense, since their natural shields are paper thin.
A9: Perhaps we are sensitized to other Psy in a genetic sense? Or perhaps it’s because a changeling has a dual aspect to their nature, which might somehow scramble our senses.
TNS: Valid theories—perhaps one day one of us can get a grant to study the phenomenon. Though, A9—I see from your profile that you’ve posted in the pregnancy subforum—I can’t tell you anything about how your current physical status will impact the effect of changeling imprints. It’s not something with which I’ve ever had—or will have—any experience.
A9: Hopefully another one of us can chime in with more knowledge.
Enna: It’s been seven hours. Does no one have more information? This is the most interesting thread we’ve had in forever.
—Thread on Psycho & Metrics: A Forum for Ps-Psy
REMI SPENT THE next nine excruciating days pressing the flesh and schmoozing with potential business partners, Theo at his side. They had to fly for some of it and damn it to hell he hated planes, but at least he was back at their Sunset Falls HQ for the last hellish day of face-to-face business meetings.
“I hate this,” he growled as he pulled at the pale gray of his tie after another mind-numbing negotiation.
At least he’d had the satisfaction of booting the previous party onto the street while their eyes bugged out. Those particular asses had thought they could take advantage of RainFire because they were just “dumb animals”—he’d literally heard one of them say that while leaning down to whisper to his associate.
Who the fuck went into a meeting without looking up the abilities of the other side?
He’d have expected such behavior from a certain caliber of Psy, but turned out there were pockets of humans who thought the same superior way. It had given him great pleasure to purr, “This dumb animal isn’t interested in your offer” as he allowed his eyes to shift.
He’d then risen to his feet with a smile that held pure death. “Let me show you to the door.”
He hadn’t made a single violent move, had kept up his smile the entire time—and they’d almost shit their pants as they scrambled to get the fuck away. Theo had cracked up afterward. “That’s one hell of a smile, Remi. You ever look at me like that, I’m running away and never coming back.”
Mliss Phan, the head of their public HQ, meanwhile, had just said, “I’m going to find their most dangerous competitor and offer them the deal of their lives, just to screw with these bastards.”
Remi liked the way his chief operating officer thought.
Now, having already hung the dark gray of his suit jacket on the back of the chair, he rolled up the sleeves of his lighter gray shirt as he took a seat at the break room table. “No one warned me about CEO bullshit when I said I wanted to be an alpha.”