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 Scott ignored him.
Her mouthpiece graced him with that nauseatingly fake smile once again. “The Councilor’s records indicate he purchased it when he was young,” she told him. “He might’ve been building a property portfolio before realizing this region wasn’t the most valuable in terms of future capital value. As for the rest…he was a Councilor.”
Remi nodded. Even though she’d given him nothing solid, what she had said could be the actual truth. Psy generally didn’t make any attempt to own property in remote areas—unless of course, they were a Councilor up to nefarious business. Nice to have a secret getaway where you could torture prisoners without anyone hearing them scream. Also made sense that he’d structured the ownership so it couldn’t be traced back to him unless he allowed it.
Until, of course, an upstart pack set up shop here and ruined the whole operation.
“You have official proof of ownership?” he said. “I don’t want to be a stupid changeling taking you at your word.” Every changeling in the world knew that Psy like Charisma Wai thought themselves better than humans or changelings.
Humans were considered too weak, changelings too feral.
The executive assistant showed him the deed on her organizer screen. Looked official, with the transfer to Auden Scott noted as occurring three weeks earlier. If it was legit, then whoever was settling Henry’s estate had lost track of this land for some time.
“I’ll send you a copy at your comm code so you can verify it with the relevant authorities,” Ms. Wai said. “I understand your wariness given the rogue military unit you mentioned.”
Sometimes, the whole logic-is-best thing Silent Psy had going on actually worked to make them straightforward. Not often enough to balance out the other crap they pulled, but it was a small positive.
It could, however, also be used as a shield.
“Appreciate that,” he said aloud. “You know where the borders are? I don’t want any of your people startling my sentinels into aggressive behavior.” His senior people were far too smart to attack without thought, but Remi needed Wai to see them as a threat, so neither she—nor anyone else in the Scott camp—would start getting any ideas.
Another tap at her organizer before she flipped it so he could see the map on the screen. The boundaries glowed red. “Does this align with your understanding?”
“Looks good,” he said after a thorough scan. “My people have become used to running through here while it was uninhabited—I’ll tell them to back off, stay within our boundaries.”
“That would be appreciated.” Another smile that put him in mind of a cobra changeling he’d met—man’s blood really had run cold. Good thing cobra changelings were so rare that no one else he knew had ever come across one. “I wouldn’t wish our security to be startled into aggressive behavior.”
He gave her a small smile. “Got it.” After another glance at Auden Scott, who hadn’t spoken a single word to anyone the entire time, he melted back into the trees.
But he didn’t go far—just far enough that there was no way they could see him. It was possible the security team was doing telepathic scans, but his Arrow friends had told him that most security specialists didn’t bother with the draining task unless they were in a high-risk situation.
“Arrows do it as a matter of course,” a senior member of the squad had said, “but Arrows have more psychic power than ninety-nine percent of people.”
As it was, Remi could make things even harder for them.
Stripping in the shadow of the trees, he cached his clothes on a lower branch that wasn’t too wet from the rainstorm, then shifted. His body broke into a million pinpricks of light before coalescing into the leopard that was his other form. The change took a heartbeat, the agony and the ecstasy of it singing through his bones.
It was pain beyond the imaginable, and it was pleasure untold.
Shaking his body to settle his new skin in place, he jumped up onto the trunk with muscular feline grace before making his way to a thick upper branch from where he could watch his new neighbors even if they were once again out of hearing range. His tail twitched lazily, but there was nothing lazy about his eyes or his mind. A mind that Charisma Wai and her security goons could no longer spot—it was Zaira who’d told him that.
Lethal assassin, Aden’s lover, and the unexpected heart of the place the squad had made their home, she’d said, “You have a shield in either form, but I’ve noticed that once in animal form, your shield doesn’t feel like a shield. I can only sense changelings in animal form because I know so many of you. To most telepaths, you’d read as an animal.”
That suited Remi just fine.
So he wasn’t prepared for Auden Scott to do it again: jerk her head in his exact direction and stare at the trees as if she could see through the wall of dark green to the shadowed golden pelt of the creature that stalked her little group…as if she felt the same primal compulsion that had driven Remi to keep trying to get a response from her, find out the truth of her.