—From the draft of an unpublished paper titled “Recessive Gene Markers and the Rarity of True Genetic Death” by Dr. Natia Kahananui and Dr. Eijirō Kahananui

DR. KAHANANUI CALLED Bo in for a scan after breakfast. Lily had sent him more files overnight and he’d been sitting at the kitchen counter reading them while Kaia did her meal planning for the next few days.

“I’ll come,” she said, putting down her computronic pen.

Bo could still smell her on his skin, as if she’d become fused into his very cells. But it wasn’t enough, would never be enough for him. He was like KJ’s mate, who wanted the orderly to wear a wedding ring—Bo wanted Kaia to wear his brand and he wanted her to ask him to wear hers.

Ten more mornings.

He could make no promises before that, could ask for no loyalties. That would be a selfishness too far. So he took her hand and he took a kiss that made a passing Pania giggle behind her hand, while Scott gave him a thumbs-up. And he hoped his siren would forgive him if it was oblivion that waited on the other side of the door.

Dr. Kahananui was standing by her data display panel when they entered, her head on her mate’s chest while Dex rubbed her back.

Bo and Kaia both froze on the doorstep, went to move back out, but the couple had seen them. “Come in,” Dr. Kahananui said. “Dex has to get to work.”

Rumbling in Dex’s chest. “I told you I can take the time off.”

“You’ll spend it driving me crazy.” Rising on tiptoe, the coolheaded scientist kissed her scowling mate’s nose. “I’ll see you at lunch.”

“Count on it,” Dex promised darkly before he left.

Bo got himself into the scanning chair, used to the procedure by now. Kaia silently strapped down his arms, then lowered the strip that went over his eyes. He was ready for the kaleidoscope in front of him, but what he saw in the back of his mind was Kaia’s face . . . and the shadows that lived once more in her gaze.

He gripped the ends of the chair arms to keep from tearing away the straps so he could rise, wrap her up in his embrace.

When the kaleidoscope finally blinked out ten minutes later, Kaia lifted the top of the scanning equipment and pushed it back behind his chair. “I have to get back to the kitchen,” she said with a glance at the time, “but I’ll pop in again when Attie has the results—if you don’t mind.”

Bo caught her hand. “No secrets between us.” He’d give her everything he had, even knowing that he had only a five percent chance of giving her freedom from the fear that ten more tomorrows was all they’d ever have.

Leaning in, Kaia ran her fingers through his hair, then kissed him with a wildness that left him shaken. He was still trying to catch his breath when she walked out the door. She’d never be an easy lover, his siren. But she’d love fiercely and she’d light up his fucking life.

“You adore her.”

Bo looked at Dr. Kahananui. “I’d lay the world at her feet if I could.” He wasn’t about to play games or hide what he felt for Kaia. “Still five percent?”

“Unfortunately.” She rose, arched her back, and winced.

Having gotten up, Bo hesitated. “Um, do you want me to do . . .” He held out his palms awkwardly.

She laughed. “My mate would sulk for days. You’re not a cousin yet—and I did send him out.”

Bo swallowed his sigh of relief; he’d have massaged her back if she’d said yes to his offer, but it wasn’t exactly an area in which he could claim any expertise. “So, what’s next?”

It took a further three hours to complete the full battalion of tests, with Kaia coming in with coffee, hot chocolate, and snacks about fifteen minutes before Dr. Kahananui was satisfied she had all the data she needed. Bo ended up standing with his hand on the back of Kaia’s chair afterward, both of them focused on the results.

“As I told you,” Dr. Kahananui began, “there’s a risk the compound is altering the effectiveness of the chip in your head, but I can’t be certain of that without running a test you’ll no doubt find deeply uncomfortable.”

Having drunk half his mug of coffee, Bo put it aside with a frown. “I haven’t said no yet.” This wasn’t only about his future—no matter how fucking badly he wanted that future. Lily, Cassius, Heenali, Ajax, Zeb, Domenica, so many lives, so many brilliant minds, rode on the outcome of this study. “What’s the test?”

Dr. Kahananui’s next words were stark. “A telepathic attempt against your mind.”

Every one of Bo’s muscles bunched, his knuckles turning white from the force of his grip on the back of Kaia’s chair. He was conscious of her turning to look up at him, her hand rising to touch his. “It won’t be so bad,” she said with a soft smile that hit him right in the solar plexus, it was so full of light.

He smiled back at her because he couldn’t help it. Even when what her cousin was suggesting was his worst fucking nightmare. “Yeah?”

“Atalina has access to a telepath she trusts without question.”

Bo felt an unexpected chill whisper across his skin. “I haven’t heard of any Psy defecting into BlackSea.”

“We don’t need a Psy.” Eyes dancing, Kaia got up and put her hands on his chest. “I can do it.”

Time stood still, the world frozen in place. Bo could see every separate lash shading Kaia’s eyes, the air coming out of his mouth a slow burst of particles and the beat inside his chest a bass of sound.

It all crashed in a massive boom inside his skull. “What?” The word came out harsh, rough as crushed granite.

Eyes of primal onyx locking with his own, the playfully secretive curve of her lips fading to be replaced by deep grooves between her brows.

“How can you be Psy?” He closed his hand over her wrist while his blood ran hot, then cold, then back again in a chaotic cycle that was a roar in his ears.

“I’m BlackSea.” Kaia’s response was firm, her expression guarded. “Both my great-great-grandmothers mated powerful telepaths. I also have multiple other Psy ancestors on both sides of the family tree.” She shrugged, as if she hadn’t just shattered Bowen’s sense of reality. “I’m hardly unique. Plenty of changelings have Psy ancestry.”

So did any number of human families, but this was very, very different. “You’re talking about attempting to hack my mind.” As another telepath had once done, shoving her cold mental fingers into Bowen’s brain. “That’s not a small genetic quirk.”

“One of Kaia’s direct ancestors was a cardinal, the other a hairsbreadth from cardinal-level power.” Dr. Kahananui looked from Bo to Kaia, her eyebrows drawn together. “My parents did a gene map for Kaia when she turned sixteen—their idea of a birthday present.” A slight smile. “While predicting psychic strength on the gene level remains a murky exercise, Kaia appears to have inherited every single Psy gene floating around in the familial gene pool.”

Bowen’s confusion crystalized into a single blinding thought.

Tightening his grip on her wrist, he said, “Are you sick, having headaches?” His heart might be bionic, but it felt as if it would explode from the pressure within. “The Psy have a psychic network that provides the biofeedback they need to survive. Are you in a network?”

“I’m fine. You don’t have to play knight in shining armor.” A pat of his chest with her free hand, her lips curving up a little.

Bo thought of the packs that did have Psy defectors. Those defectors were alive and thriving, so changelings—BlackSea included—must have some way of providing the energy needed by strongly psychic minds.

But now that he knew Kaia was safe, he could no longer ignore the crushing wave of betrayal that had slammed into his heart the instant he understood she was a telepath. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It never came up.” Her fingers curled into his chest. “It’s a part of me. Like my arm or my leg. I don’t go around telling people I have an arm—and there are no other telepaths on Ryūjin. My telepathy is a dormant limb nearly a hundred percent of the time.”

He wanted to shake her. “You’ve listened to me talk about how defenseless humans feel against telepaths. You know exactly how I feel about the Psy. Yet you said nothing!” Bo had trusted her with his soul, and she’d held back this elemental piece of herself.

Wrenching her wrist out of his grasp, she stepped back, and her eyes, they were no longer in any way human. “Because it didn’t apply!” Her chest rose and fell in jagged breaths. “I have ethical lines I will never cross! What does it matter if I’m a telepath when I would never, never enter another mind without permission?”

“That’s not what this is about!” It was about him and Kaia and a bond they’d forged based on truth.

“No, it’s about you thinking of me as a psychic rapist!” The brutal word was a verbal slap that made his head ring. “No, don’t speak. I don’t want to hear anything you have to say.”

Bo wasn’t about to be given the brush-off, not by his siren, but he caught a glimpse of Dr. Kahananui’s face at that instant. Her shoulders were tense, her face pale, her eyes darting between him and Kaia. Shit. “Do it,” he said to Kaia even as his stomach twisted. “Run the test.” The rest of this conversation, they needed to have in private.

Hands fisted by her side and her eyes pools of black, she said, “Think of a five-number sequence as hard as you can and push the sequence out of your mind.”

Bo took three seconds to put together the sequence. “I have it. Pushing now.”

Kaia stared directly at him for at least a minute before shaking her head. “Nothing, not even a whisper. Your shield is rock solid.” She folded her arms. “Since you think I’m a lying cheat—”

“I never said that,” he began.

“—you should get a second opinion from a telepath you trust.”