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He can feel his cheeks go pink.

“That’s enough out of you.”

He kisses Nix’s cheek, though, so he knows he appreciates the sentiment.

“I think I need to raise the bar, though.”

Nix giggles, as he pushes Gideon down on the bench outside the room, before sitting his lead-covered butt in his lap.

“Oof. Go easy on me, Kitten.”

“Are you complaining? Surely not.”

Rolling his eyes, he makes his point with a firm squeeze.

Grayson is leaning against the wall, with his eyes closed and his ankles crossed. He might look relaxed if you didn’t see his hair moving in the non-existent breeze or that muscle ticking in his jaw.

Undeniably weird, no doubt about it.

“Come on, Gray. Let’s check everything’s in working order. Did you take your piercing out?” Finn asks, receiving an eye roll in return.

The technician, Emmy, is efficient and walks Grayson through the process. It’s a tight fit for Grayson’s shoulders, which are already much broader than he was for his earlier scan, eighteen months ago.

“Okay, you’ll need to stay as still as possible, Mr. Pearce. I’m sorry it’s so tight in here, but press this button if you need anything.”

Finn puts a hand on Grayson’s ankle.

“You alright?”

“Yeah, let’s do this before…fuck. The wolf doesn’t like this, ‌Finn. Like, at all.”

“You did fine the last time, though?”

“Yeah, this isn’t me. This is him.”

Oh.

Finn wishes he understood better. Sure, his wolf had been crystal clear during his rut and in the days leading up to it, but it was nothing like the daily battles the enigmas seemed to face.

“Okay, we’ll hurry.”

Finn follows Emmy behind the glass partition.

“He’s ready when you are, Emmy. Thank you.”

“Sure thing, Doc.”

The MRI machine starts up, and it’s loud, even in the booth. Clanking and a steady whirring are perfectly normal, and the images start showing on the monitors. But these aren’t the typical images Finn is used to seeing.

Nope.

There’s elevated activity, as flashes of pink and blue flash across the surface of Grayson’s brain—a pattern of ethereal activity across every single one of his mate’s cerebral nodes.

They’re concentrated in the frontal lobes, where cognitive function is located, and in the temporal lobes, where the light is brightest. Those areas are known for memory and sensory processing. Occasionally, the MRI captures bursts of activity in the parietal lobes, where spatial awareness and sensory integration usually take place.

It’s beautiful, but not at all the appearance of typical Were brain function.

“Holy shit,” Emmy whispers.