When I stiffen, he waves his hand. “I won’t. I promised Nia. Andthat’sanother thing. She’s sixteen. What the hell was she doing with Eric Masters?”
I suspect I know. “Grieving, Theo. She’s grieving. And she feels lost.”
She didn’t just lose Brett. She lost her mom, and her dad, and Theo, all at the same time. It’s enough to make anyone cling to anything that might offer some relief. “I’ll speak to her.”
“Thanks.” His shoulders slump. “I sure as hell don’t know what I’m doing.”
The expression on his face makes me wonder exactly what happened between him and Kennedy tonight. But I force the thought aside as I jog up the stairs and cross to Theo’s room, rapping my knuckles on the door. “Nee?”
“Come in.”
At the subdued words, I nudge the door open. “Whatcha doing?”
She looks over her shoulder from where she’s hunched over Theo’s laptop, curled up in his desk chair. “Research for my biology project.”
I glance at the screen as I pass, settling on the bed. “Omegas? Figured you’d be an expert. Being one and all.”
She huffs. “Funny. It’s about different types of omegas. Like… feral ones.”
Nia lifts the screen to show me. I frown at the twisted face, the blank eyes, the bared teeth. “You shouldn’t look at that shit before bed, you know. It’ll give you nightmares.”
She ignores me, continuing her scrolling. “Have you ever met one?”
“A feral?” I lean back on the bed, crossing my ankles together. “Nope. Wouldn’t want to, either.”
Just the thought makes me shudder. “They’re not common, Nee. You see more of them in horror movies than anywhere else. And real ferals… they’re not like that.”
Or not for long. Thankfully. A feral omega is far, far worse than the alpha equivalent. But her nose is crinkled. I think it over. “Are you… worried? Is something going on?”
Silently, she shakes her head. “I just wondered if it was something that could… happen. Out of the blue, I mean.”
I purse my lips, thinking. “It’s a gene mutation. If you had it, they would have picked it up during childhood tests. They get a lot of extra support as they need it. Most live in homes where they’re taken care of by people who understand them. They don’t survive well outside of a monitored environment. So I don’t think so.”
She’s staring at me. “What does that mean? They don’t survive?”
I frown again. “It’s a heightened state of awareness. It puts a lot of strain on their hearts, I think. So they tend to die young, once they fully turn. I think they can only survive a few weeks once the change happens.”
It’s a petrifying thought. My brows draw together when I see her expression. Her cheeks are wet. “Nia? Hey. Talk to me, sweetheart.”
She wipes at her eyes. “S-sorry. Rough night.”
When I lift my arm, she dives underneath it, sniffling. I reach my other hand over to ruffle her hair. “Who do I need to kneecap? Apart from Eric Masters.”
I’ll be right there next to Theo. All of us will.
She almost laughs, but it trails off into another sob. “I think it’s taken care of.”
I glance down at her. And then back at the laptop. “By Kennedy, right? She was there?”
I’m watching her face. Enough that I see her eyes do the same thing. They flicker to the screen, and away. She nods. “Yeah. She – she helped me, Jake. She didn’t have to.”
That sounds far more like the Kenny I remember than Theo’s version of her. But my heart is pounding, my heartbeat increasing. “Nia. Why are you researching ferals?”
She stiffens. “I told you. For my biology project—,”
“Don’t lie to me.” She shrivels at my sharp tone, and I try to soften it. “Is there something wrong with Kennedy?”
She shakes her head. I study her.
