I say it again. And I hate every word, as if voicing it might give truth to what’s staring me in the face. I snap it, harsh and jagged anger in every word. “She’s dying.”
Prognosis is terminal. Patient requires end-of-life palliative care. Feral status is expected to develop within six months. Heart failure expected within eight months.
The air turns eerily still as their heads lift.
And then Oscar is tearing the paper from my hand, scanning the words I just read. He repeats the movement, over and over. His head begins to shake.
It won’t change it.
“No,” he says finally. “That’s not—,”
Max snatches it from him, mouthing the words. Theo… Theo doesn’t move.
The paper flutters down onto the table. None of us speak.
Carefully, I push my chair back. None of them stop me.
She’s dying.
Kennedy is dying.
Kenny.
And then I’m outside, my roar bursting out into the darkness. Around us, lights flicker on in the houses.
Heart failure expected within eight months.
My mate is dying. Just like my mom.
My fist slams into the ground. I’m on my knees, not remembering how I got there. Again, and again. Bones crunch, and then arms wrap around me, pulling me back.
Max and Oscar are talking to me. But their voices buzz in and out. I shake my head, trying to clear my ears.
Theo’s eyes meet mine. He knows. I can see it in his face, even as Max and Oscar talk about plans, and the truck, and getting up.
There is no fixing this.
No fixing her.
And there will never be a fix for me. Not without her.
Oscar
They’re breaking. All of them.
Theo’s face is blank as he watches Jake shattering his wrist against the ground, his knuckles breaking under the force of his blows. Max drop down beside him, pain written across every inch of his face.
And I—
I have to focus. I have to get them together. All of them, even as my heart shatters into jagged, broken pieces in my chest.
Mate. My mate. Ours.
God, we’ve failed her so badly.
I push it aside and breathe. I reach for the anger instead. Let it fill me up, running into every split in my soul and giving me the push I need to go to Jake and crouch in front of him.
“She’s still here.” I snarl it into his face as I stare at him blankly. “She’s still fucking here. Our mate is up in that trailer. And we’re going to get her, right now. So get the fuck up, Jake. Now.”
