“What about Abrams—,”
“He’s still focused on his trust theory.” Shoving the papers back, I sink my head into my hands. “But Kenny already trusts us. She lets us close. She sleeps on us. Hell, we hand feed her now because she won’t take it from anyone else. If that was the key, we would know it by now. That’snot it.”
I lift my head. “I promised her, Theo. I promised her I would fix this. And Ican’t.”
My voice breaks.
Theo looks stricken. “That’s not all on your shoulders, Oz. All you can do is what you’re doing. Maybe we just need more time.”
Time. I hate that fucking word. “This is her life. Every day, we’re losing a little more of it to this fucking change.”
She’s lost enough time. She’s lostenough.
“It’s not fair,” Theo says quietly. “I know, Oz. Every time I look at her, I see him. I see what he did to her. And it’s not fair that she’s suffering for it. But keeping away from her is only going to hurt her more. I learned that lesson already.”
I know. I fuckingknow.
When I rub at my chest, Theo frowns. “You got a pain?”
“Yeah,” I rasp. Thanks to too much caffeine and not enough sleep. “It’s aching. Nothing major.”
But he’s staring. “I have the same thing. Jake mentioned it earlier too.”
My hands stop moving, my thoughts pulling together in slow motion. “You think it’s the mating bond?”
I haven’t felt a thing since the day she changed. Not a single glimpse to help us with Kenny.
Theo presses his fingers to his chest. “Maybe? It feels like a throb. But… distant.”
Something else to consider.Something new.“I’ll head over in a minute.”
But he doesn’t move. “Maybe we need to remember that it’s Kenny in there.”
I stare. “You think I’d forget?”
He swipes his hand through the air. “I mean… we’ve been so focused on her as an omega. Maybe we need to get her to respond to us as Kenny. Push her into it.”
“Maybe.” But the last thing we want is for her to retreat. Not when it’s taken us so fucking long to reach this point.
The thought plays on my mind on the drive over. I turn it over and over, examining it in my head, picking it apart.
I’m barely aware of pulling in, of switching off the engine.
Max and Jake are in the hall. My feet pick up speed, the thoughts solidifying. “What if it’s not just—,”
They turn to me, and I stop short at their drawn faces. “What’s happened?”
Max turns back to the window as if he can see through the reflection where they’ve blocked our view. “She’s got a slight fever. They kicked us out so they could assess her.”
My throat closes up. The door opens, and we all swing to the suit that steps through, helmet still in place. “Where’s Abrams?”
They pull the helmet off, revealing a shorter male with spiky blond hair. His gaze sweeps across us warily. “He’s not here today. We left him a message. I’m fully qualified, I assure you. Name’s Adams.”
“What’s wrong with Kenny?” Jake steps forward. “Is she sick?”
Adams purses his lips. “We’re not certain. It could be a number of things. She’s not showing any other signs of sickness. It’s possible that it’s a heat spike.”
Shit. “But she’s not supposed to have heat spikes. Did you sedate her?”
