Cadel just walks past them, towing me with him. Mia lets out a titter and snags the plate out of my hand as I go past.
“I’ll take this for you, love.”
I force a smile, trying to show how much I appreciate her non-judgmental friendliness.
Before I can think, we’re standing at the fence again. On the other side of the bushes are the hostile streets of Foreen.
I can’t look at Jarek and Mordecai. If I do, I might beg them to stay with me. I don’t know what’s wrong with me or why this is so hard.
“It should get easier, but it gets harder,” I murmur.
“It’s always hard going back out there,” Kendric says, misunderstanding me.
Cadel steps through. I stay right on his heels, unwilling to let him out of my sight.
We go in a different direction again, heading out behind the school. I try really hard not to think about the fact that I’m missing Mordecai and Jarek. I barely know them, I shouldn’t be so addicted to them. They are like an extension of me now, having them not around is like the world is wrong. It’s an itch I can’t scratch.
“What’s in this direction?” I ask, forcing myself to ignore the unease.
“Apartments, shopping centres, this area is much more preserved, some of the interiors can actually be walked on and in. It’s fascinating, a snapshot into the lives of our ancestors on the day that the world ended,” Sophie murmurs. Her voice is deep and filled with awe as she looks around.
“It’s a graveyard for omegas and alphas,” I snap.
“Yeah, that, too,” Sophie says with less enthusiasm.
“How did you get involved with the Resistance?” I ask and soften my voice so I don’t come across any worse than I already have.
She looks at me and looks away. “No one has a good story to give you, Keres.”
“I know,” I say as we turn onto a wider street. The husks of large vehicles block the view; the metal looks like it’s been eaten away. It’s almost pretty.
“My parents were an omega and alpha pair. I was a couple of years old when they just didn’t come home. I would have starved but for my pet dog. He lasted a few years, and we survived together, but hedied. He got too slow and couldn’t run properly and became food for something stronger. I survived half-feral, unable to talk, until Mordecai found me. He brought me to Bear and the Resistance.”
I don’t offer her platitudes or sympathy. She wouldn’t want that. I wouldn’t.
“My dad sold me.”
I jerk my head toward Willow. He shrugs and laughs a little too loud and a little too happily to be real.
“My dad was starving, and he was a beta. He didn’t want to raise an alpha, so he sold me. My master put me into fight rings until I escaped one day and joined up with this lot.”
“What happened to your master?” I ask him.
“I killed him, of course,” Willow says proudly.
“Of course,” I say, trying not to show how strange I find his pride in killing people.
Alex glances at me and scowls harder. “I’m not the sharing type.”
Kendric growls at him. “Alex was one of the kids who escaped the roundups. He slipped through and ended up with our medic, who taught him everything he now knows.”
I glance at Alex in admiration. “Handy.”
“And I,” Kendric says, “grew up in the village that your boy Mordecai saved. We didn’t know each other well, and I went off and did my own thing, but we ended up back together again. It’s funny how fate works.”
“Isn’t it just,” I murmur, looking at Cadel, who is scanning the surroundings with increasing intensity.
I look up at the grey sky. Since we’re sharing, it’s only fair that I do, too, right? “I lived in Beta City right under their noses with my mum, my aunt, and our whole neighbourhood. We didn’t have much, but we had enough.”
