Chapter 9
KIRA
When I came home, I found Naomi curled up in a ball in her bed, sweating despite the apartment feeling like an icebox.
I’d figured one of us left open a window and I was on a hunt for it when I found her sweating like a whore in church who’d slept with the pastor and his wife was staring from the pulpit.
"Worry the gods," I muttered, pressing my hand to her forehead.
She was burning up.
"Nai. Wake up."
She groaned but didn't open her eyes.
"Naomi. You're sick. You need to wake up."
"Not sick," she mumbled. "Just tired."
"You're on fire. And why the hell is it so cold in here?" I checked the thermostat. Sixty degrees. "Did you turn on the AC?"
"Was hot."
"It's February. It's forty degrees outside and it feels colder here than out there. You can't be hot. Not this damn hot, anyway."
"I am." She burrowed deeper into the material she was holding. Was it that t-shirt she’d been wearing? "So hot. Make it stop."
I studied her. There was a flush on her cheeks, the way she was clutching that t-shirt, the sheen of sweat on her forehead despite the cold. I removed some of the clothes that she was wearing and saw relief on her face as her skin was exposed to the coolness.
"Why are you sleeping in the middle of the day?" I asked, taking off her socks.
"Headache. Tired."
"When did the headache start?" When she was only wearing her bra and panties, I stood to look at her. Still sweating, her skin looked irritated and red all over, as if hives were covering her.
"This morning. When I woke up."
"And the tiredness?"
"After meeting with Danny."
"Did something happen at the meeting?"
"No. He was weird, though. Kept his distance and he kept sniffing the building." She opened one eye. "Why are you interrogating me?"
"Because you're acting weird and I'm worried." I sat on the edge of her bed. "Did you eat today?"
"Not hungry."
"Naomi, you have to eat." I sighed. The Beta in me was freaking out.
By nature, we couldn’t help but to nurture any person we bonded to. Especially, an Omega. Her needs came before mine and if she wasn’t okay, neither was I. Genetic makeup catastrophe.
"Kira. Please. I just need to sleep. I'll be fine."
She looked so miserable that I relented. "Fine. But I'm checking on you in a couple hours."
"'Kay."
I left her there, but something was nagging at me. The fever. The exhaustion. The heightened scent that even I as a Beta could detect.
It felt like—No. It couldn't be.
Naomi had never gone into heat. Ever. She thought she was a late bloomer, but at thirty, most Omegas had long since presented.
But those Alphas last night had been able to scent her from across the room.
Why else were they so in tune with her that they approached?
What if they'd triggered something? Or sensed something? No other Alphas had approached her, but that didn’t stop them from looking.
After Kellan and Rowan had come over and staked their claim, it would have been suicide for others to approach her.
In fact, nobody but the bartender had come near her after they’d come over.
I pushed the thought aside. That was ridiculous. All of this was. One night couldn't trigger a heat.
Could it?