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Nick’s choking noise caused her to glance at his face, but he was hiding it in her hair.
“It means…” Perdy looked apologetically at Cain, Mallen, and Jennifer. “Apparently, I’m not the only one experiencing this issue.” She didn’t understand. “As far as I can tell, both Mallen and Cain have stopped aging entirely, or the aging process has slowed significantly over the years to the point I can’t detect it.”
She let out a rough noise followed by a loud exhale. “Are we all…?” she couldn’t even finish the sentence. The unsaid ageless hung silent and accusing between them
“Most likely,” Perdy replied, inclining her head in confirmation.
She was already shaking her head, and her hand reached out to clutch Nick’s. Her fear was so great that she was shaking. “No, that isn’t what I want. What if we live fifty years with our mates, eighty, if we’re lucky, and then what, a lifetime alone? No, that’s not living.”
There was a collective growl of agreement among everyone. Nick squeezed her hand.
Scientists would have more to answer for if they were forced to live without their mates.
There was no doubt that Cain would be driven insane without his mate and child. Lila’s absence from him before he was fully mated was fraught with tension and fury. Being without a mate left Cain feeling directionless and without purpose, making his emotions harder to manage during Lila’s time in hiding. It created a void in Cain’s life. In contrast, when Cain fully mated Lila, his fury and rashness were contained unless his mate or child were threatened.
Perdy replied, “You may not have to worry about that.”
With her mouth dryer than the desert, she worked moisture around it, licking her lips before asking in a hoarse voice, “What does that mean?”
“It means Lila hasn’t aged since becoming mated to Cain, and neither has Jennifer,” Nick said without changing the tone of his voice.
Mallen and Cain’s guilt choked her to the point where she couldn’t breathe. Drey’s scent was conflicted. He had a finite amount of guilt but also a strong and dangerous emotion he was struggling to suppress.
Drey was elated, and now she knew why. Drey had his mate with him forever, and given the seriousness of this discovery, he was trying hard not to show his delight.
Harper felt pale, and she wobbled on her feet. “You mean…?”
“That all of our mates will probably stop aging?” Perdy finished her question, and Harper nodded in agreement. Having just begun a tentative relationship with Nick, it was possible that this new information might end it. “The short answer is yes! We would have to be a test for everyone, but I believe it’s a clear answer.”
“Okay,” Harper replied feebly.
Nick’s silence was making her anxious because she didn’t know what he was thinking or feeling. She worried about his reaction to this bombshell that Perdy dropped and a tight ball of nerves formed in her stomach.
Perdy pursed her lips. She briefly glanced at Apollo. Apollo turned his attention to her. For once, his eyes were soft, but Perdy was already looking away. “Essentially, the human-Number mixed children will reach the same age as I did and stop ageing.”
“This…this is…that… I don’t even know what to say,” Harper stuttered, her eyes drawing in at Nick’s continued silence. When someone tells you something like that, how do you even put it into words? “Do you have any idea how long we will live? Could this be immortality? I mean, I hate to ask, but is it?”
“I don’t know,” Perdy said, and Harper could hear her frustration in her voice. “Just because we are immortal doesn’t mean we can’t die. When you hurt us hard enough, eventually we scar…”
Harper unconsciously touched her neck.
Nick drew her hand down, kissing her palm as Perdy continued, “…and some Numbers have died at the sites. So I don’t think we should suddenly become daredevils and take unnecessary risks.”
“Unnecessary risks?” she asked, wondering what they were talking about.
She understood Perdy’s meaning. There was no chance she would jump from a building anytime soon to test her skills, and she hoped no one else would do the same.
There had been a few Numbers who tested the boundaries of their enhancements and this might stop those that pushed too hard.
Because of her scars, she sometimes felt fragile, and now that she had Nick, she would have to be doubly careful.
“Number’s teams go out with Nick’s teams, and they suggested doing more dangerous things, because that can heal,” Cain bit out, and she heard fear and fury in his voice. He was afraid his males would ignore him and might risk it anyway.
Perdy snapped, “It’s suicidal when we don’t even know our limits.”
Apollo looked at her like he was worried about her, but Perdy missed it completely.
“Wait a minute,” she interrupted before they could begin talking about task teams. “Why are our mates not aging?”
