“Are you okay?” Lily asks her.
Andrea nods stiffly.
“Umm… do you, like, need a hand?” I ask dumbly. That snaps Andrea out of it. She steps away from the wall and walks over to us, head held high.
“I’m fine.”
And she is. She is the same old Andrea. But there’s something just a little lighter inside her, too.
“Good to see you again, Lily. I’m sorry all this happened,” Andrea says.
Lily smiles wanly and holds out her hand. “Good to see you too, Andrea. My mom’s pack misses you, said you haven’t been by for pastries in a dog’s age.” Lily comes from a big family. She grew up with six dads and two moms. Andrea is much older than Lily, so I know they didn’t grow up together, but a lot of the shifters on this mountain have known each other for decades.
Andrea reaches out to squeeze Lily’s hand. But when they touch, they both freeze. I look at Andrea, whose eyes shoot to mine. Good, she didn’t fall into a weird trance like Lily and I did.
But Lily is doing it again. It’s disconcerting to see it from this side. Her eyes go vacant, and it’s almost as if she’s in rigor mortis, joints locked in place.
“Lily,” I nudge, trying to pull her out of it. But her eyes are wide, pupils narrowing. Like she’s not even here.
And then she gasps and rips her hand from Andrea’s.
“Lily?” I try again.
“Oh my god!” Lily exclaims.
“What? What is it?” I ask, just as Andrea snaps, “What the fuck just happened?”
“I saw her! I… I saw…” Lily looks at me frantically, worry watering her eyes. She begins shaking her hands, breath coming out in short bursts.
Your omegas are connected, Mona. Help her.
How?I shriek at Beep.
She sighs, frustrated she still has to explain things to me—as if all this omega shit is totally normal and when something weird happens, I should just roll with it. Well, damn it, I think I’ve done a pretty good job, considering.
Calm her down and help her understand, Beep tries again.
I don’t know what she expects me to do when I don’t even understand. Lily is still whimpering, her omega trying to soothe her. Andrea keeps shouting. I grab Lily’s hand.
“It’s okay, Lily. Just tell us what happened. Did you see something?”
She’s practically hyperventilating. I suck in a loud breath, making a circle with my lips. I glare at Andrea, and wave my other hand, indicating she should copy me. Andrea rolls her eyes, then sucks in a heavy, loud breath. Then we whoosh it out together. We do it again until Lily catches on and copies us, inhaling and exhaling with exaggeration.
It takes a few deep breaths to get her heart to slow down. Then she swallows, a little calmer.
“What did you see?” I ask gently.
Her eyes open to saucers, then shoot to Andrea, then to me. Then back to Andrea, where they stay.
“You saw Andrea?”
She nods a few times.
“Okay… and what was Andrea doing?”
She looks at me, slightly panicked.
“It’s okay, Lily. Whatever it was. Sometimes I have dreams that tell me things. Omegas sometimes have powers. Did you know that?”
