Forgotten Ties (Ties, Book 3.5) | ✓

Chapter 3

Early in the morning, Peter and Joanne had loaded Skye and several of the other kids into a van and driven them to a doctor's office. After way too long of waiting around in a boring room while Peter tried to keep the kids from throwing the chairs around, Joanne came out to get Skye for his turn with the doctor.

"Hello, Skye," the doctor said as he ushered Skye into the examination room. "Is that spelled with or without an 'e'?"

Skye shrugged. He couldn't read. It had been Skylar originally, but he hadn't gone by that since he'd been a little human boy.

"Okay, just like last time," the doctor said. "Take your shoes off and stand on the scale."

Had there been a last time? Skye didn't remember. He didn't remember how he'd ended up in the group home at all; he was just assuming it had been his own choice. He took his shoes off and stood on the scale.

"Hm," the doctor said. "He's lost a bit of weight since last time."

"Do you think we're not feeding him enough?" Joanne asked. "He eats a lot."

Would they give him more food if they thought he'd lost weight? Skye dropped a tiny bit of weight and watched as the bar on the scale shifted.

The doctor frowned. "It might just be malfunctioning. Skye, can you step off the scale and back on?"

That wasn't going to work, then. Skye stepped off the scale, brought his weight back up to approximately what it had been before, and stepped back on.

"He's lost a little. It might not be the amount but rather the type of food he's been eating." The doctor hooked his thumb under Skye's lip and lifted it to expose his teeth. He was wearing a glove and it tasted funny. Skye prodded the thumb with his tongue and the doctor shook his hand as he pulled it away, his face twisting with disgust. "He has a carnivore's teeth, so he might not process some foods properly. Try giving him more meat."

"I'll try, but meat gets expensive," Joanne said.

"Give him cat food," the doctor said.

There was a slidey thing on top of the scale and Skye entertained himself by sliding it back and forth until the doctor slapped his hand away.

Joanne guided Skye away from the scale. "Cat food? Doesn't that say 'not for human consumption' on the packet?"

"He's not human," the doctor said.

"Well, no, but..."

There was a happy ocean scene with colourful fish and a sailing ship painted on the wall. Skye had lived on a ship for a while. His least favourite part of living on a ship had been when he'd been drowned in the ocean.

"He's a cat hybrid, so why shouldn't he eat cat food?" the doctor asked. "It's interesting. Cat hybrids are common because cats live around humans, but I've never seen two that are alike. Each time, the fae seem to find a new and unique way to combine them. It's very fortunate for us because we don't have to worry about them breeding when they're the only ones of their kind."

Skye snuck over to a big jar of wrapped sweets that sat on a table near the door and discreetly swiped one. He unwrapped it and put it in his mouth, but his teeth definitely couldn't make their way through it so he swallowed it whole instead.

"It is one less thing to worry about when we have so many young people in that house together," Joanne said.

"Now, Nim, he's a concern," the doctor said. "When do you think we might be able to bring him in to be sterilised?"

Joanne hesitated. "I don't think he'd agree to that."

"Are you sure? He's a teenage boy. Frame it as him being able to have as much sex as he wants without worrying about condoms."