“Okay, but I’m still failing to see where the warning was necessary.”
“Energy control isn’t like pheromone control,” she said. “In theory, yes, a Shout could mate with an omega, however—”
“What about an alpha?”
“Pardon?”
“I’m asking if a Shout could mate with an alpha.”
There was a pause while she seriously considered, and then, “A female Shout could potentially procreate with a male alpha.”
“What about a male Shout?”
“Male Shouts are like male alphas. They lack the proper equipment, so to speak.”
“That means his parents had to have had Shout lineage somewhere in their line, mixed that with ours, and now there’s a Shout/omega hybrid in the universe?”
“It’s highly unlikely any Shout would be born an omega, Purse. I told you, they’re the dominant of their kind. A Shout would be born an alpha, while a Whisper might be born an omega. To be honest, in regard to the latter, I don’t see why a Whisper couldn’t also be born alpha.”
“So it’s just Shouts that are boxed in.”
“That is correct.”
“Is this all in theory?”
“No, I’m confident in my assessment,” she replied. “The main point is any child born of our two species would struggle with self-control. They’d need rigorous training to learn how to balance their internal energy and practice how to do so alongside regulating their pheromones.”
“And if an alpha Shout was turned omega?”
There was another moment of silence, and when Fiora spoke again, there was an edge to her voice that hadn’t been there before. “Are you telling me someone used an illegal substance like Rebirth to forcibly alter the presentation of an alpha-Shout hybrid, Oberon?”
Fenrir felt his eye twitch, but if Oberon noticed, he didn’t let on.
Though how he could miss it while staring so intensely at Fen was beyond him.
“If I am?” the alpha asked.
“I’d say that’s even more of a reason to stay away from them,” Fiora answered. “Rebirth hasn’t even been around for a full decade yet. There’s not nearly enough data for me to pull to give you satisfactory hypotheses on the matter. Depending on their ability—”
“Snow,” Oberon cut in, then pursed his lips and reconsidered. “Or ice, maybe.”
“Cryokinesis. What you’re insinuating is that you have an extremely dangerous person on your hands. If this is more than hyperbole, the Leviathan should be informed immediately.”
“That won’t happen.”
“Oberon. Cryokinesis is one of the two most powerful Shout abilities documented. This person can alter the kinetic energy of atoms in the air and—”
“That isn’t pertinent. Go back to explaining the part about energy. If a person like this did exist, and they’d successfully learned control over their Shout abilities and their pheromones, but then had their—”
“Genetic makeup completely fucked and rearranged?” Fiora huffed. “It would take years for this person to regain sanity, meaning whoever forced this experimentation would most likely call off the project and exterminate the test subject. If they didn’t, it can only mean one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“Their end goal was to create a weapon. If they didn’t kill this person, that insinuates whoever is responsible found a way to control them.”
“Any ideas how?”
“Considering where we are currently and the line of questioning, I think it’s safe to assume we’re talking about illegal experimentation conducted by the Wardrobe. If that’s the case, then the logical answer is their mistress, who is a dominantalpha, used her pheromones in contained and continued doses to condition and tame the subject.”