4 – More Fighting

When he woke again, it was less than an hour later and Trevor was prying Treena out of his arms. Troy didn’t argue and he didn’t let himself be tired. He’d be sneaking both young Cheerios at breakfast. He started to get up from the chair, but froze at a familiar noise, listening, scenting.

In the other room, the sliding glass door opened and Rogue entered, closing the door behind her. Troy scented her path, in essence, he watched her, in his never-ending quest to figure out what made Rogue tick.

That morning, she went right to the fridge. Rogue couldn’t speak or hear ruhi, but that wasn’t the only thing that made Troy think she was interesting. Unlike most people, the expression on Rogue’s face always matched her scent. Troy still trusted scent over sight, but it was harder and harder to ignore words and facial expressions each day, so he appreciated Rogue’s congruity. He studied it whenever he could.

Troy headed out to the kitchen. He hooked some cold pizza off the counter and sat down at the dining room table to watch Rogue, see who she pissed off that day. Not him. She couldn’t piss him off. She didn’t scare him either, not much.

The door opened again and Cerise and Dahlia came in, both giving him a quick wave and both running over to whisper to Rogue at the fridge. The place was filling up early. Troy liked it that way. Next came Conri in his dress uniform, like he was on official business. He came from the back, the same way as everyone else. Who knew what he’d been doing back there. Troy grunted at him and flipped him off for his bullshit the night before. Conri smiled a stupid bear smile and waved at him and headed into the kitchen. Fucker.

Trevor came down the stairs again. “Orange juice,” he grunted at Rogue on his way through the kitchen, and she handed it to him, then pulled cheese sticks out of a drawer for her.

“How is Mac doing with Kendra?” Trevor asked Rogue.

Kendra was Heather and Graeme’s young, a dragengel, a new species, part dragen, part angel, and of course, part human. She was six weeks old, with unknown powers, and a body temperature that was like hugging the sun, especially when she was agitated. Heather and Graeme were the only ones able to hold her, but apparently she liked Mac and was willing to try to tone down her heat for him and him alone. It was weird, Track and Treena seemed to like him more than they liked most others, too.

Rogue nodded at Trevor once, sharply, lifting her chin toward the window that faced the back yard and forest where their cabin was. “They’ve got Mac in full turnout gear and last I heard they were at four minutes and thirty-two seconds of him holding Kendra.”

“And you’re here for what?” Trevor asked. “Popcorn? Breakfast pizza rolls?”

Rogue snorted, ‘fuck-off’ threading through her scent. She headed out of the kitchen to stand against a wall in the hallway.

“Kendra doesn’t like Rogue,” Cerise told Conri quietly. “So Rogue can’t be around or she heats up instead of cools down.”

Rogue shook her head and looked like she was biting her tongue. Her scent was one of trying very hard not to say what was on her mind, of holding herself back.

The door opened again and Mac came in, his dark clothes singed and his face and forearms blackened, like he’d been burnt, shifted, and healed but the smoke remained. His eyes were wide. He looked for and found Rogue. She lifted up the cheese stick and he nodded and headed over to her. They huddled in the hallway like thugs in an alley and whispered about Kendra. Troy watched, wondering what that was like, to have someone who was always there for you and only you. It had been like that with him and Trent, until he’d shifted, and Trent had left, but they were brothers, not lovers. A lover who had your back had to be the ultimate partnership. Mac pointed at him and told Rogue something that included the words, ‘take him’ and ‘appointment’.

Trevor was already heading back up the stairs. We’re out of pizza, Troy told him in ruhi.

Trevor leaned over the stairs. “Put it on the list, Troy, or I ain’t buying it.”

Troy snarled at his brother. He’d made it this long without writing, he didn’t understand why Trevor was pushing him so hard to learn. Talk about boring.

Trevor disappeared up the stairs and Troy grabbed the list off the back wall. He took the pen in his hand, positioning it the way Ella and Cerise had showed him a few dozen times, braced against his middle finger with his thumb and index finger guiding it. Ok, you can do this. He put the pen on the paper, and tried to get the little muscles of his hand and wrist to do what he wanted. The letters that appeared did not look anything like they were supposed to. He scratched them out and tried again, moving his shoulder instead of his forearm, then giving up completely, dropping the pen and pushing it all across the table. He would find a picture of a pizza in a magazine and tape it up there, or order delivery, instead.

Decided, he settled back into his chair and soaked in the early-morning rhythm of the house, his eyes automatically searching for his favorite person to watch. Rogue. She was still in the hallway with Mac, leaning against the wall, one knee bent with her foot against the wall, her dark clothing and boots, plus her rough ponytail shoved through the back of a camouflage ball cap marking her style as ‘never-dainty.’ Troy was into it. Troy liked his females all shapes, styles, sizes, and flavors, but he thought if he ever were to try to stick with just one, she would be like Rogue. He might like a female who was a little rough around the edges, he might prefer it if he were never sure if she was going to kiss him or haul off and punch him.

Troy found Rogue watching him, her mouth set like she was ready to ask him a question. When their eyes met, she did. “What’s the deal, Troy, you have to be talking by now, right? How come I never hear you say anything?”

Troy didn’t answer.

“He can’t say his Ws, still,” Cerise said, for him. “So he doesn’t talk a lot, yet, and when he does, he talks slow.” She looked at him from the side, eyes nervous. He wasn’t sure why she would be nervous for speaking the truth, but her scent said she was worried he would be upset with her, so he tipped her a wink. Her scent smoothed out immediately but she blushed and looked away. More emotional scents flew around the kitchen and what Troy was seeing on Cerise’s face confused what he was scenting from her. He was about to close his eyes and try to figure it out by scent alone, when the sliding door glass opened behind him.

Beckett reached in to slap him on the back of the head. “I warned you about that shit, Troy.”

Troy rubbed his head. “What!? I'm just being friendly,” he snarled. “Sorry,” he added. He wasn’t trying to hit on Cerise, but he was trying to figure out how he was supposed to act around a female who was so nervous around him. When he’d been a wolf it had been different. Cerise had even pet him, not that it meant anything to her, but again, she’d thought of him as a dog. It didn’t bother him, but it seemed to bother her now. Being around him seemed to bother all of the females but Ella, Eventine, Leilani, and Rogue. He and Ella were close. Eventine was no-nonsense. Leilani hadn’t known him as a wolf, and Rogue? Rogue didn’t give a shit about him or his business.

Except she’d finally taken notice of him. She grinned, her eyes challenging him. “Can’t write, can’t drive, can’t say your Ws,” she said, her tone and scent full of sarcasm. “You're just an alphabet soup of fucked up over there, aren't you?” She laughed and added, “Sexy,” under her breath. She snorted and looked away from him, playing with her sleeves.

He winked at her. I can wink, though, he said in ruhi, knowing she wouldn’t hear it.

Mac glared at him. Troy didn’t care. He wasn’t trying to hit on Rogue either, but shit, it was fun to wink. It was fun to have people notice when he winked. Rogue looked back in time to catch the tail end of the wink. She flipped him off, then shoved her tongue down her mate’s throat. Troy studied the display, still trying to figure her out. Mac came up for air, glaring harder when he saw Troy staring.

Dahlia tsked from the stove, where she and Cerise were putting together breakfast for everyone. “Rogue, that wasn’t nice. I think that should be a whole dollar in the name-calling jar.”

Troy could see all of their faces, and could scent everyone in the house he couldn’t see. He watched, enthralled. It was like going to the movies, or a play, where the actors on stage might call him up at any moment to say a few lines that he’d never been taught.

Rogue disengaged from Mac. “Fine,” she said to her sister, from the hallway, her voice a touch mean. “Which one of you do you want me to steal it from?” Cerise shook her head and she and Dahlia whispered to each other, their scents spilling irritation. The sisters weren’t normally like this, but the last week had been torture, like all seven of them were having PMS at the same time.

Rogue rolled her eyes. She pulled Mac out of the hallway and into the kitchen, positioning him in front of Cerise and Dahlia, gesturing at him. “He calls people names. He makes fun of people. I don’t see any of you trying to change him.”

Troy nodded hard. Good point. Mac was still glaring at him, not even hearing what Rogue was saying. Troy wasn’t sure exactly what Mac was pissed about, but he could tell he was about to get the fight he’d been looking for last night. Good deal. He was looking forward to crossing Mac off his list.

“Let’s go, kitty nugget,” Troy told him quietly, snickering as he shot to his feet and his chair toppled behind him.

Mac didn’t hesitate. He came in swinging, driving Troy into the wall, putting all of his weight into it. Troy fought back with everything he had, pushing Mac onto the table then body-slamming him like a WWE wrestler. Half of the table collapsed, tipping and spilling them to the floor, where they rolled and punched each other. Troy made a noise like a yodel, dodging a swing and a miss from Mac, then pinning him, going vice-grip on his torso.

Ella’s voice filled Troy’s head. WHO IS FIGHTING DOWN THERE? but he couldn’t listen or respond, he was fighting. Jumbled voices came at him, and then more from Ella, like she was shouting in their ears. Mac stopped his bullshit long enough to listen, one hand gripping Troy’s throat. Troy didn’t move a muscle.

Throw water on them! Then clean it up! I’ll kill everyone in this house if they wake these babies up!

Mac’s arm tightened, threatening to cut off Troy’s air. They rolled again, punched some more, slamming into the wall, making the swear jar topple off a shelf and crash to the floor, cracking, spilling Rogue’s change everywhere.

Troy finally got an elbow around Mac’s chin, about to choke him out, when Mac shifted into his wolf, his clothes falling away, his claws and teeth tearing at Troy’s skin until Troy had to let go.

Mac scrambled to his feet as a pure white wolf, snapped once at him, a loud rumbling growl rolling out of his throat that had Dahlia and Cerise yelping and sprinting out of the room.

Troy lay on the ruined table, his belly exposed, trying so hard to look weak, trying so hard to lure Mac back in close but Mac backed away, then turned and loped to his mate.

This is on hold till you shift, Mac snarled in his mind.

Troy collapsed to the floor, cursing Mac. When Mac reached Rogue, he shifted, his bare ass shining like a magic 8-ball. Don’t ask again later. Troy snorted, looked away, and shook orange juice out of his hair, then levered his arms under himself like a backbend and pushed himself up to a standing position in one move, one he practiced every day.

Rogue brushed egg off of Mac’s shoulder. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” she said, while smiling whole-heartedly at him.

Mac hooked a thumb over his shoulder at Troy. “He called me a brown-noser.”

Yeah, months ago, you fucking brown-noser, Troy told him

Rogue pushed Mac down the hallway and into a bathroom. Troy forgot all about it.

Trevor, Troy said to his brother, who was still upstairs. We’re going to need a new table. And I need new babysitters tonight. I’m going to Mugshots for dinner and drinks but Canyon and Timber are banned.