Chapter 14 #2
As I turned away, a loud rip pulled my attention.
“Shit! My new suit!” he shouted from inside.
I couldn’t help but laugh at the bit of karma.
Mechanical noises whirred from the closed-off garage as I approached the house. Austin had spent most of his time there, and while it was nice he’d found something to keep him occupied, that much isolation couldn’t have been good for him.
The mayor’s warning was still fresh, despite the unintentionally hilarious way the meeting ended. As I walked into the house, I was greeted by a suspicious scene. Adam and Roscoe were sitting together at the dining room table, laughing.
“Welcome home, buddy,” Adam said, his expression infuriatingly sly—or was it content? Either way, I could feel my anger reaching the boiling point.
“What’s going on?”
Roscoe held up a bottle of water. “Had to rehydrate.”
I turned to Adam and wrinkled my nose. “You… actually let him do that? God, you’re disgusting. You’re all disgusting!”
“Why are you making a big deal about it? It was nice to just get fucked the right way for a change.”
“What?” I flushed as blood angrily pulsed in my ears. “What do you mean, fucked?”
Roscoe’s ears fell as he rubbed the back of his head. “Well, you see… the pee stuff kinda works better with you, ‘cause you don’t enjoy it.”
“I hate you both,” I muttered before stomping into the kitchen to put the bag of coffee beans in the cabinet.
Roscoe jumped up from his chair and shuffled behind me. “Ooo,” he said, sniffing the air. “Those smell good.”
“Don’t touch my beans.” I slapped him away. “And don’t touch me either.”
“He was too into it, so I didn’t go all the way with the original script,” Roscoe whispered in my ear. “They didn’t like him as much as they liked you.”
“If that’s supposed to make me feel better, it doesn’t.” I shut the cabinet door as a sheet of paper slowly slid in front of me on the counter. It had a lopsided drawing of a werewolf with big, teary eyes holding a heart out with the word ‘Sowwy’ written on it.
“I’m quite the arteest.”
“You’re quite the asshole.” I picked up the paper and examined it before folding it neatly into my pocket. “You gave yourself abs. Now that’s hilarious.”
Roscoe sniffed me and backed away. “Kinda expected you to smell like sex.”
“You really don’t know me, do you?”
“Shit. I’d have done it if I was alone with that guy.”
I turned around and folded my arms. “When I read about the elders in Darryl’s book, I thought they would be these gross, ratty-looking wolfmen that could barely walk. That guy has to be at least two hundred years old, and he could probably take Austin like he’s nothing.”
“Oh, he definitely could,” Roscoe replied. “They ain’t considered alphas for nothing. When we get older, we get stronger and smarter.”
“I guess you’re the exception?”
Roscoe smiled. “See? This is why we work. I do shit that pisses you off, and you throw insults.”
“What are you guys doing in there?” Adam called out from the living room in a teasing tone. “Is Roscoe talking about how amazing I was?”
“He’s just bein’ a kid. Don’t tell him what I said about people liking you more,” Roscoe whispered.
“Yeah. You were amazing, Adam. Congrats,” I said loud enough so Adam could hear before lowering my voice again. “I’ve got some bad news.”
“What did he say?”
“He knows about Austin, and he said some pretty disturbing shit. I think we should go back to Darryl.”
Roscoe leaned back against the counter. “Still have the moving truck. I can put everything back into storage, but I don’t know about Darryl.”
“But he said—”
“We can’t,” Roscoe interrupted sharply. “We need to find a way without runnin’ back to him.”
“I know what you did was awful, but we’re in a bind. This place hasn’t sat right with me since we got here, and having an elder watching our every move makes it worse.”
“So, what does he want, exactly?”
“I think he’s holding something back, or he’s not being completely honest. He gave me some kind of ultimatum. I have to make sure you guys act normal and follow the rules.”
“That’s it?” Roscoe asked, looking a little puzzled. “Easy.”
“Yeah. Sure it is. I bet that room smells like piss still, doesn’t it?”
“Actually, it’s in their bedroom. Austin might be a little mad about that later, but that’s future Roscoe’s problem.”
“He threatened to lock me away in his house.”
“Pfft. He ain’t gonna make good on that if he ain’t already done it.”
“And how the hell do you know? He sounded pretty serious to me.”
Roscoe’s tail swayed. “Just seems kinda silly if he’s always gonna be watching ya anyways. Plus, this all sounds like he’s just tryin’ to get under yer skin.”
“Can we please just go? I won’t be able to sleep at night if we stay here.”
He grabbed the keys from a hook screwed into the wall above the light switch. “How about we take a nice little drive? We didn’t get to see all that much when we got here.”
“Really? A drive? After what I just said?”
“It’ll calm you down, and there ain’t no real police around here to pull me over—well, there are, but I think they’re all werewolves, so don’t gotta worry about bein’ tased.”
“Yeah, you’re right. Now when you piss the cops off, they can actually beat the shit out of you.”
Roscoe’s tail wagged faster. “You ever driven?”
“No.”
He tossed me the keys.
“Are you crazy? That truck doesn’t belong to us.”
“I’ll teach you,” he said, grabbing my hand as he led me out of the kitchen. “We’ll be back later, Adam. Gonna go fer a drive.”
Adam scrambled to his feet. “I wanna come.”
“We want some alone time, and Roscoe needs an ass that doesn’t look like Gruta Casa de Pedra,” I snapped, pointing at the door leading to the garage. “Plus you need to make sure he’s okay.”
“He’s fine.” The half-turn’s expression went from excited to angry. “I want to go with Roscoe.”
I now understood what was happening. He wasn’t trying to make me jealous, and he wanted another werewolf to cling to since Darryl was hundreds of miles away.
Roscoe was his new distraction from Austin’s neglect.
Once again, I had to weigh feeling sorry for him while also keeping him from monopolizing Roscoe’s time.
“I said no.” I held up the keys. “I’m learning to drive, and I don’t want you distracting me.”
Roscoe said nothing.
“Let’s get one thing straight. You might be a couple years older, but you are not the head of this household! If Roscoe doesn’t want me to go, he can tell me himself.” Adam brushed up against the old werewolf, gently running his fingers along Roscoe’s stomach. “It’ll be more fun.”
“Never had two half-turns fightin’ over me before.”
I bared my teeth, staring directly into Roscoe’s eyes.
“Uh… listen, Adam. I gotta side with Cody here.” He leaned in and whispered something in Adam’s ear.
The disappointed half-turn nodded. “Promise?”
“Sure,” Roscoe responded.
The edges of Adam’s mouth lifted slightly, giving him the obnoxious, imp-like appearance from earlier. “Have fun,” he said before lifting his gaze to Roscoe. “I’ll see you later.”
A bubble of resentment turned my vision red once again for a moment, but I couldn’t show Adam it was bothering me.
Over the last few days, the two of us had stoked up the most unusual rivalry—over Roscoe.
Roscoe! My plan to make Adam jealous had backfired horribly, and while this was mostly my fault, all I could fantasize about lately was chucking him into the crater of an active volcano, or at the very least, giving him a firm, back-handed slap.
“You ready?”
“Yeeeah,” I responded through my teeth as Roscoe held the door open. After unlocking the driver’s side, I climbed in the moving truck and unlocked the passenger door. As soon as we were both inside, I put on my seatbelt and shoved the key into the ignition. “What did you promise him?”
“Nothin’ big.”
I gripped the steering wheel tighter but didn’t respond.
“I swear, it’s no big deal. Start her up.”
“I really shouldn’t be doing this. It’s illegal and dangerous.”
“Cody, let me ask you something,” he said, rolling his window down so he could lay his arm against the door. “When’s the last time you took a risk—just did somethin’ you normally don’t do?”
“Never. My luck’s shitty enough as it is. I don’t need to tempt fate, either.”
“Think about it. You wouldn’t be here with me right now if you hadn’t taken some risks. Hell, you’d probably still be in Kansas.”
“Montana,” I corrected. “And everything I’ve done, I had to because my back was against the wall.”
“So, you only do anything when you have to?”
“That’s not what I mean. Don’t twist my words.”
“All right. I think I know what I need to do,” Roscoe said, his tail rubbing against the vinyl seat. “Start the truck, put her in reverse—” He put one hand over my seat belt release. “I forgot to take a piss before I came out here.”
“Excuse me?”
“Maybe you can drive us a little ways out of town so I can find a nice tree.”
“Go use the bathroom, Roscoe!”
The wicked grin he gave exposed every sharp tooth in his mouth. “It’s gettin’ hard to hold it.”
“Why are you doing this to me again?” I shouted, starting the vehicle. I tried to pull the shifter down to reverse, but it wouldn’t budge. “It doesn’t work.”
“You gotta push the brake in first, silly.”
I hit the gas pedal by mistake, revving the engine.
“That ain’t the brake,” he said calmly.
“I know that now, thanks,” I said, pushing the brake before putting the truck in reverse.
“You might wanna put it back in park,” Roscoe said. “You forgot to adjust yer mirrors first.”
“Oh, you’ll have to excuse me. I don’t know what the hell I’m doing and you are stressing me out more!”
Roscoe shuffled uncomfortably in his seat.
“Please, go to the bathroom. I can’t deal with this and drive at the same time.”
“I told ya. You gotta find me a suitable tree outside of town.”
“Hopefully, I find one with a thick enough branch to hang you from.”
“You might wanna hurry but stay calm.”