Cat Fight
I didn't go back to the pack house. I was walking to it when I realized what road I was on. The road to my old house. Suddenly I had to see it. Alex said my parents still owned it. I found myself walking away from the pack house and to my old home.
It didn't take long to reach it. The door was locked but after seven years the spare key was still hidden on top of the door frame. I paused in the foyer. The house felt so... so cold.
I let out a breath and was surprised when it didn't come out as fog. The house was almost the same, a few pieces of furniture were replaced or moved. I walked up the steps to the second floor. I remembered the last time I walked these steps. I even remember the suit case thudding against the steps as I lugged it down the steps.
The door to my room was shut. I braced myself as I opened it. "It's all the same."
Nothing had changed. The drawers of my dresser were still partially opened, on was slightly ajar from where I'd all but broke it when I yanked it open in my rush to pack everything. I touched the nail on the wall where the picture I'd taken hung. I could still see the faint color difference it'd created. My closet doors were opened, the shoes on the closet floor were in a messy pile, clothes that had fallen off hangings laid atop of them.
A layer of dust coated everything. This room was colder than the rest of the house. No one'd been in here in a very long time.
I scanned the room and stopped when I saw a hole in the wall. I walked to it. The plaster and drywall bent inward and pieces laid forgotten on the ground.
"What the hell?" I murmured to myself.
"I punched the wall."
I whirled around and aimed a gun at the intruder. "Tyler?" My brows furrowed in confusion and I put the gun away. "What are you doing here?"
"I got a message that someone was here," he answered. "The house is hooked up to an alarm system that beeps me whenever the front of back doors open." He held his phone up for emphasis. "I'm the only one who comes anymore so I thought I'd see who it was."
I sighed and glanced around the room. "Tyler, what is all of this? I mean everything is..."
"Unchanged?" he offered. "Yeah. That was Mom. She wouldn't let anyone come in here. She kept saying that you'd like to have everything where you left it when you came home." He jerked his chin towards the hole. "I was really pissed at Grant for making you leave, at you for leaving. I came in here on afternoon a couple months after you were gone and I put my fist through the wall."
I felt a knot of guilt tighten in my chest. "I wish I could tell you that I'm sorry, Tyler," I said softly. "I really do. I wish I could tell you that I'm sorry for leaving. I'm sorry for never letting you know I was okay but not for leaving. I can promise you it killed me to leave, it broke my heart to not see you. But I can't say I'm sorry I did it. I can't lie to you."
"Why?" he asked.
"I needed to leave," I answered. "Who I am, I couldn't become that person here. If I hadn't left I never would have meet Jason or Lily or Tristan."
"Or Trina," he added softly.
I nodded. "Especially Trina."
"She told me about your fight," he said.
My eyebrows rose. "Trina spoke to you?"
He smiled humorlessly. "Yeah. She said she needed someone to talk to and that I better not let this go to my head or she shoot me in it."
I pressed my lips together and nodded. "Yeah, that sounds like her."
He laughed once then grew somber. "She was upset. I take it that you two don't really fight with each other too often."
I shook my head and sat on the bed. "No. Almost never. Did she tell you what is was about?"
"Not really. From what I gathered it was pretty personal."
"That one way of putting it," I muttered. "We were fighting about you. I was trying to help her understand why."
"Why?" he repeated puzzled.
"Why you're so angry," I answered. "But well... It didn't go too well. I needed some space so I thought I would come here."
"And?"
"And?" I repeated confused.
He sighed and sat next to me. "I get it, Katie, I do."
"What do you get?" Where's the map that can show me how I get into the conversation.
"I get why you're holding back," he said. "See, Trina wasn't the only I was watching the past few days. I may have been angry but I still wanted to see my sister. You holding back with everyone. Maybe you don't do that back home where you live but you do it here. And I get it. Ever since you could walk you dedicated your life to serving the pack, to proving they could trust you. When Silver Moon turned its back on you it destroyed you. So I get why you're holding back. But Katie it's alright to let people in."
"People or Grant?" I asked meeting his eyes. "I'm sure you know the deal we made. If I fall in love with Grant I stay, and you won't have to say goodbye to your sister. Or Trina."
"Trina?"
I nodded. "If I stay here so will Trina."
"Are you two really that close?" he asked.
I nodded again. "I'm the only family Trina has. There are others that she's pretty close too but I'm the only one she really trusts."
"What about her blood family?" he asked.
I hesitated for a moment as I debated on if it was my place to tell him. I know she won't and he should at least understand why Trina is the way she is. "Dead. Do you remember when we were little, you were about seven, I was nine, and Dad had just come back from this community of Rogues?"
He nodded, "Yeah he said that some Rogue live peacefully in groups, those who don't want to live in a pack. What does that have to do with Trina?"
"Tree grew up in a community like that," I explained. "But when she was twelve Jason and I had tracked a group of violent Rogues to her community. But we were too late. They had been slaughtered. Trina was the only one left. I found her hidden beneath the floor of her home. I promised her father before he died that I would protect her, I promised her I would take care of her."
"Let me guess, ever since you've been sisters?"
"It's cheesy and corny," I admitted. "But it's true. And like any other sisters we tend to fight on occasion."
"You always hated cat fights," he teased.
I shoved his shoulder playfully. "Smartass."
"I learned the behavior from my older sister."
"Rude smartass."
We laughed for a long moment. "Talk to her," he said when the moment ended. "Trina. Talk to her. I don't like seeing her upset and if you weren't my sister I'm do something mean and violent."
I smiled, "And if you weren't my brother I would have shot you for marking her. So I guess we're even."
He didn't laugh but I caught his lips twitch up. "Promise you'll talk to her, please?"
I stood up. "Let's go."
"Now?" he questioned standing.
I nodded, "I came here to cool off. Now that I've done that I should talk to Trina. You should come."
"I'm not exactly her favorite person," he pointed out.
"But you are her mate," I rebutted.
He raised an eyebrow, "Grant is your mate."
I scowled at him. "The difference is I know you will be good for Trina. Even if you acted like a total asshole."
I started for the stairs. "Grant could be good for you," Tyler said softly and I stopped cold.
"What?" I asked in a dangerous and emotionless voice. I turned to glower at him.
He met my eyes without backing down but when he spoke his voice was still gentle. "Grant could be really good, Katie."
"What happened to the man who hated him?" I questioned harshly.
I saw a muscle in his check twitch. "Don't be mistaken, I despise him for what he did for you. But he's not that person anymore. And Katie he looked for you. He looked every single day. He search under every rock and jumped through every loop he could trying to find you. There isn't an Alpha in Northern America that Grant hasn't spoken to in hopes that they'd seen you or knew where you were." He took a deep breath and when he spoke again his voice was tight and strained. "He looked at countless dead bodies. He did everything he could to find you."
"Looking for me and being good for me are two different things, Tyler," I said in a cold clinical voice. "Especially since the person he was searching for is gone now. Maybe who he is would be good for who I was but not who I am."
"Maybe," he conceded. "But have you ever considered that maybe you haven't changed as much as you think you have?"
I actually smiled. "You were always good at deluding yourself, Tyler."
We left the house together and Tyler gave me a lift to the pack house. Trina was waiting for us when he pulled up there. I sighed and got out. "Hey Tree."
"Kate," she said in way of greeting.
"Still mad I take it," I said. She glared. "Did you even think about what I said?" Silence. "I take that as a no. You've always been hard headed."
She snorted, "And you've always been nothing but open minded?"
I really hate dealing with teenagers. They all think they know everything. "After all these years one would think that maybe you'd at least listen to what I say."
Trina growled. "Well maybe you should stop saying things that are stupid!"
"Stupid?" I repeated with a flare of anger. "I simply said to give your mate a chance!"
"Like you're given Grant one!" she fired back. "That whole let's be friends thing and that deal? It's all a piece of crap and you know it, Kate!"
"Dammit, you are not me, Trina!" I shouted back and she backed up a step in surprise. When I spoke again I used a calmer voice. "I've done a whole lot of things that I am not proud of. More than you will ever realize. But if I have done only one good thing in my life then it was taking care of you. I have always done what I thought was best when it came to you, Tree.
"You may not realize it but you could have turned out a lot worse." I hesitated, glancing at Tyler before my next words. "You could have turned out like me."
She blinked. "Turned out like you? What does that mean?"
"It means that I am not a good person," I answered. "And let's face it I have made more than my share of enemies doing what I do. Did you ever think that maybe I'd like to see you happy? See you finally in a really good place? I know that Tyler could help you with that. But you are too acting too damn stupid to see that!"
Trina had this thing about being called stupid. When we first put her in school she floundered trying to understand everything. The other kids called her stupid right up until the day she slammed one kid into a desk breaking his nose.
She'd landed a really good blow to my cheek before I had any time to react. By the time I felt the pain from the first hit her fists was already coming at my again. Trina, she's fast without a single doubt. There aren't many who are faster than her, but I am one of the few. I caught her wrist millimeters from my face. "You only get the one," I snarled before taking my elbow to her shoulder.
"What the hell are you doing?" Tyler growled, I couldn't tell at whom but I think it was me.
"Stay out of this, psycho," Trina barked at him before bringing her knee around into my back. I fell to the ground and spun my leg around and swept her out from under her feet. I popped up to catch her arm and bring her forward into my fist.
I'd seen a lot of cat fights back in high school. They usually involved some form of hair pulling our scratching. Neither girl was really intent of harming the other, no real punches were often thrown.
Trina and I did not fight like that. We did not pull any punches and we fought like we were enemies on the battle field. I could almost feel Tyler on the skirts of the fight trying to find a way to intercede. He was smart enough not to try. If he had... well let's just say the last person to try that still walks with a limp.
The only person with the skill to in between us was- Trina and I were tossed apart and I was airborne for a moment. When I hit the ground I looked up. "Jason."
He looked down at me and let out a deep sigh. "Really Kate?"
He offered me a hand and I took it. "Thanks."
"Not even a week," he said as if I hadn't spoken. "You could even make it a week before getting into a fight. I give you this you did pick someone I had not expected, but you didn't make it a week."
"Honestly Jase," I replied. "You didn't expect me to last three days."
He tipped his head with a smile in agreement. "Touché."
I looked at Trina, Tyler was around hovering around her trying to see her injures but she kept waving him off. "You okay?"
She nodded.
"We good?"
She stuck out her hand and yes, we did a secret hand shake. She found out about it in some TV show when she was fourteen and insisted upon having one. "We're good."
"Good," I said. "I'd hate to have to break another ginger in. They're always so much work."
She laughed and all was forgiven.