All Hail the Shifter King
Title: Lords of Kensington, Part 9
Word Count: 2273
Note: I friggin' adore Kat's mother.
"I know I can't make you understand."
The concrete floor was cold and uncomfortable but she sat there anyway, preferring the corner furthest from the glass observation wall rather than the bedding box that would provide some warmth but was secured to the floor right in front of him. She pushed her face against the rough wall, wrapping her arms around her knees and refusing to look at him.
"I'm not doing this to try and hurt you. I just don't want you caught up in this war of theirs."
"That wasn't your decision to make," she said quietly, though she knew the microphones mounted in the ceiling picked up her words and passed them through the speakers outside with enough volume that he could hear them clearly.
"But I had to. You're obviously emotionally compromised on the matter and..." He sighed softly. "Kat, you're my best friend. I don't want to lose you to -"
"Go away, Gavin," she said.
"I just want you to -"
"Go away," she repeated, and this time he listened - she heard the scrape of his chair against the floor as he walked away, the familiar shuffle in his step, and then rising above it another noise that had become all too familiar - the pitched whine of a bone saw, rising to nerve-grating volume in her enclosed cell.
"Now then," she heard Doctor Ramsay say, his deep and enthusiastic voice muffled by his surgical mask. "Let's get started."
She opened her eyes, and once again the SUV was not moving - instead of the highway and endless coastal forests, she saw a darkened parkade and scattered stationary vehicles.
"Ryder?" she called. The driver's side door was open, and as she unbuckled her seatbelt she heard the hatch open, the keesin dancing excitedly as they waited to be let out.
"Look who's awake," he said, smiling at her as she joined him. "Sleep okay?"
"I guess?" She rubbed her neck, trying to calm her kinked muscles, and looked around. "This is my building," she said, surprised.
"It is."
"I can't believe I slept all the way home." Stretching her arms over her head, she twisted and heard her back crack noisily. "How are you feeling?"
"Better," he said, and turned briefly to point toward the parkade entrance. "Anya has two of her people outside."
"Seriously?"
"Mmm." He lowered the second kennel to the ground, walked around the SUV, and opened the door for the two hound-beasts. "They seem a bit young," he said as the keesin jumped to the ground and slipped into the open kennels. "But I guess it's the thought that counts."
"You say that like you were never young," she teased as they made their way to the elevator. It took her a moment to find her keycard in the bottom of her purse, and then they were headed up to her fifth floor apartment, Ryder looking annoyed at the enclosed space of the elevator and Katrina standing beside him with an anxiety attack brewing in her stomach.
She tried to remember the state she'd left her apartment in before she headed to Rion Fell months ago. The call from Gavin had come in the middle of the night and she'd scrambled to be ready to get on the plane the next afternoon, which meant laundry scattered from one end of her living room to the other and binders, papers, and research materials strewn across every flat surface. She agonized about how much her mother had left out - papers from one end of the house to the other was normal when Katrina was growing up, so would her mother have left it all there when she agreed to give the apartment a once-over before Katrina got home? What if she hadn't had the time with work and prepping for the holiday week to even go? Katrina felt her face flush at the thought of her rainbow thong underwear hooked on the corner of her television, or the lacy bras she bought for boyfriends - ones she never actually had - on the coffee table. The anxiety turned to dread as they walked down the short hallway to her front door, and she spared a few moments to issue a silent, desperate prayer to any deity that was listening that her mother had hired a maid to sweep the house.
Either her prayers were answered or her mother had just been incredibly thorough - as she opened the door she immediately recognized the scent of her mother's favorite glass cleaner and the kitchen, from what she could see on first inspection, was immaculate. She breathed a sigh of relief as she tugged Crispin's kennel into the entrance and opened the door to let him out, and shoved the kennel into her office - also clean, even though she couldn't remember having even seen the surface of the desk since she started her master's program - before she wandered around the familiar space, turning on lights.
"I know it goes without saying, but make yourself at home," she called, shrugging out of Ryder's sweater and tossing it on the smooth bedspread, wondering absently when she'd actually last made her bed.
"Your mother left you a letter," he replied from the living room. "And a care package, it looks like."
"Oh?" She smiled, feeling surprisingly content and at home despite the trials of the last forty-eight hours.
"Hi Kitten," he read as he opened Thaddeus' kennel - the two creatures immediately raced into Katrina's room and jumped onto the bed, jumping and rolling around like sugar-high children. "Or should I say Pigpen considering the mess of your apartment." She heard the rustle of papers. "That bad, huh?" he called.
"She's overreacting," Katrina said dismissively, digging in her dresser drawers for a pair of leggings.
"Hope your trip home was uneventful." He snorted. "Oh yeah, gloriously."
"Yeah, let's not tell my parents about that part."
"Dad and I have missed you lots and we're looking forward to meeting your new beau. Hope he's smarter and cuter than the last one." He chuckled at this - Katrina smiled as she slipped into her leggings and went rummaging for a tank top to pull on with them. "Contrary to what your father might say," Ryder continued, "I'm not in the mood for grandbabies yet so I've left you some..." He trailed off, laughing, and Katrina froze in the middle of pulling her top over her stomach when she heard him open the box that had accompanied the letter.
"She did not," she called, horrified.
"She most definitely did," Ryder confirmed, laughing so hard he could barely speak.
"Oh. My God." She covered her face with her hands, her cheeks burning. "Please, please tell me you're fucking with me."
"Great choice of words, considering." She heard him flip the small box in his hands. "Size... huh. I'm flattered."
"I hate you," she groused, collapsing on her face on the bed. "You and my mother. This is the kind of shit that people write about in their journals so they can show their therapist to explain why they're so messed up, you know."
"Is she always this forward?"
"She makes you seem tame."
"That sounds like a challenge."
"Believe me when I tell you I will murder you."
"Get in line," he said, amused, and appeared in her doorway with the letter from her mother in his hands. "So what's this event she's talking about?"
"Hmm?" Katrina turned to look at him, and he waved the letter in the air.
"Coronation Masquerade?" he asked. "Dress fittings? Dinner? Dancing?"
"Oh, uh... right. That." She bit her lip. "Okay, I meant to tell you about it, but -"
"But?"
"But... I was trying to think of a way to convince you to go with me." She rolled onto her back, pushing Crispin away when he tried to slurp her face. "I mean, you don't have to, of course. I'd really like it if you did." She sighed heavily. "It seems stupid, I guess, with what's happening. I just... it's a vacation and I wanted us to have fun and..."
She bit her lip, tears welling in her eyes. She felt utterly ridiculous, trying to justify something as stupid as the lavish Coronation Masquerade her parents attended every year, one of hundreds of black tie events occurring all over the city of Kensington in celebration of their young Queen. They'd just survived an encounter that could have easily killed both of them - hell, they'd survived eight months of them - and she was expecting him to humor her desire to play dress-up? She'd fought to get him into a winter jacket, what were the odds he'd agree to -
"It means that much to you?" he asked.
"It's not that it means a lot, it's just..." She waved her hands in the air, trying to think of the words. "It's just this surreal, princess for a night thing, I guess."
"That you want to attend."
"Of course I do."
"So why try to sell it to me? Why not just tell me that you want to go?"
She glanced over at him, raised an eyebrow.
"You're saying you would?"
"If that's what you want."
"I... huh." She looked up at the ceiling. "I was expecting a fight."
"That's me, just full of surprises," he said, tossing the letter onto her dresser and heading back to the living room. "I'm going to grab a shower," he called.
She stayed where she was on the bed with the two keesin curled up beside her until she heard the water turn on, then walked out to the kitchen to grab her cell phone from her purse. Heading back into her room, she skimmed through her contacts until she found Rebekah's number.
"Kat!" came the woman's excited voice after the third ring. "We were just talking about you! Are you home now?"
"I am," she replied, smiling.
"Hi Kat!" Eli called in the background.
"Hi, Eli," she replied, laughing. She could hear birds singing and the sound of Rebekah's fountain, and pictured the two of them sitting on their patio, reading their novels and perhaps feeding the birds - she was suddenly struck by a surprising pang of longing. "I... miss you guys," she said.
"We miss you too," Rebekah said. "How was the trip home?"
"Uneventful." The lie slipped out easily - might as well get some practice, she figured, before she talked to her parents. "We got grounded by the storm and had to drive to the city, so we're kind of wiped."
"I bet. Is Ryder behaving himself?"
"Yeah, he's... being Ryder." She sat down on the bed and nestled herself against the pillows, putting her arm around Thaddeus' neck when he climbed into her lap. "I have a bit of a funny question for you."
"Go for it."
"Is there a... like a northern variant of abaris root?"
Rebekah was quiet for a few moments, then said, "Love, I'm going inside for a moment, do you want anything?"
"Water, please," Eli replied. "Everything alright?"
"Mmm, girl talk. I'll be right back."
Katrina waited, listening to Rebekah walk across her patio and into the kitchen - she could picture every step, could practically smell the flowers in the window boxes. Once the storm door closed, Rebekah sighed quietly.
"What's he done this time?" she asked.
"It wasn't something he did," Katrina defended. "But there was an incident."
"How bad is he?"
"It's not major, but it just doesn't seem to be healing normally."
"We did discuss before you left that this could happen. He's a long way from home." Katrina heard the sound of flipping papers, the scrolling of the archaic Rolodex that Rebekah kept beside her herb cupboard. "I'll text you some names. I have some contacts in the city, I'll see if I can find you an apothecary."
"If all else fails I should be able to get them from the university," Katrina said. "My mother, in a pinch. I'd rather not open that can of worms, though."
"Have you considered trying to find a local doctor?"
"If it comes to that." Another lie. After seeing Ryder's reaction to the man at the diner, Katrina truly believed the only way she was getting him to see a doctor was if he was unconscious.
"Alright. I'll send you the names shortly. Tell that dumb bastard to stay out of trouble."
"I will. Thank you."
The spoke for another few minutes, about inane things and briefly about the Coronation Masquerade - Rebekah was shocked into speechlessness at the thought of Ryder in a tuxedo and demanded pictures as both proof and future blackmail. When the call ended, Katrina tossed the phone onto her dresser and stood in her bedroom, listening to the quiet snores of the keesin and the running water from the shower, surrounded by familiar and comforting things, the normalcy of her old life colliding with the oddity of her new one. Eight months worth of bottled emotions struck her like a freight train, everything from the stress of Gavin's last minute call about "an incredible opportunity" to her panicked and reckless driving on the highway just hours ago, from Gavin's betrayal to the various near-death situations she and her newfound friends had faced, and now here she was, home to see her parents, vacationing as if nothing had happened, and the enormity of the lie that made up her quiet and calm facade crashed in and over her with such force that she dropped onto the floor beside her bed, pressed her face into the soft grey duvet, and burst into tears.
Word Count: 2273
Note: I friggin' adore Kat's mother.
"I know I can't make you understand."
The concrete floor was cold and uncomfortable but she sat there anyway, preferring the corner furthest from the glass observation wall rather than the bedding box that would provide some warmth but was secured to the floor right in front of him. She pushed her face against the rough wall, wrapping her arms around her knees and refusing to look at him.
"I'm not doing this to try and hurt you. I just don't want you caught up in this war of theirs."
"That wasn't your decision to make," she said quietly, though she knew the microphones mounted in the ceiling picked up her words and passed them through the speakers outside with enough volume that he could hear them clearly.
"But I had to. You're obviously emotionally compromised on the matter and..." He sighed softly. "Kat, you're my best friend. I don't want to lose you to -"
"Go away, Gavin," she said.
"I just want you to -"
"Go away," she repeated, and this time he listened - she heard the scrape of his chair against the floor as he walked away, the familiar shuffle in his step, and then rising above it another noise that had become all too familiar - the pitched whine of a bone saw, rising to nerve-grating volume in her enclosed cell.
"Now then," she heard Doctor Ramsay say, his deep and enthusiastic voice muffled by his surgical mask. "Let's get started."
She opened her eyes, and once again the SUV was not moving - instead of the highway and endless coastal forests, she saw a darkened parkade and scattered stationary vehicles.
"Ryder?" she called. The driver's side door was open, and as she unbuckled her seatbelt she heard the hatch open, the keesin dancing excitedly as they waited to be let out.
"Look who's awake," he said, smiling at her as she joined him. "Sleep okay?"
"I guess?" She rubbed her neck, trying to calm her kinked muscles, and looked around. "This is my building," she said, surprised.
"It is."
"I can't believe I slept all the way home." Stretching her arms over her head, she twisted and heard her back crack noisily. "How are you feeling?"
"Better," he said, and turned briefly to point toward the parkade entrance. "Anya has two of her people outside."
"Seriously?"
"Mmm." He lowered the second kennel to the ground, walked around the SUV, and opened the door for the two hound-beasts. "They seem a bit young," he said as the keesin jumped to the ground and slipped into the open kennels. "But I guess it's the thought that counts."
"You say that like you were never young," she teased as they made their way to the elevator. It took her a moment to find her keycard in the bottom of her purse, and then they were headed up to her fifth floor apartment, Ryder looking annoyed at the enclosed space of the elevator and Katrina standing beside him with an anxiety attack brewing in her stomach.
She tried to remember the state she'd left her apartment in before she headed to Rion Fell months ago. The call from Gavin had come in the middle of the night and she'd scrambled to be ready to get on the plane the next afternoon, which meant laundry scattered from one end of her living room to the other and binders, papers, and research materials strewn across every flat surface. She agonized about how much her mother had left out - papers from one end of the house to the other was normal when Katrina was growing up, so would her mother have left it all there when she agreed to give the apartment a once-over before Katrina got home? What if she hadn't had the time with work and prepping for the holiday week to even go? Katrina felt her face flush at the thought of her rainbow thong underwear hooked on the corner of her television, or the lacy bras she bought for boyfriends - ones she never actually had - on the coffee table. The anxiety turned to dread as they walked down the short hallway to her front door, and she spared a few moments to issue a silent, desperate prayer to any deity that was listening that her mother had hired a maid to sweep the house.
Either her prayers were answered or her mother had just been incredibly thorough - as she opened the door she immediately recognized the scent of her mother's favorite glass cleaner and the kitchen, from what she could see on first inspection, was immaculate. She breathed a sigh of relief as she tugged Crispin's kennel into the entrance and opened the door to let him out, and shoved the kennel into her office - also clean, even though she couldn't remember having even seen the surface of the desk since she started her master's program - before she wandered around the familiar space, turning on lights.
"I know it goes without saying, but make yourself at home," she called, shrugging out of Ryder's sweater and tossing it on the smooth bedspread, wondering absently when she'd actually last made her bed.
"Your mother left you a letter," he replied from the living room. "And a care package, it looks like."
"Oh?" She smiled, feeling surprisingly content and at home despite the trials of the last forty-eight hours.
"Hi Kitten," he read as he opened Thaddeus' kennel - the two creatures immediately raced into Katrina's room and jumped onto the bed, jumping and rolling around like sugar-high children. "Or should I say Pigpen considering the mess of your apartment." She heard the rustle of papers. "That bad, huh?" he called.
"She's overreacting," Katrina said dismissively, digging in her dresser drawers for a pair of leggings.
"Hope your trip home was uneventful." He snorted. "Oh yeah, gloriously."
"Yeah, let's not tell my parents about that part."
"Dad and I have missed you lots and we're looking forward to meeting your new beau. Hope he's smarter and cuter than the last one." He chuckled at this - Katrina smiled as she slipped into her leggings and went rummaging for a tank top to pull on with them. "Contrary to what your father might say," Ryder continued, "I'm not in the mood for grandbabies yet so I've left you some..." He trailed off, laughing, and Katrina froze in the middle of pulling her top over her stomach when she heard him open the box that had accompanied the letter.
"She did not," she called, horrified.
"She most definitely did," Ryder confirmed, laughing so hard he could barely speak.
"Oh. My God." She covered her face with her hands, her cheeks burning. "Please, please tell me you're fucking with me."
"Great choice of words, considering." She heard him flip the small box in his hands. "Size... huh. I'm flattered."
"I hate you," she groused, collapsing on her face on the bed. "You and my mother. This is the kind of shit that people write about in their journals so they can show their therapist to explain why they're so messed up, you know."
"Is she always this forward?"
"She makes you seem tame."
"That sounds like a challenge."
"Believe me when I tell you I will murder you."
"Get in line," he said, amused, and appeared in her doorway with the letter from her mother in his hands. "So what's this event she's talking about?"
"Hmm?" Katrina turned to look at him, and he waved the letter in the air.
"Coronation Masquerade?" he asked. "Dress fittings? Dinner? Dancing?"
"Oh, uh... right. That." She bit her lip. "Okay, I meant to tell you about it, but -"
"But?"
"But... I was trying to think of a way to convince you to go with me." She rolled onto her back, pushing Crispin away when he tried to slurp her face. "I mean, you don't have to, of course. I'd really like it if you did." She sighed heavily. "It seems stupid, I guess, with what's happening. I just... it's a vacation and I wanted us to have fun and..."
She bit her lip, tears welling in her eyes. She felt utterly ridiculous, trying to justify something as stupid as the lavish Coronation Masquerade her parents attended every year, one of hundreds of black tie events occurring all over the city of Kensington in celebration of their young Queen. They'd just survived an encounter that could have easily killed both of them - hell, they'd survived eight months of them - and she was expecting him to humor her desire to play dress-up? She'd fought to get him into a winter jacket, what were the odds he'd agree to -
"It means that much to you?" he asked.
"It's not that it means a lot, it's just..." She waved her hands in the air, trying to think of the words. "It's just this surreal, princess for a night thing, I guess."
"That you want to attend."
"Of course I do."
"So why try to sell it to me? Why not just tell me that you want to go?"
She glanced over at him, raised an eyebrow.
"You're saying you would?"
"If that's what you want."
"I... huh." She looked up at the ceiling. "I was expecting a fight."
"That's me, just full of surprises," he said, tossing the letter onto her dresser and heading back to the living room. "I'm going to grab a shower," he called.
She stayed where she was on the bed with the two keesin curled up beside her until she heard the water turn on, then walked out to the kitchen to grab her cell phone from her purse. Heading back into her room, she skimmed through her contacts until she found Rebekah's number.
"Kat!" came the woman's excited voice after the third ring. "We were just talking about you! Are you home now?"
"I am," she replied, smiling.
"Hi Kat!" Eli called in the background.
"Hi, Eli," she replied, laughing. She could hear birds singing and the sound of Rebekah's fountain, and pictured the two of them sitting on their patio, reading their novels and perhaps feeding the birds - she was suddenly struck by a surprising pang of longing. "I... miss you guys," she said.
"We miss you too," Rebekah said. "How was the trip home?"
"Uneventful." The lie slipped out easily - might as well get some practice, she figured, before she talked to her parents. "We got grounded by the storm and had to drive to the city, so we're kind of wiped."
"I bet. Is Ryder behaving himself?"
"Yeah, he's... being Ryder." She sat down on the bed and nestled herself against the pillows, putting her arm around Thaddeus' neck when he climbed into her lap. "I have a bit of a funny question for you."
"Go for it."
"Is there a... like a northern variant of abaris root?"
Rebekah was quiet for a few moments, then said, "Love, I'm going inside for a moment, do you want anything?"
"Water, please," Eli replied. "Everything alright?"
"Mmm, girl talk. I'll be right back."
Katrina waited, listening to Rebekah walk across her patio and into the kitchen - she could picture every step, could practically smell the flowers in the window boxes. Once the storm door closed, Rebekah sighed quietly.
"What's he done this time?" she asked.
"It wasn't something he did," Katrina defended. "But there was an incident."
"How bad is he?"
"It's not major, but it just doesn't seem to be healing normally."
"We did discuss before you left that this could happen. He's a long way from home." Katrina heard the sound of flipping papers, the scrolling of the archaic Rolodex that Rebekah kept beside her herb cupboard. "I'll text you some names. I have some contacts in the city, I'll see if I can find you an apothecary."
"If all else fails I should be able to get them from the university," Katrina said. "My mother, in a pinch. I'd rather not open that can of worms, though."
"Have you considered trying to find a local doctor?"
"If it comes to that." Another lie. After seeing Ryder's reaction to the man at the diner, Katrina truly believed the only way she was getting him to see a doctor was if he was unconscious.
"Alright. I'll send you the names shortly. Tell that dumb bastard to stay out of trouble."
"I will. Thank you."
The spoke for another few minutes, about inane things and briefly about the Coronation Masquerade - Rebekah was shocked into speechlessness at the thought of Ryder in a tuxedo and demanded pictures as both proof and future blackmail. When the call ended, Katrina tossed the phone onto her dresser and stood in her bedroom, listening to the quiet snores of the keesin and the running water from the shower, surrounded by familiar and comforting things, the normalcy of her old life colliding with the oddity of her new one. Eight months worth of bottled emotions struck her like a freight train, everything from the stress of Gavin's last minute call about "an incredible opportunity" to her panicked and reckless driving on the highway just hours ago, from Gavin's betrayal to the various near-death situations she and her newfound friends had faced, and now here she was, home to see her parents, vacationing as if nothing had happened, and the enormity of the lie that made up her quiet and calm facade crashed in and over her with such force that she dropped onto the floor beside her bed, pressed her face into the soft grey duvet, and burst into tears.