Trifecta: Ice [Complete]

Ch8: Satisfied Demands

Karen made lunch and we were still eating when there was a knock on the door. Karen went and answered it and I was relieved to hear familiar voices.

It was my brother, as Serge had promised, with his two best friends in tow.

"Why don't you all come in and have something to eat before you unload?" Karen invited in a friendly tone.

"Sure, thanks," Sean said easily. I could not hear any anger in his voice, but he was good at hiding it behind his laid back teasing mannerisms.

Plus, the real test would be if he still seemed calm while dealing with my false pack leader. I did not doubt that he was almost as frustrated as my father with this state of affairs.

Just the thought made me cold.

Sean strode into the kitchen, ruffled my hair in his irritating manner, and took the seat next to me. Dave and Terrence followed him. Terrence gave me a little wave and Dave grinned.

"How're you doing?" he asked me. I could see he was worried.

"Well... Okay," I said vaguely.

Dave and the black haired Terrence sat roughly on the bar stools next to him. Karen brought the three of them drinks and poured more water into my glass.

Dave was naturally blond and blue eyed and he had bleached his hair even lighter recently. My brother had claimed that Dave had tried and failed to get his human hair as light as the white fur of his wolf transformation.

"I've heard you weren't eating," Sean commented.

I frowned and gestured to my half eaten sandwich. "I'm eating, grandma," I said, since the insult had worked so well against Matthias.

Sean laughed. "You wish I was as nice as a grandma. As your future pack leader..."

We both paused at his words. So familiar, but no longer true.

I was never going to have to deal with my obnoxious older brother as my leader.

I swallowed.

"No matter what I'll always be your older brother so you have to listen to me," he recouped.

"Ha, you wish it worked that way," I shot back, using a tone that I well remembered, but could not quite feel. "You've got no power over me now, buddy."

"Like this dumbass ever did," Terrence added, giving Sean a joking shove.

Sean's friends laughed at him and I smiled at the familiar situation. Terrence's comment had been quite mild as far as they were concerned.

I had been privy to plenty of conversations of these boys growing up. If they had not been arguing about stuff like whether or not Superhero A could take Superhero B in a fight, or whether or not Villain A could beat a werewolf if the werewolf was armed with a machete and a flamethrower, then most of their talk seemed to revolve around insulting and mocking each other.

I had learned my entire repertoire of swears from these morons trying to outdo each other.

All of that was, of course, when they were not making plans to do something I thought was at least mildly stupid. The three got along well enough at those times.

But, they must have liked being rudely picked on, because Terrence and Dave had been friends with my brother for almost as long as Matthias and I had. The difference was Matthias and I were nicer to each other.

And I could give my brother and his friends one bit of credit; it was all very egalitarian. They were all equally offensive to each other. No one in their trio was the underdog.