New Rogue in Town

Chapter 23

With my bare feet, I stepped on the cold white tiles of the kitchen. The floor was no longer slippery and spotless of stains, so clean I could identify each grey marbled streak in each tile. Even the windows were clean, the diminishing sun could now smile through the thin barrier, before it had struggled with a net of green, white and brown.

"What do you feel like eating?" Alec asked, his hands tied a blue apron around his waist. Donuts dotted the plastic covering. A delicacy I hadn't eaten in a long time.

"I don't suppose you can cook donuts?" I sank myself onto one of the pale chairs surrounding an island in the middle of the kitchen. If Alec was volunteering to cook, I wasn't about to argue. Cooking with the rogues had been dreadful enough. The burns and the scars.

"Sorry, they're not in my range of expertise." Alec said ashamed. I tilted my head to one side. Why on earth should he feel ashamed, making donuts at home wasn't supposed to be an easy feat? Well tasty donuts anyhow.

A strong vibration buzzed next to my right thigh. The burning weight of metal pressed against the thin material of the shorts I was wearing.

"How about you surprise me? I'll just be in the bathroom." I grinned.

"Uh no you don't." Alec cut me off from my escape. Damn, so close. His eyes flashed black in a second, a warning. His wolf was close to emergence. "The top bathroom." Alec indicated me to walk first, a sure sign that he was on edge. Had something happened that caused his trust in me to derail? He wouldn't have become suspicious this quickly if it were yesterday? Was it more signs of rogues? That would be the most sensible answer.

"Since we're here, I'll have my shower too so don't bust down the door." I scowled at Alec knowing fully well if I spent too long on the toilet, he'd break the door completely until all that was left was a splintering mess.

"Fine."

I shut the white door gently behind me. We both heard the lock click and still no objections. That was one good sign. I waited a few seconds, the amount of time it would have taken me to strip off my clothes. I proceeded to turn both of the shower knobs on to a gentle pressure. With the background noise starting, hopefully Alec wasn't tuned in on small details. Unfortunately this bathroom was surprisingly small compared to the rest of the house. The toilet was right next to the door on the right hand side with the shower in the right hand corner. There was barely enough room for one person to stand between the shower and the toilet. On the left was a silver rail with a yellow hand towel scented like honey. Next to it was the wash basin and a mirror above it. Many stickers were stuck on in the four corners, all child stickers. Cartoon bees and flowers as well as few marine life such as seahorses and shells.

Not many people used this bathroom, I guessed from the amount of room and the lack of decorations. I settled in the tiny corner between the wash basin and the wall with the tiny window I had attempted to climb out above my head. They had replaced the fold up chair I had used to assist my climb with a plastic child-like stool that my bottom barely fit on. Hopefully the moment it decided to break was the moment I finished the phone call.

I dialled the caller who had called me moments ago. First ring, I stared at the glass shower screen in front of me. Water vapour condensed on the glass, fogging and blurring the edges of the white tiles of the inside walls. Water splashed gently against the bottom of the screen. Droplets rained down, clearing the haze to the bottom of the shower. A pale floor and a silver drainage hole. I could almost imagine clumps of hair piling up.

That image had once been what I stared at every time I used the shower. When Anton gave us the luxury of staying in a rundown home once. So many of us piled into one house, a single bed that we managed to fit 4 people on. The bathroom had been the worst. With so many of us using it, nothing could keep up. The flushes soon stopped working and the hot water ran out soon after. The house was still in the same state that we left it as far as I knew.