THERE'S A FIRE STARTING IN MY HEART

Rosemary had a comfortable thing going on with the Doc. She kept her teeth off his shoes. He kept a bag of week-old jerky in the bottom drawer of his desk. She made sure that the back room was guarded. He made sure to keep the fangs in the front room. Sometimes she would just lay at the far end of the room where she wouldn't chew on anything and sometimes he'd lean back and toss her a french fry from his burger meal. On the days his burger meal made it to him anyhow.

That was her new thing. Her new game. Trying to catch the hamburger bag from the hamburger boy. It was fast becoming her favorite thing of the day. Seriously, every day. The Doc loved his burgers. Before, the Doc had just gone to get his burgers but she guessed he either got lazy or had too much to do at the office to take the time and instead had to have his meal delivered. It was great for her because this delivery boy was proving to be quite the fun toy.

Even if every time he saw her, she saw the familiar glint of metal.

Yeah, she knew he was a hunter. She knew that he knew that she was not a normal four-legged beastie. Hunters and werewolves were not supposed to play well together. Or play together at all. Natural enemies, they were. Not supposed to be all cozy. But goodness, how could she resist teasing the tall boy? He looked so ... so cute when he was all angry.

There was the beginning of her problem. She thought the delivery boy was more than just a fun toy to yank around. The little blondie had something that was starting to look like a tiny bit of a crush on the guy. Maybe it was because he smelled so delicious like hamburgers and adrenaline. Or was it the way his eyes narrowed just so whenever he saw her, whether she was jumping up in front of the door right when he got to it or if she was hopping off the roof of the clinic. It was a rush, getting those eyes focused on her. Too much to be normal, that she could at least recognize.

She was able to confess to Royce after a few days (maybe it was more than a few) about what was going on and that she kinda was messing around with a hunter but guiltily kept whatever soft feelings she had for hamburger boy to herself. Royce had always been super-protective over her and while it was very much appreciated, she needed room to breathe. Room for errors and her own pair of googly eyes. Royce owed her anyway. So while he went off to be all big brother and check out hamburger boy for any possible threat, Rosemary decided to get some girl advice from the only girl she really knew.

Which was why she was currently standing in front of Charlie's front door, shouting her new friend's name. "Charlie? Chaarlie! Charlie? CHAAAAARRRRLIIIEEE?!?!" Forget knocking. She was too lazy to lift her hands. Leaning her head forward, she rested against the door and listened for possible Charlie-like noises from within.

A week later and Royce was sure that the world was out conspiring against him. Life had been so simple in the past handful of years. Just him and Rosey, that was it. As soon as others got added into the mix, things started to get complicated. First, he couldn't share the fact that he and Rosemary were werewolves. That alone was a big enough problem. Next, because that wasn't enough, an old 'friend' decided to pop his bloody head in and stir the pot. Crowne was nothing but a thorn in his side. At the very least, the vampire had been keeping a low profile, not yet coming out to meet either of them since the incident with Charlie. But since one vampire wasn't enough to light a fire under his fishy, fate decided to throw in another one. Not just another one but one that was child-size and also decided to pay Charlie a visit. That visit became permanent and now the thing was living with her! Shit on a stick, that was enough to send any guy into a stressed out fit. But Royce kept his cool. A whole week went by since meeting Noah and he had yet to blow his top.

Probably had something to do with the extreme lack of sleep he had going on. Yeah, he had been keeping tabs on the vampire, watching him pretty much every second that he could get away with. Even at night, he kept a vigilant watch from the trees behind the complex. Maybe it was becoming stalker-ish but he couldn't focus on anything else until either this vampire left or died.

He had to give it to the kid though. Noah was certainly playing right into Charlie's motherly instincts. Not exactly intentionally. Sometimes, it almost seemed like the fang was embarrassed by all the attention Charlie was showering him with. Almost made the kid seem human. But Royce wasn't going to lower his guard. Not until he knew for sure. Maybe the kid was a good vampire. That would be nice. He could get some sleep that didn't involve him falling out of trees.

Noah, unfortunately, was not the icing on the cake however. No. Because life wasn't about to bake him a crap-filled cake and not put the crap frosting on it. Psh, life. It couldn't be that easy.

Rosemary had neglected until that morning to tell him about a certain incident that had been reoccurring for the past seven days. An incident involving a hunter, of all the stupid and irresponsible things. Instead of trying to avoid said hunter, Rosemary had actually started to attack the hunter. Not viciously or really very physically (unless sticking one's wolf snout up another one's sweater counted as physical) but more annoying and stupid than anything. She'd been stealing Doc's delivery boy's hamburgers. Of all the things.

So here he was, heading out to this burger joint to get a look at this so-called hunter. He'd briefly talked about it with the Doc. The old guy was both irritated by Rosemary's stupidity and the delivery boy's inability to get past her to the freaking door. In retrospect, Royce would have loved to see this in action but with everything else going on, it was too much of a liability. He had to see if this hunter was going to cause real trouble or if maybe he could just this thing on the back-burner.

Except, Rosemary hadn't told him what the guy's name was. Just what he looked like. Brown hair. Tall. Smells like hamburgers. How was he gonna identify the guy on that? It wasn't until he was at the burger place, standing in line, that Royce realized he could have asked the Doc what the guy's name was. Why was he even standing in line for a burger anyway? Oh. Right. Because he was starting to look like some creep just standing in front of the place, staring in.