Who: Peter and Katherine What: Talking; Peter reveals what he thinks of a certain situation When: 1889 Where: Kat's apartment Warning: None
Ever since Peter had spoken to Robert, he knew that he needed to speak to his sister. He had a feeling that there was something going on between the two that even they didn’t understand. Or possibly his sister was just ignoring it and Robert didn’t understand. God how he wished it weren’t true. Not that he didn’t like Robert, but he wasn’t sure yet that he could trust him entirely and he was still new to being a wolf. But age didn’t matter when it came to mating. When you came across the one it did not matter.
He picked up some pastries and then headed towards his sisters apartment. He gave a swift knock at the door and then waited and all the while he thought of what he would say to his sister if what he thought was true. Or if he should say anything at all and let the two figure it out. No...it was probably best to at least alert her of what was happening.
Katherine’s days mostly had consisted of just working and trying to get her life together. It was easier, now that she wasn’t focused so much on trying to be happy. She’d settled on getting by, and trying to not be as lonely and depressed as she had been. It was slow going, but she thought she was getting better. It wasn’t great, coming home and living alone all the time but now she at least got to see other wolves at least once a month. That was better than nothing.
When there was a knock at the door, she got up and went to see who it was. Always cautious now and not opening the door for strangers. When she saw it was her brother, she opened the door with a smile. “You’ve brought me pastries. What have you done now?” she teased, letting him inside.
“I have been an angel, would you believe it?” Peter laughed as he stepped in, giving his sister a kiss on the cheek. “I haven’t spent a lot of time with you, this is my way of making it up to you,” he chuckled. “And, plus, wanted to make sure you weren’t mad at me still with that whole thing with Robert.” He had had the two meet him one day, had discussed business and then had left the two to work out their issues. He had been sure the two would be angry with him for a little while.
Katherine looked dubiously at her brother and smirked, “I don’t know that I do actually.” Ah so he was kissing up. It was a good thing that he was bringing food, which was a good way to kiss up to her anyway. Ah right. The Robert thing. “I don’t know that I fully forgive you for that, but this is a good way to start making it up to me.” She was already taking out the pastries and going to eat them. “That was not nice, and you know it.”
Peter smirked and chuckled. He was most likely more of a devil than an angel and his sister knew that. He grabbed himself a pastry and then fell into a chair, there were no formalities here, now when it was just the two of them. “Well...about that…” he said after a bite of the pastry. “I needed to gauge what was going on with the two of you, to see how much separation the two of you needed. I’ve chosen him to help me out with this whole mess, to do things that I cannot do myself,” he explained. “And did you work things out?”
Grabbing the other pastry, she moved to sit down across from him in the chair that she had. “What was going on? There’s nothing going on. He bit me. I yelled at him. That was that.” She shrugged a little. “I’m not sure. I don’t think necessarily that you need to make sure we never see each other. He says I smell, and he’s angry all the time. So because I smell, he’s angry.” Katherine rolled her eyes slightly. “I tried to assure him that it gets better with time and patience. But it won’t fade over night. The truth is though, I have no idea. I don’t know about bitten werewolves. He might never stop being angry. I think he’s going to just stay out of my way though, from now on. If you call that working out, then yes.”
“That was not...he said you smelled?” Peter asked, eyebrows raised. He had been about to say that there had been more than just biting and yelling going on, but the stinking comment had him going in that direction. He scratched at the back of his neck and shook his head. “And what do you feel when he’s around? Does he...smell different? Upsets you?”
She just nodded her head in a ‘can you believe that’ kind of way. Yeah their senses were very heightened, but he hadn’t need to say that she smelled like that. Did he smell different? Well yeah, but she wasn’t going to say anything. Katherine wasn’t a jerk. “It upsets me that he seems to think that a woman can’t be taken seriously, or allowed to take care of herself. I’m sure he’s going to keep his poor wife in the kitchen and not let her do anything.” She rolled her eyes.
“You just side-stepped my questions,” Peter frowned. “Kat…” he paused and frowned hard enough that wrinkles formed in his forehead. Dammit! He couldn’t very well tell her that she may have mated with the damned man. It would break her heart all over again to know that the one she should be with was not only like a pup newly born and unable to understand what he truly was or what a mate meant, but he was also engaged to another woman and planning on a family with that woman. God this was a fucking mess!
Instead of going on the path that he was about to go, he instead shifted gears into playfulness and as he frowned he sniffed the air around him until he was sniffing in her direction… “He may have had a point, you have this scent about you…” he teased her and then laughed. “Robert is going to be my right-hand man for awhile,” he then said. “I don’t know why, but I feel that I can trust him more than I can the others right now, even if he’s a turned wolf and emotionally aggressive, he’s just….” he shrugged. “Because of whatever happened between the two of you, I wanted you to know.”
“I didn’t side-step, I answered. That’s what bugs me. I guess he smells different. Every wolf smells different. I don’t know about upsets me. I’m not that rude to say he smells.” Good grief. Like she was going to admit to something like that. She didn’t know why he was frowning so much. She knew that he wanted them to get along for whatever reason, but at least they wouldn’t hate each other. Hopefully. That was better than anything. “I don’t know why either. I don’t think you could trust him as far as you throw him. He would do anything not to be a part of this. He hates it.” Hates all of them. Even if none of them were the ones to turn him. “I can behave civilly, and I hope that he can as well.
It was a mess, she knew that even if she didn’t really understand the reason for it. “I’m going to stay out of his way. He’ll stay out of mine. That’s what we agreed on. Unless he has a question. I said I’d try to help, but I don’t know how much help I’d be.”
It was almost as if she knew he was looking for certain answers and she was not giving them to him. He wanted to know if Robert had a smell that was different than others. Of course every wolf had a different smell, it was one of the reasons of how you could tell one apart from the other, but when it came to mates… he had never mated, but he felt like he understood it. The smell was overwhelming, and you fought it, but in the end it was one that you couldn’t be without.
“I know he hates it, which is why I trust him,” Peter said, knowing it probably didn’t make sense. “He wants to be done with all of this as I do, which means he’ll work harder. The others….they want their freedom, to live a good life, but I don’t know,” he shrugged. “I guess I understand Robert a little… Anyway, just...keep me in the loop if problems arise, okay?” When it all blew up, he wanted to be there to try to help in any way that he could.
Actually Katherine could understand that. The faster they worked, the more likely it would be over sooner and everyone could get back to their lives. She often wondered what that would be like. Would Peter still want this pack? Would they still be a pack? She didn’t have any answers and suspected her brother didn’t either. Looking to the future could get you killed. Begrudgingly, she nodded her head.
“You understand him? I didn’t think you even knew him all that well. I mean I understand what you’re saying. He hates it as much as you. But surely they all hate it. I don’t understand why him, especially when he’s supposed to be having a family soon.” Surely that would put him at an even greater risk. She wasn’t disagreeing with Peter’s choices, but she didn’t get where this whole sudden everything about Richard thing was coming from. If she didn’t know any better, she would honestly think that Peter was the one that was his mate.
“In a way,” Peter shrugged. “I don’t know him well, no, but enough to know that I can understand him.” He didn’t have much else to say after that. He couldn’t explain why he felt the way he did, just that he did. “Wait..what? He’s having a family? Like, they are having a baby?” Or did she just mean marriage? God, he hoped the woman wasn’t with child, that would end fatally.
Her eyebrows knitted together at him, and then she looked at him quite seriously. “I don’t know, that wasn’t any of my business. Eventually, I’m sure. Once they’re married.” She paused slightly, and thought about what she might ask. “Peter, I know that you care very much for Zipporah but.. Are you asking me all these things because you think that.. You might have feelings for Robert? It’s fine if you do, I’m not one to judge. I just want to help.”
“He can’t have children with her,” Peter looked at his sister. “She can’t carry his child. It would kill her...unless he decides to turn her.” That could work, if that was the life he wanted for his fiance. “Wait.. what?” His thoughts came to a sudden start and he had to focus on what his sister had said. “Katherine… no,” he shook his head. He laughed at the absurdity of it all and then stared point blank at Katherine. “Kate… it’s you that has feelings for him, or anyone feelings will come soon enough,” he sighed. “I believe that he may actually be your mate. How the two of you react to each other, the tension that there is something right beneath the skin, the smell that is entirely different even for someone you don’t know… Think about it, Kate..and tell me, did your heart jump and nearly swallow you to think that it was me that had feelings for him?”
Katherine nodded solemnly, “I’m not sure that he knows that though. It doesn’t seem like he was explained a lot.” Though she didn’t know who had turned him, it didn’t seem like they had told him very much about what would happen. “He deserves to know.” Not that she was going to be the one to tell him, but someone had to before that poor woman died. And then he would feel so horrible and guilty. She was a little amused that he was laughing about her assumption, well up until he said that it was her that had feelings for him. She burst out laughing. “Me!? What? We don’t like each other! That’s not mating. Yes his smell is different.” And like nothing she’d ever felt before, but not in a good way. Right? “If by heart jump out, you mean making me want to vomit, then sure.” Yeah she was deep in denial. “Absolutely not. You could have feelings for him. I don’t care.” A blatant lie. “I mean.. It doesn’t matter. You. His fiancee. He’s getting married.”
Peter would have to talk to Robert again, tell him a few things of the wolf that he hadn’t thought to tell Robert about. For Peter, he’d basically been born with the knowledge and he had to remember that Robert had not.
His lips thinned and his eyebrows raised as his sister laughed and then tried to explain how it wasn’t her. “Katherine... “ his voice was quiet, his eyes catching hers. She couldn’t lie to him, he was positive he knew the truth. “Think about it Katherine,” he said softly. “Everything that’s happened, the response the two of you have when in the same vicinity...hell, he even had a protective urge for you because I had you at the meeting.”
This was absolutely not happening. Of course she knew that her lies weren’t going to work on her twin, but she had to keep them there. They had to remain. Katherine shook her head at him harshly, as if she were putting her foot down. “Stop, Peter. For the love of all.. Just.. stop. I know. Okay? I know. I’m not stupid. I can’t..” she trailed off, trying to find the words to say. She took a deep breath and then exhaled. “I can’t entertain this possibility, so there has to be no possibility. He has no idea about any of this. I’m sure that he doesn’t even know what mates are. And he has a mate. A nice lovely girl, that is going to marry him… you need to warn him about children but.. It doesn’t matter how I feel. Or how he feels.”
Peter let out a breath of air and rubbed at the back of his neck. “I’m sorry, Katherine,” though he knew it wasn’t his fault or anything he could do about it. It really was the only thing he could say. “I know it’s….” he trailed off and shook his head. “God, Kate, I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. If I could fix this, I would. Whatever you need, if I can do it I will.”
It was the sheer absurdity of it. The fact that if she didn’t laugh, she would have started to cry that made her burst into nearly hysterical laughing. “You’re always saying sorry because my life is so ridiculous. We both keep saying sorry.” It wasn’t really that funny, but what else was she supposed to do with that? “I need you to not say anything to him about it. Ever. Okay?” She said, finally when she stopped laughing and gained some composure. “It won’t do anyone any good for him to know. And he would be appalled by the whole thing. Thank you though. I mean, I know you would fix it if you could. I don’t know what I did to deserve all of this, but .. “ she shrugged. “I can’t do anything about it.”
The laugh took him by surprise, but he got it. He gave a slight chuckle and then shook his head. “Look at us,” he sighed. “Both our lives are ridiculous, like we are cursed. Me, I made the decisions, you…” he ran a hand over his face, feeling really old in the moment. “I won’t say anything, at least not right now, but I think in time he has the right to know. I am going to talk to him about having children with a human, I want to save him from that. And you didn’t do anything to deserve it, somehow I want to believe it’s all going to get better.”
Katherine was smiling, even if she didn’t feel it. As if she couldn’t do anything but. “We are cursed, I think.” She gave him a Look about it. “You might think he has the right to know, but since this is my life.. I’m telling you not to tell him. Tell him about not having children. But this.. Him and I. You cannot. I forbid it.” She went to sit back down in her chair. “I stopped believing in better a long time ago.”