Page 57 of Homecoming

The kitten doesn’t move, she just sits with her glistening amber eyes staring upwards and mewls another pitiful cry.

“What the hell are you waiting for? Go on... go away!” Darius holds the sleeve of his shirt to his nose and pushes the kitten along the patterned-tiled floor with his large boot. “Get the fuck out or I swear I’ll…” A devious grin fills his face and he now clicks his tongue, calling for the small cat to follow him. “Hey catty cat… Do you want to go outside? Maybe go take a look around and play by yourself… Yeah, I’m sure you do.C’monwe can let you do that.”

His smile broadens as he tempts the kitten slowly towards the kitchen door and opens it.

“Helena… Helena, where the hell are you?” There’s no reply to the call and his annoyance growls deeper in the back of his throat. “Where the hell is she when you need her? Okay, so I’m just going to leave the doorwideopen and go back to my office. You know, just in case you feel like going out—all byyourselflike a big kitty.” He continues to grin, smug with himself. “Okay, off you go. I said you’re free to go and… if you decide not to come back, then that’s okay too. I’ll just tell them the door got left open by accident. Okay, go… Go on cat…Skat!”

The kitten still doesn’t move and just sits with her head tilted to one side, listening as Darius continues to point to the door. “Okay… well, I’m going to have to put you out because the smell is getting unbearable in here.”

He holds his breath and, placing the toe of his boot on the butt of the kitten, he shoves her closer to the open door. Taking a deep breath, he looks around for something to wrap around the kitten but as he does, he notices the large cage on the floor and the pair of steel-gray eyes staring out from behind the bars, watching him.

“What the fuck! How the hell did you get there?” He frowns and now forgetting about the cat, he walks towards the cage and, noticing the handwritten note taped on top of the bars, he rips it off.

‘I will be hungry when I wake. Milk is in the refrigerator. Warm in microwave for forty-fiveseconds’.

“What the hell? Oh no… No, no…Helena…Helena, get thefuckback herenow!”

Breaking the silence, the pup starts to make a weird whining cry. Darius scans around the kitchen, wondering what he should do.

“Goddamn you, Kat… you did this on damn purpose.” He turns and looks back at the kitten as she,toobegins to cry.

“Shut the fuck up!” he snaps as the pair continue in a chorus of cries: the pup yapping and whining more loudly as she scratches the door of the cage. “Stay there—the both of you—don’t you dare move. I’m going to get your damn mother back here.”

With that, he turns on his heels, and with a hiss through his teeth, he hurries back to the office to retrieve his now ringing phone.

Withthephonestillpressed to his ear, Darius returns to the kitchen, and the growing rage in his voice echoes around the room.

“No! No, I wantyouto sort it out. You promised me he’d be here today. Rhys, don’t waste myfuckin’time like this. If you want to know how to piss me off, then you’re going the right way about it. I don’t need to be dealing with this shit right now. I need people to do what they said they were going to do when they said they would; do you understand that?”

He slams the phone onto the counter and hisses through his teeth. “Fuck it!”

Darius sighs loudly as he gives in and unlatching the door to the silver pup’s cage, he releases her from inside. The tiny pup stumblesforwardandas her short legs catch on the front of the cage, it sendsher toppling over the edge.

“Hey, steady there,” he smiles, watching as the trembling pup falls to the floor.

Shaking herself off, she sits up, raises her head, and sniffs the air. Staring at Darius, she yaps a cry, asthe kitten responds with a mewling chant.

“You can shut the hell up. You were supposed to be going outside, so don’t just sit there. Go on, get gone! Oh hell no… No, no, no... don’t do that.” He sighs, grabbing at his head as the pup now sits with a pool of bright yellow pee around her paws.

“Ohgoddammit, now look what you did! If you wanted to pee, at least be a wolf and go outside.C’mon…” he strides to the door and holds it open. “Hey, are either of you going to listen to me?”

Neither the pup nor the kitten move.

The pup starts to cry for attention; her mouth opening and closing with a high-pitched squeal. “Alright, alright, shut the hell up.” Darius looks at the note and the bottle of milk he took from the refrigerator. “Alright, let’s heat this damn thing up.”

He places the bottle inside the microwave, sets the timer for forty-five seconds, and as the turntable whirrs around, he folds his arms watching the two pairs of eyes—one amber orange and the other a mesmerizing silver steel-gray—stare back at him.

“Oh no sorry, this is not for you,” he gestures toward the cat. “This is hers, not yours. Oh God…” he sighs. “What the hell am I doing talking to a damn stupid cat?”

The kitten drops to a seated positionandwith her head on one side, her furry brow furrows in what he considers a frown. “Don’t look at me like that—like you’re all little Miss. Superior. You’re not. Man, this is exactly why I hate damn cats sofuckin’much. I said stop looking at me like that!” With another deep breath, he goes to the cabinet and takes out a large soup bowl, which he then fills with fresh cold milk from the refrigerator.

The kitten watches as he then places the dish in front of her on the floor.Shesniffs,then placing both tiny paws in the milk, she climbs into the dish and sits down.

“Oh no…Fuck!What the fuck do you think you’re doing? You’re supposed to drink it, not bathe in it. For fuck’sake…” Darius growls as he retrieves the milk-drenched kitten from the bowl. Holding her high in the air by the scruff of the neck, he plonks her unceremoniously into the sink. Running the cold water, he then dunks her under it and cleans off her fur.

She shudders in mewling anguish and gasps for help.

“Well, it serves you right, you shouldn’t have done that.” Darius watches as she shakes out her fur, then with a yowling hiss, she scratches the back of his hand. “Aww… you little fuck!” He growls loudly and bares his teeth in anger. The kitten cowers down, shaking as Darius turns to answer Evelyn’scontinuousyapping cry. “Alright, I’m coming… You should blame your friend here for the slow service, not me.”

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