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“Thatthinghas a name,” I replied, taking on a nasty tone.
“Yeah. Trouble.” Honor huffed and looked away briefly before glancing back at me. “Well, at least you seem to have made it out in one piece.”
“He’s on the fucking porch,” I growled. “And in about five minutes, he’s going to come in here, and nobody’s going to get fucking weird about it. You got a problem with it? You can leave.”
Honor’s lips pulled back in a scowl as I walked past him to my room. “This ismyhouse!”
“It hasn’t been your house since I was seventeen,” I replied and went digging through the piles of clothes in my room. I found a pair of jogging pants that passed the sniff test and yanked them on.
“I told you—”
“Yeah, about your deal with the government or whatever,” I said, grabbing the hairbrush from my vanity. I winced as Idragged it through my hair, pulling out small twigs and leaves. “They didn’t have phones wherever you were? Stamps? Email?”
I walked back to the doorway, mostly to keep him from coming into my room. Chances were good he’d already explored the place and gone through my things, but I didn’t want to give him an excuse to bring it up, let alone ask questions. I came out of my room and closed the door behind me, leaning against it to finish brushing my hair out. God, I needed a shower. A nice, long, hot shower.
And probably to bust another nut for stress relief.
Honor had gotten up from the sofa. He stood there with his arms crossed, facing me with defiance written all over him.
I pointed at him with the brush. “This is my house, and my life. You walked into it. You want to be a part of it? That happens on my terms. Not yours.”
“Honor…” The furry cat monster put a hand on my pop’s shoulder.
Honor deflated with a sigh and looked away. “I know you don’t believe me, but I wanted what was best for you. I thought it was easier if I stayed away.”
“That only works if you actually stay away,” I pointed out. “You don’t get to walk back into my life after being gone all this time and tell me what to do.”
“Okay, fine. I’d agree if we were talking about anything else. But that thing out there?” He pointed to the door. “Do you even know the first thing about irqed, son? What they can do?”
“Do you?” I snapped. “You don’t even know him, but you’re ready to judge him for being born what he is. It’s not his fault he’s an irqed. Besides, he’s not some wild animal who can’t be reasoned with. He has feelings. Language. A whole fucking culture probably, but you don’t care, do you? You see what he looks like and you’ve already decided that he’s not to be trusted. That you should hunt him like a fucking animal. You know whatthat makes you?” I closed on him and jammed a finger into his chest. “Just like Doctor Parker.”
Honor’s eyes flared wide, and he took a half step back. “You know Doctor Parker?”
I went to the cabinet, pulling down the box of sugar cubes I kept in case of an emergency. With a sigh, I sank onto the beanbag chair in the corner of the living room, popping a few cubes into my mouth. The chair smelled a little musty, but then so did the whole house. “Yeah. He was here last year looking for an escaped monster. Subject One-thirteen. Almost broke my nose over it.” I rubbed my nose like it still hurt. It didn’t. Everything had healed up just fine except for my pride. “But that fucker’s dead now. Charlie, Chris, and Phoenix said they killed him.”
Honor and hisfriendexchanged a look, one that somehow made me doubt my own words. “That isn’t exactly true, Axel.”
“What do you mean? You think they’d lie to me?”
“No, it’s just…complicated.”
I snorted and got out my stash of weed, noting that some of it was missing. Either Ben helped himself when he woke up, or Honor had. I didn’t care. After the night I’d had, I needed something to smooth out the sharp edges of what I was feeling and mellow me out enough to deal with all this shit. “Well, complicated can wait. Right now, there’s a monster outside the door who can probably hear what we’re in here saying about him. He says he’s my mate. I don’t know if that’s true or not, and I frankly don’t have the mental room to think about it at the moment. What I am going to do is smoke this and let him in, and you’re going to treat him with respect because I’m way more likely to ask you to leave than him. Got it?”
Honor crossed his arms again. “He’ll get respect if he gives it.”
I took a minute to inhale deeply, letting the smoke drag me under just enough that I didn’t feel like kicking him out thereand then. I’d spent all that time convincing Ghost to get along with Honor, somehow forgetting what a stubborn ass my pop could be.
By the time I let the smoke out my nose, I was feeling a little better, though nowhere near as chill as I wanted to be. “Before I go let him in, I’ve got just one important question for you, Pop.”
“And what’s that?” Honor said cautiously.
“Who’s your boyfriend?”
Honor cleared his throat and went to put an arm around the monster still sitting on my couch. “This is Zigzug Uuhveddh of the t’chl. And Ziggy’s not my boyfriend. He’s my husband.”
My gaze darted back and forth between them, unsure of how to feel about the announcement. Part of me wanted to get up and punch him right in his stupid face. It felt like a betrayal, like he’d just forgotten about my mom and dad. Somehow, the words made losing my parents feel more raw, and Honor’s abandonment grated more.
But then, it’d been what? Seventeen years? The guy deserved the chance to move on, even if I was pissed that he hadn’t introduced us first. It wasn’t like Honor needed my permission. Maybe he really didn’t give a shit about me and how I felt about it. Why should he?
