A/N: Not mine. Thanks to Words without for the beta!

Toboe had just about finished retightening the chain when he heard the footsteps behind him. The nice thing about working on a bike was that unlike a car, you weren't trapped under the chassis or the hood while you did your repairs and could generally get an eye for approaching parties without having to abandon the vehicle completely. If you were good. Toboe wasn't quite that good.

"Lot of pups around here all of a sudden," the older of the men observed, sniffing the air deeply.

His companion groaned. "Shut it, Ethan, just get me inside." The blond changed his grip on his bleeding leg and flinched, whimpering in pain. There were cuts along his arms, too.

Toboe dropped his wrench, hurrying over in an attempt to help. "You okay, mister? What happened?"

"Course I'm not okay, that little bitch nearly took a chunk outta my face," the blond snapped.

Ethan waved the hovering boy away. "Just hold the door, kid." Toboe rushed to comply, and the older man sniffed at him once more as they passed into Cole's clinic. "You recognize that scent, Wormwood?" he asked his wounded companion in an undertone Toboe hadn't been meant to hear, but that came in loud and clear anyway.

Wormwood took an appeasing sniff of the air and grimaced. "It all smells like blood and alcohol to me. Damn girl. Damn old bastard."

Ethan scratched at his narrow, pointed chin and nodded. "Smells of them, too, but there's something else tap-dancing across the old memory box. Leather." He pointed to the bin of dirty laundry in the corner, the one Cole had thrown Tsume's coat into until she found the time to deal with it.

"That's mine," Toboe stammered. "I just don't know of a good cleaner's in town." He'd never been particularly good at stretching the truth, let alone an outright lie, but this seemed as good a time as any to test his limits. Tsume had been reluctant enough about dealing with Cole and Zali…how would he deal with these two?

"Didn't occur to you to ask right next door?" The eldest male smirked. Not sure of how to respond, Toboe just shrugged, staring at the floor.

"Just shut it, Ethan," the blond grumbled. "Cole!"

The woman in question walked slowly from the back, careful to close the door behind her. "Who'd you get into a fight with this time, Wormwood?"

"Not important," the injured blond made to push the topic away, but from his earlier curses, Toboe had a niggling suspicion. "Gauss was still back there. I think he's dead." The boy's eyes flew open and a gasp escaped his mouth at this news.

"Oh, dear," Cole said faintly, catching herself against the counter. "Wormwood… Ethan… What happened?"

"Business disagreement," Ethan said with a shrug. The bald older man appeared unmoved by the potential death of his pack mate, although he contentiously assisted Wormwood to a seat. "Don't worry about tomorrow; we're still on there, but these fools managed to lose us a better position through their damn impatience." Ethan's glare could have added more cuts to Wormwood's flayed skin, as far as Toboe was concerned, but the blond barely looked at his companion as Cole knelt before them to examine the wounds.

"You'd be impatient too if you'd lived with Zali this long," Wormwood muttered back, ignoring Cole's frown as well.

"Er, can I do anything to help, Dr. Cole?" Toboe asked, trying to break the feelings of useless awkwardness and panicked discomfort that warred with his curiosity. The two people that Wormwood had fought with surely hadn't been his Pops and Blue… They were long gone. They'd been scared of the wolves.

"Yeah," Ethan dropped his illusion, and while the wolf beneath had surely seen better days, he certainly wasn't frail and toothless. "You can get out of here, puppy."

"Leave the boy alone," Cole admonished him. "He's come here looking for a safe haven. The least we could do is set an example for certain 'impatient fools.'" The violet-haired woman turned to Toboe. "If you can bring me bandages, that would be wonderful," she told him. "Then you might want to figure out what the mate is up to and keep him away, if you know what I mean. He always gets too worked up at the smell of pack blood, not that he'll ever admit it."

"Right." Toboe nodded and fled for the back. He didn't know where Cole kept her supplies, but Zali and Tsume probably would. It was kind of nice, Toboe thought as he ran, that of all the ways Cole could possibly hide Tsume's presence in plain sight, she had referred to the white-blond as Toboe's mate. Or implied it, anyway…

From what he had seen of them, Toboe couldn't believe that wolves were quite as bad as his father had always said they were. They were just misunderstood, really… Cole seemed very nice, and deep down, Zali did seem to be trying to look out for his family. He and Tsume just weren't great at showing it, which was why they needed Cole and Toboe, the redhead decided as he dug through the drawers for bandages.

Tsume was asleep, and the larger gray had curled up not far away, pointedly not making contact but not exactly out of range for Tsume, should he wake up suddenly and decide he needed a familiar face. It wasn't worth disturbing them for something Toboe could find himself with just a little searching.

Hopefully, Wormwood would be the only one who needed the bandages.