Blacktooth was being a jerk and he knew it.
His reasoning for rejecting what he figured was romantic interest from the vixen was his fear. Blacktooth, believe it or not, was afraid of love.
He was afraid of what a relationship would mean for him. He was a monster, plain and simple, and no amount of feeling could change that. Hormones couldn’t rewrite his physique. He figured he could overwrite how the humans had mutated him one day inside the lab when he tried wooing a young girl, a girl who’d cared very much for him while he was in captivity. A human girl.
She’d even said she’d free him if she could, though it was against orders. It was a younger girl, younger than Barbra, and had long brown hair and blue eyes. Blacktooth shook the image out of his head and punched the nearest wall, not feeling the impact. It was a stupid hormonal blip that interrupted his normally clear thinking. Blacktooth bullied himself about the incident ever since. Who was he, a stupid animal, to cross-breed with a human?
Blacktooth had called the meeting with the other Four to an end a few minutes ago, and was slumping against an unoccupied space on the wall. Blacktooth angrily looked at the floor, a pinnacle of focused and charged energy, accept for the hunched body. The vixen peeked around the corner, having heard Blacktooth’s abuse of the wall, and, noting his deflated figure, cleared her throat and stepped out into the hall.
Blacktooth looked up, and practically hissed. “What do YOU want, woman?” Blacktooth said with a dismissive toss of the head.
The woman held her ground this time, glaring at Blacktooth instead of cowering. “Whatever you’ve been through, you have no right to treat me this way. We’re on the same side Blacktooth.”
Blacktooth looked to one side. He couldn’t argue with that.
The vixen took her chance and spoke more calmly, almost quietly. “I was on your side from the beginning…”
Blacktooth’s eyes grew wide as he turned back towards her, but ignored his presupposition and acted indifferent. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
The vixen started to speak, but her lip quivered. She stopped, though, cleared her throat, and furrowed her brow. “I was the scientist,” she snapped and dropped to one knee, choking out the last words, “who wanted to set you free.”
Blacktooth’s jaw dropped, and his eyes went wide. He dropped down on one knee and lifted the woman’s head. “What happened to you?”
The woman sniffed and blinked back tears as she said, “The administration threatened my loyalty to you over the significance of me remaining human. They experimented on me, using the techniques they refined on you, and made me an animal. I figured I was free and tried to escape, and that’s when you found me.” The woman smiled, then put a hand on Blacktooth’s face. Blacktooth internally exploded, but kept it to himself. This was the reason for his pain all these years, and now, it wasn’t painful at all. It was pure joy.
Blacktooth smirked, to which the vixen smiled. A clearing of the throat, a human throat, brought Blacktooth’s head up. Barbra was standing there, looking disapprovingly down at them.
“Blacktooth, if you have a minute,” she nearly spat, “there’s cubs in the sick ward needing medical attention. I need to know where the medical supplies are.”
Blacktooth’s face grew serious, much to the vixen’s surprise. He rose. “We have no medical supplies.”
Barbra’s eyes narrowed. “Then what am I supposed to do? The only person looking over them,” she looked down at a clipboard containing names, “BJ is his name, is in need of supplies. Am I supposed to make them materialize in the air?” Barbra was being annoying and belligerent for a reason. It was for that reason that Blacktooth only stood still, flexing his arms to release his anger.
The vixen stood, putting an hand on Blacktooth’s arm (she was easily two feet shorter than him). Barbra’s eyes decided to slice upon the vixen next. “And who’s she?”
Blacktooth’s eyes narrowed. He spoke his words slowly, emphasizing each word, holding so much bottled anger inside the vixen beside him could feel him quivering.
“Her name is Samantha Stross. She is one of your people. She wanted my freedom over your research. Your people didn’t like that, and turned her into a fox. So, yes, with your technology, I am asking you to materialize this out of the air, because out here, we have no funding. No governmental programs. No money. You make it work. They’re your people after all.”
Barbra faltered for a second. Despite her angry disposition, she did admit that she was looking at furries differently now. There wasn’t a complete turnaround, but it was something. However, that didn’t matter now as Blacktooth turned and walked away, with the vixen at his side. No, Barbra reminded herself. She was not one of the group; she was the outcast, the burden almost. Leverage. She’d have to prove herself much more slowly, she realized.

“I’m not half as worried about an attack on myself,” Blacktooth said to his Foursome, having called another meeting, “as I am with someone finding this facility. We’ll need more forces here than wherever we go. Now, BJ,” Blacktooth said, addressing the bear who was part of the group, “you said the kids need medication. What are we looking at here?”
BJ simply handed him a draw up sheet. Blacktooth handed it to Stross beside him, who read it aloud to him. Blacktooth could sense the lead on the page and form words from that, and smell and sense the paint on signs, but actually reading it was a tough process, and he wanted to save his strength.
“It mostly entails pain medications, but also anything needed for flu or cold. Other than that, bandages, medical ointments, linens, and soaps for wounds or soothing fevers.”
Blacktooth nodded, indicating her words were suffice and thanked her for reading.
“Well men, I suggest we rob a couple medical vehicles…”