Chapter 8
Braun
“You’re gonna leave?” Emeric glanced over at me like I was supposed to fix the mess the Alpha Mate was making, but it didn’t take him long before he remembered Dorian was human. That didn’t help him to know what to do as he turned back to our math teacher, though. “You’re gonna leave us?”
Dorian would’ve had a chance if Emeric’s shock had been manufactured to manipulate him.
Teachers seemed like they’d have a good radar for bullshit, but Emeric’s surprise at Dorian’s announcement that it was time for him to head out had been genuine.
I wasn’t sure where his obvious thoughts on how to fix the situation would fit in, though.
Emeric was creative and it seemed like he’d stumped our new math teacher. “You…we…we don’t have groceries. He can’t feed any extra mouths in the morning.”
Okay, not bad.
The way Dorian peeked over at me to see my reaction said he wasn’t sure what to do with the unexpected protest. I wasn’t going to be any help, though, because I simply shrugged.
“I usually just drink coffee in the morning before I go out and do an early patrol of the area. My first meal is lunch most days.”
Oh, Dorian didn’t like that.
His eyes would’ve flashed if he’d been any kind of shifter.
“That’s not healthy at all.” Standing straighter and running a hand through his hair, he looked like I’d just told him I go around kicking kittens for fun.
“Even if shifting is magical in nature it has to burn a lot of calories. I saw how much food you both ate today. That’s not good for you at all. Good grief.”
I wasn’t sure how my eating habits could be that offensive, but Emeric was smart enough not to let the opportunity go to waste. “Am I allowed to have coffee for breakfast? I think donuts are supposed to go with that. I’ll go look and see if you have any.”
Now that was an idea.
He was brilliant.
“Look in that bread box on the counter. Sometimes pastries magically appear in there. I’m not sure who’s doing it but we’re due for something good any day now.” My snack fairy didn’t bring anything healthy but that was why I liked them so much.
“Coffee?” Dorian blinked like his brain was resetting like the computer I kept avoiding. “Donuts?”
“Calories are calories.” At least I was pretty sure someone on the radio had said that lately. “And I’m not dumb enough to give him caffeine. He’s got enough energy that decaf will be fine.”
Had I broken him?
His mouth just kept opening and closing.
“Alpha. You’ve got brownies.” The pup’s confidence and timing were amazing. “That’ll work. They’re big but we still might need two for breakfast.”
“Brownies and decaf?”
Maybe Dorian was working again?
“I’m getting the real stuff but I’m pretty sure someone dropped off instant decaf for some reason. The fates only know why someone thought that was a good idea.” Hmm. “Could that be the same person who bought all the weird health food? Do you know how disgusting canned asparagus is?”
He blinked and his inner computer started whirling again.
Why was that what got his brain going again?
“I’ll remember not to buy that, but don’t worry, it wasn’t on my list.” Dorian looked down at himself like he was expecting to see the list, but that probably wasn’t what he was thinking. “I’ll stick with more reasonable vegetables.”
“What’s an asparagus?” Emeric looked genuinely confused as he came out of the kitchen. “Is that like those cado things? Did you know those are expensive?”
“Avocados.” Dorian seemed to correct him without thinking about it. “I’ll check out the prices for those here. Oh, I don’t think they’re related, but they actually have similar textures, so maybe they are?”
Hmm.
Had the math teacher turned up his nose at vegetables?
They couldn’t be related, so was it an issue with them being kind of mushy?
“What do you think about broccoli?” Dorian’s immediate change of topic said I might’ve been right. “There are lots of good things that can go in a salad too.”
Emeric was a master at taking the opportunities he was given. “Can I come with you so you can show me? We mostly ate green beans and what do you call it…oh iceberg lettuce. Lettuce has the weirdest name.”
Even I knew those weren’t the most nutritionally dense options to feed a kid, but Dorian’s eyes got wide before he got his expression under control. “There are actually a lot of different types of lettuce and leafy greens that can be the base of a salad.”
Giving Dorian a confused frown that might’ve been genuine, Emeric seemed to think about what the easily riled-up math teacher said. “What good things go on a salad? I guess carrots aren’t bad.”
I could almost hear Dorian’s brain whirling. “Steak.”
Oh, smart man.
That was kind of sexy.
“Steak?” Emeric perked up at that word. “What else? Will you show me at the store? We can go first thing if you don’t want me to eat the brownies. I can make brownies. I’ve done that. Those always have eggs in them, though. So they might be breakfast food. What do you think, Alpha?”
That Dorian had lost.
It was amazing to see, mostly because I wasn’t sure he understood how it’d happened. “I’m pretty sure chocolate is a bean, but don’t quote me on that. We might need to look that up.”
For some reason that had Dorian perking up again. “Do you have a phone you can look that up on?”
Oh…good question for a variety of reasons.
Emeric shook his head, but kept chattering excitedly. “No, that wasn’t allowed. But once I pledged the pack I’d be an adult and I could have one. I snuck my dad’s, though, so I know how to clear my browser history and everything.”
I could almost see the horror that was flashing through Dorian’s mind, but he kept it off his face. “You are very smart, but we’ll stop by the store on the way to get groceries in the morning and get you a phone. That’ll make me feel a lot safer.”
“Humans worry.” Emeric shrugged like that explained it all. “It’s okay.”
Wait.
Didn’t other people in his life worry?
The way Dorian blinked gave me the impression he’d been thinking something along the same lines. “I appreciate you understanding.”
Emeric stood straighter, taking the Alpha Mate seriously. “Thank you.”
One day Dorian would understand how cute this was…probably after he tried to kill me for the whole Alpha Mate thing.
“Well, if we’re going to run errands first thing, we need to get an early start.
” Glancing down at a real watch and not one of those ridiculous computer ones, Dorian looked every inch the teacher as he thought about the schedule.
“What do you think about getting a shower now and I’ll look around to see if the Alpha here has any books I can read to you after you get cleaned up? ”
Did I have books?
Maybe?
Neither of them seemed to have a lot of confidence in it but I shrugged. “My mother is a packrat at heart, not a wolf. So while I don’t have groceries, I have other important things.”
Hopefully.
If the Alpha Mate wanted to read to the pup, I wasn’t going to be the one to tell him no.
Neither was Emeric. He perked right up and the pup looked like he wanted to bounce around the room. “Alpha can pick out pajamas for you while I get a shower. You can borrow his. He’ll share. He’s nice.”
With that declaration, he turned around and raced through the house toward the guest room, calling over his shoulder, “You can use Alpha’s shower.”
Dorian was back to just blinking.
“He’s right. You can use my shower and I’ve got pajamas that will fit you.” Dorian didn’t seem to think about the extra clothes in the guest room, so I didn’t bring them up either.
If we were going to have a sleepover, he was going to wear my clothes and I had some too-small ones that would fit him well enough. “We should probably get ready for bed now too. It’s been a long day.”
A long couple of days but eventually I’d get to sleep.
And he was coming back to life.
The weirdest things prompted his brain to turn back on.
“Yes.” Looking around, he studied the living room but I wasn’t sure what he was thinking. “We’ll get ready too, and then if we can’t find a book here, I’ll download something on my phone.”
That was right…people did that a lot lately.
“Why do you look confused?” Dorian frowned but didn’t seem frustrated. “Where should we start looking for books?”
His brain either went ninety miles an hour or it just stopped completely.
“Upstairs junk room. The attic is overflowing so I had to move some of it downstairs.” Somehow I seemed to be the dumping ground for everything the pack thought was important but didn’t want to keep in their own homes.
“The attic in this house is huge. It had the option to be a separate apartment.” Marching toward the front stairs, Dorian shook his head and charged through the house. “That’s ridiculous. You need to set some boundaries and declutter if it’s that bad.”
“What if we need it later? Like the books.” Stuff came in handy but sometimes it took a while. “I might need an extra suitcase in six months or pots and pans for a new family next week. You never know.”
Dorian sighed as he started up the stairs. “Your mother isn’t the only packrat in the family.”
“That’s Alpha Packrat, thank you very much.” Following behind him, I enjoyed the view and how he knew exactly which room had turned into the overflow junk room. “It’s not that bad.”
It was that bad but it was neat at the very least.
“Good grief.” Frowning in the doorway, he looked like he wanted to groan. “The attic is worse?”
“It’s clean. No dust and I vacuumed around everything last week.” I might not have food on a regular basis but my house was neat. “Extra household goods are over there against the far wall and kid stuff is in the corner. I think that’s where the books are.”
Nodding slowly, Dorian moved through the maze of boxes. “I’m scared to ask what’s in the attic.”
“Um, furniture, some exercise equipment, oh, and a couple of boxes of baby clothes.” When he stared at me in horror, I wasn’t sure if the baby stuff came out right. “I don’t have kids.”
Blink.
Blink.
“Then why do you have baby clothes?” Dorian’s tone was confused enough that I wasn’t sure if I’d guessed the problem right. “Just in case?”
As he started looking through boxes I knew held kid stuff, I shrugged. “The women in the pack refused to give them away because they said they might come in handy.”
I wasn’t sure it was logical but I wasn’t dumb enough to ask that.
The Alpha Mate could do it.
“Okay, well, is anyone pregnant?” Dorian’s eyes widened as he got to the third box, and I hoped that meant he’d found books instead of something weird. “You actually have books.”
Perfect.
Nothing weird.
“I have enough stuff to outfit three houses. Of course there had to be books somewhere.” Statistically I knew we’d been bound to run into them somewhere. “And no…no one is expecting any pups.”
“Then we’re going to talk about all the baby clothes and everything else.” As he sorted through the books, he frowned. “Why does any shifter need exercise equipment?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know.”
Infomercials were tempting?
Dorian paused his book quest and frowned at me before he dived back in. He clearly didn’t like my answer, but I didn’t have a better one for him.
“I thought it was rude to ask.” His dumbfounded expression as he pulled out a couple of thick books said he didn’t agree with me. “It seemed personal.”
“You get to ask if they want to store things in your house. Packhouse or not.” His expression made it look like he thought I was ridiculous but I wasn’t sure why. “You need boundaries.”
As long as they weren’t about him?
“I think you’ll be good at helping me put those in place.” It didn’t seem to be my job, so I was assuming it was the Alpha Mate’s.
Shaking his head, Dorian set down one of the books and kept two. “I thought you were going to say that.”
Because he was smart…and he knew his mate very well.