Chapter 21
Dorian
“Everyone in the neighborhood is watching us, aren’t they?” I wasn’t surprised when Braun nodded while doing his best to keep a straight face as we headed inside my tiny cottage. “I always thought it was just me being paranoid but I don’t think it is.”
“No.” He finally shook his head and chuckled as I shut the door. “They’re using magical and nonmagical means, but they are watching everything you do.”
“Was the buzzing sound the nonmagical means?” Emeric didn’t wait for permission to go deeper into the house. He just bounced his way into the living room, studying everything. “Something near the mailbox sounded weird.”
Really?
Whatever Braun saw on my face had him laughing. “Oh yeah.”
My neighbors were weird, not human, and very nosy.
“Don’t say anything you don’t want them all knowing if you’re in the front yard.” Shaking his head, Braun closed the curtains by the front door. “Nothing in here sounds weird, so we’re fine for now.”
That was ridiculous.
“That’s not a non-human thing, is it?” I was relieved and slightly disturbed when they both laughed. “My neighbors have no manners.”
“No common sense either.” Braun seemed to find it funny and frustrating based on his expressions. “So I’m glad you’re getting out of here.”
“I think your whole house will fit in your new office.” Emeric was doing circles around the room like he was memorizing every detail. “None of this stuff is yours?”
“No.” Was that odd? “I had more stuff in the past when I was living with a roommate, but when I moved here, they wanted me to leave as much as possible, so they paid me for it.”
“It was the easiest way to move.” Braun kissed my head before stepping deeper into the living room. “It’s also going to make it easy to move to the other house, and it means that you’ll need to do some shopping to put your own stamp on it.”
Emeric snickered. “He just doesn’t want to have to decorate the downstairs.”
Braun sighed but refused to admit Emeric was right. “I’m being generous.”
“That’s very sweet of you.” No matter why he’d suggested it. “You’ve done a wonderful job with the living room and your bedroom. I think we should continue those colors downstairs and I’ll mix in some things that I think would go with it.”
And his smile was back.
Books should’ve done a better job of warning me how dramatic Alpha werewolves were.
“It’s going to be perfect but right now we’re picking up clothes and work stuff.” Braun’s frown and studious expression as he started circling the room like Emeric had me trying not to smile. “Then we’ll come back over later this week and get more of your stuff.”
As I headed back to my bedroom, I tried to sound just as serious as he had. “I promise it’s not as much stuff as you’re probably thinking. The knickknacks in there and stuff like the throw pillows are the only stuff that’s mine.”
All my stuff had fit in my car when I’d first come over and I hadn’t added too much to it.
“The bedroom has a bit more but it’s not terrible.” A chair and a few random things I’d found at flea markets to make it easier to work at home.
The couch just wasn’t comfortable enough to do all my work on it and my kitchen table was tiny.
Oh.
Work.
“Last week two seniors started giving each other shit about names or something. They stopped as soon as I walked close enough to hear what they were arguing about, but I’m pretty sure it was something about the word shifter?” I’d clearly missed something.
Oh.
He groaned.
Putting down the suitcase I’d grabbed, I went out into the living room to see a very guilty-looking Alpha trying to give me wide eyes. “What did you do?”
Emeric giggled as Braun sighed, but he didn’t interrupt what we knew was going to be a ridiculous story. Our clearly misbehaving Alpha scrubbed his hand over his face. “Ugh, I should’ve made time for more coffee.”
There hadn’t been time for that because I had work.
“And?” Giving him a keep going motion, I headed back to the bedroom. “I need important information if I’m going to fit in.”
“I didn’t do it.” He was clearly involved somehow based on that response, but I just kept silent as I quickly started packing enough for a couple of days. “Okay, so my uncle had a terrible sense of humor and liked horror movies.”
This didn’t sound good.
“When he was younger, he might’ve convinced several of the cat shifter groups that the name werewolf was derogatory.”
What?
“I’ve been using that word!” Good grief. “Why didn’t you say something?”
Had I seen that issue in any books?
Why hadn’t more authors prepared me correctly?
“Because it’s bullshit.” Braun’s response got snickers from Emeric but didn’t give me enough information to go on. “He told them it was associated with horror movies and shouldn’t be used. He thought it was funny, but it kind of stuck and it’s gotten out of control.”
For Pete’s sake.
“So?” How many outfits would I need? “Are the different groups still fighting over that?”
“Yes.” Braun shrugged as his body filled the doorway of my room. “I didn’t start this mess and the pack doesn’t care one way or the other about the actual language, but…”
He still looked too guilty about this.
“But?”
What had he left out?
“Um, the only thing they asked of me when I took over as Alpha was to not make them stop fucking with the cats.” He winced when I groaned. “I couldn’t say no. They were having too much fun.”
Ancestors above.
Ugh.
His ancestors were the ones who’d gotten us into this ridiculousness.
“What am I supposed to do?”
When Braun looked like he was just going to shrug again, Emeric’s head popped around him in the doorway. “I know. You just frown and say you’re not getting involved in the debate because you’re just human.”
Oh.
“I like that.” I could make that work. “I’ll just do my best to look serious and ask what word they want me to use.”
Braun rolled his eyes but didn’t argue about the solution.
“Do you think that was why Mr. Stein and Alpha Braun looked so weird standing in the parking lot?” Emeric’s smile got wider when my question made Braun groan again.
“Cats are just too easy to rile up.” Braun ignored my frown and looked down at Emeric. “You can’t fuck with them at school, though. That’s the rules. Not at school or places like the council meetings.”
They had the weirdest social rules and I was starting to think we’d just touched on the tip of the iceberg.
****
We’d barely stepped foot in the front office and it was already getting weird.
“Hello, Mrs. Pierce. I have a new student I need to talk to Principal Reed about.” As the admin for the school, she was usually completely unflappable but the minute she saw Braun her eyes went wide. Too wide. “Is he free?”
Ignoring anything out of the ordinary was ingrained, so I just waited while her mouth opened and closed a few times.
“It’s a special situation.” Giving her a bright smile that I knew made me look slightly stupid, I ignored the way Braun cleared his throat to hide that he wanted to laugh. “I’m hoping he’s not already busy.”
We weren’t scheduled to start meetings until almost lunch, so I thought it would still be a good time as long as he wasn’t under his desk.
I wasn’t sure what he was but he needed a lot of time in small dark spaces to be happy. It meant meetings were sometimes delayed for vague reasons and I’d been in a few one-on-one meetings with the man where he was under a table and I sat on the floor taking notes.
Figuring out what he was would be nice…I was hoping that would help explain how to make him more relaxed in the long run.
His stress levels had to be unhealthily high.
“I see you know Braun, but let’s not surprise Principal Reed with his visit.” I wasn’t sure if he was neurodivergent and some kind of prey-based shifter, or something else entirely, but startling him with an Alpha wolf shifter didn’t seem like a good idea. “He’s Emeric’s caretaker at the moment.”
The principal was wonderful with the kids, though, and even the ones I thought had to be something more aggressive were polite to him.
“I’ll…” She tried to get a response out but her voice trailed off before anything helpful escaped.
We were all waiting politely and even Emeric hadn’t charged right in on chattering with her, but the silence was dragging out until she just reached over and pushed a button on their phone system. I knew that one because I’d startled her into pushing it my first day.
She’d called the principal…without any warning.
“Braun? Could you—”
I could see why he kept saying smart men were sexy…he’d already reached for Emeric and had them take several steps back.
“Thank you.” I wasn’t sure what else I should’ve said in the moment but I didn’t get the chance to figure it out before Principal Reed came charging out.
Very confidently.
Until he saw Braun and squeaked.
Not mouse shifter squeak but a clearly startled sound.
Ugh.
The pressure changes around him when he panicked were always tough.
Opening my mouth wide, I popped my ears and did my best not to shake my head like Braun had in his shifted form.
“Good morning, Principal Reed. I have a special situation to discuss with you.” Like Emeric being in danger and needing to be educated and being in a half-dozen different grade levels in his online classes and being slightly younger than the rest of the freshman.
Homeschooling could be done very well, but it was going to make placing him in the right grade very difficult.
As he did the open mouth-close mouth routine as well, Braun held very still and spoke quietly. “Hello, Mr. Reed. We need to discuss a new student.”
Well, the tail that popped out when he was nervous stayed hidden but his entire body vibrated for a few moments before it settled back into looking solidly human again. “Yes.”
Standing straighter, he glanced between us and then blinked a few times. “We’ll get the situation figured out.”
That didn’t seem to mean actually going anywhere, though. Wait patiently while he processed and distracting Emeric seemed like the best plan, so I focused on the wiggly pup. “Once we’re done here, I’ll show you around before Braun takes you home.”
Nearly bouncing with excitement, he charged right into the conversation. “And then I’ll work on your office while…”
His voice trailed off as he glanced up at Braun who nodded. “While Alpha gets work done. I’m going to get a lot organized for you. Don’t worry.”
That was almost frightening but I nodded and didn’t let it show. “Thank you. Just take notes of anything we need to discuss tonight when I get home.”
Oh.
I turned back to Mrs. Pierce who was still staring at us with her mouth open. “I need to update my address in the school system. Can you help me with that or do I need to do that online?”
Well, her mouth closed at least.
Deciding to come back to that one since their system was so backward I might have to actually mail in a change of address form, I turned back to the principal who seemed to have collected himself as he stared at Braun. “What is he?”
Who?
Principal Reed’s question didn’t make any sense to me but Braun shrugged. “Human as far as he knows. Which was kind of why I was surprised when he said he was a math teacher here.”
Oh.
Me.
Swallowing hard, my nervous principal stood straighter. “He went around two ghosts during his initial interview and didn’t react at all to young Mr. Atley when he walked past us.”
Oh, could I ask why that young man looked almost human but almost like an alien-robot thing?
He was easily startled too and would flash into something gray and androgenous looking before quickly shifting back to almost human again. It wasn’t hard to ignore, but I’d never seen anything like it and the internet hadn’t been particularly helpful.
Unsurprisingly, searching “startled gray blob” hadn’t gotten me any useful results.
“He sees everything but he doesn’t know what any of us are.” Braun smirked as he looked over at me. “Congratulate my mate. We found each other over the weekend.”
That was a bit of an understatement.
“The only students who don’t walk around the ghosts are doing it just to rile them up, so it wasn’t hard to see that was how we were supposed to behave here.
” Oh. “And I really think they should have to be more useful. Hall monitors? Tutors? Something more helpful than just wandering around distracting students during tests.”
“He’s human?” Principal Reed finally snapped out of his shock and squeaked out the question before he turned to Mrs. Pierce. “Did anyone have that in the pool?”
Good grief.
Emeric finally lost his battle to control his snickers, so I obviously didn’t need to explain about betting pools versus actual pools.
“No.” She blinked and frowned down at her computer. “Damn it. I wanted to put that but I got talked out of it.”
That was what brought her back to life?
They needed lessons in proper work behavior.