Chapter 27
Dorian
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” It seemed unnecessarily dangerous. “Something could happen.”
Work was one thing but a date was another.
Braun didn’t seem to think so based on how he was raising one eyebrow as he leaned back against the hood of his car. “Do you want to give me a complex? Fears that you don’t want to be seen with me in public?”
He fought dirty.
“Emeric needs us.” Ignoring Braun’s scoff, I sighed. “We need to keep him safe.”
“My mother is keeping a close eye on him and she lives right next to Jessen.” Bringing up his second in command was cheating.
“The idiot can’t drive on pack land because he wants to harm the pack.
They’re safe as long as they don’t leave and she’s bribed him with homemade brownies and more scary movies. ”
She cheated too.
“Are you worried about your safety, Wolfchen?” Something flickered in his eyes but it disappeared when I copied his scoff.
“Of course not. My mate will take care of me.” Ha. No more pouting Alpha. “I think I’m just nervous.”
Admitting that had him opening his arms, so I went up and snuggled into him since he needed cuddles. “Tell me why you’re nervous.”
Ugh.
He shouldn’t be able to sound so calm and comforting either.
“I’m not worried about my safety.” Everyone I’d met over the past week had fawned over what a strong Alpha he was. “Things have been going too smoothly. That’s the problem.”
He kissed my head as I hid against his chest, not worrying about looking ridiculous. The pack came around randomly during the week, but they seemed to like seeing us cuddle. “Smoothly as in how our relationship is going, how the locals are seeing you, or about the situation with Emeric?”
“All of the above?” I probably could’ve added a few more options to the list, but it was a good start. “I’m not embarrassed about being your mate or anything like that.”
Everything else was just overwhelming.
“Is this the kind of fear that we need to stay home and manage slowly or is this the kind where we need to push through it to see what happens?” When I just sighed, he kissed my head and ignored it.
“There is nothing wrong with feeling anxiety about the situation with Emeric. That’s completely reasonable.
The other things you’re struggling with are reasonable too and are important to me even if they’d have been technically unreasonable. ”
Ugh.
I knew what he was going to say next.
“Because I’m important to you.”
His chest jerked for a couple of seconds before he kissed my head again. “That would’ve sounded better if it wasn’t sighed out so dramatically, Wolfchen.”
“Should I apologize or are we just going to ignore it?” His bark of laughter had me…well, I was just going to call it exhaling long and loud. “Fine.”
“Worst-case scenario on the meeting people side is someone is rude because they’re an asshole.
Every town has them and generally ours are just weirder than others.
I will do my best to keep us away from anyone who’ll be a pain in the ass, though.
” Braun’s explanation left me confused about how I was supposed to respond.
“Most are going to like you or be annoying because they want to talk about their kids or their friend’s kids.” Somehow his tone made that sound worse than the assholes. “We’ve also just got generally strange people who are going to need some explanations to make sense.”
I’d already met some of them at parent-teacher night.
“We’re going to stay in town, walking around and getting something to eat, so the chance of that idiot making trouble I can’t handle is slim.
” His confidence in that might’ve sounded casual, but half the people in the school had made it clear he was amazing.
“I’ve already notified the heads of all the local groups and our strongest standalones, so if we need help, we won’t have to wait for long. ”
“They’re not books.” He was being ridiculous. “This isn’t series and standalones.”
He shrugged. “I didn’t come up with it. The cats did. So if you want to argue with them about it, I’ll back you up.”
I straightened enough to study his face but I didn’t like what I saw. “Something about that isn’t the truth. It’s close…I’ll give you that. But it’s not the truth.”
His mischievous grin had me trying not to sigh. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He was such a brat.
I was starting to see why he made the cat groups insane.
“I guess we have to go out if I’m going to show the other shifter groups I’m polite.” And wouldn’t do anything to make them want to shake me. “I won’t tattle on you, but I’m not going to be known as the Alpha Mate that picks fights and likes to stir up the other groups.”
“Deal.” Giving me a quick kiss on the cheek, he did his best to look innocent but failed spectacularly. “Now it’s time for me to brag because you’re so much hotter than…never mind.”
Good grief.
“I’m not a gift you get to brag about.” He thought I was hot enough to brag about? “You have to promise to behave if we go out in public.”
Standing straight, he did what I thought was the Boy Scout salute. “Prepared, vicious, and smarter than the cats.”
I was not even going to respond to that.
He snickered as I turned around and headed to the passenger side of his car. “Ask. You know you want to.”
Brat.
“Tell me what I need to know about town. You keep leaving things out until they come up.” It wasn’t deliberate but it was annoying.
Looking slightly sheepish, Braun came around and opened my door. “I’m not doing that on purpose. There’s just so much I don’t think about until we run into it.”
“I know.” It was my turn to kiss him as he sweetly helped me in the car. “I just don’t want to look stupid.”
“I understand completely.” He genuinely seemed to because he started telling me facts and quick stories about town as we drove past small stores and people’s houses. “Okay, this is going to sound crazy but no one knows what the new guy at the food truck is. He’s weird.”
If anyone in this town thought the guy was weird he had to be an alien.
“To translate that, you mean he behaves oddly when compared to local humans and others?” When Braun’s face scrunched up and he nodded, I knew the man must be something fascinating. “And I can assume he doesn’t seem dangerous, but he does things that are unexpected?”
“Yeah. Oh. Don’t ask him about what’s in the meatballs.” Braun’s sigh had me trying not to wince. “If it’s listed as a special, you need to think twice, but I’ll back you up if you want to know.”
Good grief.
“That explains some of the reviews Emeric found.” They had the strangest community. “I thought it might’ve been some kind of issue with the wrong reviews getting attached to the food truck.”
Braun’s wince said it wasn’t.
“Any other warnings?” Yes. The answer was yes and he kept chattering away so I’d know all the good gossip before we got to town. “I’m going to need a spreadsheet.”
That had his grin coming back. “You need to talk to my mother. She knows everything, including who’s dating and what everyone is up to.”
I’d do that eventually but she was slightly overwhelming.
“One thing at a time.” Date first and my mother-in-law second. “We’re going to focus on us, not gossip.”
Hopefully.
“That’s right.” Parking on a side street that was next to what seemed to be some shops, he leaned over and gave me a quick peck. “Let me get the door for you.”
“Thank you.” It could’ve been old-fashioned manners or his Dom side, but either way, I liked it and had to ignore what it did to me.
Walking around town with an erection was not my goal.
He decided to make that difficult by kissing me again as he helped me out and wrapping his arm low around me. “Such a naughty mate.”
Ugh.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Two could play that game. “Where should we start? This is very cute.”
Yes, we were going to walk around town and I was going to learn about the area.
“Main street and then we’ll do a bit of a wider circle.
If a store looks interesting just let me know and we’ll stop.
” I should’ve known he was being too well-mannered but I didn’t second-guess what he was doing until he’d leaned down and nibbled right under my ear.
“And if we find some privacy, I’ll see what I can talk my naughty mate into. ”
Too much…he’d be able to talk his surprisingly naughty mate into entirely too much.
“I think you’re the naughty mate.” Someone around us giggled as Braun straightened, and it took me a moment to find the nearly see-through ghost giggling from just around the corner. She was probably mid-twenties and wasn’t trying to hide how cute she thought we were.
I managed not to groan, but poking Braun and whispering for him to behave got more laughter from her.
He was incorrigible and waved as she blinked out of sight.
“At least I’m getting to know the locals.” His smirk had me shaking my head, but he was too cute as he took my hand to complain about. “Lead on.”
“So bossy.” Looking very pleased with himself, Braun started stroking his fingers against mine as he started us in the direction of the main street at a leisurely pace. “How long have you been able to see ghosts?”
I thought about the question as we turned left and started slowly making our way down a picturesque Southern town that had everything from cute stores to beautiful old buildings. I wanted to give him a logical answer, but all I could do was shrug and hope I was remembering things correctly.
“Always, as far as I know.” Braun’s confused frown had me automatically rambling. “My mother said I had imaginary friends as a child, but I don’t remember that. I just remember seeing people that weren’t solid and that other people didn’t seem to be able to see.”
That’d been the least of my problems, though.
“There was a teenager that lived in our house when I was a kid. It was an old house and I think he’d passed in the early nineteen hundreds.” I hadn’t thought to wonder about that until years later after we’d moved several times. “He was the one who told me not to talk about seeing ghosts.”
I just wished he’d thought to explain other non-human people, but looking back, I wasn’t sure if he’d known about them.
“It’s not common to have full humans be able to see ghosts.” He left out the obvious or anything else part. It was nice but not necessary. “Did anyone in your family talk about strange things in your family history or have any weird stories they passed down?”
“My parents are the definition of boring human.” As long as my seeing things didn’t get brought up, they were really nice too. Just really human acting. “If either of my parents is more interesting than human, I’d guess it was my mother but there’s no logical reason for it.”
Braun made a soft thinking sound and nodded like the whole conversation was perfectly normal for an afternoon stroll. “What’s the illogical reason for it? A feeling?”
Being able to finally talk about it had me swallowing past a lump in my throat, but Braun was sweet and ignored it, just giving my head a quick peck as he waited. “Mostly, but every once in a while her head would jerk and she’d blink like she thought she saw something strange.”
He waved at an older woman across the street, when she gave us a big smile, but he kept his focus on me. “It sounds like something was passed down in your family. Genetics are funny, though. Even magical ones. So she might not have gotten enough of whatever it is to use it fully.”
Logic.
Finally someone who was logical.
“I’ve never been able to figure it out because the parts of the internet I could access weren’t helpful at all, and I didn’t know how to approach people.
” Leaning into his shoulder, I tried to push back the lingering frustration I had over it.
“I tried to ask a kid in elementary school what he was but my teacher overheard me and called me a racist.”
Braun’s groan and wince made me feel better. “Ancestors above, that was the wrong way to handle it even if you’d just been curious about his heritage.”
“After a few situations like that, I stopped asking but the damage was done. As a kid I didn’t understand I needed to lie to my parents and that just made the situation worse.
” They’d thought I was suffering from something deeply troubling.
“Over time I learned to keep my questions to myself and use other people’s reactions to decide how to behave.
Where did they walk…did they notice the man at the coffee shop glowed sometimes… that kind of thing.”
“That must’ve been upsetting as a kid, but I have to say how proud I am of you.” Squeezing my hand, Braun slowed as we got to a shop that seemed to sell knickknacks and soaps.
“Thank you.” Nothing in the window was overly interesting, but focusing on it made talking easier.
“You asked about weird family stories that might explain it, but the only thing I ever managed to get from some other family members was that my great-great-grandmother claimed to have gotten pregnant by a ghost.” Families were strange and frustrating, but thankfully, my relatives got chatty after consuming just a bit too much spiked punch at a reunion.
“Her relatives thought it was her way of coping with her boyfriend supposedly running off when she got pregnant, but I’m starting to question all of it. ”
Not the sleeping with something she thought was a ghost part.
Romance novels had taught me that the people of Earth would sleep with anything that could flirt with them.
“What kinds of…people look like ghosts but can get someone pregnant? The internet wasn’t helpful with that either.” But the book recommendations I’d gotten had been interesting. “I might have the description wrong, though. What do you think?”
Good grief.
He had that look.
“Please don’t. You’re going to tell me something ridiculous.”
He winced.
“Want to go do some shopping?”
We were going to have to work on his distraction techniques.
“Yes.”