Sebastian swallowed, shooting a quick glance at Bjorn. Seeing Bjorn’s scowl, he quickly turned away.
“What happened then?” he asked. Viggo watched as he gathered the nerve to look at Bjorn and wait for an answer.
“Nothing. Their teacher calmed them down and I read them a story.” He glared at Viggo in the mirror. “Nothing about it was funny.”
“You read them a story?” Sebastian’s shoulders had relaxed, and Viggo hoped that his plan was working.
He wanted Sebastian to see Bjorn at his grumpiest now – growling, scowling and looking one second away from mauling somebody – just so that they could get it over with and so that Sebastian would realize that Bjorn didn’t intend to come across as terrifying as he did.
It was the main reason Bjorn had quit being a police officer. Rather than help people, he’d felt like a bully with how scared people were of him constantly. Quitting had done wonders for his mental health, but it was still a sore subject.
Bjorn just didn’t have it in him to put on the charming act that came so naturally to Viggo. He had no natural talent for appearing unthreatening – to smile and make himself look kind – even though he mostly was.
No one who met them ever walked away thinking that Viggo was the one they should be scared of.
“Their teacher said it would make them feel better.”
Bjorn still looked angry, though his jaw had unclenched.
“Did it work?”
Sebastian was smiling now, and Viggo couldn’t be more thrilled.
Bjorn nodded, tapping his fingers on his thigh. He let his hand rest in his lap and looked at Sebastian. “I think so. None of them started crying at least.”
Bjorn was selling himself short. By the end of the class, the kids had been climbing all over him, happy and asking questions, though of course that wasn’t the part Bjorn focused on – or what he’d told Viggo later that night when he got home. If Viggo hadn’t gone to talk to the teacher to get her version of the story, he never would have known that it didn’t end with the children crying.
“You’re right,” Sebastian said, shooting a glare at Viggo. He turned his face toward Bjorn. “That wasn’t a very funny story. I’m glad you stayed and helped calm the class down, though. Their teacher must have been so stressed!”
“I just read them a book,” Bjorn grumbled, though he sounded secretly pleased.
Viggo smirked at the road ahead of him, congratulating himself on his plan’s success.
“Yeah, but if you hadn’t stayed and done that, those kids might have been scared of werewolves for the rest of their lives, and for no reason.” Sebastian was animated. “I’m glad you showed them that you’re not actually scary.”
Bjorn didn’t smile, but Viggo could see how happy Sebastian’s words made him.
“He’s really not,” Viggo added, making Sebastian look at him in the mirror. After a second the boy narrowed his eyes, like he suddenly understood why Viggo had brought up the classroom incident.
He did not look like he approved.
“It’s Viggo people should be scared of,” Bjorn added, oblivious.
“I’m not that scary, either,” Viggo defended himself. Then he winced, remembering how terrified Sebastian had looked a few nights ago when he barged into his room to ask if he’d told anyone about Bjorn’s story.
“You’re scarier than me.” Bjorn grinned, and Viggo wondered which incident he was remembering. He truly hoped Bjorn wasn’t foolish enough to start telling stories.
There were things that Sebastian didn’t need to know, at least not this early in the relationship – like how Viggo had claimed such a prime spot for his territory or how he’d been able to steal Bjorn from his previous pack.
“I’m not scary at all,” Sebastian mused, leaning his head back against the seat. “When I was a student teacher back in college, I worked at a high school out in the suburbs and it took the hall monitors two months before they stopped thinking I was a student and trying to give me detention for being in the hall without a pass.”
Viggo couldn’t relate. He’d always been big, and as a teenager, people had often thought he was older than he was. It had been the same for Bjorn.
“Do you like being a teacher?” Bjorn asked, genuinely curious. The nerves that had made him seem so gruff and stern had calmed, and he sounded more like himself.
Viggo sat quietly as Sebastian talked about being a teacher, Bjorn asking questions at all the right moments, happy to just sit back and listen. By the time they reached the restaurant, handing the car over to a valet, Bjorn and Sebastian seemed – if not totally at ease – at least much more comfortable with each other.
Viggo credited himself.
