What?
Braun’s eye twitched, so I knew it wasn’t just a surprise to me.
“He doesn’t like me, so I don’t know why we stayed.” Frowning, Emeric got up from his chair and went over to climb onto Braun’s lap without thinking about it. “Even after she left, he wouldn’t let us leave the pack.”
He…
His father or the wannabe Alpha?
If Braun were human-sized it wouldn’t have worked, but Alpha wolves were just built for snuggling and he wrapped Emeric up in his arms as soon as the pup settled down. “I had to always hide in my room every time he came to visit ‘cause I’d make him angry.”
Really?
“I don’t know why, but your dad said it was important.” Macy shrugged, looking confused. “All I know is that your grandparents refused to talk about it, so I have no idea what happened.”
Wrapping his arms around Emeric, Braun finally eased back into the conversation as his mother came out of the kitchen. She’d said she was going to get a drink of water, but her hands were empty and she’d come out just as the conversation was getting good. “I’m pretty sure we were told that the old pack wasn’t a good fit any longer and they wanted somewhere more modern to raise you, Macy.”
Clearly they’d left out a few important details.
“I don’t know about modern but I know that they wanted to get away. Needed, maybe?” Her head cocked as she seemed to think about it. “I remember there being fights when Emeric was little and us moving on short notice. Like one day everything was fine and the next we were living in a hotel looking for a new pack.”
That wasn’t suspicious at all.
“There’s nothing about that in our records.” Braun shifted Emeric so he was sitting on one of his legs. “Do you remember hearing anything about that, pup?”
Emeric’s head shake wasn’t a surprise. “No. I just know I was just wrong or something?”
“Wrong?” Braun’s question had Emeric looking down at his hands like he hadn’t meant to confess some kind of sin. “We all know you’re perfect. Dorian said so and he’s always right. But I think understanding what happened back then might help us now.”
Hopefully.
“You guys think I’m important.” Shifting, he tried to sit straighter but Braun ruined that plan by pulling him into another hug. Something about it was hilarious to Emeric and his giggles made everyone else laugh too. “Don’t squish the important person.”
“I make no promises.” He would tickle, though, because he dug his fingers into Emeric’s side getting more laughter from him as Emeric wiggled and squealed. “This is much more fun than promising to behave.”
Agreeing, Emeric laughed and squirmed until Braun finally let him breathe and then the pup collapsed against him. “I…I wasn’t supposed to be me? Or something? I don’t know what they meant but they were all frustrated about something when I was born.”
I didn’t know enough to even be able to guess what it could’ve been, but Braun wasn’t having the same issue.
“Did they say you were born with the mark or touched? Maybe something about being born under a sign?” Braun frowned when Emeric jolted, obviously reacting to the last option.
I still had no idea what was going on and Macy’s frown said she was confused too…but Braun’s mother’s eyes had gone wide.
So something had either gotten interesting or shocking.
Trying to act casual, Emeric shrugged and leaned into Braun like it wasn’t important. “I looked up the human zodiac stuff but none of that made sense.”
“That was a good guess, but it’s an old-fashioned way of talking about a new pup. What it means is that when youwere born, the Alpha at the time recognized you as an Alpha too.” He paused, frowning like he was mentally sorting through something. “Well, that you’d become the next Alpha of the pack when you were old enough.”
Or when the Alpha died?
Wait.
How did that work?
Did we know how the old Alpha died?
Oh.
