He seemed to be right at the halfway point between kid and actual teenager, so it was hard to tell right off the bat how old he was. “I couldn’t eat the dog food. It smelled funky. I don’t think dogs should be eating that either. I’ve seen stuff in the grocery store that smells a lot better.”
His mind seemed to go as fast as his body did.
“They get donations of dog food but most of the time it’s not the highest quality.” Which ones smelled better? “There mightbe a way to do a fundraiser to buy higher quality food on a regular basis. It’s not something I’ve ever thought about.”
Our new friend didn’t hold that against me. “I hadn’t either. I know people who have dogs, but they don’t always like us, so I haven’t hung around them much.”
Interesting.
“What—”
“We’ll explain the problems with dogs and wolves over burgers.” Braun managed not to roll his eyes but it seemed painful to hold it back. “Let’s stay on track.”
The young man nodded, standing straighter and looking older again. “Food. Yes, Alpha.”
Was that what Braun had been going to say?
His sigh said no but he didn’t contradict the boy. “Kitchen is that way.”
He was feeling dramatic because he turned to me and raised one eyebrow. “Would you like to lead the way?”
“Sure.” My bad habit of wasting time looking at house plans I couldn’t afford yet was going to pay off because I’d seen the plans for this house online last week, so I pointed for our new friend. “That way. Can you smell the different scents that would tell you where the kitchen is?”
“Yeah.” Looking down at himself, the young man bounced in the direction of the kitchen before he slowed down to pretend to walk like an adult again. “Well, I’d have to really think about it in this form to make it work, but definitely in my wolf form. That’s got badass senses.”
“Language, please.” There was no point in encouraging bad habits, but Braun started coughing which had our new friend snickering.
“Yes, Sir.” Still wearing an ear-to-ear grin, he bounded into the kitchen like the pup that Braun kept calling him. “Wow. This is huge.”
“It’s got a large pantry too.” Or at least it should, based on the original floor plans. “You’d need something like this for any decent-sized pack.”
“At some point I’m going to nail you down about which author you’ve been reading.” Braun’s drama got more giggles from the young man. “But yes, the pantry is a good size and that’s important.”
We were too far south to worry about snow storms, but hurricanes were a problem on a regular basis.
“I could eat the whole thing.” Throwing himself down in a chair at the table, the young man groaned. “I’m starving.”
Hmm.
“When did you last eat?” If it’d been too long we might need to start with something easier than a sandwich. “Does shifting affect how many calories you need to eat in the day?”
Did some of my students need time for a snack?
Glancing back at Braun as I headed over to the fridge, I frowned. “Should I be making sure my mid-morning or afternoon students get time for a snack? No one mentioned anything like that.”
But the administration had clearly dropped the ball on mentioning a variety of important things.
“Depends on what your students are.” Braun shrugged as he sat down beside the young man. “Shifters need more calories than someone like a mage or one of those mental magic types.”
Oh.
“I have a student who always seems to know when I’m going to drop a pencil or do something embarrassing like trip over nothing.” I tried to pay attention but my students were ridiculously distracting.
Snorting, Braun grinned. “You’ve got at least one kid in that room who’s making you trip over nothing to entertain everyone else…guarantee it.”
“Great.” Magical teenagers and a smart-ass. “You’re going to help me figure out a way to handle that, but we’ll put that on the backburner for now.”
We had higher priorities at the moment.
