“Humans worry.” Emeric shrugged like that explained it all. “It’s okay.”
Wait.
Didn’t other people in his life worry?
The way Dorian blinked gave me the impression he’d been thinking something along the same lines. “I appreciate you understanding.”
Emeric stood straighter, taking the Alpha Mate seriously. “Thank you.”
One day Dorian would understand how cute this was…probably after he tried to kill me for the whole Alpha Mate thing.
“Well, if we’re going to run errands first thing, we need to get an early start.” Glancing down at a real watch and not one of those ridiculous computer ones, Dorian looked every inch the teacher as he thought about the schedule. “What do you think about getting a shower now and I’ll look around to see if the Alpha here has any books I can read to you after you get cleaned up?”
Did I have books?
Maybe?
Neither of them seemed to have a lot of confidence in it but I shrugged. “My mother is a packrat at heart, not a wolf. So while I don’t have groceries, I have other important things.”
Hopefully.
If the Alpha Mate wanted to read to the pup, I wasn’t going to be the one to tell him no.
Neither was Emeric. He perked right up and the pup looked like he wanted to bounce around the room. “Alpha can pick out pajamas for you while I get a shower. You can borrow his. He’ll share. He’s nice.”
With that declaration, he turned around and raced through the house toward the guest room, calling over his shoulder, “You can use Alpha’s shower.”
Dorian was back to just blinking.
“He’s right. You can use my shower and I’ve got pajamas that will fit you.” Dorian didn’t seem to think about the extra clothes in the guest room, so I didn’t bring them up either.
If we were going to have a sleepover, he was going to wear my clothes and I had some too-small ones that would fit him well enough. “We should probably get ready for bed now too. It’s been a long day.”
A long couple of days but eventually I’d get to sleep.
And he was coming back to life.
The weirdest things prompted his brain to turn back on.
“Yes.” Looking around, he studied the living room but I wasn’t sure what he was thinking. “We’ll get ready too, and then if we can’t find a book here, I’ll download something on my phone.”
That was right…people did that a lot lately.
“Why do you look confused?” Dorian frowned but didn’t seem frustrated. “Where should we start looking for books?”
His brain either went ninety miles an hour or it just stopped completely.
“Upstairs junk room. The attic is overflowing so I had to move some of it downstairs.” Somehow I seemed to be the dumping ground for everything the pack thought was important but didn’t want to keep in their own homes.
“The attic in this house is huge. It had the option to be a separate apartment.” Marching toward the front stairs, Dorian shook his head and charged through the house. “That’s ridiculous. You need to set some boundaries and declutter if it’s that bad.”
“What if we need it later? Like the books.” Stuff came in handy but sometimes it took a while. “I might need an extra suitcase in six months or pots and pans for a new family next week. You never know.”
Dorian sighed as he started up the stairs. “Your mother isn’t the only packrat in the family.”
“That’s Alpha Packrat, thank you very much.” Following behind him, I enjoyed the view and how he knew exactly which room had turned into the overflow junk room. “It’s not that bad.”
It was that bad but it was neat at the very least.
