“Yes, mother?”
If anyone needed to fear their Alpha a little more in our pack, it was her.
“Why are you lazing about?” She was not that stupid, so I ignored her as I sat up and reached my phone.
Fuck.
It was late enough I couldn’t complain.
“Where’s your mate?” My mother was smart enough to stay at the bottom of the stairs but ridiculous enough to wake me up because while curiosity might’ve killed the cat, it got the wolf in trouble too. “His car is gone. Where’s the pup?”
“At the grocery store.” Hopefully buying real food and not a thousand things Emeric thought was fascinating but wouldn’t actually make a real meal. I did that enough on my own and we didn’t need another person making a mess of grocery shopping. “I’ll be right down, but if you want me to give you anything to gossip about you’re going to make me coffee.”
She snickered, sounding pleased with herself. “Deal.”
She’d already made me coffee.
I should’ve smelled it right away, but in my defense, I’d just woken up and the only thing I could smell was the scent of Dorian on my sheets.
The crazy woman had woken me up from a damned good dream.
But she was a crazy woman who I was related to and sometimes liked, so I quickly traded pajamas for sweats and a T-shirt and made my way downstairs. She let me get to the kitchen but couldn’t wait to start pestering until after I’d gotten caffeine. “So? Tell me about him? Emeric said he’s a math teacher and smart and manages you very well.”
Emeric probably had said all of that and more, but I waited until I’d poured myself a cup and took my first sip to react.
“He’s human, mother. So you’re going to take your time and keep the mate word out of your mouth until he’s had a chance to get to know me more.” When she rolled her eyes, I glared at her. “I’ve known him less than twenty-four hours. He’s human.”
He felt the connection…I didn’t doubt that, but he also didn’t seem to be ready for the wholeyou’re my mate and we’re meant for each otherconversation.
No matter how many romance novels the man had to have read.
“Fine.” Her grudging agreement meant she’d already realized that and was just fucking with me.
I needed more coffee before I could deal with her.
“Dorian and Emeric went to the grocery store because I didn’t have anything to feed either of them.” Or me. “I’ve got questions about that.”
She huffed and rolled her eyes…probably pissed she didn’t get more information about Dorian out of me. “Someone is feeling entitled.”
Really?
“Someone is feeling exhausted because he was up for nearly three days between council meetings, driving, and then having to work at the station because no one else was sober enough to do it.” I didn’t feel bad when she winced dramatically, but I did silently celebrate my win. “I’m also going to start looking at the schedule around here because I’m not going to tell my mate I’m the only one working.”
Dorian wasn’t going to like how long my days had been lately.
Going silent for a moment, she stood up to get herself a cup of coffee. “We’ll look at that. You’ve been doing more than I think I realized.”
Bullshit.
“What’s important now is making sure your mate feels welcome.” Her tone was warm until she opened my fridge. “What the fuck? Where is your creamer?”
Had she been listening to me at all?
“I don’t have milk, sugar, creamer or anything. Hell, I don’t even have cereal.” I hadn’t been just randomly complaining. “It’s been like this for weeks. I get a bag of random bits and that’s it. I’d have been more pissed if I was paying and not getting any food but the pack account isn’t showing any charges for groceries and everyone keeps claiming not it.”
They were all playing hot potato with the fucking job.
“I take more shifts than anyone else in exchange for help and so they can be with their families. I’m not getting help and my mate thinks I’m incompetent.” When it came to feeding myself at least…and having boundaries. “That was not a good first impression but he was distracted enough with Emeric turning up that he wasn’t too frustrated.”
