When I sighed and rolled my eyes, he gave me a shit-eating grin like he was proud of himself. “Don’t be a smart-ass.”
That didn’t stop his pleased-as-fuck attitude but he did settle down like he was ready to be helpful. “Okay, so we need someone to come get you…agreed?”
I wasn’t sure if he was thinking of something else, but I was glad when his right ear flicked for yes.
“I’m going to list off the weird people I know and you let me know when I hit on someone who’s going to be helpful.” Fingers crossed I’d come across someone helpful. “My mailman grumbles about humans and is a disagreeable person. One of my neighbors keeps trying to sell me candles. She’s not human either.”
As I kept going through everyone I’d met in the last couple of months, he grinned a few times at my descriptions but he didn’t seem to know most of them. “Okay…further out…”
We needed more options.
“I stopped for gas last week and the guy growled at me.” I stopped as my new friend finally twitched everything. “Really?”
And we were back to him rolling his eyes.
“Okay. It was in a small town not far from where I teach.” Most of the kids in the area were apparently homeschooled, but there was enough to run a small high school.
I’d done my best to ignore anymight not be humanweirdness but that might not have been the best decision because so many kids pinged my radar I couldn’t tell who wasn’t human and who was. “It’s in the opposite direction from where I live, so I haven’t explored that area much.”
Based on how his ears and tail all twitched, I should’ve made more of an effort to hang out there. Not that I was trying to meet more of the nonhumans in the area…but it would probably be polite.
“Well, that’s a start in the right direction.” We both seemed to be feeling better based on the chuffing almost laughing sound he made. “If I head over there and stop at that gas station again, am I going to meet someone helpful?”
Yes.
Thank goodness.
Now I just had to figure out how to approach the angry man who worked there and ask if he knew any werewolves.
I was going to end up committed before I saved him if I wasn’t careful.
Chapter 2
Braun
He was either the worst shoplifter ever or he was the most indecisive person in history. It was hard to tell which, though. He actually seemed hungry for one of the candy bars but he was shifty as fuck….and he kept watching the angry woman who was fighting with her husband about the brands of bottled water we carried like he was waiting for them to move where they couldn’t see him.
They weren’t going to move until they finished the fight and they’d been going at it way too long for the argument to be about which brand of water tasted better.
“I’m done.” The first part came out at an ear-bleeding screech, but thankfully it dropped to a more manageable level as she stomped away from her frustrated partner. “My needs never matter to you.”
Reminding myself over and over that I was not supposed to make smartass comments to the humans driving through, I managed to keep up the mantra until they’d left the store without buying anything and I was just left with the possible shoplifter.
Interesting.
He actually let out a sigh of relief and looked over at me. “If I promise not to scream about bottled water, will you be nice to the possibly crazy math teacher?”
Humans were weird.
“No.” I was Alpha. I didn’t lie. “I’m just not a nice person in general. It’s not personal.”
“Oh.” Looking slightly confused, he straightened and I had to remind myself that he wasn’t trying to raise my instincts. “Well, that just can’t be helped. I was actually hoping to talk to the older man who was here last week. Is he in the back?”
What?
“No one comes to talk to Dietrick. He’s mean. He’s meaner than me.” That was the reason we kept him running the gas station. No one even thought about robbing the place when he was around. “He’s sick.”
Fucking hangover from hell from all their partying.
