“The pup was scared.” Pointing out that the cat already sounded weird would’ve made me a dick, so I nodded and kept my smart-ass comments to myself. “He’s not related to either of you.”
“We’re the closest thing to family he has at the moment.” Dorian seemed to decide he needed to save the cats. “There was an accident…at least…we were told it was an accident but it might not have been.”
Yep.
“Some packs don’t have a healthy dynamic.” That was a fucking understatement and had the cats looking confused. I was pretty sure they thought I’d defend other wolves to the death but that was stupid when it seemed like they were fighting to the death. “He came here because his aunt is part of my pack, but it seems like he was followed?”
It was more of a question than a statement and it got a nod from Dorian. “That seemed to be what he was sensing but we didn’t have enough privacy for him to explain it.”
“Thank you for watching out for them.” Looking around the parking lot, I couldn’t see or smell anything out of place, but I didn’t know what I was looking for. “We don’t go after pups, so I didn’t think it’d be dangerous.”
Who the fuck thought even following him around the grocery store would’ve been a good idea?
“It was no problem.” The cat Dorian seemed to know looked like his fur would’ve been standing on end if he’d been in his other form. “We live close.”
He was weird…even for a cat.
“I appreciate it.” Having questions didn’t discount that. “Can you stay around while we load Dorian’s car? We’ll be safe once we get back to the pack.”
I wasn’t stupid enough to chase off the only help I had if something went wrong.
“Yes.” He seemed to speak for the rest of the men because they nodded along with him. “The store felt…odd.”
Well, that wasn’t good.
“We’re going to try not to bring trouble to the area.” I wasn’t going to promise anything, though.
“Sometimes the fates have different plans.”
Wasn’t that the truth.
Who’d have thought I’d agree with a cat about anything?
Chapter 13
Dorian
I was glad Braun hadn’t promised he could keep trouble away from the area but part of me wished he had even if it wouldn’t have been believable.
“Someone was…angry isn’t the right word. It’s too hot. This was cold.” Mr. Stein’s explanation seemed to make sense to Braun, but I was going to have questions later. “We live close. We’ll keep an eye out around the area.”
That was interesting.
Their addresses were all post office boxes. I remembered that because of how odd it was, but it was good to see they actually did live in the school boundaries.
Oh.
Were any of these the other boys’ fathers?
As Braun took the first cart and steered it closer to my car, I turned to the other men who were standing around still completely silent. They all had a similar look about them just like the boys did, but I had no idea which man went with which child. “Thank you for coming to help. I’m not sure if you were told but I’m Kevin and the other boys’ math teacher.”
Next time we had conferences I was going to insist on meeting the other fathers too, but for the time being I got nods and the faintest hint of a smile from one of them.
So?
Were they going to say anything?
“Helping is their job.” Mr. Stein seemed to think he was being helpful too based on the way he was watching me like he was explaining facts to a three-year-old, but we seemed to have different definitions of that.
