“We’ll get out of your hair quickly.” Oh. Was that offensive? His frown got deeper and one of the formerly stoic men nearly giggled. It wasn’t like I’d said fur, so maybe he just thought I was odd? “Um. Yes. Quickly.”
Braun wasn’t too upset with me based on the way he had to turn away to roll his eyes, but I wasn’t sure he and whatever species of shifter Mr. Stein was got along well. Something about the way Braun just looked like he was barely holding in a smart-ass comment said he was going to rant about them later.
“We’ll be out of here before Emeric finds any more questions.” Braun’s dry delivery had me rolling my eyes and the giggling cat shifter flashing another grin. “I don’t know anything about cabbage.”
Me neither.
“Don’t worry. He’s got a list, so you can pick out a few of your favorites to answer.” I wasn’t going to be responsible for all of them. “He did a good job of helping me pick out meals, though.”
Dropping my voice low enough I thought Emeric couldn’t hear me, I whispered softly. “I don’t think they were feeding him right.”
Mr. Stein exchanged looks with his brothers before turning back to me. “Not all families are good ones.”
No, they weren’t.
Nodding slowly as I opened the trunk, I wasn’t sure what to say even though he was right. “But kids are adaptable.”
We were just going to have to figure out what he was adapting from sooner rather than later. First thing was the groceries to make sure we didn’t starve eating just brownies, but we got those in the car quickly and even said our goodbyes to the slightly strange Stein brothers.
“I don’t like us driving back separately, but you’re going to stay right behind me.” Braun looked twitchy as he glanced around the parking lot but I wasn’t sure if that was shifter related or not. “I don’t want to leave one of the cars here, though. Just in case.”
Since we had no idea what we were dealing with, I agreed, it couldn’t be helped. “I’ll follow you and I’ll stay on the phone as we drive back.”
And hopefully we’d get Emeric to talk about what had happened because we couldn’t put it off any longer.
“Alright, Wölfchen, but I expect you to stay right behind me.” Braun’s stern expression said he had a pretty good “or else” running around in his head, but he was smart enough to leave it there. “It’s not a long drive. You’ll be fine.”
I was worried about all three of us, but I wasn’t going to point that out unless he did something ridiculous that got himself hurt.
“I will.” And he’d survive the drive with a chatty Emeric. “Let’s go.”
Braun scoffed. “I’m the Alpha. Let’s go.”
His drama was loud enough that Emeric started giggling from the back seat which had to have been his intention to begin with.
“I don’t know. So far Emeric’s the only one I’ve actually seen shift. You might just be big and bossy.”
Emeric was going to choke on his own spit if he wasn’t careful, but it was clear he thought we were hilarious.
The wicked glint in Braun’s eyes said he was thinking something interesting but I wasn’t even going to begin to guess. “Big and bossy, huh?”
I shrugged as I stepped over to my car. “And a bit of a pain in the ass.”
Emeric had to stop laughing at some point, right?
No.
He was still snickering as we pulled out of the parking lot and the phone connected with a sigh from Braun. “No one respects the Alpha.”
“Do I want to know why he’s laughing so much?” I was willing to play along if I needed to.
“No.” Braun nearly groaned out the response making me wonder what Emeric had said. “You don’t.”
Whatever it was, Emeric still found it hilarious because the giggles got worse.
“Fine.” I’d been around enough kids to trust when an adult said something like that. “We’ll talk about you. Did you find anything for breakfast?”
That didn’t help Emeric’s giggles but I got a kick out of Braun’s dramatic groan. “You said for me to sleep. Then my mother came and I had to drink coffee. Then I raced out the door. What do you think?”
