Oh, he wanted to grin but Dorian was too serious for that. “Of course you are.”
He was sexy when he was trying to be a pain in the butt.
“For now, the Alpha can help with the groceries so we can eat.” His dry but still teasing tone had me fighting to keep a straight face. “Then you’re going to work on checking a few things off your to-do list so that we can have a nice evening without you working a thousand hours this afternoon.”
“Would I do that?” I needed to do better at sounding more believable…they weren’t supposed to have laughed that hard at my retort. “Fine.”
Alpha Mates were bossy…and I couldn’t help wondering how he’d channel all that attitude in bed.
I kept that question to myself for a variety of reasons, and not just because of the pup racing around ready to burn off energy.
“Do we have a plan of what to put away first?” Bouncing by the trunk of the car, Emeric looked like he was barely holding on to his human-looking body. “Uncle Dorian likes having a plan.”
He wasn’t wrong, but looking over at Dorian had him frowning at both of us. “You’re both capable of making good decisions.”
Really?
That was the game he was going with?
Turning to Emeric, I shrugged. “I think we should go sit down first and you list off the meals you guys bought. Once we have that sorted out, we’ll organize the pantry by individual meals. I have boxes somewhere. I think someone gave me a box of shoe boxes that are in the attic. We’ll use those to keep it organized.”
“Like the social media people that organize things. I saw them.” Emeric jumped and I could feel his wolf side barely under the surface. “That’ll be cool.”
“Ancestors above.” Dorian groaned and looked up at the sky. “I’m starting to understand those mental load videos. I’m sorry I was an ass.”
Emeric’s giggle said he wasn’t worried about pissing off gods or ancestors but I shrugged as Dorian glared at me. “It’s a legitimate way to handle the situation. It keeps the food organized and makes it obvious what the plan was when we’re looking for options later this week. You like lists too, so the meal list will be helpful.”
He threw up his hands. “Fine. I had a plan and you were supposed to read my mind and do it my way.”
“Really? I hadn’t realized that.” He looked like a proper Alpha Mate who was ready to strangle his Alpa. “How would you like us to do this?”
“Not with shoeboxes.” Dorian stomped over to the back of the car where Emeric was smart enough to have tried to get his giggles under control. “Have to side with the Alpha, huh?”
Emeric was learning fast and gave his honorary uncle wide eyes and frowned. “He doesn’t know how to decorate. I had to help him.”
Smart pup.
Dorian huffed and realized there was no point in arguing. “Fine.”
He was cute when he was grumpy, but I was hoping we’d distracted him enough that his stress levels had started going back down. He wasn’t thinking about leaving the grocery store, but his scent still carried a lot of stress.
It was fading quickly as he opened the back of the car and handed Emeric a bag. “This is the meat we picked out. Will you put half of it in the fridge and half in the outside freezer? There is no right or wrong. You just need to think about what you want to eat first.”
Oh, interesting.
Emeric’s entire body jerked to attention. “I can do that. I’ll pick out a good one for tonight.”
As he raced into the house, I closed the distance between my mate and myself and wrapped my arms around him so his back was pressed against my chest. “Big deep breath in and let it out slowly. You did a wonderful job of handling the situation andyou’re both safe now. You’re literally one loud shout away from having a dozen wolves showing up.”
Dorian closed his eyes and obeyed without pushback, and as he exhaled, he relaxed into me. “What do I shout? I can’t just yell help.”
Leaning down, I kissed right under his ear earning a soft whine from him. “It’s sexy how smart you are, Wölfchen. In a loud voice you need to say ‘to the Alpha’ and the magic of the pack will do the rest.”
He might’ve been human but he was the Alpha Mate whether he knew it yet or not.
Magic didn’t always understand consent.
“I can remember that.” Dorian took another deep breath and let it out slowly again. “If Mr. Stein hadn’t shown up, I’d have called you while we were in the store and stayed up front while we waited for you. I think that would’ve kept us safe, but I’m going to need someone else’s number just in case.”
