“HE GOT PICKED UP BY HUMANS AND IS IN THE FUCKING POUND. I DON’T KNOW WHO’S MISSING!”
“Teenagers are stubborn.” My helpful human actually took a step closer to me. “They’re ridiculous and he just might not have wanted to appear weak.”
Looking down at his hands, he turned them over and studied them. “His paws were quite large for his size, so if he thinks he’s going to grow up to be powerful, he might be extra stubborn about the situation.”
He was the weirdest human I’d ever met.
“I’m not sure about how calling an Alpha works, but he was picked up far enough away from here that he might be from a different…pack? That was the correct word, right?” He let out a breath when I nodded. “That’s good. None of my neighbors seemto be the right type of people to help. They’re interesting too, though.”
Where the fuck did he live?
“My mailman grumbles a lot about humans being frustrating.” The little human shrugged like it couldn’t be helped. “We probably are but someone needs to tell him to stop saying that around humans.”
Yeah, he probably sounded insane.
“We’ll see if we can handle that after we figure out who the teenager is.” Something I’d said made the little human smile and he inched closer again. “One problem at a time today, but I promise it’s usually a lot quieter around here.”
“When it rains it pours.” Shaking his head, he glanced around at the store. “You have a very nice business, though, and he was confident someone here would be able to help. I listed off all the…the interesting people I knew of and he recognized the gas station.”
Yeah, no one forgot Dietrick.
When he focused back on me, though, there was a distinct look of disappointment on his face. “I don’t know about cultural differences, but shouldn’t someone have noticed their child was missing?”
“Yes.” There were no cultural issues big enough to excuse that, no matter what differences our species had. “And I will figure out why an alarm wasn’t raised. Even if he isn’t local, we should’ve been notified of any missing member within a three-state radius.”
It used to be a smaller distance but modern technology made it possible to go a lot farther a lot quicker.
“A…Alpha?” Jessen had either finally realized it was safe to talk or had found information because he risked a lot bringing my attention to him. “A lot of pack members are still hanging around the main house and right off the bat none of the parents are worried about their kids. Several slept over at your mother’s house last night because she bribed them with R-rated movies and a new brownie recipe.”
Great.
She was a menace.
“And?” There’d better be more.
“We’ve started touching base with everyone else in the pack, but a few are out of town due to family issues. Macy’s brother died, you remember that, and we’ve got a few others traveling to go check on family because of the storms. Oh, and Fred’s sister is having a baby so he and his family went up to visit her. That’s just a stupid decision, but he’s trying to be helpful and you know his wife.”
Fuck…for a variety of reasons.
Fred was a moron…his sister was not going to want visitors.
“Finish touching base with everyone here and get me a replacement at the gas station in five minutes.” Theor elsewasn’t necessary to say based on the way he sucked in a breath. “I’m going to go get the pup and there will be too many questions if the station closes early.”
And we were the only one in twenty miles, so we couldn’t close early.
“Yes, Alpha. Dietrick is already on his way and should be there any second.” Jessen sighed. “Um, he wasn’t happy when he realized no one else went to help you.”
I bet.
He was an asshole but the station had become his baby.
“He’s not the only one unhappy with that.”
Before Jessen could make up another excuse, I disconnected the call. My little human was just waiting like he talked to Alphas every day and there was nothing odd about the situation at all. “Dietrick will be here any minute and then we’ll go rescue the pup.”
Digging out his phone from his pocket, the human nodded. “We should catch the shelter still open if we hurry, but it does have cameras. Unless your…your species has ways not to show up on camera? Well, then we’ll have to wait until the morning otherwise because I’m not going to jail for breaking and entering. I’m a teacher.”
“We show up on camera.” What had he been reading? “We’re not fucking vampires.”
