Braun didn’t seem to think so based on how he was raising one eyebrow as he leaned back against the hood of his car. “Do you want to give me a complex? Fears that you don’t want to be seen with me in public?”
He fought dirty.
“Emeric needs us.” Ignoring Braun’s scoff, I sighed. “We need to keep him safe.”
“My mother is keeping a close eye on him and she lives right next to Jessen.” Bringing up his second in command was cheating. “The idiot can’t drive on pack land because he wants to harm the pack. They’re safe as long as they don’t leave and she’s bribed him with homemade brownies and more scary movies.”
She cheated too.
“Are you worried about your safety, Wölfchen?” Something flickered in his eyes but it disappeared when I copied his scoff.
“Of course not. My mate will take care of me.” Ha. No more pouting Alpha. “I think I’m just nervous.”
Admitting that had him opening his arms, so I went up and snuggled into him since he needed cuddles. “Tell me why you’re nervous.”
Ugh.
He shouldn’t be able to sound so calm and comforting either.
“I’m not worried about my safety.” Everyone I’d met over the past week had fawned over what a strong Alpha he was. “Things have been going too smoothly. That’s the problem.”
He kissed my head as I hid against his chest, not worrying about looking ridiculous. The pack came around randomly during the week, but they seemed to like seeing us cuddle. “Smoothly as in how our relationship is going, how the locals are seeing you, or about the situation with Emeric?”
“All of the above?” I probably could’ve added a few more options to the list, but it was a good start. “I’m not embarrassed about being your mate or anything like that.”
Everything else was just overwhelming.
“Is this the kind of fear that we need to stay home and manage slowly or is this the kind where we need to push through it to see what happens?” When I just sighed, he kissed my head and ignored it. “There is nothing wrong with feeling anxiety about the situation with Emeric. That’s completely reasonable. The other things you’re struggling with are reasonable too and are important to me even if they’d have been technically unreasonable.”
Ugh.
I knew what he was going to say next.
“Because I’m important to you.”
His chest jerked for a couple of seconds before he kissed my head again. “That would’ve sounded better if it wasn’t sighed out so dramatically, Wölfchen.”
“Should I apologize or are we just going to ignore it?” His bark of laughter had me…well, I was just going to call it exhaling long and loud. “Fine.”
“Worst-case scenario on the meeting people side is someone is rude because they’re an asshole. Every town has them and generally ours are just weirder than others. I will do my best to keep us away from anyone who’ll be a pain in the ass, though.” Braun’s explanation left me confused about how I was supposed to respond.
“Most are going to like you or be annoying because they want to talk about their kids or their friend’s kids.” Somehow his tone made that sound worse than the assholes. “We’ve also just got generally strange people who are going to need some explanations to make sense.”
I’d already met some of them at parent-teacher night.
“We’re going to stay in town, walking around and getting something to eat, so the chance of that idiot making trouble I can’t handle is slim.” His confidence in that might’ve sounded casual, but half the people in the school had made it clear he was amazing. “I’ve already notified the heads of all the local groups and our strongest standalones, so if we need help, we won’t have to wait for long.”
“They’re not books.” He was being ridiculous. “This isn’t series and standalones.”
He shrugged. “I didn’t come up with it. The cats did. So if you want to argue with them about it, I’ll back you up.”
I straightened enough to study his face but I didn’t like what I saw. “Something about that isn’t the truth. It’s close…I’ll give you that. But it’s not the truth.”
His mischievous grin had me trying not to sigh. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He was such a brat.
I was starting to see why he made the cat groups insane.
