Page 60 of Bear With Me

"Boys," Gran said tiredly, rolling her eyes. It was a surprisingly young expression for someone of Gran's advanced years, Dennis thought. He was rather impressed.

"We're supposed to go meet with Escalus after we visit with you," Dennis said to fill the silence as Bjorn chewed. "Not sure why."

Gran sighed. "Probably yet another thing to do with Bjorn's parents. Fi tells me that they're going around the den, gossiping about their son's 'unsuitable' mate."

God, would these people never quit? Dennis sighed, knowing they probably wouldn't. He had some hope that volunteering at the community center might knock some sense into their heads…but it was a very small sort of 'some'. "Rude of them," he commented coolly.

Bjorn snorted his frustration in a very bear-like manner. "I'm going to miss the hell out of you, Gran, but I have to say: we cannot get out of this den soon enough."

She patted his hand. "I understand, dear. Now, eat your soup. You'll need your strength to deal with Alpha."

She wasn't wrong. Dennis put his head down and focused on spooning up bites of the deliciousness.

23

Bjorn

They found Escalus behind his desk in his office, glasses perched on his nose and a frustrated look on his face as he studied a thick sheaf of papers. Bjorn tapped on the door jamb to get his attention. “Alpha?”

Escalus looked up in surprise. “Oh! Hi, yeah, come in. Sorry, was focused on this fucking contract.” He gestured them into the room, and they took their usual chairs in front of his desk.

“Pierre said you wanted to see us,” Bjorn told him. “Did my parents do something else?”

The alpha shook his head and sighed. “No, but they’re being an entire pain in my ass just by existing. The more I think about them being a bad influence on the den, the more I see examples of it. Yesterday your father refused to eat at the den dinner because ‘How do I know if this food was cooked by a human?’ Which not only makes no logical sense, but is just stupid, to boot.”

Beside Bjorn, Dennis blinked, looking confused. “What, does he think we have cooties?”

Bjorn snorted. “Probably. Maybe he’s afraid he’ll get infected and grow some common sense.”

Oh, that earned him a grin, and he couldn’t help grinning back and taking his mate’s hand.

Escalus made an interested noise and nodded to their joined hands. “Date went well, then?”

Bjorn ducked his head, embarrassed that the entire den seemed to know about his stop-and-start courtship, but Dennis just chuckled. “We had a great time. A second date is definitely on the agenda.”

“Fuck yeah.” Escalus pumped his fist in victory. “Take that, Ronald and Rowena!”

“Speaking of Mom and Papa…” Bjorn said, “any news on the volunteering front?”

“Oh, yeah.” The alpha brandished the papers he’d been examining. “The community center faxed over their volunteer contract and code of conduct this morning, along with a schedule of open shifts, so I’ve been reading through everything. Just about done, and then I’m heading over to your parents’ house to make them sign on the dotted line.” He wiggled his eyebrows. “It should be…entertaining. You guys wanna come along?”

“Oh, hell yeah,” Dennis said before Bjorn could formulate a response. “This, I want to see.”

“Simon!” the alpha called, and the little guy popped his head into the office.

“What’s up, Alpha?”

Escalus handed his assistant the papers. “Can you make two copies of these, please? And then bring them back in; we’re headed over to the Karlssons’ house with them.”

“You got it,” Simon said with a snappy salute, taking the papers and disappearing back through the door toward where the copy machine must have been.

Escalus leaned back in his chair and folded his hands over his stomach. “I’m going to present it as a done deal,” he told them, “and not give them any room to refuse. Now, they’ll probably still try, mind you, but if I’m good at anything, it’s being a hardass. Don’t let your mom going all teary-eyed persuade you, Bjorn.”

No. No, he wouldn’t. His mother’s tears and complaints had stopped working on him years ago; it had been the only way for him to survive. “Understood, Alpha.”

Simon re-entered the room and silently handed over three stacks of paper. Escalus accepted them with a nod. “Thanks, Simon.” He passed one sheaf of papers to Bjorn. “This is your copy to refer back to. I’ll leave one with your parents for their reference, and the third set I’ll have them take to the community center for their first shift. Which, by the way…” He grinned secretively. “It’ll be tomorrow.”

Bjorn almost – almost – felt bad for his parents, being blindsided and railroaded like this. Then he remembered how they’d treated his mate, and suddenly he was ok with it again.