Page 53 of The MC's Little Brother

“I said I’m fine,” Xander snapped. He shoved away from the table, abandoning his food. “May I be excused?”

Rachel spluttered out a protest, but Mattias didn’t even hesitate. “Go ahead.”

“Mr. Ruiz, we haven’t finished yet,” Rachel argued.

Mattias glared at her. “I don’t care. He’s at his limit. He’s allowed to have space. Go, Xander. If you don’t want to stay here, then Thor’s leash is by the door. You can take him for a walk around the block.”

Xander didn’t hesitate, grabbing the leash and disappearing out the back door. If I didn’t know how well behaved Thor was, I would’ve protested against such a little kid handling that gigantic dog, but Thor was an angel and incredibly protective of kids. He wouldn’t leave Xander’s side for a second.

Once Xander left, Mattias got up, turning his attention to dishes. He was avoiding looking at Rachel, which to me showed a great deal of self control. He was obviously not happy with her, his shoulders lined with tension, but he didn’t yell or demand she leave. He took a few seconds to breathe and clear his head. It was one of the many things I admired about him.

Rachel didn’t seem happy about it, and she wrote a few notes in her notebook. Sitting that close to her, it was hard not to peek over her shoulder to see what she was writing, but I didn't want to cause issues with the CPS case by pissing her off. I forced myself to smile when she turned to look at me.

“Xander said you sleep upstairs. Is that for his benefit?”

I tipped my head back and forth. “Yes, and no.He has nightmares, so sticking close by helps, I think. He slept with Thor last night, and that seemed to help a lot, too. I won’t be here forever, though. Mattias and I are still new, and it’s nowhere near time to think about that. But we’ve been friends for a long time and he recognized he needed help to make sure Xander felt comfortable here, so I came to stay for a little while.”

“Thor?”

“The dog,” I quickly amended. “He’s the sweetest thing you’ll ever meet. He loves kids. Regularly plays with kids with ages ranging from one and a half to eight.”

She nodded slowly. “Does the dog have any history of biting or displaying threatening behavior?”

“No,” Mattias said gruffly. “He was treated poorly by his owner and I took him in and retrained him. He’s never even growled at the kids, and Zoey likes to put him into a chokehold.”

I bit my lip to hide my smile. That was so true. Thor and Mattias had a lot of similarities. They both looked intimidating as hell, but if you got to know them, you’d see just how gentle they both really were.

30

Wraith

After the social worker left, I headed outside to look for Xander. I didn’t have to go far. He was sitting on the back steps with Thor, his expression guarded when he looked up at me.

“Is she gone?”

I nodded. “Yeah. She’s gone.”

I wanted to ask what made him lash out like that, but I could tell how upset he was about it. It felt like the wrong time.

“Mel wants to take you shopping. Feeling up for it?”

He grimaced and wouldn’t look away from Thor. The last time we brought up buying him new clothes, he got awkward too. I could tell he wanted something new, but he didn’t seem like he wanted to be a burden. What was I supposed to say to get him to believe me when I said I didn’t mind?

We sat in silence for a little while, with me casting for different ways to reassure him and coming up empty. If I was talking to Prez, I’d ask him for advice, but outside of the Mel issue, I was still pissed at him for scaring Xander. The next time we spoke, we’d have words about that.

The back door opened, and Mel poked her head out, tipping her head at us. “Everything okay?”

I was going to nod, but I checked with Xander first. He still looked upset, but it didn’t feel directed at me. When I raised an eyebrow at him, he nodded.

“Yeah, we’re good,” I told her. “What crazy thing are you having us do today?”

She snorted, leaning against the doorframe. “Oh, it’ll be awful. You’ll hate me by the end of it. But that’s for later. This morning is for shopping. We never got a chance yesterday.”

Xander looked up at her, curiosity intermixed with the apprehension on his face. “What are we doing?”

“You’ll see,” she said with a wink. “Come on. Time to get dressed. It takes time to build a new wardrobe.”

It was hard to resist that woman, so we both ended up heading inside to get dressed. I didn’t love shopping and did it sparingly, but Xander needed it and I wasn’t going to let Mel pay for it. Which meant I had to go. I masked my annoyance, pulling on my club jacket. I never went anywhere without it. In the summer, we all had cuts, but it was chilly enough to wear the jacket now.

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