Page 277 of As The Shifter World Turns

“I’d have to ask my dad. A third cousin once removed or something.”

126

HE DIDN’T KNOW—MY FOOT

Nate

I was trying to be patient. Daire wasn’t liking Brax being around anymore than I was. He had our beasts on edge and mine was a chill one pretty much always, barely peeking his head out on a normal day and he was pacing like it was his job. And Daire’s bear? I’d scented him more than once recently when I shouldn’t.

And I hated to say it, but there was nothing not sketchy about Brax. He was “job hunting” but never seemed to go anywhere and when he did it was to hang out at the pub. And given he wasn’t a bartender, that wasn’t where his job was going to be.

Daire tried to talk to his parents about the whole thing, as he should. They just dropped the guy in our laps and nothing they said gave us confidence they knew much about him. So far they had called him Jax, Ax, and Rex. Not once had they said Brax on the first try.

The entire thing felt off.

But anytime I tried to discuss it with Daire, he only got more on edge. And given he felt cornered into doing this, there was no point in upsetting him. So instead I just kept my eyes and ears open and crossed both my fingers and toes that he was going to leave soon.

“I’m off to work, love.” I kissed Daire deeply. “Maybe when I come home we can have a date?”

“Like to the movies?” He nibbled on my bottom lip.

“Wherever you want.” Another peck and I leaned back. If I didn’t, I wasgoing to be late. Daire’s kisses were like potato chips: no one could have just one.

“I love that.” He raked his eyes up and down my body. “For the record I think it’s going to be bent over the couch.”

“Great, now I’m going to work with a boner.”

“Maybe we can put that boner to good use when I get to work?” He had an errand to run on his way there. “So keep that boner for me, okay?”

I did not keep said boner. Brax hanging out across from our door, deciding to tag along with me to work effectively put an end to it.

The last thing I wanted to do was spend the day with him, but family was family or some bullshit like that.

“You know the rules, right?” I asked as we pulled into the parking lot.

“Daire told me,” he sighed.

Someone needed to teach his privileged ass not to be so entitled. But then again, given he was in no hurry to get a job and he had food and housing provided, I could see why he thought people were just going to give him everything; they did.

Micah and his and Daire’s assistant were already there and discussing filming ideas for the day when I arrived and I sent Brax to the place we’d designated as the lunch room, where there were muffins and coffee and most importantly, he was out of my sight.

“He’s still here?” Micah didn’t hide his discomfort around Daire’s cousin.

That seemed to be a universal response to his bear. Like maybe there was something wrong with the beast, but also maybe not. It was both awful and peculiar.

“I think he’s going to be here a while,” I admitted. “How about we figure out the shoot before I’m back on babysitting duty.”

Not that I was asked to babysit him, but he sure as shit felt like he needed one.

Everything felt like it was going well enough for the day, Brax just sitting there watching as the filming took place. He was oddly not needy and when I tried to sneak away to pee, I discovered why. His phone was in his shirt pocket with the camera facing out. The bastard was filming us.

I snatched it from his pocket.

“Hey!” he bit out. “Give that back.”

“No. You’re not supposed to be filming. You know the rules. You’re out of here.” If Daire’s parents had a problem with that, they could deal with me directly.

“I didn’t know. I thought—I thought it was cool to see this side of things. I’ll erase it.” He was far too contrite—too soon. “I’m sorry.”

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