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“No, it’s fine,” Luna answered. “I guess I’m just a bit surprised, that’s all.”
Minutes passed, and she found herself utterly entranced by how Adrian handled the children, taking a special interest in each of their lives. She had to doubt that there was any real strategic effectiveness to all of it, as he had claimed, but he carried himself with confidence that was unlike any of her pack leaders.
“Is the food to your liking, Maurice?”
He questioned a young, pudgy child as he ruminated over his meal. Off to the side, having put a seat distance between himself and the other children, Maurice poked and prodded at his food, his head in his hands.
“The pancakes are fine,” Maurice said, seemingly upset about something. But he refused to elaborate.
Adrian did not lower his gaze. “What’s wrong, Maurice?” he pressed. “Talk to me, buddy.”
Maurice looked around at the table, deciding how to proceed. He fidgeted in his seat while Jenna ran circles around the table of unshifted pups, almost goading them to join her.
“Do we need to step aside for a second?”
Maurice nodded sheepishly as Adrian turned to Luna.
“Can you keep an eye on these little pups for a minute? They shouldn’t be too much trouble, and I won’t be gone long.”
Luna partially thought she was being tricked or set up to fail. She could just imagine Adrian turning to her and saying, “It’s your birthright, after all.”
Luna shook her head. “I don’t know if I can do that.”
“Of course you can, Luna,” Adrian said before meeting the gazes of every young wolf shifter there.
“And you’ll behave yourselves for Miss Luna, won’t you?” Adrian asked.
The children all nodded, Jenna included.
“Then, there you go. We’ll only be a second.”
Anxiously, Luna watched as Adrian and the little pup Maurice walked a few feet away from the table but stayed within view. The village had awakened, and foot traffic was beginning to pick up. The butcher passed by the table, looking down proudly at his work.
She realized that he must have provided the bacon.
“I bet you can’t beat me around the table five times,”Jenna taunted in wolf form, circling the table. She mostly addressed the curly-haired boy who had earlier tried to steal bacon from her.
The boy chuckled. “I can run five times faster than you can!”
Adrian had been gone a grand total of two minutes, and Luna already felt like she was losing control of them.
“Maybe let’s behave ourselves until Adrian gets back,” Luna said. “Doesn’t that sound like a good idea?”
She was terrible with children and figured she would be ignored entirely.
“But we are behaving,” the curly-haired boy said. “What’s wrong with a little race?”
She looked around the table, each of them happily stuffing their faces, oblivious to any kind of trouble.
“I guess that’s fair,” Luna said quietly.
In the distance, Luna watched as Maurice spoke in hushed whispers, Adrian nodding in response.
If she wanted, she could easily hear everything they were saying, even in light of the passing commotion of the townsfolk going about their morning routines.
But she felt like it would be a betrayal, so she resisted doing so. From the way he was talking, she couldn’t help feeling sympathetic to Maurice.
The curly-haired boy shifted and started chasing Jenna around the table, yipping and barking.
