I'm Not Leaving You

Part 5

DOM'S POV

Once we are all done with breakfast, I tell everyone to get ready to go to the garage and shop, which are next to each other.

"Where are my shoes?" Brian asks, looking around the front room.

"They're in our room. I'll go grab both our shoes," I say, smiling at him. I quickly ran upstairs to our room and grabbed socks and our shoes. I stop and smile halfway down the stairs to find Brian sitting on the couch with Jesse, in wolf form, asleep on his lap.

"What's got your attention?" Leon asks, coming down the stairs behind me. I smile and point to Brian and Jesse. Leon laughs as we finish going down the stairs and over to where they are sitting.

"He was so sleepy, I couldn't tell him no," Brian says as I sit his shoes at his feet.

"He does every morning," Leon says, shaking Jesse to wake him up. Jesse slowly blinks his eyes open and gets up, stretching.

"I'm sorry," Jesse says after he changes back from his light brown wolf.

"I'm fine," Brian says, smiling at Jesse.

"Get your shoes on you two, so we can head over to the store," I say, smiling at Brian. Once everyone is ready, we all load up into our cars, Brian riding with me, and head to the store.

"Who's helping me in the store today?" Mia asks as we all get out of the cars at the store.

"Jesse, Brian, and I will be helping you today, Mia," I say, smiling at the look of amazement on Brian's face.

"Is this the first time you've ever seen a store?" Jesse asks after we all walk into the store.

"I was never allowed to leave the house. When I was running, I never had the chance to stop and look around," Brian says, looking around at all the different things we sell.

"Just imagine if we took him to a mall," Letty said, grabbing drinks from the freezers, which seems to catch Brian's attention.

"How do you prevent people from stealing anything?" Brian asks, looking at all the candy we have down one aisle.

"Most people around here are wolves and don't. Occasionally we get a human come through, and we just keep an eye on them while they're here," I say, walking over to where Brian is standing and staring at a bag of gummy worms.

"Worms?" Brian asks, making a face.

"They're candy, Bri," I say, handing him a bag of them.

"Why would you want to eat worms?" Brian asks, looking at the worms in the bag before going to put them back.

"Those are yours, Bri," I say, stopping him from putting them back.

"I don't have any money for them," Brian says, frowning at the bag of candy.

"Dom lets us all pick one snack item to munch on through the day," Jesse says, handing Brian a bottle of Pepsi.

"Hey, it's ok," I say, pulling Brian against my chest as he hugs the candy and pop close to himself like someone would take them from him and tears slowly roll down his cheeks.

"I didn't mean to upset him," Jesse says, panicking and also starting to cry.

"He's just overwhelmed, Jesse. He's not upset. Remember how you were at first?" Leon says, walking over and pulling Jesse against him.

"I don't know why I'm crying. I feel really happy," Brian says, pulling back and wiping at his eyes with one hand while the other holds his candy and pop.

"You're not upset?" Jesse asks, still curled against Leon. Brain shakes his head no while pushing his hair back out of his face.

"Do you know what these taste like?" Brian asks, noticing Jesse starts looking at all the candy.

"They're fruity flavored," Jesse says, looking at a bag of chocolates.

"What about those?" Brain asks, pointing to a bag of chocolate-covered pretzels.

"Those are salty pretzels with sweet chocolate," Jesse says, grabbing a bag of Hershey kisses.

"I've never had chocolate or even pretzels," Brian says, looking between the two.

"How about I get the pretzels, and we share our candy?" I ask Brian, grabbing the largest bag of chocolate-covered pretzels.

"You don't have to do that," Brian quickly says, frowning.

"It's fine, Bri. I love both of these, so it's fine with me," I say, taking a bottle of water from Leon.

"Before you say anything, Dom also lets us have free drinks. We can have up to five for free before we have to pay," Vince says, seeing Brian staring at the stuff in his hands.

"Thank you," Brian says, locking eyes with me.

"You have no reason to thank me, Bri. You are a part of this family now," I say, hugging him again. I kiss his temple before leading him over to the café part of the store. "We make and sell sandwiches for lunchtime. This is the eating area. The register is also located over here."

"What's that back there?" Brian asks, pointing to a section blocked off by pony walls and fencing.

"That's my office. The door on the left is to the back room where stuff is stocked. The hallway on the right leads to the bathrooms," I say, motioning around as I talk.

"You own all this?" Brian asks, looking around as I lead him to behind the counter and show him where he can put his stuff.

"Why don't I show you the garage quick before we start getting busy," I say, leading outside and towards the garage.

"When are they supposed to be here?" Brian asks as I unlock the door.

"They are supposed to be here at noon," I say, opening the door and turning on the lights.

"I hope they can help," he says, looking down and hugging himself.

"It's going to be ok, Bri," I say, kissing his cheek. I give him a tour around the garage before we head back to the store. It wasn't a very busy day, but the time went by fast as I worked on paperwork while Brian helped Mia and Jesse in the front. I smile as Brian brings me the gummy worms and chocolate-covered pretzels.

"What do you think of them?" I ask, smiling at him.

"They're both really good, but the chocolate-covered pretzels are my favorite," he says, setting the candy on my desk.

"I don't blame you for liking those. Chocolate is very good," I say, frowning when I see the worry in his eyes. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"It's almost time for your friends to be here," he says as I stand up and pull him over to the couch in my office.

"Why does that have you so worried, Bri?" I ask, brushing his hair from his face after we sit down.

"They're your friends. What if they don't like me?" Brian asks, frowning down at his hands.

"Bri, they are going to love you. You are so kind and beautiful," I say, holding him close.