Salem’s words had been weighing on my mind all the next day. Atticus left early in the morning to go to work at his club, so we didn’t get a chance to see each other.
It was relatively quiet around the house. Melody and Hope had gone to Austin to check on their employees at Moonglow, their boutique. They wanted to open up a second store in town, but before they could do that, they had to make sure it wouldn’t create an issue with their suppliers. Montana and Robyn tagged along since they wanted to grab a few things, including faucet covers to keep the outside faucets from freezing in winter. Mercy and Bear left for work midmorning and dropped Cecilia off at her bookstore on the way. Lakota and Tak kept busy building a chicken coop and wouldn’t let me help.
Blues music drew me into the activity room at the front of the house. I strolled through the archway and smiled at Virgil, who was grooving to the music while organizing his record collection.
The room was relatively empty since the pack was divided on whether to make it a game room exclusively or a general activity room. I preferred the latter.
“This music is nice,” I said.
“Did you think I only liked rock?” He set another album on the shelf. Virgil had chosen the right corner by the window to set up his turntable, speakers, and tabletop shelf. He twirled an album between his hands and showed off the artwork. “I collected one for every band I saw live. Joplin, Bob Marley, Muse, Otis Redding?—”
“You saw Otis perform?”
“It was a little club in Georgia. Nice guy. Smart. So many great singers died in plane crashes. I didn’t fly for a long time.” He set the record on the table and put his fists on his hips. “I thought you rubbed shoulders with all the celebs.”
I shrugged. “That was a different entertainment circle.”
He leaned against the table and stared down at his bare feet and jeans. “I’d give my left kidney for a time machine. My biggest regret was missing out on Woodstock. I thought it was going to be like an arts and crafts fair with music on the side, so it didn’t sound like my scene. Little did I know…” He stuck his hand beneath the collar of his white T-shirt and scratched his shoulder. “Anything you wish you would have done?”
I leaned against the wall and gave it thought. “I was invited to go on theHindenburg.”
His eyes widened. “TheHindenburg? The one that crashed in flames?”
“I was in my thirties at the time and dating a wealthy gentleman who offered me a ticket. I told him I wouldn’t get on that thing for a million dollars. So I don’t get nostalgic about missed opportunities. Perhaps there’s a reason for missing them.”
The record crackled while it changed to a new song.
Krys swaggered in with his hand shoved inside a pretzel bag. “What’s up?”
“Joy was almost on theHindenburg.”
Krys continued crunching on his snack. “I met a Shifter who was on theTitanic. One of the unlucky assholes stuck in third class. He managed to get on deck and escape.”
“How?” I asked. “They didn’t let third class on those rafts.”
Krys pulled out another pretzel twist. “He was an eagle.”
“Lucky bastard,” Virgil remarked.
Krys shoved the large pretzel into his mouth. “Tell that to him. He flew almost four hundred miles before he hit land. Stopped on a ship to rest, but they kept trying to capture him.”
“Someone has a craving.” I grinned, noticing Krys’s bag was almost empty.
Every Shifter had a specific food craving after shifting back to human form, and Krys loved pretzels.
He shrugged. “I was out with Catcher all morning.”
Virgil inched closer to me. “You never told usyourcraving, sugarplum. Pretty soon you’ll be shifting again. Do we have it in stock? Because I have a whole peanut butter stash—just in case.”
“We all know about your stash.” Krys pulled another pretzel out of the bag. “You stockpile that shit like we’re going into the apocalypse.”
Virgil leaned against the wall in front of me and folded his arms. “What if thereisan apocalypse? I don’t know how to make peanut butter from scratch.” He nodded at me. “What’s your craving?”
“Actually, I have two.”
Krys ceased chewing. “What?”
“Because I have two wolves, each has their own unique craving when I come out of their shift. With one, it’s walnuts. That was easy to figure out. But with the other, I crave salami. It took me years to find that out since I never ate stuff like that.”
