We fall into an uneasy silence, all lost in our own thoughts as Violet returns with our sandwiches. We all ordered chicken schnitzel and cheese BLTs, and the rolls that are placed in front of us need two hands to eat so the filling doesn’t fall out. Violet tells us to enjoy the food before serving another group who just walked in, and we eat our meal in companionable silence. I watch as humans and shifters come and go. Some stay and eat in the café, while some just get takeaway orders, but all have excellent things to say about the bakery and its food.
“Why haven’t we ever eaten here before? This is fucking delicious,” Gem asks, taking a sip of his soda, half of his sandwich already gone.
“Probably because it’s human owned. We tend to favor shifter establishments because we are supporting our people,” I reply, acknowledging our slight prejudice, but it’s not about shifters being better than humans or anything, just that we’re shifters so we should support our shifter brethren.
“Well, clearly we’re idiots,” Brodie says after swallowing his mouthful. “I wonder if they will deliver to the night watch tower in the evenings?”
“I’m sorry, but we aren’t open for evening meals,” Violet says, hearing his comment as she hurries back and forth from the counter to the tables. “We close at five.”
Brodie groans his disappointment.
“But you can order earlier, and we can deliver to you. You would just need to keep it in the fridge until you’re ready to eat it,” she suggests, and he perks right up. “The menu is on our website.”
She disappears into the back with the dirty dishes, and Brodie takes out his phone. I can see him googling the bakery. I’d bet my last dollar that he is trying to find out more information about the owner. I can’t wait for Gryffin to return from wherever he went. Bryson said he asked to go into witch territory to look for Archer, frantic about his nephew missing, but Gryffin has also had a personal preoccupation for the last couple of years, and he uses these trips for another reason. We’ve told him to give it up, but he refuses to.
He should return soon though. We messaged him that Archer had been found, I just hope he got it, because cell phones are notoriously unreliable between kingdoms. Something about the magical borders disrupts the signals.
Hopefully he can help talk some sense into Liam. His bear has always responded well to Gryffin’s tiger. Between Gryffin and Gem, they will balance our bond mate, and not a moment too soon, because the next few weeks are going to be busy withall the royal engagements, and I’m sure by the end of it, both Gianna and the pretty little human will be off everyone’s minds.
Suddenly, our phones all start to ring with a specific tone—that’s the night watch alarm. We’re all on alert as I pull it out of my pocket and look at the screen. “Fuck.” A wave of adrenaline washes through me at the message. “A group of ferals have been sighted.”
The four of us stand up. Gem tosses a handful of bills on the table to cover our meal and tip, and then the four of us hurry out of the restaurant.
“It’s been a few months since we had a feral problem,” Liam comments as we run toward night watch headquarters.
“And a group of ferals is something we’ve never dealt with. Usually they are solitary creatures.” Gem sounds devastated. He hates the part of our job where we have to put a feral shifter down. He’s a healer at heart, so killing a feral who didn’t ask to be that way always destroys him.
“If only we could trace a feral back to the shifter that tried to turn them, then we could punish the real culprit.” Brodie’s face is stone cold. The cheerful, joking man is gone, and in his place is someone who is prepared for what we might face, but he still hates it.
Ferals are the worst part of being in the night watch. They usually escape to the neutral or human zones, and we have to put them down. Very rarely do they stay in the shifter zone, where they are dealt with by the shifter armed forces. They know being a feral is a death sentence. Although they start off fairly rational, the mental deterioration happens quickly, making them aggressive and dangerous. They don’t have the king’s magic to balance them. It is an ongoing bone of contention for the shifter community and the only issue that causes the royal family grief. It obviously needs to be addressed again, but with the royal handover, the new king or queen is going to have to bebrought up to speed swiftly. Thankfully the outgoing royals will be able to advise, because it isn’t a decision that should be made by someone who’s uninformed.
Chapter
Six
Colbie
Ileave through the back door of my bakery, the urge to avoid the gorgeous shifters fierce inside me, but as I pass the door to the bookshop across the alley, the screen bangs open, and Brock appears. Brock isn’t a super tall man, maybe five-ten, but he is fit, though his muscles aren’t anything on the watch team’s. Maybe it’s a shifter thing, and all of them are fit and have incredible bodies because they shift into animals and run or fly everywhere.
I look down my curvy body, sucking in my slight pouch from tasting my own creations. Damn it, I need to add some exercise to my daily routine, not just the walk between my apartment and business.
“Colbie,” he hisses, his chestnut hair all awry like he’s been running his hand through it. His black-rimmed glasses are slightly askew as well. This is the most frazzled I’ve ever seen him. Usually he is immaculately put together, the epitome of cool, calm, and collected. His partner, Niles, is usually the flighty scatter-brained one. “Girl, I have been trying to pin you downfor days. Why did I see some of Watch Team One leaving your kitchen on Monday morning with a child in their arms?” He puts a hand against his chest, looking aghast. “Were you the human involved in finding Prince Archie? It’s all anyone is talking about. So much juicy gossip, not to mention the sacking of the night watch operator for dereliction of duty, but who knows what’s true and what’s false. Now dish,” he demands, putting his hands on his hips, and I sigh. There’s no way I’m walking away without telling him what happened.
“Yeah, when I arrived early Monday morning, I found him huddled up under some of your boxes near the dumpster. Poor thing was soaking wet from the drizzle and terrified.”
He gasps and leans against the wall like this news is so shocking he needs the wall to hold him up. “Oh my goddess. Where do you think he came from?” His eyes narrow, and I see a calculating look in his gaze. This man lives and breathes gossip, both of them do, and I’m pretty sure he thinks he has a line straight from the source’s mouth, which is so much better than all the ideal gossip he has already heard.
“I’m not sure if that’s something that is public knowledge, so it’s probably best if I don’t repeat what I heard. I’m sure you understand.” I start to edge my way down the alley to the street. I know this man, he will grill me until he has wrung every last drop of gossip from my mouth, and I really don’t want to be responsible for adding to the rumors that are apparently floating around the shifter side.
“What are you doing with the door open, love?” I hear Niles call out to his mate. Crap, if I stop now, I’m never going to get away, and they will wear me down until I tell them everything they want to know.
“I’m just talking to Colbie about the other day,” Brock calls back, and I pick up my pace.
“Colbie’s there? What does she know?” Niles’s voice gets louder as he comes closer.
Out the corner of my eye, I see the tall blond man appear next to his partner, but I just wave, walking faster down the alley, away from the two men.
“Got to go, my mom is expecting me.” I hurry around the corner and onto the street, heaving out a sigh of relief. I have no doubt they will try even harder to pin me down to get the gossip, but I’m probably safe for the rest of the weekend. They will be enthralled with all the pageantry for the next couple of days, at least until the new king or queen has been revealed. Hopefully that will be enough to get them to forget about the whole Archie thing.
