Try not to brood until I get back. Actually, no. Brood. You’re very good at it.He fluttered out the open window into the deepening night, and I was left alone with my thoughts. Alone and restless, I paced through my living room, eyed the bedroom—but sleep would be impossible. I kept vigil by the window that looked out over Main Street, aching for another chance to see her. What was Belfry up to now? I could not see his distinct shape fluttering around, but that didn’t mean he’d flown to see Avis or the pack of goats. Was he watching Jade right now?
A sudden knock at my back door snapped me from the spiral. Three raps, heavy, hurried, and unmistakably wolf. I opened the door to find Kai on the back stoop, cowboy hat pulled low, shoulders tense, the shift thrumming under his skin like wildfire ready to break free. He was bigger than most wolves, broader too, but there was nothing threatening in his stance, only discomfort. “Need a gift,” he said gruffly.
“Kai,” I greeted, stepping aside so he wouldn’t shed fur on the threshold. “Come in.” I gestured toward the stairs leading up to my apartment. He was the perfect distraction, prickling my brain with curiosity.
His answer was as predictable as ever: he shook his head. “No time.” Of course not. Anyone who knew a moon-touched wolf understood they were always two breaths away from running under the moon. Kai hated being inside; it made him feel immensely trapped. Good thing his mate could put up with that sort of thing.
“For Freya?” I asked, referring to the gift he’d demanded. My senses sharpened, casting wide in the darkening night. She was not lying in wait beneath a hedge or the tall fir on the left corner of my property. Her lynx-gray fur would make her hard to spot, but my eyes were exceptional in the dark. She was not here, and she was never far from Kai’s side.
His jaw twitched, his head dipping lower so the brim of his white hat shaded most of his face. “Yes,” he said gruffly. His hand went up to rub the back of his neck, and his scent swirled more thickly through the air between us. It was all wolf and wildness, he smelled like he’d rolled around a meadow somewhere: flowers, fresh grass, and damp earth.
“What kind of gift?” I asked him, intrigued. And what for? The pair was approaching their first year together, but somehow I doubted Kai was aware of such urbane things as anniversaries. I didn’t think Freya was the type to value that kind of sentiment, either.
“Dunno.” He shifted on his feet, restlessness coursing through his body. He was very close to bolting, and I wondered how long the man had gone without a conversation this time. Poor Freya. The monosyllabic answer was also not a surprise, but… it certainly didn’t make things easy.
I pinched the bridge of my nose. Kai was a good man—wolf—but subtle, he was not. “Is it for a birthday? An apology? A declaration? A peace offering? Something shiny? Something edible? Something symbolic?”
Kai scowled, which meant I was close. “She deserves… something. Something… nice.” Ah. So it was a romantic gift. Dangerous territory. He said the word nice as if it were distasteful, but more likely, it was simply something he struggled to wrap his head around. Even more likely, he had no clue how to define “nice.”
“I can procure many things,” I said smoothly. “But my services come at a price.” That was the standard spiel. Of course, for a friend, I was never harsh with my prices. Kai was just a wolf—one simple in his tastes and his pastimes. He had never traveled beyond the Hollow, never even set foot inside a city. The man grunted; that was as close to agreement as Kai offered.
“Two crates of venison,” I said, my mind flashing to my already full stock room and wondering where I’d put it all. I had a distantcousin who might be interested in some of my overflow; I’d have to make a call. This was the kind of puzzle my mind liked working on, and I felt a thrum of excitement tingle through my veins. This time the healthy kind, not the spiral of obsession I’d gotten trapped in earlier; as in five seconds ago.
His eyes flashed wolf-gold, a warning, a challenge. “One,” he growled, with the deep kind of rolling roughness that a human chest and vocal cords should never be able to make.
“Two,” I responded, smirking because I enjoyed haggling as much as I enjoyed a good French red—that is to say, a great deal.
“One and three hares,” he shot back. Briefly, I pondered that. I had not eaten hare in sometime; perhaps that would be a nice change of pace. Then again, there was still hare in my freezer from the last time I’d done this dance with one of the local wolves—Kai’s father, I believed—who had been in need of the informational type of goods, rather than something tangible one could hold.
“Two,” I repeated, unyielding. Adrenaline spiked through my veins, the kind that came from knowing you flirted with danger, the kind of danger that comes with fangs and claws.
He growled, his body growing tense as if he were about to lunge forward and bodily attack me. I tensed, braced myself, but he never charged. Instead, he hesitated, and then he settled back on his heels and nodded sharply. “Fine.”
“I will have your item tomorrow,” I said, breathing out slowly to let the tension ebb. Kai nodded once, shifted mid-step—a flash of golden light and brightness that dazzled the senses—and dashedinto the night as a large, tawny wolf, cowboy hat left behind like a casualty. He’d be back to pick it up once he’d let the tension run its course. I sighed and hung it on the door hook. “Again,” I muttered.
Belfry fluttered in moments later, cheeks full of night-air excitement.Did I just see Kai run off hatless?he asked, as if he were already contemplating flying back out to share the news with his buddies, whoever they currently were. He could be hanging with the bats that liked the Town Hall’s bell tower, although Drew, our local gargoyle, had been scaring them off with his presence of late.
“Yes,” I said without any further explanation. I was not about to feed the bat more ammunition, like how the werewolf had planned a romantic surprise for his mate.
Did you help him? Kindly, warmly, gently?Belfry asked. For all his gossiping ways, he did care about the people in town, very much. Little guy, big heart.
“No,” I said, because that was the truth. If I said yes, he would just get suspicious, because he knew that wasn’t like me. For all I knew, he’d hung out in the hedge and overheard everything we’d said and hadn’t said.
Luther.He sighed dramatically, landing on my shoulder.You could have been nicer.If he knew how I’d bartered, well, rather, remained utterly unyielding on my price, he would say something more firmly than “be nicer.” At least that meant he hadn’t used his big ears to eavesdrop on that conversation. That was good, for Kai, his secret was safe with me.
“Kai is too proud to accept kindness,” I replied. “This way, we all gain something. He gets what he ordered, and we get a fresh supply of meat.” Good thing Belfry never hung out in the stockroom, or he’d know we didn’t need anything from the wolf. Besides, the gift would feel more meaningful to both him and Freya because he’d worked for it.
I do not eat meat,Belfry sniffed.You should have bargained for fireflies.I did not dignify that with an answer. He tugged lightly on my collar when he landed on my shoulder, a slight, warm little weight.Now, where were we? Ah yes. Jade. The human hurricane with the finely shaped...
“Do not finish that sentence,” I warned, with such deadly fury that the bat briefly fell quiet. I shut the door with heavy arms and a solid thud, then went up the backstairs with a slow, heavy step. I already knew what I’d end up doing once I reached the living room, and the bat knew it, too.
She’s in her pajamas now,he continued gleefully, utterly ignoring me.Towel-drying her hair. Very soft hair. Very nice pajamas. Very...
“Belfry,” I warned again, baring my fangs, though that never impressed the tiny bat much. I was at the window, just as predicted, and pretending hard that I wasn’t trying to catch a glimpse of the very thing Belfry was describing.
What? I was just appreciating! You should see her. Oh wait...you have been.I stiffened, well aware that he’d caught me red-handed—aware that I could not deny the incessant need to check if she was still there, still infuriating, still beautiful. Hecackled, batting at my ear with a wing.You like her,he sing-songed.
“I do not,” I denied instantly. She was a trespasser, a nosy little spy, here to touch the town’s precious books and history. Books a human shouldn’t ever stick their tiny, delicate, pretty little nose into.
