I gave them my most professional smile. “Delivery from Hermes for a Franklin Wade.”
They shared a look. I waited as patiently as I could, feeling the smile turn stiff and unwieldy on my face.
“Hand it over, then,” the smaller one said, reaching for my bag with one oversized mitt.
I touched the messenger bag and stepped back to avoid him. “Whoa. No one touches the bag but me. You know the rules. The only person who gets the package is the person it’s intended for.”
“Little human, you’re not getting in here,” the big guy rumbled.
Finally. Someone who thought I was human.
“Then call Wade out here. I don’t care where the delivery is made as long as it’s done.”
The smaller one’s eyes turned amber, and suddenly it was a wolf looking out at me from a human’s face.
I froze, not wanting to incite him to possible violence. I’d be lying if I said a part of me didn’t wish I had just given him the package as he requested. The two of them seemed like fine, upstanding werewolves. I’m sure they would have gotten it where it was supposed to go.
No. I couldn’t do that. Besides the fact that it would violate Hermes policy, it would be impossible to hide from the Hermes app on my phone which was designed to register delivery to the right person.
He leaned forward and sniffed, drawing a lungful of my scent into his lungs.
“Doesn’t smell of deceit,” he told the other one.
Discreetly, I sniffed at my collar. All I smelled was me. What did deceit even smell like?
“I’ll go see if I can find him,” the smaller one said.
The big one grunted and slid over to more fully block the doorway as the small one ducked inside. Sound poured out and was cut off as soon as the door closed again.
“That’s a pretty impressive sound dampener,” I said.
The man watched me silently.
After another moment of awkwardness where he glared at me and I looked everywhere but at his eyes, I said, “Great talk.”
I checked my phone. I’d wasted five minutes trying to get into the bar. That left me fifteen minutes to make the delivery. I tried not to think of all the things that could go wrong in those next fifteen minutes. Things like if he wasn’t in the bar or if they couldn’t find him in time. It had sounded like it was packed in there.
The small one stepped out, the noise level rising and then dropping once the door closed again. No one accompanied him.
“Couldn’t find him.”
“That’s not possible,” I said. “The directions said this was the place.”
“Don’t know what to tell ya. I didn’t see him in there.”
I looked over his shoulder. “Maybe if I could just take a look.”
I stepped forward only to be brought up short by the big one’s hand hard against my shoulder.
“Not gonna happen. No humans allowed.”
“Great. I’m not human.”
He looked me over skeptically as if to say ‘could have fooled me.’
The other one said impatiently, “Doesn’t matter what you are. You’re not getting in here. Only pack or friends of the pack allowed. You’re neither.”
“But-”
