Austin groaned but didn’t respond as he disappeared into the hallway.
“Thought you said he did what he was told?” Roscoe said, rubbing his neck. “Goddamn, he dug his claws in and everything.”
“I still don’t know exactly what triggers it.” I stood up and walked over to the door. “I’m going to go check on Adam.”
“What’s wrong with him now?”
“He’s been getting meaner lately.”
We both crept down the hall to see Adam sleeping naked, spread eagle on the bed with the biggest smile on his face. Roscoe went to say something, but I caught his mouth with my hand and led him away from the door.
“Okay, maybe this isn’t as bad as I thought,” I whispered, letting go of Roscoe. “Adam’s happy. Austin’s… happy—ish, and we’re okay, right?”
“I dunno. If there’s a witch—”
“Then we’ll deal with that later. Right now this might be working in our favor.”
Austin walked out of the garage carrying about five bottles of homemade moonshine.
“Uh, whatcha doin’ with those, buddy?” Roscoe asked, slinking across the room and licking his lips.
“Dumping them,” he replied.
“I got an idea!”
I grabbed a magazine Adam had been reading earlier, rolled it tightly, and smacked Roscoe over the head with it. “No!”
“Now hold on, I ain’t talkin’ about the booze. We could trade something to the ferals to get them talkin’. I happen to know for a fact those fuckers love white cheddar popcorn and soda. Hell, they’d suck yer dick dry for a Little Debbie Swiss roll.”
Austin rolled his eyes and continued to the kitchen.
“You know for a fact?” I crossed my arms. “Are you sure you’re talking about the ferals or yourself, because Little Debbie owns half the real estate in our pantry right now.”
Roscoe didn’t respond as Austin sauntered back out of the kitchen.
“Yer not gonna dump the beer too, are ya?”
“Beer?” I asked. “Where the hell did you get beer?”
“Made it,” Austin replied, his ears slowly drooping and his eyes changing color again. “I’ll dump it all, sir.”
“Now, hold on, let’s not get too hasty. That beer was amazing.” Roscoe placed his hand on my shoulder. “Yer really gonna make Austin dump all his hard work down the drain? Yer gonna crush him. Just look at his face!”
We both turned toward the blonde werewolf staring at us with the same stern, emotionless expression he often wore.
“The guy obviously has his heart on his sleeve. Would you really want to hurt his feelings?”
“Dump the beer,” I said without hesitating.
“Wait a minute! C’mon. You gotta taste it first. Please.”
“Roscoe, I’m putting my foot down.”
His eyes grew wide and watery as he leaned in, his pupils dilating much larger than they should have been able to. I still didn’t know how the hell he got them to do that.
“That hasn’t worked since we met.”
“Pwease…”
