“What? I’m just askin’.”
“Let’s just say… she’ll put a spell on you.” He flashed his brows. “Once you get your letter, don’t wait too long, because you don’t want the mayor on your doorstep. A couple moved in a year ago and never went to their orientation. Ended up disappearing for a week, and after that, they fell in line quick.”
“O–kay. What the hell did the mayor do to them?” I asked.
The human shrugged. “Don’t let what I said freak you out. The mayor’s great, but he’s a hardass and a stickler for the rules when it comes to werewolves.”
“Pfft. I ain’t never been intimidated by authority. I’ll tell a few dirty jokes with the guy and put a smile on his grumpy face.”
The guy burst into nervous laughter. “I wish you luck, dude. I’ve never seen the guy so much as crack anything more than a frown in public. Mosavi knows how to run a town, but he’s not exactly the baby-kissing type. Anyway, welcome to Norwich. We all just call it Halloween town.”
Roscoe and I shook his hand. “It was nice meetin’ ya, Sean. Maybe I’ll see ya around.”
“Likewise,” he replied, giving us both a wave as he jogged toward the direction we’d just come from.
“That was the most bizarre welcome I’ve ever gotten,” I said, looking around for the hardware store sign. “I’m starting to wonder if there are cameras everywhere, because that sounded kind of cult-like and rehearsed.”
“Hmm,” Roscoe grunted, scratching at his mane again.
“We can always take Darryl up on his offer and move back to White Sands.”
“Nah, this place is gonna be great. You’ll see.” He grabbed my hand. “We already knew about the people before we came. It won’t be so weird once we get to know everyone.”
“I wonder what the sketchy shit is he was talking about in the woods.”
“Yer overthinkin’ again. Remember, you lived in a crack alley in the worst part of the city, and you felt fine enough to take the bus at night. Redneck sketchy isn’t the same as the hood.”
We passed a gnarled tree that closely resembled a monstrous claw with yellow leaves. “I’ve seen redneck, and this is definitely not it. It’s like this place was teleported here from another world. Even the trees look fucked up.”
“I think they look awesome.” Roscoe stopped and began relieving himself on it.
I flushed and scanned our surroundings, moving as fast as I could away from the scene.
“Cody,” Roscoe called after me, but I pretended to ignore him. “Hold up. There’s still a little more.”
I was at full sprint now, shelter from humiliation mere feet away at the store’s entrance. The doors opened automatically, and I slipped inside as Roscoe continued shouting my name.
The hardware store wasn’t as large as the ones in the city, and the shelves weren’t stocked with much. I slowed my pace, reading the signs along the ends of aisles.
“You left me hangin’,” Roscoe whispered from behind. It was startling how fast he could run. Even if he was on the porky side, he still had that werewolf speed.
“It’s day one and you’re already humiliating me.”
“Cody, every werewolf in town’s pissed on that tree. I was just adding my name to the roster.”
“How do you know?”
Roscoe pointed to his nose.
“Gross.”
“It’s basically a community message board,” he said, following closely.
I turned right, ambling along the paint aisle while feeling around my jean pockets. “Crap. I left the list at home. Do you remember what color Austin said we needed?”
“It’s not rocket science. The walls are white, so just get white paint.” Roscoe slowed, his ears dropping as he looked at the color swatches. “What the hell is Swiss Coffee? Why are there twenty different shades of white?”
“Maybe it was eggshell,” I said, giving the swatch a closer look. “This looks pretty close, right?”
