“Yeah, I can do that.”
“You’ve never done that.”
“First time for everything.” She looked at the photo and clicked the little tab to bookmark it. It wasn’t far. Just across the river. “If it tastes as good as it looks in the post, we can go again on Wednesday.”
“All right.” They headed down the sidewalk to the corner and took a left. “I can’t believe you’re abandoning me to the school play because of a social media post. That’s it. You’re out of the will!”
Juliette grinned. “You say that so often it’s lost all meaning.”
The topic changed to a crazy customer Cass had to deal with. By the time they’d parted ways at their front doors, Juliette hadn’t been able to think about anything but the tavern across the river in King Lake.
The Amber Howl.
Wolves, maybe. But that didn’t really matter. The tavern’s account said all were welcome – shiftersandhumans.
But she was probably over thinking things. After all, it was just a burger, just dinner out by herself.
Right?
The grill hissed as Osiris flipped a burger, the scent of seared meat filling the kitchen of The Amber Howl.
“Two more minutes,” he called out, reaching for the next order on the printer.
Marco, his line cook, snorted. “You say that all the time, even if it’s more than two minutes.”
“Nah, your watch is wrong.”
Marco shook the basket of fries in the oil with a good-natured snort.
Sigh added two big patties to the grill for the next order, then slid his spatula under the finished one and set it carefully on the bottom bun. He topped it with the bun smeared with mayo and slid the plate over to Marco for fries.
“It’s a thing of beauty,” he said.
“The burger?” Marco asked.
“Hell yes.” The Blue Monster had both of his favorite cheeses – blue and muenster – together on a thick patty, all melty and delicious. He loved coming up with creative burgers and fun names for them. This week’s Burger of the Week was his favorite so far.
Marco set the plate on the pass and called for Tara, their main server, to grab it.
He let the burgers on the grill cook and picked up his phone to check The Amber Howl’s social media account. He posted theburger of the week on Monday afternoon, and had regulars who would come in every Monday night for the special. He made other burgers from their small, five-burger menu that included the choice of fresh cut regular or sweet potato fries.
He was always happy to see people pick the burger of the week.
The post about the burger had a lot of likes. He hoped that translated into lots of customers. He liked things busy. He was a ‘food is love’ kind of guy, and feeding people – especially his pack – was one of his favorite things.
While it was just the three of them – his brothers Darrin and Patrick – who also worked at The Howl, someday he’d be cooking for his mate, and he couldn’t wait.
His wolf was restless and wanted to find her and get on with the next chapter of their lives. Sometimes it was hard as hell having a wolf in his head, but he loved shifting and running through the woods surrounding their homes that were just behind the tavern.
Trick was the bouncer, and Dare – the oldest – was the alpha and bartender.
They’d left their pack a few years ago and built The Amber Howl on the Pine Run River, across the bridge from the entirely human town of Mill Creek.
He tucked his phone into his pocket and turned his attention to the grill, flipping the burgers, then prepping the plates, focusing on the job at hand. He settled into the rhythm of the job – flip, plate, repeat – as the hum of the kitchen and the main room outside wrapped around him.
But even though he was comfortable with a spatula in hand, he could admit that he’d been feeling a little off all day. He wasn’t sure why, but ever since he’d posted about the Blue Monster, his wolf had been grumbling in his head.
It wasn’t close to the full moon, so his wolf wasn’t antsy about shifting.
