I held back a chuckle. The feud of sorts between my best friend and our local librarian had been going on for a while now. Truth was, I didn’t think Az disliked the human as much as he insisted he did.
He let out a little huff and straightened up off the wall. “I should probably go relieve Sandy before he sells someone a ghost tour that doesn’t exist.” He paused. “Although, given what lives in this town, it could.”
Once he left, I turned my attention back to the panel table.
The moderator was one of the librarians, Luella Quayle. She thanked everyone for coming and introduced the brewers in order of placement, which meant she introduced Roy last and with the most enthusiasm.
Ivan didn’t react. He just took a drink of his water, but I had a feeling his calm demeanor was a mask for what was coming later.
The questions from the crowd were what you’d expect. How long have you been brewing? Do you use local ingredients? How long does it take you to make a batch?
As a pub owner, I found the questions interesting and was actually enjoying them when movement off to the left caught my attention. A tiny little shadow detective was sticking his head out from behind the open door. I rolled my eyes and bit back a laugh. It appeared Eugene was really getting into his new role.
The panel was going pretty smoothly until someone asked, “What inspired your recipe?”
Roy glanced nervously at where Beckett was sitting in the crowd. He was obviously prepared for his former apprentice to cause trouble, but all Beckett did was scoff loudly before muttering, “What inspired them? Nothing did. They’re mine,” under his breath so that no one with normal hearing would’ve made out the words, but I did.
Roy looked at Nadia, and she gave him a reassuring nod, then he gave what sounded like a practiced answer about the aroma and some ale he’d bought in the city that he’d thought was missing something.
After that, Malcolm asked him what he was going to do with the prize money, which wasn’t a surprise since Malcolm had mentioned needing the money.
“I’m going to expand Black Feather Brewery. I’ve been wanting to do that for a long time, but the money just wasn’t there. Thanks to this distribution deal from Kettlebrook, it is. It’ll take most of the prize money, but it’ll be worth it. I believe in my brewery, and I believe in Ravenstone.”
Everyone applauded at that. Well, not everyone. Roy’s friend Fletcher, the one who’d been trying to get his attention the day ofthe competition, stood up from the back row and stalked out the door. My wolf went on alert at the anger that was rolling off him as he stormed by us. Most of the time, he wouldn’t even notice, or if he did, I wouldn’t be able to tell. But we were getting close to the full moon, and for some frustrating reason, I could always feel him closer to the surface at that time.
Wolf shifters weren’t like werewolves of lore. We shifted at will, not at the moon, or at least those who could shift did. Yet it was almost like the pull of the moon called to my dormant wolf.
"Sounds like you have big plans.” Ivan’s tone pulled me out of my musing and brought my attention back to the panel. I could tell by his posture and his stance that there was no congratulations coming. “So tell us. Just what are the lengths you'd go to win?"
And yep. There it was. I sighed. I knew he wouldn’t be able to just sit there.
Roy got an outraged look on his face, and I was afraid the whole event was going to blow up, but Luella stepped forward. She was used to dealing with rowdy teens, so she wasn’t about to let a couple of grown men get out of control.
“That’s all of the time we have for our winner. We want to give time to our other fabulous brewers, as well. Does anyone have any questions for our second-place winner, Mr. Donny Pace?”
Donny Pace was polished in a different way, like someone who was used to attention. He answered a few questions and managed to say,artisanal processtwice in three minutes.
Tessa was the most straightforward. She talked about her blackberry wheat with the same directness she probably used explaining glazing techniques, and the crowd liked her for it.
I listened with half my attention and used the other half to watch the room.
That was when Sandy appeared at my elbow wearing one of his festival t-shirts. This one saidBeer Necessitiesand had a picture of a bear drinking a beer.
He was slightly out of breath and holding two paper cups of something that smelled aggressively of cinnamon. His turquoise hair was doing something complicated on one side that suggested he’d been moving quickly through a crowd.
“Where’s Declan? I brought him a coffee,” he announced.
“That isn’t coffee.”
“It has coffee in it.” He held out one of the cups like that settled the matter. “I’m trying to convince Rue to branch out now that she’s the only place in town that serves coffee. She agreed to try a cinnamon cardamom thing, but before she puts it on the menu, she wanted opinions from people with sophisticated palates.”
“Well, he’s tied up in a project with Elwood. He’ll be here when they’re done.”
“Oh.” His face fell. Then it brightened again. “You can try it. It won’t be hot if I wait to give it to him, so it won’t be an accurate test.”
I took the cup and looked at it. “At least it isn’t one of those weird concoctions Lily used to make when she had the Witch’s Brew. I don’t miss those at all.” I sighed and took a sip. It was actually not bad. “I bet Declan would like this.”
“I’ll get him one later.” He grinned and sipped his own. “Az said you’re doing the watching thing.”
