Chapter 7

After locking up the display cases, I scanned the room one last time and went down my mental checklist of everything that needed to be done before leaving. I'd already locked the register drawer in the safe along with our most expensive jewelry. The books and inventory were up to date, the floor was swept, and the counters had been cleaned. I'd also mopped up a spill I'd made in the break room earlier that day.

Lakota had no idea how long it took for one person to wrap things up, especially when customers were still standing in line past closing. He'd hung around the shop before, but Mel and I had a system when working together that made it easy to finish quickly and get out of there. Without her, it had taken me until after dark.

Just as I flipped off the lights, I realized I'd forgotten to empty the wastebaskets. Dang it! We had one behind the counter, one in the break room, two in the bathroom, and one near the register.

"Oh, it's always something," I huffed, tossing my purse on the counter.

For a moment, I considered leaving it for the morning, but trash didn't take long to stink up a room. After stuffing the small plastic bags into the larger black one in the break room, I gathered up the rest in the bathroom. Mel and I tried to keep it clean, but sometimes people left a mess or threw out food they had brought in with them. Once I tied off the bag, I headed to the back door and shouldered it open.

Our trash bin was in the alley just to the right of the door, lit by a caged bulb affixed to the building. While every shopkeeper had a dumpster assigned to them, sometimes the delis behind us got overloaded, and they snuck over and used ours. I hated that because it stank up the back of our store. I hurled the bags through the opening and stilled when I heard a loud crash.

That was close.

The thought crossed my mind that there might have been a serious accident out front, so I dashed inside to see if I could help. When I circled the counter and ran toward the front door, I skidded on something hard and caught myself on a rack before falling. The floor twinkled, drawing my attention. As I looked closer, I realized pieces of glass were scattered across the room. I swung my gaze up to a massive hole in the right-hand window, large shards hanging precariously from the top.

There were no men outside swinging at each other, nor were there signs that a car had jumped the curb. Too stunned to come up with any ideas, I was drifting toward the wall when something caught my eye. Glass crunched beneath my feet as I moved closer and stared down at a black bowling ball.

I sighed at the mess. "Can't you kids find something better to do on the weekend? Pizza? A movie? A slumber party? Not destroying someone's property?"

As if the humans weren't bad enough, it was a common rite of passage among young Shifter males to initiate asinine dares. They usually did it after their first change, and it wasn't uncommon for them to do something extreme.

I turned on the dimmer lights and surveyed the damage. Our poor mannequin. It looked like someone had thrown her to the ground and beat her with her own arm. Even worse, tiny pieces of glass sparkled against folded clothes on one of the freestanding shelves. No sense in worrying about damages. I needed to fix the window first and foremost.

I hurried to the counter and searched through our address book. One of Mel's aunts had given us a list of Breed repairmen in case of an emergency. They didn't have set working hours, which made them some of the best.

I cleared my throat. "Hi, is this Mr. Mo Franklin?"

"It is," the man replied, a TV blaring in the background.

"My name is Hope Church, and I'm the co-owner of a shop on Starlight Road."

"Moonbeam? Yeah, I know it," he said, his Texas drawl unhurried and friendly.

"Moonglow, actually. Someone referred you, and I have a situation."

He sniffed and turned down the TV. "Gimme the details."

"Our front window is broken."

I could hear him grumbling as he must have been sitting up from a lying down position. "What are the measurements?"

I rummaged through our drawer until I found a small book with miscellaneous notes. I gave him the information. "I'm not sure what to do. I have all this merchandise and can't leave the store open like it is. Do you think you can board it up or something?"

"If it comes to that, I can. But let's see if we can't find you a window replacement first. I'll need to send one of my boys to the warehouse to check the inventory. I think I had an order for that place years ago, but most of the stores along the strip are standard. Shouldn't take more than a few hours to find a match. As long as we have the window, I can repair it by the morning. For an extra fee, I'll send one of my boys out to guard your store if you need to go home. Otherwise, your merchandise is open to the public."

Something outside caught my attention. "That sounds great, Mr. Franklin. I really appreciate your doing this on short notice. I thought I was going to have to hang a tarp over it for the next two weeks."

He chuckled. "No, y'all don't have to worry. We run a tight ship, and since our clients are limited to Breed, we can usually swing emergency calls. Don't worry about cleaning up; we'll do that. Just move your merchandise away from the window."

"Perfect."

"You want to pay extra for the guard? My son can be there in ten minutes. Maybe less."

It seemed like a sound idea. "Yes, please."

"Joe's a bear, so you're in good hands. He drives a red truck."

As soon as Mo hung up, I sent a message to Melody's aunt and told her she was off the hook for coming in on Sunday. I didn't give her details, only that I had business matters to attend to and had decided it was a better idea to close the shop. She replied to call if I changed my mind, but Naya led a busy life and shouldn't have been our backup in the first place.

I dragged a small display shelf to the center of the store and then moved a few racks away from the window. Just when I set the mannequin down by the counter, an odd noise made me spin on my heel. "Hello?"

I dropped the mannequin's broken arm and grabbed my keys, the small canister of mace dangling from one of the rings. Deciding not to make the suicidal move of poking my head through the hole in the glass, I opened the front door and peered outside. Two lovebirds were sharing a cigarette across the street and down a ways, but other than that, not a soul in sight.

There it was again!

I crossed the sidewalk and circled my car to the passenger side. The moment I caught sight of fur, my heart skidded to a stop. It might have been a stray animal, but my gut told me it was a Shifter.

"Come out from behind there. I can see you!"

I squinted, trying to discern if that was a black tail peeking out from behind my front tire. A tail of what?

"I have a weapon, and backup is on the way."

My finger rested nervously on the mace release lever. I wasn't certain how to use it since I'd never owned one before.

When I stepped back for a better look, a wolf came into view. His hind quarters protruded from beneath my car, and part of me wanted to run. But where would I go? The store had a gaping hole in the window, and I needed my car.

"Are you the one who broke my window? Come out from there before I call the Council."

A guttural whimper came from the shadows—like a wolf in pain. What if a car had struck him?

No way was I going to reach under the car, so I grabbed his hind legs and dragged him out. I knew a lot of wolves in the territory by sight, and hopefully this one belonged to a familiar pack so I could call his alpha to pick him up. When his head came into view, his tongue was hanging out and his eyes were closed. Was he dead?

I cautiously knelt and ran my hands across his thick coat. No blood coated my palms, but an injured wolf was a dangerous one, so I kept a close watch while I examined him. When I touched the side of his head, broken pieces of skull shifted beneath the skin.

I grimaced. "Oh my God." Whoever this guy was, he needed immediate help. "Shift," I said firmly. When he didn't respond, I prodded his side with a finger in hopes the pain would rouse him. "Shift!"

He growled weakly, his eyelids fluttering.

I repeated my less than gentle approach at waking him. "Shift before you die!"

Though facing away from me, he bared his fangs. Normally that aggressive type of gesture would have sent me running, but instead, I stood up and frantically searched for help. The two people across the street had left, and I hesitated about calling over a random stranger. What if they were a human and called animal control? That was a Shifter's worst nightmare.

Squatting, I readied myself to run. Poking a wolf was about as effective as killing an elephant with a flyswatter, so I needed to resort to extreme measures. With a quick swing of my arm, I smacked his hindquarters. "Shift!"

He rolled as if to flip over, and in a swift movement of magic and shadows, the creature shifted from wolf to man.

I scarcely breathed when I gazed upon his tattooed face. He lay naked on his right side, his long hair unbound. What on earth was Tak doing out here at this hour? How long had he been lying by my car? Blood still trickled from the partially healed wound on his head, wetting the concrete.

I patted his thigh. "You need to shift again. Do you hear me? If you fall asleep, you might not wake up. Tak?"

He groaned, his eyes still closed.

Shikoba led one of the largest Shifter tribes in Oklahoma. If I let his son die in front of my store, I was certain I could kiss my career goodbye.

I pinched Tak's brawny thigh, but he lay motionless.

"If you don't shift, I'm going to take a belt to you!" I slapped him hard on the ass, and his eyes popped wide open.

He pushed himself up and scowled. As if caught in a dream, I watched his brown eyes connect with mine while his body slowly morphed. Usually the process of shifting went fast, but fur grew from his skin like magic. His limbs changed shape, and his stern jaw stretched into the toothy mouth of a wolf. It was a beautiful and intimate thing to watch, but when his wolf rose to his feet, I held up my can of mace in terror. Was Tak still awake in there, or would his animal rip me to pieces?

The wolf staggered toward me and then collapsed at my side.

I catapulted to my feet and backed away from the unconscious animal, my heart racing. His skull appeared mended, but there was no telling if he had suffered brain damage. Based on his incessant laughter earlier that day, odds were he was already afflicted.

A horn honked twice, making me jump and drop my keys. I quickly gathered them up and looked at the red truck that had stopped behind my car.

A shadowy figure leaned out of the window. "Are you Miss Church?"

"Yes?"

"I'm Joe." He backed into the parking space on the other side of my car before shutting off his engine.

I dusted off my hands while the young man got out and rounded the front end of my car.

"What kind of trouble you got going on?" He knelt down in front of Tak and then peered up at me with a quizzical stare. "Is he the one who broke your window? Remind me never to piss you off."

"No. At least, I don't think so. I know him. He's not from around here, so there's no one I can call to collect him off the street. Will you help me put him into the car?"

Joe stood up. He was a lanky guy with dark-rimmed glasses, but you couldn't judge a book by its cover. Bears—especially grizzlies—were dangerous, regardless of their human appearance. "Are you sure you want to do that?"

"I can't leave him here."

"You should probably call the Council and let them take care of it."

Tak couldn't have damaged my window. Committing an offense against someone who shared a contract with his tribe would shame his father. I wasn't sure what Tak's relationship was with Lakota, but turning him in didn't seem right.

"Help me," I pleaded, unlocking the door with my key. "I still have to run inside and lock the back entrance. Do you need me to leave you the key to the store?"

Joe scratched his chin. "You have a hole the size of Jamaica in that window. I shouldn't have any trouble getting in. Don't worry. We'll take care of everything. Believe it or not, this kind of thing happens all the time. Immortals have a lot of enemies, but mostly it's just a bunch of rowdy kids running off the leash. I'll keep a lookout. My father will call when the job's done, so make sure you keep your phone turned on." Joe heaved the large black-and-grey wolf in his arms and scooted him into the back seat. He didn't recoil in fear but neither did he handle him gently. Had Tak tried to snap at Joe, I might have had to deal with a pissed-off grizzly on top of everything else, and they were known to kill our kind.

I slammed the door. "You're a lifesaver."

Joe brushed the fur off his shirt. "You might change your mind after you get the bill. Guarding property costs more than labor."

"You can't put a price on peace of mind. Can you do me a favor?"

"What's that?"

I looked left and right. "If you see anything suspicious, can you let me know? You're probably right about it being a bunch of kids horsing around. You know how mischievous boys are."

"I sure do. Just last week, a couple of shitheads who belong to a den of lions took a baseball bat and smashed out a few windshields, including mine. They think because there isn't a juvie for Shifters, they can do whatever they want. Nobody goes to jail for vandalism, but that doesn't mean they'll get off scot-free. Karma has a way of bitch-slapping the wicked, especially when you fuck with an immortal who has nothing but eons of time to plot his revenge."

If what Joe said was true, I wondered what I'd done to anger the spirits. Perhaps I hadn't yet paid the price in full for the sins of my past.