“Do you need us to come out? Mama can get the crew to cover if you need us. Nasir can run the café for a week or two if needed.” My brother would love the opportunity to prove himself to Mom.
Looking around the place, at the faded wallpaper, the spots of mold which suggested a leaky pipe, I sighed. “You’d have to find somewhere to stay in town. There’s no room here. I’ve got a trailer until I fix up the primary bedroom and bath. It’s small, though.”
“Give me a few days to figure out when we can come visit. We could take our camper?”
Mom sounded so hopeful they could come help me out. I knew they had a lot of guilt about me not getting a business from them because I was the oops baby, but I didn’t mind striking out on my own. Besides, what I’d gained from Uncle Malik was likely worth a lot more than both businesses combined.
“If you’d prefer. The hotel in town is busy, so it must be nice. Maybe you’d be more comfortable there.” I liked my space. Loved them dearly, just didn’t want them crowding me.
There was a beat of silence. “We’ve not been anywhere for a while. If they’re busy, there might not be room… We’ll give it a try. If not, we’ll use the camper.”
I knew my parents. They were going to move heaven and earth to get to Haenvale just to help me out. It’d alleviate some of their strange parental guilt over leaving me to my owndevices so much when I was younger. I didn’t think it had done me any harm, just made me more self-sufficient.
“Okay, let me know when, and I’ll leave something decent for Mama to get her claws into.” Mama loved tiling. She could lay a floor like no one’s business, and there was plenty for her to do.
“Sounds good. I’ll give you a call in a couple of days. Don’t struggle alone! Call us if you need help!”
“I will,” I assured her before ending the call.
Giving the place another look, I held back my sigh. It would all be worth it when I got it the way I liked.
Haenvale was pretty. What? I could appreciate the beauty of the place even as I judged them for being smug over safety that really wasn’t true safety. The beaches were long, sandy stretches into the horizon. Each part of the main stretch was designed with tourists in mind, with plenty of places to shop, eat, or rest. I liked thefeel of the place and how easily I vanished into a crowd.
When people saw me with my inhibitor on, they assumed I was one of the many visitors or even a townie, maybe. Upon check-in, hotels and bed and breakfasts—all experiencing a booming year-round trade—provided each visitor with an inhibitor, making it difficult to identify year-round residents unless you’d been there a while.
I’d like to think I had an eye for spotting who belonged and who didn’t. Maybe I was kidding myself, but some of them were easy to spot. The residents had a sense of purpose and confidence about them the tourists lacked. They weren’t the friendliest to me. Maybe they didn’t like outsiders all that much despite taking their money.
Had to give it to Haenvale, the atmosphere was super chill. No one was on edge, hoping a wolf wasn’t going to get all fangy when he scented a tasty rabbit shifter. I couldn’t help but feel this was just masking a larger problem.
As a predator shifter, I’d learned control from a young age. My dingo wasn’t the biggest and baddest out there, but I could still be a menace to some rabbits or mice if I caughttheir scent. Sending me to a mixed school was the best thing my moms had done for me and my siblings. We’d been tested constantly. Puberty, with the added risk of hormones, was a nightmare. We got through it, though. A few scrapes here and there, yet no one was seriously hurt, and I even had a few prey shifters I counted as friends.
If I was approaching a rut, I did pose more of a risk to prey shifters, particularly omegas, but more out of a need to force them to submit to me. I’d never take anything that wasn’t offered willingly, no matter how powerful the rutting urge was. The chance of me hurting one, even out of my mind with lust, was minimal. A couple of times in my past, I’d been put in dicey situations and come out friends with the prey shifter. I knew myself and what I could handle.
The local hardware store was pretty impressive. I’d tried it on the off chance it had what I needed. There was a large chain store about a hundred miles away, in case they didn’t. Doing my research made me feel less anxious about the task I was undertaking in this house.
I found a large flat-bed cart for all the materials I would need and wheeled it into the blessedly cool interior. The store was clearlylaid out, with all I needed and more. It was about twenty minutes before anyone approached me. I’d been wandering the aisles, picking up things on my ever-growing list of necessary items when a member of staff strolled over to me. He frowned when he clocked my inhibitor.
“Need any help?”
He was young, like probably not of legal drinking age, and tall with wide shoulders. Looked like he played football in high school not all that long ago. He had a summer tan already. Blond with green eyes, which were slightly narrowed in suspicion. A nametag told me his name was Ralf. I didn’t think Ralf liked me for some reason.
“Yeah, I’m looking for sheets of drywall, and these fittings.” I held out my hands with the worn bolts and pieces of pipe in my hands.
Most of the plumbing in the house was in decent shape. There were signs that someone had been working on the place. They’d likely stopped around the time Malik went into the hospice. Since then it had lain empty, jobs unfinished, and plenty of work still needing done.
“Um, sure. Over here.” Ralf led me to the fittings first. I took my time picking up the rightpieces while getting a not welcome vibe from Ralf. His customer service skills were severely lacking.
“That’ll do for now, I guess. Drywall?”
“Here.” Again, he led me to the section and waited, watching me carefully. Did he think I was there to steal shit? I picked up a few sheets, comparing them to the small square I’d cut from the stuff hung in the house. The problem wasn’t buying all this stuff, it was getting it home.
“Don’t suppose you do a delivery service?” I asked, wondering how this was all going to fit in my truck. My precious car I’d traded in for something more practical for New England winters. Getting used to the thing was a task and a half. It was a stick shift, for a start! I didn’t get the fascination with modeling vehicles after Earth One’s cars. They were impractical.
“Depends on where you live. You local?”
“Don’t suppose you knew my Uncle Malik?”
Ralf shook his head. “Sorry, I’ve only worked here a year.”
