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He straightened himself. “Girls throw themselves at me all the time, so I’m guessing the wolves who attacked me instead of ravishing me weremales.”
Holding back the giggle in my throat, I placed a bandage on his wounds and wrapped it around his waist, then tucked the loose ends in on each other. “There—”
A piercing hoot sounded somewhere outside, and my feet cemented to theground.
“Fuck,” Bee said. “That’s the guardians.” She shoved a hand into Mr. No Pants’ shoulder. “You said they weren’t afteryou.”
His face blanched, and he leaped to his feet, towering over us, his top falling over his hips “They aren’t. But I have togo.”
“Wait, you’re still injured,and—”
He placed a hand to my mouth. “Hush.”
I pushed his arm away. “Excuse me, who do you think youare?”
“Is there a rear exit?” he asked, his voice low and carrying an air ofpanic.
Bee stood in the doorway. “Tell us what’s going on and we’ll let youleave.”
The man laughed deep and raw, almost terrifying. “Little girls, you cannot stand in my way. But I will leave you with a warning because you aided me. The wolves are at war amongst themselves. And one fight always spills over in other lands. I was attacked right on the Terraborder.”
“But we’ve got wolfsbane dividing our land. That’ll keep the packs at bay,” I called out as he stormed away from me and lifted Bee out of the doorway as if she were a doll. He then sprinted faster than anyone his size should have been ableto.
Santos entered the storeroom. “Where’d he go in such arush?”
Bee and I exchanged glances as dread threaded through my chest. I glanced out through the front windows and spotted two guardians in uniform darting left. I sure hoped Mr. No Pants had escaped. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen them chase trespassers in Terra, and if I kept my head low, the guardians left me and my store alone. “Well, he wasn’t from Terra,” I said. “No wonder the guardians are afterhim.”
“He’s a looney.” Bee wove her arm around mine and guided me back into the main area. “You should consider a lock on the door and only let people in after you study them through thewindow.”
I nodded. She had a point, yet in the back of my mind, I couldn’t ignore Mr. No Pants’ warning. It wasn’t the first time the wolves had attempted to claim territory. They had entered our land before my time, and hundreds of innocent lives had been lost on bothsides.
“Do you think the priestess knows about the wolf war?” Iasked.
“For sure. Otherwise, what else would her job entail? Oh, right.” She cocked a brow. “Controlling all of us. Anyway, I should return home before the sun goes down. Do you have anywolfsbane?”
For those few seconds, Bee’s words didn’t register as I remained caught up in the whole wolves warring thing and the half-naked stranger at my store, who hadn’t even given us his name. Perhaps a lock on the door to protect us from crazy customers wasn’t such a badsuggestion.
Bee poked a finger into my arm. “Hello, Scarlet, are you withus?”
Shaking, I hurried to the counter and pushed aside the fabric underneath, concealing the dangerous ingredients. Wolfsbane was poisonous, and I kept it out of view. I plonked the jar on the table, but it was empty and there were a few specs of dust inside. “Well, that’s aproblem.”
Bee gripped her waist. “I thought only I bought thestuff?”
I scratched my head, then remembered where it had gone, but Santos stole my words as he headed into the storage room, calling out his response. “Last week, you added it to the concoction to clean the bird poo off thewindows.”
“Poo?” Bee paced to the door and back to my side. “But I need it this week. I’m hiking into the mountains to see a client. I assumed you had some.” She leaned closer and whispered. “My client claims to have a curse put on him, and I need wolfsbane to create a counter-spell.”
Bee practiced magic in secret and was known for her abilities outside of Terra. Here, the priestess would arrest her if she found out, so Bee often sought jobs in other territories for herservices.
“Sorry, I’d been meaning to top up the supplies. I’m running out of a few other things too. When did you say you need itby?”
Santos reappeared with the bowl of hot water and bloody towel, heading to the front door to dump the contentsoutside.
“Tomorrow.” Bee twirled a red lock over hershoulder.
“Sweet bolts, that’s soon.” I hurried to open the front door to hold it forSantos.
“Real sorry, Scarlet. It’s just that I received the job thismorning.”
