“It looks like liquid darkness.”
He peeked in. “Yep. That would be a shade. In five seconds, I’m just going to move you a few feet away. Damn it. If I end up having to eat my testicles, tonight...” He started making unintelligible sounds of frustration.
“Declan, I’m not going to reach for the noodles.” I stepped away from the trashcan, turned, and pointed up into his face. “But, don’t touch my things again, werewolf.”
“On my honor, I will never touch your nasty-ass packet of noodles again. The lesson is learned. I’ll buy you another one if you were attached to eating meat powder on freeze-dried noodles.”
“How about you buy me a real meal instead—if you’re still offering.” I laughed. “The only attachment I had to those noodles were that they cost ten dollars and were my only food.”
We ended up three blocks away in a little burger take-out window, sitting at a picnic table loaded up with burgers, fries, and chocolate malts.
I dipped a fry in Declan’s ketchup. “Sorry, I just did that without asking. Do you mind?” I asked after I did it. For some reason, I just felt so comfortable around this massive, tatted up werewolf.
Declan shrugged nonchalantly. “My ketchup is your ketchup, Teagan.”
“So…” I pointed my fry at him, “When you said that Jasper was protecting me up until you took over, what you were really saying was that Jasper has been watching me this whole time since the bar, and I didn’t know it, right?” I asked before popping the delicious, salty french fry into my mouth. This very well could be my last meal for a long time, and I was savoring every bite.
“Did I say that… no, I think I said something more along the lines of…” he startled at my basket of food in an exaggerated way, “Look at that. You ate that fast. How about I grab you another burger?”
“It’s okay, Declan. I’m a stray wolf that’s bringing all kinds of danger to Jasper’s territory and pack. He has every right to keep tabs on me.” I paused to consider the situation, playing with the back of my earring while I thoughtfully chewed my french fry. “I’m just shocked that someone followed me around for almost twenty-four hours without me noticing. I’m more out of touch than I thought I was.”
“Don’t beat yourself up. Jasper is…” Declan looked at a loss for words, and he went with, “Different.”
“What do you mean by different?” I froze with another fry halfway to my mouth. “More powerful? Sneakier? Is it something magical?”
Declan grinned. “You’re just going to have to see for yourself.”
“Fine.” I sighed. “So, does the pack run a store or restaurant or something?”
“Nope.” Declan pushed another burger into his mouth, and when I say pushed, I mean he had to shove the last bit in to fit it.
“Okay…” I squinted at him. “Then what job are they offering… exactly?”
Declan’s eyes went wide, and he raised a hand while he continued to chew.
“There isn’t a job, is there?”
“Well, there’s not technically a job… as of this moment, but we could come up with a job pretty easily,” Declan finally said. “There’s more than enough to do… cooking, cleaning, gardening.”
“I see.” I hadn’t really been considering working for the pack, except as a last resort, but if I was going to stay in Grayhaven until my hand healed, I wasn’t going to make it without making some more money. I held out my bandaged palm. “Well, it’s appreciated, but those are all jobs that take a lot of hand stress, and the whole reason I’m here is to let my torn muscles heal. It would be a little hard to do all of that left-handed.”
Declan winced as he looked at my palm. “Well, I put my foot in it, again. Here’s the thing, Teagan…” He wiped his mouth off with a napkin and threw it in his empty basket, before sweeping it aside. Leaning his elbows on the table, he threaded his fingers under his chin. “I know for a fact that Jasper wants all werewolves in Grayhaven under one roof where he can make sure we’re all safe. The pack has money. We pool our resources together now and from our lives before. Some of us were rich when we came in, and most of us have skills that are in high demand by this town. However, we don’t have much use for cash in Grayhaven. Only witch businesses accept money, and they prefer trade—which we get a better deal for. Most of the businesses here don’t pay in money. They don’t have it or need it.”
“What do you trade in?” I asked.
“Venison, mostly. It’s worth a lot here. I bring down bucks on four legs, but I also trap other prey on two.”
“You’re a hunter? Officially, a hunter, I mean,” I added because all werewolves were hunters.
“The burger you just ate was probably half venison or more. They make beef last around here because the only importers are witches, and they can get everything but one thing.”
“And, what’s that.”
Declan’s whole face scrunched up. “Let’s just say, the butcher is a witch, and he pays me when I bring my rabbits and wild turkey in. It’s all humane, but, you know… a bit stomach churning if you think about it.”
“Death magic,” I said, realizing what he was getting at. I didn’t know much about witches, but I’d heard that they could use the energy released during a death to cast spells.
“They also trade in feral cats, crows, and birds of prey,” Declan said. When I glared at him, he shook his head. “Hell no. Only as familiars. I’m not a monster. I sell the rabbits and turkeys for meat, anyway. What I’m trying to say is that most people here don’t have money. If they did, they gave it away to the witches a long time ago. You can try to get a job with the witches.”
“I think I already did try that.”
“Well, they don’t hire outsiders as a rule and they pay their workers in goods, usually. The cash is used to purchase the imports, and that’s how this whole system works.”
It wasn’t good news, but someone in this town had to have money they were willing to part with besides Jasper. I stood and started to bus our table when Declan joined me. He went to throw out his malt when I grabbed his arm. “Wait.”
“What?” he asked with a grin.
I reached into his cup and pulled out the maraschino cherry. “It’s the best part.” I popped the sweet, sugary cherry in my mouth and smiled. “Sorry, carry on.”
He tossed his cup out. “Where are we going?”
“I was planning on scouting out a spot to spend the night somewhere in the woods nearby. Everyone keeps telling me to stay off the streets, and so I’m guessing it’s another ‘don’t reach into trashcans’ type of thing.”
“That would be accurate, but it’s fae parties you have to worry about there. They want everyone to go and no one to leave.”
It didn’t sound all that bad. I needed a place to sleep.
“Let me put it this way,” Declan added, “Lucas got caught up in a fae after-party once, a long time back, and he ended up dancing until his ankle broke, and he kept dancing. I think it was a month total before he finally escaped, and he’d thought it had been about an hour.”