Page 13 of Moonlight's Mate
They stayed on the walk that circled the house, passing a tree hung with upward of a hundred wind chimes. They were eerily silent until Merrilee nudged one, just to make it ring.
“Now you’ve done it,” Beck muttered.
The house’s side door swung open, and Claudia popped out with a smile as wide as the ceramic sun faces decorating the fence. “Bexley!”
Merrilee choked and stumbled over a nonexistent crack in the sidewalk.
Beck ignored her and hugged the smaller human woman who was hanging on to him and to her mid-sixties with all the strength in her custom acrylic nails. Merrilee told herself to pull in her own; just because she couldn’t paint her nails without the work being wasted when she shifted was no reason to be a raging wolf bitch.
Although if Claudia didn’t remove her hand from his ass—
The woman stepped back and straightened her fringed batik scarf. “You two finally shacking up?”
Merrilee choked again.
Beck shook his head. “Claudia, you’ve always been hell on secrets.”
Merrilee glared at him while the woman shrugged. “I figured it wasn’t a secret anymore if you’re standing so close together.”
Merrilee took a long step back which sent her knocking into the wind chimes. They clattered over her shoulders.
Claudia raised her plucked brows. “Never mind then. What can I do you for?”
“We’re looking for iron. Maybe old horseshoes or nails. Not steel or any other alloy though.”
“Cold-forged iron.” Claudia nodded. “Only thing to keep fairies away.”
The chimes fell silent Merrilee went so still.
Beck gave a little smile. “Even harder to believe, Merrilee here is taking up blacksmithing.”
Claudia shot her an incredulous look. “What good is that in New York City or whatever other fool place you’re flying off to?” She waved a hand. “Come on back to the barn. Let’s see what I have.”
The big barn was a treasure trove strung with cobwebs. “Most everything’s steel nowadays,” Claudia said, poking through a rack of garden tools. “But the antiques are sometimes iron.”
Merrilee sidled closer. “How do we tell the difference?”
“Take a grinding wheel to them and they’ll spark different. Wrought iron sparks flow out straight, and the end spreads like a willow leaf. Or just press it up against a fairy and see if it burns.”
Beck laughed, but he sounded strained. “Claudia—”
She shook one sharply nailed finger. “There are secrets, Bexley, and there are lies. You can tell me one, but not the other.” When he only crossed his arms over his big chest, she huffed out a breath. “Orson was sniffing around here earlier, and he is not as good as you at keeping his voice down.”
Merrilee sighed.
Claudia gave her an even sharper look. “But I’d have known something was afoot. You can’t get to be my age and not have seen a few strange things.”
Beck tilted his head. “What have you seen lately?”
“Not just lately.” She waggled her fingers. “Orson turned into a bear once.”
“Whiskey’ll make you see things,” Beck said noncommittally.
“And say things, apparently,” Merrilee muttered.
Claudia gave her a reproving look. “Orson’s is a good man. And bear.”
Beck rubbed his forehead. “Then why is he the only one you haven’t proposed to?”
