Page 42 of Return to Garoureve

At first, everything about the bakery felt the same. She could look in the windows and see the same countertop she had spent long hours at, and the dessert display, and the door to the back. It was closed, which was so normal for a Sunday morning, although she knew it was opening soon. Ms. May never opened early on the weekends, insisting no one needed a cup of coffee that bad on a day off. The bakery looked clean within, and she could justtellthat it was still a place many frequented, and yet...

She looked at Henrik, and could see him sniffing the air. Okay, so, maybe it wasn’t something she could actually see that was different, but something she wasfeeling.

“I can’t smell Nan,” Henrik finally said after a moment, turning to look at her with wide eyes.

“You can smell Mardoc, though, right?” she clarified, trying to soothe him. “Nan is getting up there in age, and you know Mardoc always wanted to take over. She’s probably enjoying retirement, sitting at your Gran’s house right now, drinking a lemonade while they fuss after Roddy.”

Henrik took another sniff, then turned to look down the way, towards Flora’s Bookshop. His brow was furrowed, but then he was turning back around, quickly, a grin on his face.

“There he is,” Henrik announced, not that Violet needed him to say it. Henrik leaned against the front post, where they had often stood waiting for Mardoc to finish up working, and Violet stood a few paces behind, out of the way.

She knew better than to get between two excitable wolves.

Mardoc’s truck whipped around so fast, Violet was impressed he hadn’t spun out, and then he was pushing the door open, still looking at Henrik’s old truck, rather than at them. It would take 3... 2... 1...

“Mardoc, whose truck is that?” called a woman’s voice from inside the truck. If Violet had to guess... Mardoc had finally found himself a mate.

“It’s mine,” Henrik announced, sounding a little too proud of himself.

They might be in their thirties, but boys and their trucks...

Mardoc whipped around, his eyes wide, and stared at Henrik for all of a half second before screaming out his name. Violet couldn’t help but to grin as the two men, really boys, raced towards one another, wrapping each other up in a giant hug.

Pair of idiots, they were, although they had both grown up good. Real good.

Which was good, because they looked like idiots when they were younger.

The woman climbed out of Mardoc’s truck and came around to the front of the bakery, looking at the two wolves as they clung to one another and clapped each other on the back. Any awkwardness Violet felt disappeared as she realized how out of her depth the stranger might feel. After all, she didn’t know them, and she was certainly new to Garoureve.

Something about her looked... clean. Different. Not... wolfish.

Not that all wolves and wolf shifters had a look about them, but there was a lack of...

Oh. That was her witch senses talking to her, telling her that there was nothing supernatural about this woman, save for her connection to Mardoc.

A human. Mardoc was mated to a human.

“Hi,” Violet said after a moment, realizing she should cut the confusion, while the boys still... were they hugging or dancing or what were they doing? “I’m Violet.”

“Scarlett,” the woman answered, offering her a hand. “Violet... the witch’s daughter? Right? You lived in the house behind the clinic.”

“That’s right.” Had Mardoc been talking about them? Oh, that was a stupid question, even for in her own head. Of course he would. Even though it had been fifteen years, every memory Mardoc had from his childhood included Henrik, and she was never far behind. “The house is... still there?”

“Sealed up and everything,” Scarlett answered with a nod. “But, just wondering, how attached are you to the clinic?”

Something tingled at the back of Violet’s mind, and she thinned her eyes slightly, studying the woman. There was nothing giving anything else away, about why this person, this stranger, would ask about the clinic itself. In truth... no, she didn’t have any real attachment to it, although she would need access to some of the supplies within, but she was far from a healing witch, and had no interest in opening it back up. “Uhh... I have no real gift with water or earth, so...”

Violet looked to Mardoc and Henrik, who were still clinging to one another. They both looked to be shaking a little as well, and she could tell almost immediately what it was. “Honestly, just go for a run.”

Henrik looked over his shoulder to grin at her, and pulled away from his best friend while stripping his shirt off. Mardoc did the same, and within 10 seconds, both of them were naked and shifting into wolf form. Violet rolled her eyes before looking back at Scarlett, who was shifting awkwardly and looking down at the ground. Oh, wait, the woman had been offering a hand, and Violet never even took it. Well, this was awkward.

“You’re not looking away to protect their modesty, are you? Wolves have no real sense of—“ Wait, this human, she had to know, right? After all, Scarlett had called herthe witch’s daughter. “Uhh, you know, right?”

“About the whole wolf thing?” Scarlett raised a brow at the question, then gave a slight nod, still looking a little awkward. “Yeah. I’ve been in town for a few months now. I know most things, and what I don’t know, it seems to just be things that haven’t been brought up. Mardoc said you and Henrik left together, years ago, after the fire.”

The fire... right... shit.

“Sort of.” This was going... awkward.

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