Page 5 of Wolves Always Bite

Withouttaking anything out,Isaw a collection of soot-covered animal teeth, an ugly ass piece of jewelry with an equally ugly ass piece of stone on it, a shadow box filled with hair and nail clippings, a weird little statue of a stocky man with a scythe, and what appeared to be a clock that went up to eight instead of twelve.Icouldn’t imagine what else was in there.Partof me wanted to see what other surprises the boxes held, butIheld back my curiosity.Therewere no drugs, so my question had been answered.Isaw nothing that would land me in jail.Itwas almost disappointing, certainly anti-climactic.Iforced myself to pick up my book and crawl out from under the table.

WhenIwas seated in my lawn chair again,Ibrushed a bit of grass from my knees.Icouldn’t imagine many people wanting a clock that only went to eight or a weird ring with a lopsided chunk of ugly rock on it.Andthe teeth, hair, and nails?Thosewere disgusting.Ihad an excellent imagination, ifIdid say so myself, butIwas at a loss as to why anyone would want any of that.Itwas such a bizarre collection, but it didn’t look illegal.

Unlessit was stolen.

Icouldn’t imagine it.Who’drisk going to jail over that junk?

So,Iguessed, that was that.Therewas nothing more to see or worry about.

UnlessIwas supposed to add those things to the display.Weusually put out everything we brought, but if she’d wanted them out, she wouldn’t have put them under the table.Butwhy even bring them out of the van in the first place?

Thenagain, didIwant to spend my day answering questions about a clock that only counted to eight?Nope.No,Ididn’t.IfBabettewanted them displayed when she returned, she could do it.

Ipulled out my phone.Ashhad sent a bunch of texts asking what was going on.

Me:It’snothing.Seriously.Allgood.

MyAmazingBFF:Yousure?

Me:Yep.Goand sex up your big bear. *bear emoji* *wink emoji* *devil emoji*

Isighed and tucked my phone away.Iwouldn’t be getting lucky this morning likeAsh, but at leastIhad a sexy book boyfriend waiting for me.

Igrabbed my book.I was curious to find out how my book’s quirky hero was going to sweep the grouchy dragon shifter off his feet while saving him from an evil mage.WhenIhad stopped reading last night, the hero and the dragon shifter were flying through the night sky, dodging magical bombs.

IfIcouldn’t have sex, at leastIcould have adventure!

ChapterTwo

ADRIAN

Mixedin with the sugary scent of cotton candy and the distinctive odor of overcooked hot dogs was the smell of magic.

Therewas only a handful of reasons whyIwould smell magic on the air.Theyusually broke down into three categories.Avendor might be a supernatural being who used their magic to enhance their product.Ifused improperly, it was unethical, and potentially worth reporting to the local supe authorities, but not really whatIwas here for.Ora human antiques dealer might be unknowingly selling a magical artifact.Inwhich case,Iwould buy the item and make sure it was returned to the supe community—aka giving it toTeague, my mage colleague, who liked collecting random magical stuff.Lastly, someone might be doing something shady, like selling stolen magical goods.IfIwas super lucky, it’d be the exact same stolen goods my team had been hired to find.

Igrinned and shot off a text to my bossGage.I’dtext him again whenIknew more, butIwanted him to be prepared.Withany luck, whatIfound would entice him out of thePinkLady, his older-model motorhome.Sure, the rest of our team was good, butGagewas a demon.Withhis powers, he didn’t really need us to do jobs like this, butIguess that wasn’t why he kept us around...

Nope.Ididn’t want to think about that right now, especially with his recent refusal to leave his pink monstrosity of anRV.

Thenagain, ifIcould avoid yet another fresh air market,Iprobably would have too.Justseeing the long rectangular tables under white canopies standing shoulder to shoulder in tidy little rows had me wanting to get back to my truck and take a nap until it was over.Wehad been going to places with a reputation for black-market magic sales for weeks now.Strangely, most black-market sales were held at quaint little rural farmers’ markets.Likethis one, they all seemed so wholesome at first glance, but appearances were deceiving.

Okay.Itwas time to dive in for a closer look.Suppressinga sigh,Imatched my pace to the people meandering along, stepping around the ones who stopped for a closer look at various displays.Foodtables seemed to be the most popular with the local shoppers, butIpassed those without a second glance.Thenon-food booths at this market were a blend of new products—mostly soaps and bird houses—and the older objects you’d expect at a flea market.Thoseantique-type sellers were whereIusually found lost magical artifacts.

Magic-imbued amulets, talismans for ritual work, and benign enchanted charms showed up in places like this fairly frequently.Somewere considered acceptable to sell to anyone, while others didn’t belong in human hands.Theline between acceptable or not was a little fuzzy, butIwas getting better at figuring it out every day.

Theblack market for stolen or dangerous magical items was my primary focus, particularly when a vendor was selling objects imbued with strong magic or sinister intent.Objectslike those did a lot of damage in the wrong hands, and unscrupulous sellers tended to care more about profit than ethics.

Iinhaled as deeply asIcould without being too obvious.Humanstended to find scenting the air odd, unless there was food involved.Whyany species would ignore one of their senses was beyond me, but humans tended to be lazy like that.

Thetangy ozone-like scent of magic was coming from my right, so that’s whereIwent.Slowly.Carefully.Myeyes scanned from side to side.Upand down.Ididn’t sense a trap, butIcouldn’t be too careful.Ifsomeone—aka another supe—was peddling stolen magic, things could get dicey fast.

Notevery supe’s powers were the same, but without exception all supes were stronger than humans… and there were lots of humans around right now.Icouldn’t let any of them get injured.Ialso couldn’t have this many people exposed to what lay beneath theEternalMagic’sglamour.It’dbe a nightmare to clean up, and theSupernaturalCouncilwould probably send more teams out here to deal with it.SCTeamswere notoriously nosy, mine included.Therewas no doubt they’d feel the need to interfere with our investigation and ask impertinent questions, which would piss offGage.Noone wanted that.

Ipaused at the booth across the aisle from where the magic seemed strongest and pretended to study an old, rusted hand drill.Itwas a little over a hundred years old, probably closer to one hundred and thirty.Myfather had purchased the same style new after saving to get it.Itwas funny how that memory was still so clear after all this time.Mymother had been so proud of him, seeing it as a sign his business was finally growing and getting noticed.Unfortunately, my old pack alpha, the jealous bastard, hadn’t seen it the same way.

Thetwo stumps on my left hand where my little finger and ring finger used to be tingled with the memory, even thoughI’dlived a lot longer without them than with them now.Shovingthe memory aside,Iweighed the tool in my hand.IfIneeded a weapon, it would do in a pinch.Iset the drill down, close to the edge of the table whereIcould grab it quickly if needed.

Okay, it was time to confront this situation.Idrew my wolf closer to the surface.Myfeatures would sharpen and change slightly with the effort, butIknew few humans would notice.Asa rule, they weren’t overly observant creatures.Or, if they did see something they didn’t immediately understand, they were adept at convincing themselves otherwise.