It was a Saturday in the middle of summer - the perfect time to haggle at the Lakewood open market. Lakewood was a small town of just about two and a half thousand permanent residents, hidden in the woods between two states. Though most supernaturals could live comfortably in human cities, secret settlements like this were an essential part of the world behind the magic veil. Since the occult races united under the peace agreement, places like Lakewood became a safe space where people could freely practice magic, live without the fear of being discovered, and create communities. Even though most still lived in bigger cities among humans, many traveled to enchanted towns regularly to visit family or get goods and services that human settlements could not provide.
The supernatural community was closely connected to the non-magic world and often mimicked its aspects: the residents were encouraged to pursue lives outside of their settlements, learn human professions, and ultimately recontribute their knowledge and resources back to the community. This helped keep the magic settlements up to date with technological progress and, most importantly, promoted peace by not antagonizing humans and providing a common ground for all occult races. The economy of Lakewood was also generally adjacent to the outside economic system, with many small businesses, individual traders, and taxes. Many supernaturals, especially vampires, did not approve of the current arrangements, but they were essential for the sake of the protection and secrecy of magic communities.
The local market was located in the central part of Lakewood. It was less of an organized marketplace and more of a main pedestrian street and a few secondary alleys branching out of it with multiple vendors, shops, and salons. The early-twentieth-century brick buildings mostly had two-three floors with attics under pitched, tiled roofs. There were also a few coffee shops and bakeries nearby. Werewolves usually found the market street a little overwhelming with all the smells of food, potions, and herbs clashing with each other. Lucas in particular had a love-hate relationship with it - he enjoyed the bustling atmosphere of the place and all those little shops with myriads of products you couldn't find anywhere else but despised the concussion of clashing aromas.
He was well-known in this part - not only did he bring order to the minor packs and outcast wolves who were known to cause all sorts of trouble in the town but also provided additional security to the local businesses in exchange for some favors for his pack. Augustus had a similar arrangement with the shopkeepers, but many turned to Lucas since he became a member of the West Coast Werewolf Council because his actions were often more direct and swift.
Since it was a warm weekend, the streets were full of people who traveled to Lakewood from the nearby cities. Summer in general was a busy season for the local business owners, most of whom were spellcasters. Lucas didn't know where to start exactly - he didn't want to admit he didn't know anything about quite important werewolf traditions, so his usual blatantly straightforward approach was off the table. He decided to start from a small bookstore operated by a middle-aged witch who had the nickname Bookie Goodworm because she was known to be extremely friendly and helpful but really invested in anything about literature and talked so fast she would mix up words. Weirdly, she and Lucas had a close friendship even though he wasn't the type to have a home library.
If there was anyone who'd know most random things that had no practical use for them, that's Bookie. After all, their friendship began with her holding a mini-lecture on coffee sorts for him after he asked a barista in the nearby cafe what was the difference between what locals called cappuccino and latte - if he learned anything in the years of his solo adventures, it was that "latte" didn't mean just milk.
When he entered the bookstore, Bookie's head with bushy ginger hair was barely visible behind a tall pile of tomes. It was a rather big shop that seemed much smaller than its actual size because of all the closely arranged bookshelves with maybe a meter distance between them. The shelves were filled with randomly placed books that didn't have any particular order at the first glance. Even at second glance, the placement was completely erratic, but Bookie could still somehow navigate in this mess perfectly. There were also some of the most random decorative pieces and potted plants standing on the top of bookshelves and window sills. A goth garden gnome next to a sunflower was Lucas's favorite.
He walked around the room for a bit. Beside him, there was one more customer in the farther corner of the store, so he approached Bookie's table and spoke in half-voice:
"Hey, Liz, how's the book?"
Her real name was Elizabeth but almost no one called her that - in the past, she would insist people use one of the constantly changing names she picked from books she read at the time, so everyone just went with Bookie after a while.
"It's alright," she answered without interrupting her reading. "I'd recommend it to you but I know you won't read it anyway."
"Well, there is another book I'd like to read."
She immediately put the novel away and looked at him with her eyes squinted in a mistrusting stare.
"Go on."
"I need one on werewolf traditions and mating rituals," he continued in a low voice.
"Do you want an encyclopedia…," she half-whispered, "or something smutty?"
"Encyclopedia is fine," he quickly replied with his ears turning slightly pink.
"Oh well, then I can't help you here - you should check out the town library," she said in her full voice and grabbed the book she was reading again.
"Alright," he sighed. "See you later."
Lucas left the bookshop and headed to the library at a slow and reluctant pace - he might or might not have had a short fling with the librarian around a year ago that might or might not have ended when Lucas accidentally stood him up for a date.