It was another thirty minutes before I managed to get Bernie off the phone. I didn't care about the money the company was going to lose; I didn't care about not selling my creations to those who needed them… I didn't care about any of that.
Letting out a long sigh, I picked up my phone again.
"Boss?" grunted a low voice as soon as my call was answered.
"Put the word out that Silverblood pack is out of heat suppressants. If someone needs them, they can go to you and get them for free," I said. I closed my eyes and leaned back in the chair.
Things were so much less complicated as a mouse. All my other half cared about was if I was warm and fed.
Seriously.
That was it.
It was the human part of me that complicated things, and my mouse wasn't impressed most of the time.
"Understood," came the reply. Ah, a man of few words, how nice.
"Let me know if you need more."
The click on the other end of the phone let me know that my man had hung up.
Like I said, Caleb was good people.
Now that that crisis was over with, I went back to studying the formula in front of me.
Something wasn't right… but I couldn't put my finger on it.
Fuck, this was going to drive me insane.
----
Morning came much too fast for my liking, but I had managed a solid 45-minute nap, so I was up and ready to go by the time my alarm went off.
I got ready quickly for work at the diner and grabbed a can of hairspray before I ran out of the house.
It was only 6 am, so the neighborhood was pretty quiet, but Paul and Caleb would have already been at work for an hour now, setting up for the day.
My commute took a lot less time as a human than it did as a mouse, and I was walking through the front door by quarter after six.
"Morning!" I yelled as I walked through the front door. I turned around and locked it after me, not wanting anyone else to come in. I still had another fifteen minutes to get the front of the house ready for customers and didn't need to deal with people before I officially had to.
"Morning," called Paul from the kitchen, and I heard Caleb grunting his greeting. Like me, Caleb didn't need a lot of sleep.
I pushed open the doors that led to the kitchen and smiled at the two men.
"Can I steal Caleb for a minute? I promise to give him back," I smiled, giving Paul a quick kiss on the cheek.
Caleb nodded his head and wiped his hands on the towel attached to his apron. I guess Paul had him cutting all the veggies, and I wasn't surprised if Caleb needed a break.
The massive man walked over to me, and I led him into the employee break room so we could talk. Seeing as there were only four employees for this entire place, and Amber wasn't coming until 11, it was the safest place to talk.
"Yeah, Boss?" grunted Caleb as he looked down at me. I mean, the guy was well over 6 feet tall and double my size, so he had to look down and hunch over if he wanted to talk to me.
He was one of the few shifters that spent most of his life in the human world. He enlisted in the military when he was 18 years old and now, at 28 had seen his fair share of 'shit' and wanted to settle down.
Luckily for us, he was a good cook, too.
"A little present for you," I smiled as I handed him the can of hairspray I had put in my purse.
"Uh," replied Caleb as he read the can, then he ran his hand over his thick black hair and looked at me weirdly.
"It's not what it looks like, I promise," I laughed. "Think of it as an invisibility spray."
Caleb's head cocked to the side at such an angle that it was easy to picture him as a confused crow. "I know the buyers will need to scent you in order to find you. But if you need to throw someone off your trail, spray this all over yourself. It will completely get rid of your scent so they can't find you. It'll wear off after 24 hours unless you reapply it. Or if you shift."
Caleb's mouth dropped open as he looked from me to the spray he was holding.
"Where the fuck did you get this? You can't let anyone know about it!" he hissed and looked around the small room we were in. Since there was only a fridge, a mini sink and countertop, as well as a table with two chairs, I didn't think anyone was around to be able to overhear our conversation.
"Don't worry about it," I shrugged. No one would be able to find me through that container. I had made sure of it. But I also wouldn't put my man out in the streets, selling my drugs, without the ability to protect himself.
"Do you know what would happen if this got into the wrong hands? Assassins would make a killing off of getting rid of shifters. Not having a scent would make them invisible! And the government… fuck me…" I could tell he was getting agitated by the fact that he was running his hand through his hair like he wanted to pull it all out.
"Assassins do make a killing off of killing," I smirked, trying to defuse the tension in the room. "And since you are the only one with a container of this, unless you give it to someone else, no one will know."
Caleb studied me as if he had never truly seen me before. "I can't take this. It is too dangerous."
"You will. For the simple fact that I need you to be safe," I shrugged considering the conversation over.
"Fine. But I'll only use it as a last resort," grunted Caleb.
"Wow, I think that is the most I have ever heard you speak," I joked, patting the big man on the chest. "But seriously. Use it if you have to, and don't worry about the consequences. As long as they don't get their hands on you, everything will be fine."
And we all knew the 'they' I was referring to.
Fucking wolves.