Page 26 of Accidentally Wedded to a Werewolf (Claw Haven #1)

Luna stared into the crowd, a sinking feeling in her stomach.

It wasn’t even a big crowd. Despite word going around that all business owners in Claw Haven should attend, only about forty of the fifty or so chairs were occupied. And the first row was entirely Musgroves, who looked far too eager to watch Luna make a fool of herself.

Oliver kept frowning at her. He could sense her anxiety—he would probably sense it even without their bond, with how obvious Luna was about it. She kept wringing her hands and staring at the presentation she had covered up on the small stage like it would emerge from the sheet and bite her.

It wasn’t a great presentation. She’d only had a few days to put it together, after all. But the Musgroves seemed so eager, and she did have a lot of ideas about how to make the town shine. The more she thought about it, the more excited she was.

And nervous.

She gnawed on her lip as townsfolk took their seats.

There was Beth Haberdash, of course, waving eagerly when Luna looked her way.

She had agreed to help Beth with her presentation, along with Vi Harper, who was sitting in the second row next to a grumpy old dragon who must be Chester, the owner of Sweethelm Books, who looked just like Luna had imagined when she spoke to him on the phone these past few days.

Then Emma Curt, standoffish owner of the Grotto Café on Main Street, pulling at her pixie cut.

And several orcs in stained overalls, including Nick.

He looked deeply uncomfortable except for when one of his coworkers was talking to him—then he would break out in a toothy smile that would vanish as soon as he thought no one was looking at him.

Luna checked her phone and blew out a shaky breath. Two minutes until presentation time. Were they going to boo her off the stage? Or worse, laugh at her? Luna would take contempt over ridicule any day.

Oliver got out of his chair and climbed up on the tiny stage.

“Hey,” he said, voice lowered. “You alright?”

“Sorry,” Luna said with a nervous laugh. She suddenly wished she had worn more deodorant. She was sweating despite her deceptively thin jacket. Maybe the weather was getting warmer like the townsfolk kept insisting. Or maybe Luna was just panicking.

“You must be feeling all my—my blaaaaah through the bond,” Luna continued, waving her hands to signify the blaaaaah.

“Some of it,” Oliver said, crossing his arms so distractingly that Luna’s stress temporarily faded to make way for burning lust. Then Oliver kept speaking, and the stress came rushing back.

“Since when do you worry about this kind of stuff?” Oliver asked. “You love talking to people.”

“Not like this,” Luna said in a high voice that bypassed chipper and went all the way to demented. She turned toward her covered presentation, hugging her arms. “I’ve never done a project this big! Hell, I’ve never proposed a project this big! What if they think it’s stupid?”

“It’s not stupid,” Oliver replied. He took her shoulders, and the bond whirled inside Luna’s chest. “Hey. You’re great at this. Everyone will see that. And if they don’t, then who cares? You’re not getting paid anyway.”

Luna giggled faintly. “True. I guess it is just…a side project. While I’m stuck here.”

“Exactly,” Oliver said. “Low stakes.”

“Low stakes,” Luna whispered. “Right.”

It was probably the nicest Oliver had been to her since she got stuck in Claw Haven. For some reason it made Luna want to blush like a schoolgirl.

“Thanks,” she said awkwardly. “For not making fun of me.”

Oliver frowned. “I’m saving that for later.”

Heath, a dragon who owned the bakery Scales N’ Scones and made being grumpy seem a shared dragon trait, piped up from the middle row. “Is the meeting starting yet? It’s 6:01.”

“You’ll do great,” Oliver said.

He dropped Luna’s arms. The anxiety came rushing back, and Luna had to clench her teeth to force her usual smile.

Low stakes, she reminded herself. But it didn’t feel low stakes. Especially not with Oliver’s warm touch fading and his entire family watching. She was stupidly fond of this little werewolf family. She didn’t want them to crash and burn.

She whirled on the crowd, arms spread. “Hello! My name is Luna Stack. I’m here today to present you with an incredible opportunity.”

Oliver motioned at her subtly. Tone it down.

But it was too late: Heath the bakery dragon spoke up again, smoke drifting out of his unimpressed snout.

“Why?” he asked flatly. “What do you get out of it?”

Luna kept her smile in place as she stepped back toward her covered presentation.

“I’m glad you asked! As many of you already know, I didn’t plan to spend my winter in Claw Haven.

But due to a mishap with some bonding nectar, I’m stuck here until the snow thaws. Isn’t that right, accidental husband?”

“You got it, accidental wife,” Oliver said immediately.

Luna giggled, unable to stop herself. She looked over at the rest of the Musgroves, who were all watching with varying degrees of encouragement. Except for Uncle Roy, who was glaring around the town hall like he expected someone to pull a wolfsbane crossbow.

“And since I’m in the marketing business,” Luna continued, “I started to see an opportunity in Claw Haven. My first client was Beth Haberdash. Beth?”

Beth stood, shrinking against her spikes as she waved at the crowd.

“Beth’s sales have increased by five hundred percent since I helped spruce up her online store and expand her mailing list and socials,” Luna started.

An interested mutter went around the crowd. They didn’t look very surprised—Luna guessed most of them had already heard about Beth’s sudden success.

“And just last week,” Luna continued, “I helped Sweethelm Books set up an online store so they can ship books all over the world. Vi?”

Vi Harper stood, straightening her purple hair ribbon. “It’s still in its fledgling stages. But we’ve had a lot of interest. And most of that is because of how much Luna has helped us get the word out. She has some really useful contacts.”

Another interested murmur. Luna preened, even more of her confidence returning as people took an obvious interest.

“So what I’m proposing,” she said, “is that we take this rebranding to the whole town.”

A huge, timid hand raised. Joshua Haberdash, minotaur owner of the local flower store, brushed fur out of his eyes and asked, “Excuse me. But what is ‘rebranding’?”

“It’s changing a brand,” said Emma Curt, frowning at a too-long strand in her pixie cut. “You redo it. Like how every James Bond is different. It’s a new representation of your store.”

Luna pointed at Emma triumphantly. “Exactly! My idea is to turn the whole town into this cohesive brand. All the stores will have some version of it.”

“What’s the brand?” came a voice from the back row.

Luna craned her head to see Sam, a twentysomething guy who worked at the local tattoo salon, Inky Talons. At first Luna had thought he was a human, only for Aunt Barney to tell her that Sam was an incubus. Apparently he was very squirrely about it and Luna shouldn’t bring it up.

“Great question, Sam,” Luna called back.

She held her breath and turned toward her hidden presentation. She whipped the sheet off, and it fell to the tiny stage to reveal a propped-up board.

“Claw Haven,” Luna read out. “For the monster who wants some peace and quiet.”

“We already have that,” called Chester, his tail swishing around his chair legs. “It’s on the sign when you come in.”

“Exactly,” Luna said. “And what kind of place does this slogan make you think of?”

There was a moment of silence where everybody thought about it. In the front row, Leo squirmed until he couldn’t take it anymore and sat up in Ben’s lap.

“Cozy!” he yelled. “Cozy monsters!”

“Thank you, Leo!” Luna cried, turning over the board to reveal the second side. She was suddenly relieved she had done a practice round with the Musgroves before presenting in front of a bunch of strangers.

“Claw Haven has this amazing untapped potential,” Luna started.

“First of all, it’s beautiful. Mountains and forests and ocean, all at your doorstep!

But most importantly, it has you guys. A close-knit, cozy monster community full of people who care about each other and want to offer their hospitality.

Everything’s already here, you just need to turn it up a notch.

Like… Heath! You could add little cartoon dragons on your bakery aprons! ”

Heath Astarot’s scaly brow furrowed. “It’s not that kind of bakery. We take ourselves seriously.”

“You can do cartoon dragons and still take yourself seriously,” Luna argued, too on a roll to get set back.

“I think it would be cute,” Beth Haberdash whispered.

Luna turned to her. “Thank you, Beth! And for anyone who goes cozy, you could even use your interlinking brands to lift each other up! Sweethelm Books now sells Beth’s chocolates at the counter.

You could have Joshua’s flowers next to the cash register!

You could have posters about the Sweethelm Books book club!

Emma, you could rename your café to something like the Cozy Grotto.

Grotto is already so cozy, it’s halfway there! ”

Emma grunted, eyeing the presentation skeptically. “So what, we make ourselves all cutesy and people will just magically come here?”

“No,” Luna said. “That’s part two of my marketing plan. In very simple terms, step one is organizing everything—products, websites, logos—but the next step and arguably the most important one is getting the word out there. How many of your businesses have social media accounts?”

A few hands went up. Luna pointed at secret-incubus-Sam. “Sam! How are Inky Talons’ socials doing?”

“We have an Insta account that last posted six months ago,” said Sam awkwardly.

“We can up that frequency,” Luna said. “Especially if you do flashes! That’s the word, right?

Flashes? Anyway, flashes! Of cozy monster tattoos that people can come and get in this amazing cozy monster town!

We could open Claw Haven up to the world.

I’ve been here for a while now, and I know people would come. ”

Uncle Roy’s growly voice echoed through the hall. “But we don’t want outsiders to come. That’s the whole point of Claw Haven.”

The town hall went quiet. Several people exchanged tense looks. Uncle Roy sat back and glowered at Luna, his gaze just as distrustful as that first day. Even if nowadays it seemed he had to work at it.

“Claw Haven is ‘cozy’ because it’s a safe place for monsters,” Uncle Roy continued. “We protect each other. We take care of our own.”

“I know,” Luna said. “And that’s what makes this such a great, supportive community.”

“But we would like some more tourists,” muttered Emma Curt.

“Even if they are rude bastards,” added Heath Astarot.

“Hear, hear,” said Chester. “I despise tourists. But without them, my bookstore would be kaput. And this…ugh. This online store has opened up a lot of business opportunities. If people want to buy from us, who am I to deny them?”

“I don’t have a problem with more tourists,” said Joshua Haberdash quietly, pushing the fur out of his eyes yet again. “Actually, I’d love some more tourists. We can have the most interesting chats.”

Uncle Roy twisted to glare at them. “Your funeral.”

The murmuring started up again. Luna stepped forward, surprised when the noise immediately died down and all eyes turned to her.

Oliver gave her a small thumbs-up. Luna felt something push at the bond and realized that he was trying to send her something. It felt a lot like pride.

Luna suppressed a flood of butterflies and went back to her presentation, pulling down the board to reveal a second one hiding underneath it.

A gasp traveled through the town hall. It was a picture of Main Street.

But Luna had scribbled in some important additions: adding Cozy in front of Grotto Café, adding signs telling people about attractions, old and not-yet-invented, signs displaying what adorable things were waiting for them inside.

Scales N’ Scones had a sleeping dragon painted on the shop window.

Sweethelm Books had a painting of Mosey, the majestic bookstore cat that had been prowling elsewhere every time Luna visited.

Prickles had a chocolate-tasting station, and there was a tour guide dragon flying overhead with a minotaur strapped to its belly, pointing out the sights.

The street was a winter wonderland of light and color, and Luna’s heart swelled as the crowd broke into excited whispers.

“You really have something in Claw Haven,” Luna said. “It took me a while, but I see it now. Claw Haven is…”

Luna suddenly forgot every adjective she had written down on her notes app.

She paused, baring her teeth as she tried to remember.

The Musgroves laughed from the front row, and Luna realized that she had picked up one of their wolfy habits.

She hid her teeth with a self-conscious laugh, but not before she spotted Oliver.

He was chewing on his cheek, but not enough to hide his amusement.

Luna broke out into a smile. Not the flashy one she usually walked around with. But something small and private that she almost felt embarrassed to show the crowd.

“Claw Haven is comforting,” she continued. “It’s quiet, it’s friendly, it’s this perfect little escape. People need that. They always need that. And if we show them what Claw Haven can be—what Claw Haven is—I think people would really love it. Monster and human.”

Sabine whooped. After a small nudge, Ben whooped with her. Then the whole Musgrove family broke into whoops, excluding Uncle Roy, who glared at the floor, and Oliver, who watched Luna with a look of such pride she felt it more than the loudest whoop.

Nobody had been proud of her before. It was overwhelming.

When the whoops finally died down, Emma raised her hand.

“So,” she said. “What is it you do? Like, you’re a…marketing guru?”

“Basically,” Luna said. “I’m a marketing consultant slash graphic designer. And if we run into something I don’t know how to do, I can point you to somebody who can.”

Secret-incubus-Sam stuck up his tattooed hand next. “How much are you charging?”

“Oh, while I’m stuck here? It’s free.”

The hall exploded into questions, hands flying up. Luna giggled, giddy with relief. She took a moment to look at Oliver, who was watching her with those dark, steady eyes. Then she turned to the crowd and started pointing for people to speak.