Page 41 of Accidentally Wedded to a Werewolf (Claw Haven #1)

“I’m so glad I ran into you,” Luna gushed to the mayor over their table at the newly dubbed Cozy Grotto Café. “I thought I’d be long gone by the time you got back from your honeymoon. I was supposed to leave last week, but something went wrong with the breakup ritual—”

She paused to stare at the cup of hot chocolate the owner, Emma, had placed in front of her. There was a tiny chocolate dragon nestled next to the cup, slowly melting against the ceramic.

“Oh, yay!” She gave a delighted clap. “They’re using Beth’s chocolate! I told them to do that. Thanks, Emma!”

Emma glanced back at her, several plates stacked up her arms. She looked annoyed, as usual, but she also looked genuinely grateful as she nodded at Luna.

“Should’ve done it earlier,” Emma called. “Been great for business—hey, watch where you’re going!”

She glared at the bewildered minotaur who had almost walked into her, who noticed her angry expression and made an immediate beeline for the door. Emma Curt had that effect on people.

Luna gasped, pointing at the counter where they had rows of pamphlets she had made. “And they put out pamphlets for the inn, too!”

She turned toward the window, waving until she caught Oliver’s eye through the glass. He paused his phone conversation to look at her in exasperation. Luna pointed at the inn’s pamphlet lined up on the café counter.

Oliver squinted. His mouth twitched, and he gave Luna a brief thumbs-up.

“I helped design it,” Luna told Christopher, giving the pamphlet another proud look. “Yay!”

“Yay,” Christopher agreed, his voice deep and pleasant and ever-so-slightly British. He sipped his hot chocolate, a drop clinging to the golden fur above his lip before he wiped it off with a napkin. “Yes, I heard about your situation. That must’ve been very inconvenient for you.”

“It’s not so bad,” Luna allowed, taking a sip of steaming hot chocolate. “The Musgroves are great. Being bonded to a stranger right before my wedding is less great, but we’ve made it work.”

Christopher nodded. His nostrils flared. His polite expression didn’t change, but Luna knew he wasn’t smelling the hot chocolate. He was smelling Oliver all over her.

Luna set her cup down with a broad smile. “My fiancé is very understanding.”

“So I’ve heard,” Christopher said neatly. “When is— Oop!” He pulled his wings in to allow Emma to get past him with another armful of plates. “Apologies, Emma.” Turning his attention back to Luna, he asked, “When is the wedding?”

“A month,” Luna replied. Then she stopped and counted. “Three weeks? Wow, it’s really coming up. We’re having a beach wedding.”

“Balmy.” He touched the wedding band around his furry finger, his smile going soft and private as he stared out the window. Luna didn’t have to ask who he was thinking of—she’d seen Instagram photos of them together, gazing at each other like nothing else existed.

She touched her engagement ring self-consciously. Wearing it made her feel less like she was doing something wrong.

Christopher cleared his throat, blinking out of his haze.

“I’m glad I ran into you too, Luna. Everyone has been getting in touch to tell me how you’ve been helping the town.

Setting up websites, designing merchandise, getting them interviews, helping them grow mailing lists.

I have to admit, I’ve been so focused on the residents of the town that I neglected the fact that we need people visiting to keep us afloat.

Then I go away for a month and when I get back, the streets are busier than ever.

Even this café! I’ve never seen the Grotto—sorry, the Cozy Grotto—so packed. You’ve done incredible work.”

Luna beamed, playing at bashfulness. “Aw, you’re sweet. I’m just getting the word out about what a cool little town this is. Claw Haven did the rest.”

She plucked her melting chocolate off the plate and popped it into her mouth, chewing happily. It was nice to be praised for something that lasted for more than one night and didn’t require cleanup in the morning. Not that Luna ever stuck around for the cleanup.

Christopher smiled at her again. He radiated kindness and calm that reminded Luna of Grandmother Musgrove, or maybe of a cartoon king from a movie she fell in love with as a child.

Regal and simple, not afraid to get amongst the common folk.

She understood why the town had picked him for mayor. She’d vote for him too.

“Luna,” he said, leaning forward on his elbows. “I think we have an opportunity here. I was told that you first started reaching out to local businesses because you didn’t have anything to do.”

He waved a hand at the street outside, crowded with tourists. “If this is what you do when you’re bored, I’d love to see what you can do when you’re invested.”

Luna’s grip tightened around her cup. She was invested, she wanted to argue.

She was maybe too invested in this charming little town with terrible cell reception that was covered in snow for half the year.

She was even invested in the people who lived in Claw Haven—all these too-friendly busybody monsters who’d gone looking for a refuge and ended up here.

She pulled her focus back to Christopher, who obviously had an angle. “Am I hearing a proposition?”

“How would you feel about helping me organize a fair? A reintroduction to Claw Haven, let’s say. Show off our new ‘brand’ you’ve helped us set up.”

Luna blinked. It sounded like a lot of admin, but she’d already been learning so many new skills this month that didn’t usually fall under her “secretly marketing” wheelhouse—setting up subscriber buttons, ordering bookmarks in bulk, organizing the ETA for clay shipments to arrive by plane instead of boat.

She’d even learned a little bit of coding to help people set up their online stores.

“I’d love to,” she said, mind already running through a dozen different poster and slogan ideas and brands that would be interested in sponsoring them.

Then she looked out the window at the snow.

Or more precisely, the lack of it. There was sludgy ice around the edges of the street, but that was it.

“I might have to coordinate a lot of it over email,” she said. “Once the snow’s thawed, I’m… I’m gone.”

“Email sounds great. I look forward to working with you,” Christopher replied with that easy, trusting smile. It wasn’t difficult to smile back, even as anxiety strangely grew in her gut, appearing whenever she talked about leaving Claw Haven.

* * *

“Please tell me you’re getting paid for this,” Oliver said as they jogged through the forest several hours later. “It sounds like a hell of a lot of work.”

“I’m getting paid,” Luna panted. “He even paid me more than I asked for! Said it was back pay for everything I’ve done so far. One of Claw Haven’s suspiciously nice residents strikes again.”

“He’s the nicest guy I’ve ever met,” Oliver said. “I hated him for months.”

Luna laughed. Her elbows jostled his as they turned around the forest path. Each touch sent a small fissure of warmth up Luna’s arm. How did werewolves cope with this in the summer? Arizonan summer, anyway. She doubted Alaskan summers got anywhere close to the heat they were both used to.

“Seriously,” Oliver said. “I could not believe this guy was for real. He had to have something hidden up those tight sleeves. But nope, he’s just this weirdly polite, devoted dude who loves his wife and wants this town to be okay.”

They skirted around a tree and fell back into place next to each other. Luna was getting faster, to be sure. But Oliver was also better about slowing down these days.

“He looked eager,” he added. “Never seen the guy look so excited about anything but his wife.”

Luna preened. “He was very impressed with my work! He said even he didn’t know this much about the local businesses.

Said I was very skilled.” As soon as she registered the pride, caution rushed in behind it.

“I mean, a lot of it is just knowing people, you know? Emailing people that I talked to at parties two years ago and asking if they want to sponsor a skincare store. Did you know Arthur Pineclaw used to live in Claw Haven? Like, the Arthur Pineclaw. You know, the chimera from Mane Suspect and Just Kitten Around. His agent hasn’t gotten back to me yet, but my fingers are crossed!

Anyway, it’s not me so much as it is talking to the right people. ”

Oliver huffed. “Why do you do that?”

“Do what?”

He shook his head, eyes on the trees ahead of them.

“You’re so cocky about everything. Then you bring up your work, and you start saying all these disclaimers.

It’s not me, I didn’t do anything. Bullshit.

You did everything! Half of these people didn’t know what a mailing list was or how to design a Facebook ad before you came along. ”

Luna eyed her sneakers, cheeks burning. She was used to getting praise—everyone told her how gorgeous she was, how fun, how sophisticated—but she wasn’t used to getting praise for this.

Her family treated her degrees like something she’d done to feel smart.

Whenever she tried to make a marketing suggestion, she got an eye roll and a quick subject change.

Their elbows brushed. Luna shivered as another burst of heat ran up her arm and into her heart.

Oliver sighed. “Don’t tell anyone I said this. As much as this town pisses me off, you’ve started something here. I think your family are idiots for thinking you can’t do this. You’ve done a lot of good in Claw Haven. It’s really going to make a difference.”

Luna looked over at him, shocked. He was still staring up at the trees ahead, which were thinning out as they got closer to the ocean. There was a muscle fluttering in his jaw like he was clenching it.

“You can speed up, you know,” Luna said. “We can put some real space between us now. Last time you even went out of sight!”

“And you immediately got lost,” he reminded her.

Luna’s phone rang.

“Told you it was worth it to buy sports leggings with pockets,” she told Oliver as she fished it out. “Hello?”

“Hey,” said Ben. “Oliver with you?”

“Obviously.”

“Great,” Ben said. “Tell him I’m going up the mountain tomorrow. It’s flower time.”