The Reluctant Wolf: A Paranormal Romance (Werewolves and Shifters) (7 page)
Read The Reluctant Wolf: A Paranormal Romance (Werewolves and Shifters) Online
Authors: Susan G. Charles
All the shelves in their little store were filled with an assortment of jars, boxes and containers, each one filled with something unusual and intriguing. And these shelves and tables in the back were filled with items normally collected before a potion was made so that all ingredients would be in arms reach at any time during the brewing process. She had just grabbed the bottles containing the first two items, and was about to take the box filled with the third, when a noise from the front of the potion shop interrupted her concentration.
“Sue, I’m gonna take a break! Can you watch the front up here for me until I get back? You’ve finally finished the love potion, right? Sue?” Susan’s younger sister Emma popped her head in the door to the potion incanting room when Susan didn’t immediately answer her back. It was clear from Emma’s voice, that she was a bit perturbed over the delay this potion was making.
Guiltily Susan blushed as she glanced up at her sister. “Sure, oh yeah, go on ahead, I just have a few more things to stir in and I’m all done! Shouldn’t take but a couple more minutes.” Susan grabbed the last bottle quickly, and strode back over to her bubbling pot. She tried to focus once more on the recipe. It was just as important to be clear of thought as it was to add the right ingredients when mixing up a love potion.
The jingle of the front door bell told her Emma had already headed out of the shop for her lunch break. She knew her sister was already an hour overdue and didn’t blame her for being a little upset. Quickly she added the last three ingredients to the pot already at full boil. She hesitated momentarily as she glanced at the violets, frowning a bit at the light color of the dried flower. They should have been a dark, deep purple but instead were more of a lighter mauve color. “We need to talk with our supplier about these.” Susan muttered to herself. “These purple violets are really off color.”
She was always very specific about her ingredients when she placed her orders from suppliers. There was nothing that she detested more than someone who did not take good care of the products they sold to her store first, or someone who did not pay perfect attention to all the items they were sent or sent them the wrong thing all together.
Every single concoction, potion, elixir and tincture on the shelves of their little shop was carefully created and hand crafted, a labor of dedication by the two sisters. They took absolute pride in their work and full well understood the implications of a bad mixture, most importantly for their customers but for themselves and their reputations that they had so painstakingly created over years and years of work too. Susan took her role and influence in the town very seriously. She knew that many people still considered what they did to be a bit strange, maybe even odd if you asked some, if not downright fantasy.
But Susan had enough confidence and experience with her own skills to be absolutely certain that the spells she created always worked. Always! And sometimes too well. So she always made sure to warn her customers, that they be careful what they wished for, and be certain that they really wanted what they thought they did. Finally, when the last of the ingredients was added to the bubbling caldron, she sighed with satisfaction. She knew this potion was done. With a dramatic poof of fragrant mauve smoke, the potion condensed down and finally, a few minutes later, she was done.
Just then, their little shop’s front door bell jingled, letting her know that a customer had just arrived. “Hello, Welcome to Henry Sister’s,” Susan called out into the shop in the sweetest voice she could muster, as she brushed the hair back from her face. “I will be with you in just a minute!”
Susan carefully poured the contents of the swirling mauve liquid through a funnel, which filled out into another container, which eventually poured itself in a group of 10 awaiting tiny green glass bottles, all lined up perfectly in a row, to capture the fragrant concoction. She quickly closed all the little bottles with a cork plug and walked out into the front shop area, with the last bottle of the love potion still firmly in her hand. With her free hand she straightened her strawberry blonde hair, and raked free a stray sprig of peppermint as she walked to the front.
She finally happened to catch a glimpse of her customer standing at the front counter, a handsome young man. Immediately she found that she was somehow a bit startled by him for some reason, not just because of his attractiveness, because he was really a good looking man, but because something about him, she couldn’t quite put her finger on it, just seemed a little different.
Judging by the nervous expression marring his striking features, he was clearly uncomfortable being in the shop. Moving up to the counter, closer to the handsome young man, Susan set the love potion she was holding down on the counter and smiled her best, encouraging smile at her new, handsome, yet fidgety, uncomfortable customer.
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Paranormal Beverages, Potions and Tonics
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