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“Have a good day. I need to check in at the Magistrate,” Rook said, kissing me before stalking off.

“What about you?” I asked Dorian.

“Coming with you,” he said easily. “No job yet and I don’t want to leave you after the shooting incident.”

Thank god. I had no desire to walk away from at least one alpha, either. Between the shooting, the giant chicken, and this, I was a mess.

After running around the park searching for that man, I needed a shower. I'd never used the shower that I added in the back of the store. I put it in just in case I had any potion disasters. In my cabin, I had made that mistake when there was no running water and I was purple for a week.

"Merrick, can you and Dorian handle the front for a few? I need to clean up. I'm not usually one to jog," I explained as I logged into the front desk computer.

"Yeah, I can show him how to use the software when we check out our first customer, one just walked in," he answered as he gestured to an older gentleman who was already browsing through the store. His attention was currently on an old umbrella stand filled with canes.

When he turned to the side, my breath caught. Dorian sensed the change immediately and moved to my side.

“What is it, mate?” he asked, tail flicking angrily behind us, brushing against the back of my thighs.

"That's him, the one from the mirror," I whispered, but it sounded more like a warning. Surely whatever was going to happen wouldn’t happen in my shop.

"So, what you saw this time is in the future?" Merrick asked as he eyed the man. At least the gentleman didn’t notice our attention on him. "Now we know that the mirror can show the present and future, at least. I'm betting on the past, too."

What he left unsaid was that I wasn’t in control. We couldn’t prevent everything I saw.

"Do you want us to keep an eye on him?" Dorian asked.

"What are we going to do? Walk a chicken in the park? Or is Rook going to walk you in wolf form?" I half laughed.

He arched an eyebrow, "That would be a sight, wouldn't it? But I don't think I want anything to do with those chickens for a while. Unless it's to fry them."

"Yeah, I had a dream that Henrietta had eaten my leg and was coming back for more," Merrick said with a shiver at that memory.

"I’ll figure something out," Dorian promised. “I’m pretty good at tracking.” He wiggled his ears for emphasis and I let out a laugh that helped drain the tension. If I let everything the mirror showed me stress me out I’d never know peace.

"Just don't do anything that stupid. The magistrate and guards will be keeping an eye on us. Especially me. I never wanted to be famous but here I am killing it," I teased.

He winked at me. "I’ll behave. Go shower."

"Yeah, we got this," Merrick promised, motioning for me to go.

"Fine, but it's in the back right corner of the warehouse if you need me," I said as I headed in that direction.

My mind wandered to the old man in the shop and why the mirror would show me his death. Was it trying to warn me so I could save him? There were too many possibilities and I was losing my mind.

In an attempt to clear my head, I turned on my music app so I could enjoy my shower. Thank god I’d remembered to stock it, too.

My Halloween station was on and I blared “Werewolves of London” as the water heated up and I undressed. I got in and let the hot water just run down my back as I started my solo performance singing along with the song. This was just what I needed right now. No worries, no curses, just music and peace.

I grabbed the shampoo bottle to use as a microphone and just at the height of the song, a hand grabbed me. I spun around, squirting shampoo everywhere and tangling in the curtain as I went. Whoever the hand belonged to was now trapped under my naked body and the curtain as I hit the ground hard.

Pain radiated over my hip and I scramble up, slipping on the shampoo and going head first to the ground for a second time. There was an "oof" under me and I rolled my eyes, a bit offended they were acting like I was crushing them.

"Who are you and what do you want?" I asked, not getting up.

"Merrick. Let me go, I’m drowning," he said, sputtering.

"This is your fault, really. You should have knocked," I huffed, pulling the towels on the bars down to stand on and soak up some of the liquid.

"I did knock. You were singing at the top of your lungs and didn't hear me," he said as I got some of my weight off him so he could sit up, still half tangled.