Ginger Bites

by Hart, Crymsyn

  She frowned. They were booked for the holiday season between all the orders they had to fill, keeping the shop running and doing a few other parties. Ginger pulled out the appointment book. As she suspected, there was not many empty spaces. “Hmm... We’re pretty filled up. Normally, we make reservations for parties months in advance because we get so busy around this time of year.”

  “See, Cameron, I told you they’d be all booked up.”

  Cameron shot a look to his friend. “I know, Zach, but we had a specific reason for stopping here. Remember?”

  Zach grumbled something, but did not leave the store. Ginger wondered what the reason was they were supposed to come into the bakery.

  “Isn’t there any way you could fit us in? We’re holding a last minute Christmas Party, the week before Christmas. We’ve heard this place was the best. Please?” His blue eyes bored into her and her train of thought disappeared. He slid his hand over hers and a spark traveled up Ginger’s arm. She felt a surge of heat and a deep musk extinguished the aroma of vanilla that permeated the bakery. For a moment, the color of his eyes changed from blue to gold.

  “What are you?” she asked.

  His face scrunched up in surprise. “I’m sorry. What do you mean?”

  Ginger shook her head and forced a smile. “Sorry. Let me go check with the owner. Maybe we have some room. We practically have two shifts baking. I’ll be right back. Excuse me.” Ginger pushed through the door to talk with Christian. Her thoughts flashed through all the creatures that she knew, trying to pinpoint what they were. They were definitely predators. Some large canine or cat, wolf or maybe even a bear, but she did not think they were bears because he did not have the bulk. He’s either a cat or a wolf. Has to be lupine because he doesn’t have the grace of a cat. He did not seem to be posing a threat to the bakery or Christian’s family so Ginger figured they were genuine about needing someone to cater their party.

  “What’s up, buttercup? I saw the hunks who walked in. You need something?” Her friend set a tray of reindeer shaped vanilla cookies on the counter to cool. Greg, one of the assistant bakers, was frosting a cake, carefully following the blueprint that was supposed to be a sleigh with presents in the middle of it. Greg was the best at constructing just about any cakes clients came up with. Ginger watched him a moment longer, mulling over if she should tell Christian a werewolf was in the store.

  Over the years, Ginger had come across many creatures, but she did not know how her friend would take it. There was a lot about her life she had not divulged to her adopted family, but she did not think they would comprehend other creatures that coexisted with them. For all intents and purposes, she appeared human until it was time for her to eat, then her whole demeanor changed.

  “So what was it you wanted?” she asked.

  “Sorry, I was just thinking. The two customers asked if we could cater a last minute holiday party for them.”

  Christian sucked in her bottom lip and rubbed her temples. “It all depends on what they need. If it’s a few cupcakes or a cake we can probably swing it, but we’re going to be cutting it close. Find out what they want.”

  Ginger shrugged. “Whatever you say, boss.” She went back out to her customers. They glanced up from one of the books filled with pictures of other cakes they had done over the years to give indecisive patrons some idea of what they wanted. The men greeted her again and this time the one in the black shirt spoke up first.

  “Do you have the room to fit us in?”

  “It all depends. What do you need?”

  Zach reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. When he handed it to her, a zing rode along her arm. It nearly stopped her heart. The same musk overwhelmed her when she touched his friend. Something was different about the two wolves, but she did not know what. Pushing it from her mind, Ginger looked at the paper, expecting a list of what they wanted, but instead it was a detailed drawing of an intricate cake showing a wolf sitting down wearing a Santa hat.

  “This is the cake you want?”

  “Yes, but we also need three hundred cupcakes to go with it. We are having quite a large gathering. Can you do it?” Zach asked.

  Ginger stared at the drawing and was going to say something, but Christian plucked it from her hands and looked it over before she could protest.

  “We can do this, but it’s going to be tight. When do you need all this by?”

  Cameron looked at his companion. “Next weekend. We also need someone to serve the cake and cupcakes. Is that doable? Will you have enough time?”

  “It’ll cost you extra for the short notice and for the person staying.”

  “Money isn’t a problem.”

  Christian squeezed Ginger’s shoulder. “Make the rest of the arrangements, will you, Ging? I got a dozen mini-peppermint cheesecakes I have to make.” Her friend left her to handle the two men.

  “So, gentlemen, what flavor cake do you want? What time do you need everything?”

  Cameron smiled at her, showing her his perfect white teeth. “You’ll be able to do all of this, then?”

  “If Christian said she can do it, then she can.”

  “She’s that good?” Zach asked.

  “She’s that good. Her family has been baking for a century.”

  “That’s a long time,” Cameron said.

  “It is, but wolves live to be a couple hundred years old from what I understand. Right, gentlemen?”

  Cameron lost his smile. Zach nearly choked on the free sample of lemon squares they had out. “I’m not sure what you mean.”

  Ginger leaned in close to Cameron and whispered in his ear. “Of course you do. Both of you are werewolves.”

  Cameron pulled away. “How do you know that?”

  Ginger winked, but before she could answer, another customer entered the bakery. “If you could wait one second, I’ll be back to hammer out the details of your party.”

  Zach grabbed her arm. “You didn’t answer his question.”

  She pried his fingers off her and saw him wince. Surprise flashed in his eyes. “How…”

  “Excuse me.” Ginger waited on the new patron and then returned to the two wolves. Cameron tried to ask her more questions, but she did not answer them except to get the party in order. Before the wolves left, they cornered her.

  “Will you be the one catering our event?” Cameron asked.

  “No. Maybe. Sorry. It all depends on who is available. Gentlemen, thank you for the business.”

  Zach touched her hand. “What are you?”

  Ginger laughed, and ignored the heat flushing her skin. “Something you’ve never seen before. Good afternoon.”

  “Please say you will come,” Zach murmured.

  She blushed. “Sorry, it’s up to the boss.” Ginger peered into his eyes and saw something there that intrigued her. She grabbed a card and scribbled her number on the back of it. “If you want, give me a call beforehand. Maybe we can get together.”

  “Does that include me?” Cameron asked.

  “Are you two together?”

  Cameron laughed. “Not in a romantic way. Just good friends, but we live together. It’s a long story.”

  Both were attractive and something about them stirred a desire in her she had not felt before. “I know about long stories. You live together. A package deal. I should be able to handle that. If you’re interested, call me.” Ginger walked into the back and could not believe she had just given her number to two werewolves.

  If it goes bad, I can always eat them.

  Chapter Two

  “Why are you so infatuated with that woman?” Cameron asked.

  Zach sighed and focused on his meal. His best friend and pack mate was right. Why was he so obsessed with the woman from the bakery? Her card remained in his pocket, but her image was burned into his mind. He never suspected to walk into the bakery and find a woman who he could not wipe from his thoughts. Something about her had gotten under his skin. “I don’t know. I wasn’t loo
king for this to happen, but there’s just something about her. If we didn’t have this stupid gathering then this never would have happened.”

  Cameron sighed. “Whatever our generous benefactor wants, we do. He told us to go to the bakery so we did. We’re just the grunts.”

  He shook his head. “Grunts or not, we do what we’re told so we don’t have to worry about being under his highness’s watchful eye. That’s all we need again. It seems the mighty one has set his eyes on us and we have to do what he says.”

  “It would be easier if you put her out of your mind. I don’t care how attractive she is. She’ll only get you a good lay.”

  Zach speared his piece of steak and gnawed on it. The blood ran down his throat, but all he could smell was the gingerbread that had inflamed his senses. All he could think about or even dream about was the woman in the bakery. Her soft touch and the frustration she had when they had asked to do the party. It seemed she had wanted to kill the both of them, but that could have been some leftover anger from the customer before them. Zach had heard the end of the conversation with the woman and her son before they had walked in. She had a temper on her and he appreciated that in a woman. She had all the right curves in all the right places. His mouth watered at the thought of kissing those sexy lips and seeing what she actually tasted like. It did not matter they were tasked with setting up a party for the benefactor who kept them safe and the one their pack master bowed down to. It did not matter if his friend and longtime pack mate said they had to put their thoughts toward this stupid Christmas party. The mating instinct had been triggered inside of him.

  The woman in the bakery had admitted she knew what they were and he did not even know what she was. And that was one of the mysteries that had him chomping at the bit. Zach wanted to call her, but what Cameron said was true, they were a package deal. When they were young, they had pissed off the pack’s patron so now if they were more than a hundred feet from one another…he shivered to think about it and pushed the thought from his mind.

  “Cameron, it’s not that simple. I want her. I can’t help it. I’ve tried to erase her from my mind, but it only gets worse. She’s the one.”

  His friend finished his draft beer and signaled for the check. “Just like Mirabelle was the one and you had to have her.”

  Zach smiled, remembering Mirabelle Jenkins. Those wide, innocent blue eyes had batted at him every time he had gone into the coffee shop. Her image faded and the baker’s popped back into his thoughts. “Yeah, Mirabelle was a good piece of ass, but this is different. I don’t want to just fuck this one the way I did with Mirabelle. There’s something else about her. I want to be with her. You know, make pups and all that crap we’ve talked about, but never thought it would happen because of our wonderful condition.”

  The other wolf grunted. “Yeah, that. So if you think she’s the mate of your dreams, why haven’t you called her yet?”

  “Because you have to be into her too, man. We’re a pair so if you don’t want to share her then what’s the point?”

  “If the woman is your mate, then we don’t know how it will resound with the curse. She has to also be mine to break it.”

  Zach shrugged. It could be that woman was only for him and not for both of them. If that were the case, then the woman was in danger and there was no Christmas miracle that would save them. “We do know what happens when the woman is only a mate for one of us.”

  His friend cringed and Zach saw the hurt Cameron had gone through with Tara. It was a forbidden subject they never brought up. Cameron had loved Tara with all his heart and soul. Zach had tried his damnedest to feel that specific spark that would also make her his mate, but no matter how much he tried, his wolf did not react to her. One night, the curse took over and when he woke up there was only scraps left. Zach had the taste of blood in his mouth and then the memory hit him. He recalled the screaming and how Cameron had tried to fight him off, but in the form he had taken, standing on two legs, half beast and half man, he was too strong for his friend. He had wounded his brother wolf, but he had not killed him. If things had been different than they would have been regular wolves, grow old, and have died after a couple of centuries, but he had lived for twice that, all because of the pack’s wonderful benefactor.

  It would be better to see if Cameron would get along with the woman at the bakery too. He did not want to find himself hopelessly head over heels for a woman and then wake up one morning and find her ripped to pieces. It would save him a lot of heartache. Even if he woke up and there were only shreds of her left, then his guilt would kick in for knowing he had a hand in taking a human life. He could already feel that small pit of remorse that dwelled inside of him. It would be best if he focused on the task at hand and put her out of his mind, but she seemed to be stuck there like a sexy Christmas tune that would not go away. Not that that was a bad thing because he pictured her in a sexy elf costume with a red Santa hat on and only a green pair of stilettos. His cock firmed at the image.

  His thoughts volleyed back and forth if he should call her and the consequences of either decision. He could call her, assume they would get along, and run the risk of Cameron chowing down on her. Or he could ignore the triggered mating instinct as he had in the past and push on. There had been four others he had come across that he had felt the pull toward to mate with, but Zach had always been able to cast it aside. Daydreams of her plagued him for the last three days. Maybe she was the one. Maybe his mind was playing tricks on him and he wanted to believe it because the curse grated on his soul. He yearned for it to be over with.

  If he even did get free, what would he do? If he shared a mate with Cameron, they were still joined for the rest of their lives. The spell would be lifted and he would have the future to look forward to.

  The only way Zach would know was to put everything on the line and see if the woman had any interest in either of them. “I’ll ring her tonight. It’s the least I can do. We have to see if you’re going to vibe with her too.”

  Cameron nodded. “Yup. There’s something else you have to remember.”

  “What is that?” Zach asked. Frustration rolled through him at his friend putting off the idea without even trying to accept the woman at the bakery. He shifted in his seat and his knee hit the table. Sudden pain shot through him and he bit his lip to keep from crying out. He looked around the restaurant and noticed a couple other people were looking at him from the minor disruption.

  The waitress dropped the bill at their table. Cameron did not take his eyes from the other wolf. “That she may not dig the whole werewolf thing.”

  Zach took the check and glanced at it. “If she did not dig the whole wolf thing, then why did she mention to your face that you were a wolf?”

  “Because she wanted to let us know that she knew what we were. That doesn’t mean she likes us. She might hate all of our guts and could be from a rival pack or from a rival species. I didn’t get a read on what she was, but she definitely wasn’t a normal human.”

  “Well, she might not be a normal human, but I didn’t get that she was from a faction who wanted to kill us either.”

  Cameron pulled out his wallet and slipped his debit card into the bill fold and waited for the waitress to return. He leaned over the table without the possibility of them being overheard. “She was in a public place so it wouldn’t have been a good idea for her to jump us, would it?”

  “Even if she did attack us, we would’ve come back to life.” Zach grated his teeth against the suggestions his friend was throwing at him. “Why are you coming up with all of these asinine assumptions when we don’t know the truth? She could be a hummingbird shifter for all we know. You just don’t want to think about what would happen if—”

  “Don’t say it,” Cameron barked. “You’re right. I don’t want to think about it. I’m tired of thinking about it. I’ve accepted my fate being what we are, the lackeys of a jackass sorcerer. We’re older than the oldest in the pack. We’ve seen things. One of
us should be pack leader or at least second in command by now, but no, we’re lorded over by Darius. We stay at the bottom of the pack because it’s part of our punishment. And we’re not strong enough to stand up to our wondrous benefactor.”

  “Yeah.” Zach got up, hating that what his friend said was true. He threw his napkin down on the plate and walked out of the restaurant. Without thinking about the consequences, he needed some space. The pain that enveloped him from being too far away from Cameron started in the back of his neck as though sharp spikes were being nailed into the base of his skull. At first he could ignore them, but as he went down the street, he felt his teeth begin to grow. The spikes in his neck were hammered into his arms and legs now. His bones shifted and his muscles elongated. It would only be a matter of time before he transformed into the unnatural form that was half beast and half man if he did not stop. Finally, panting, he slipped into an alley and rested against the brick wall. The pain subsided some. His metabolism returned to normal because Cameron was on his way. So much for them ever trying to have any personal space or be alone for more than a minute.

  “You shouldn’t have stormed out of there.”

  Zach flexed his fists and rolled his shoulders, trying to get the kinks out of them from the transformation. A loud snap echoed in the alleyway, when he moved his neck one last time and felt all of himself go back into the right place. A drop of wetness fell on the back of his hand and he glanced up at the sky. From the time they had been in the restaurant, the sky had clouded over to a dark gray that resembled the purple of a forming bruise. Small snowflakes were drifting down from the dark clouds. A chill ran through him when he focused on the atmosphere. The storm was going to be a whopper. The city had better brace for the impact because those who were not prepared were going to be buried under several feet of snow. He glanced back at Cameron and knew his pack mate was correct.

  “I can’t help it. Sometimes I need to blow off steam and I don’t need you to be around me. I just wish…”