Score one for the Fox.
Chloe rattled the bag. “Food!” She set the bag on the table and hastily backed away.
But unlike Cynful, where a hungry group of hyenas would descend on the bag like a ravaging horde of Vikings confronted by naked, nubile women after a year at sea, the ladies at Wallflowers simply walked out of the back room like, well, normal people.
Of course, they were the farthest from normal she’d ever met in her life. And that was saying something, considering her family.
“Thank you, Chloe.” Emma Cannon, the Curana of the Halle Puma Pride and new mother, settled down on the sofa next to a blue-checkered car seat. She transferred the sleeping babe from her arms to the car seat. “God, I’m starving. I could eat a rhino.”
“No you wouldn’t.” Sheri grimaced. “They’re an endangered species.”
“Besides, they’re way too chewy.” Becky glanced around when everyone went silent. “What?”
Emma shook her head. “I swear, Becks, you never cease to amaze me.”
“It was a joke.” Becky rolled her eyes.
“Uh-huh.” Emma’s expression turned sly. “Sort of like the time you bought Simon a corset and stockings?”
Chloe blinked, trying to picture the very masculine glass artist dressed as someone from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. She started laughing as she pictured fem-Simon singing “Sweet Transvestite”.
“I never understood why he didn’t find that funny.” Becky sat next to Emma, cooing down at the blue-wrapped bundle of baby shifter before turning to the bag. “Did you want something to drink, Chloe? You can go in the back and get anything you want.”
“Thanks.” Chloe shifted past Sheri, who’d sat in one of the chairs across from the cream Victorian sofa, her seeing-eye dog waiting patiently next to her. Jerry was a Golden Retriever and had been with Sheri for years. “Can I bag anything for anyone else?”
“Pepsi, please. I needs caffeine, my Precious.” Emma gave her puppy dog eyes, no mean feat for the queen of the kitties.
“Would you bring me some water?” Becky pulled an apple out of the bag and sighed. “I still can’t eat these. Too many bad memories of eyeballs and evil bitches.”
“Huh?” Chloe had no idea what Becky was talking about.
Emma and Becky exchanged a quick glance before Emma replied, “Someone drugged Becky. She wound up having hallucinations and landed in the hospital. That person…is no longer a member of the Pride.”
“I’ll take it.” Sheri held out her pale hand. “And could you bring me some water as well, Chloe?”
“No problem.” Chloe, who’d been a waitress before the attack, could easily remember the drinks they’d asked for. It was carrying them that was the problem, but she solved that by putting them in a plastic bag she found in the back and carrying it with her good hand.
When she returned from the back room, she could see Jim outside, speaking to a man in a wheelchair and gesturing toward the entrance of Wallflowers. “Huh. Wonder what that’s about.”
“What what?” Emma looked up from her sandwich toward the plate glass window of her shop. “Hey, Jimmy’s back!”
“Yeah.” Chloe was determined to ignore her wayward mate, instead focusing on the new addition to the Pride. She might not be a Puma, but she lived in Halle, and the Pride had accepted her as one of their own. As far as she was concerned, she was an honorary Puma. “How’s Felix?”
“Demonic,” Emma grumbled, biting viciously into her sandwich.
Becky cupped her hand over her mouth, laughing silently.
Sheri shook her head. “I still can’t believe you named him Felix.”