Page 4 of The Baker and the Kraken

Calder had reached the front of the line. The blue-haired witch was smiling brightly at him, white teeth gleaming in his pale face. He had multiple piercings, and while Calder had never seen the appeal himself, he liked this human’s confidence and brightness. His nametag said he was Simon and his pronouns were he/him.

“I certainly hope so,” Calder said, offering a smile of his own. “I’m hoping to speak to the young man who works here who was at the botanical gardens yesterday.”

The witch’s eyes narrowed. “If you have any complaints to make—”

“Oh, no,” Calder assured him immediately. “Not at all. I’d just like to meet him.”

It was only belatedly occurring to him that having a reason to be here would have been smart. It wasn’t like he could just announce he was here to claim his mate.

“Look,” Simon said, his customer service smile still firmly in place, but it had gone a little fake. “I appreciate that you like the look of Joseph, but this is actually a business, and we do request that our employees’ privacy be respected. We’re all just doing our jobs.”

“Yes, of course,” Calder said automatically.

Joseph. For some reason, it didn’t seem to fit, whispering against Calder’s skin all wrong, like fresh water instead of salt. But he understood what Simon was saying. He didn’t want his mate to be bothered, but he had to figure out how to meet him. He had to—

“I need to apologize,” he blurted out.

A dark eyebrow rose sharply, and Simon repeated flatly, “You need to apologize.”

“Yes,” Calder said, nodding, as though that would prove his point. “I’m afraid I might have been a bit of a distraction, you see, and—”

Simon’s eyes went wide before narrowing sharply again. He eyed Calder up and down. Thoroughly. Then he leaned in and lowered his voice a little. “Are you saying you were there when”—he waved his hands around—“splat?”

Calder grimaced. “I’m afraid so.”

Straightening abruptly, Simon grinned a bit manically at him. “Stay right there. Just one sec. Don’t move.”

Puzzled by this sudden change, Calder nevertheless did as instructed, watching as Simon darted into the back of the shop despite the queue that was forming behind Calder.

And then, because he was an old and powerful shifter, he eavesdropped on the whispered conversation in the kitchen behind the closed door.

“Adam, Adam, Adam!” Simon gasped out. “You will never believe who showed up in the bakery just now!”

An exasperated voice said, “You know I don’t care about stuff like that.”

Adam. Calder smiled to himself. Yes, that was it.

“You’re not listening!” Simon exclaimed. “It’s the hottest man who ever hotted!”

There was a clatter as something crashed to the floor with a wet sound. Batter in a bowl, maybe?

“What? He’s here?” Adam hissed.

“Yes!” Simon exclaimed. “He wants to see you.”

“No,” Adam started to protest.

“Yes,” Simon said again, still with that boundless enthusiasm.

Whatever rules the witch had been touting about correct employee/customer behavior didn’t seem to apply right now, and Calder couldn’t have been happier.

“But I’ve got icing on me. Again.”

“Adam.” Simon sounded exasperated but fond. “The man saw you dive face-first into a cake, and he came to find you. He doesn’t care about a little bit of icing. Or a lot of icing, apparently.” There was a beat of silence. “Actually, now that I think about it, if your face was covered in white icing—”

Adam squawked. “Stop talking!” But Calder could hear the smile in his voice. “That cake was violently pink, and you know it was. There was absolutely nothing appealing about me being covered in it.”

“But you were clearly appealing anyway because he’s here!” Simon said, undeterred. “And I got a magical ping off him, so you don’t have to worry about hiding who you are. This could be your chance!”