Not Your Luna

“I swear if another one of those wolves comes in here, I’m going to start throwing shit.”

Sadie gave me a side-eye but kept typing loudly on her keyboard. A split second later, the loud buzzing and whirring of the label printer filled the pharmacy. She reached for the label, her curly brown hair bouncing over her shoulders.

“Just go out with one of them,” Sadie said simply and turned around. “Then your mom will stop sending them.”

The bell above the entrance door jingled, and we both instinctively glanced toward it. The sun streamed in through the large shop window, casting pools of light on the vinyl flooring. A pair of white sneakers, attached to denim-clad legs, entered the beam. He was tall, sporting a black T-shirt and a shaggy cut. Beside me, Sadie straightened. He was just her type.

A growl formed at the base of my throat. He pretended to look around, touching the packages of cold and flu medications as if he were actually considering buying them. I raised an eyebrow, scowling when he proceeded to walk down the short aisle, looking everywhere but directly at us.

The show had grown old, and now I was sick and tired of these men coming in here pretending to shop around. This wasn’t Walgreens or CVS. The square footage of the pharmacy was small, carrying only the essentials people would need. Most of the goods of the supernatural variety were held in the back, all safely tucked away in a locked room with a large plaque labeled ‘Authorized Personnel Only.’

When he finally reached the counter, a large grin stretched across his face, showcasing a line of straight teeth. He looked from me to Sadie, hands folding together as he leaned across, flexing his muscles. Motor oil mixed with cologne filled my lungs, and I coughed.

“Is Ruby here?”

I could have puked. At least this one skipped the fake small talk.

“Right there,” Sadie said, nodding toward me before smirking, turning on her heels, and disappearing with her label in hand.

Brown eyes turned toward me. I did my best to appear as if his appearance hadn’t soured my mood. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to work. The smile on his face wavered.

“Hello, I’m Dan.” He hesitated, like he expected a different reaction, then reached across the counter, offering his hand to shake. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“I’m sure,” I replied stiffly, ignoring him.

His gaze flickered down, shoulders drooping slightly when he realized I wasn’t going to reciprocate the greeting. The smile vanished from his face.

“Listen,” I started, leveling him with my gaze. “I know why you’re here, and I’m not interested. You can tell your mother it’s not gonna happen.”

He frowned, scrunching his brow. “Excuse—”

“Just because my mother wants me to settle down and birth her a litter of pups doesn’t mean I’m ready to do it.” I cut him off, focusing back on my computer and the influx of prescriptions coming in.

“I’m no—”

“You’re only here,” I cut him off again, “because dating the daughter of the Alpha would bring you huge bragging rights.”

He scoffed, stepping back from the counter. “You’re really something.”

“I know.”

The charming smile I threw his way only made him scowl further. I shook my head, tapping on the keyboard when he decided the best course of action was to leave. Although a slight pang of guilt did flutter through my chest, I quickly pushed it aside. It wasn’t my fault they didn’t understand boundaries—my mother and his included. Sometimes I felt as if I were living inside an old VHS tape. My Big Fat Greek Wedding, specifically.

Everyone was overly concerned with my age and marital eligibility. I couldn’t care less. Twenty-five was not old; I had plenty of time left. We were living in the 21st century. I didn’t have to marry and breed right out of high school. There are plenty of women these days who put off marriage and children. Why couldn’t I do the same?

Sadie returned, a white basket in hand, filled with the printed label, a white bag, and an amber vial filled with pills. The original bottle of medication rolled to the side when she shoved the basket into my hands, a frown on her glossed lips.

“He was cute,” she pouted, tucking stray curls behind her ear. “You could have at least let him down gently.”

I shrugged. “Oh, well.”

“You’re gonna give yourself a bad reputation, Ruby.”

My attention jumped to her face, the nerve above my left eye twitching. “What would you have me do then?”

Sadie shrugged, picking at her cuticle while I double-checked the medication for Mrs. Chen. “You could go out with one of them.”

I made a gagging motion, earning myself a sour look.

“I mean it,” she said. “It’s been two weeks, and we’ve had more of your suitors coming in here than actual patients.”

The bell above the door jingled again, drawing our attention back to the storefront. Cory rushed in, his sneakers squeaking against the floor while he hurried toward us, a bookbag slung over one shoulder.

“Sorry I’m late,” he panted, leaping over the counter as if it were his living room couch. “My class let out late.”

I snorted, his honey-brown hair clung to his forehead, sticky with sweat. Brown eyes crinkled as he shot me one of his signature goofy grins, and against my firm desire to remain a strict boss, I cracked. He reminded me of those golden retriever puppies at the pet shop, barking and wagging their tails with enough energy to power an electric car.

A smile morphed across my lips, and I waved him off, pointing to the mountain of medications needing delivery. Most of them were for our supernatural clientele. There were a few refills for blood pills and Scolscutum, a sunblock tailored to the vampires living in the community. A few prescriptions for Ulalsupp for the banshees and boil removers for the trolls.

“By the way,” Sadie returned to her computer station, “we need to restock on the Scolscutum. We’ve only got three tubes left, and we’re heading toward summer. Those things go like hotcakes this time of year.”

I made a mental note of that, having a long list I needed to order from SCRRY, our supernatural pharmaceutical distributor run by the Smargdus coven of witches in the five boroughs.

“How many deliveries are there?” Cory groaned at the pile of medications stacked for him on the farthest counter wearily. “Please don’t tell me that all has to go out today.”

“Yup,” I grinned.

His shoulders dropped, silently counting the visible prescriptions. “…thirty-seven? You know I’m still a college student, right?”

“Not my problem you were late,” I countered. “Plus, you didn’t come in yesterday. Do you know how many calls I had to make, apologizing that deliveries were going to be delayed?”

He had the decency to blush and look away. “Sorry—something came up last night.”

“More like someone,” Sadie muttered under her breath, typing away on her keyboard.

The printer whirred again, spitting out several labels.

“No lie, Lizzie is fine,” Cory wiggled his brows. “Probably gonna mark her by the end of spring.” Like he was talking about weekend plans.

He marched to the prescriptions and immediately got to work, inputting the addresses and setting up a route to run for deliveries.

I frowned at that, visualizing the implications of his words. Cory was twenty, Lizzie nineteen at best. So young. Too young. He was still in college, going for a degree in pharmacy to join our pack’s pharmaceutical enterprise.

There were so many of our businesses open in the city; in some places, we had pharmacies on every other block. To think he’d be managing one of those places one day sent the tiny hairs on my arms upright.

“Hey,” I suddenly said, surprising even myself. “Don’t you think you’re rushing into it?”

Cory didn’t look away from his workstation. “Nope.”

“But you guys are still so young,” I stressed. “You haven’t seen any of the world yet.”

“I can see it with her later,” he countered, grabbing another bag and reading off the address. “It’s best to have pups while you’re young.”

“That’s an old belief,” I said, turning back to my computer. “You can have healthy pups if you get married a little later too.”

“Whatever you want to do is great, Cory,” Sadie intervened. Her gaze fell sharply on me. “If you feel like she’s the one, then go for it.”

Before I could say another word, she grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the back. We passed the shelves of medications, heading toward the special room at the back. Once we entered the room, rows of tinctures, potions and vials stacked in neat rows against shelves greeted us. Upon Sadie slamming the door shut, they vibrated in place. She whirled on me, face blotchy.

Sadie hissed, “You can’t go butting your nose into someone else’s business, Ruby.”

“I didn’t say anything!” I replied, folding my arms across my chest.

For a best friend, she sure wasn’t acting like it. What had I done except voice a small opinion? It’s not like I was forcing him to bend to my will or anything.

“It’s okay for you to go against the norm,” she pushed her hair out of her face, staring at me. “You’re the daughter of the Alpha. No one will dare say anything about you… but the rest of us? Hell, I’m already considered an old maid!”

My manicured nails dug into the biceps of my arms. “You’re twenty-two, not an old maid.”

“I’ll be twenty-three in two months!” she grumbled, looking away. “Honestly, the only reason I waited this long was because I thought I’d meet my mate.”

The grip I had on myself loosened. A sigh escaped instead, and I walked over to her, bringing her into my chest for a hug.

“Sadie,” I murmured. “You know, actually meeting your mate is like looking for a needle in a haystack. It’s incredibly rare.”

“I know,” she melted into my embrace, wrapping her arms around me. “But I thought maybe… you know, just maybe if I waited longer, I’d run into him.”

Her shampoo filled my nose while I patted her hair comfortingly. “You can still wait a bit.”

She shook her head. “Everyone’s talking about me already. If I don’t settle down soon, even the divorced wolves won’t look at me twice. I’ll be considered leftover goods.”

My heart tightened at that. “You’re not leftovers.”

“I know that,” she grumbled. “But we live under the Paumanok pack—they’re still governed by ideals from the seventeen hundreds. You don’t need me to tell you that.”

I nodded.

“While you can get away with it,” she pulled away, staring straight at me with a sense of acceptance, “I can’t.”

“Sadie—”

My phone went off in my pocket, cutting off what little comfort I was about to offer. The ringtone echoed off the white walls as I pulled my cellphone free of my pant pocket. When my eyes landed on the caller ID, the contents of my stomach swished uneasily.

“Who is it?” Sadie asked, watching me stare at my phone as it rang.

I swallowed hard. “My mother.”

“I’m outta here,” Sadie rushed toward the door, opening it and darting out of the room just as I accepted the call.

“Hello?” I answered, doing my best to sound cheerful.

“RUBY!” my mother bellowed through the phone. “I have a bone to pick with you!”