Strings Of Fate

Chapter 21

The blinking light on the bakery phone voice mail sunk Terrence's heart. Jamie was off, again. He was going to have to fire them at this point. The teen worked weekends to help Terrence over the busiest days of the week. Only recently, they'd got a partner and seemed to think that work was an option rather than a priority. This week's excuse was the same stuff of having a headache. If Jamie had as many bad headaches as they were making out, they needed to see a doctor.

In the meantime, it left Terrence with no help - almost no help. He looked over at Nikolai and how the wolf lounged on the countertop casually.

A few hours later, Nikolai looked whiter than before, with flour covering him as much as Terrence despite the fact Terrence refused to let the wolf bake anything. His loyal customers did not need wolf fur in their bread and danish pastries. His ears twitched as some of the pack laughed at the state of their leader being ordered around.

Terrence didn't care. Nikolai did. It didn't take the man long at all to scruff two of the offending members and put them to work instead. The man dusted off his hands and stole the keys to the upstairs apartment to clean himself off. Terrence's lips twitched as the man's grumbling echoed down the small stairwell and into the bakery. Brats, pups and annoying underlings who needed to learn when to keep their mouths shut.

Fred stuck his head in the door long enough to warn Terrence about the change in bin days the next week. Terrence sent him off with a bag of experiment doughnuts and a tiger shaped cookie.

"We should sell these at the circus," one of the bratlings grinned as they stole a bird one. Not Ana, Lisa possibly? "I'm sure they'd be popular. Any of the hybrids themed things we sell are. We could sell different animals in different areas and do like a trading card or something in every pack."

"Sounds like a nice idea," Terrence said, slapping away a paw as a wolf tried to pull the same move.

"But?" Big puppy eyes looked up at him curiously.

"Kid, organising the supplies for a stationary shop is complicated enough. Doing it for a moving venue would be a nightmare," Terrence point out, placing a price card out for the cookies and giving the pack a look.

Lisa - hopefully - pouted, her brows furrowing as she thought her his statement. Her feathers fluttered, eyes locked onto the cookies. "Cookies last a little while, don't they?"

"Depends on the cookie."

"Could you use a base and ship them out?"

"In theory, that would be more sensible than trying to make them on location," Terrence agreed, moving some of the pastries around to make the shelves to make them look more presentable.

"Good to know," Lisa hummed.

Terrence wanted to ask how much they were paying her to ask these questions. He resisted. Instead, he patted a wolf on the back and disappeared into the back, checking on the cakes in the oven. Another few moments, and they'd be done.