In Defiance-Discounted

Part One

Michigan can be a bitch at times to those who call her home. It could be showing a promise of a spring day full of sunshine and spring coming to roost, but that promise can turn into a slap in the face in the form of dark clouds and cold rain in the transition to a sleet hitting the window. If you call this state home, you take it as it comes and moves on with life.

Still, scowling at the gray toned weather did help as Willow Stone heard a drop of water hitting the bucket in the back. Also with the three leas calling out to the other like loons on the lake. It just made her mood darken more, looking at the bills she had to deal with while the owner of the Mocha Dream was on his honeymoon in England with his new bright wife.

Leaning back into the leather office chair, the patter of the rain only deepened her grumpy mood. "Thanks, Cliff, leaving me with the paperwork again like last time." she thought, feeling the urge to just toss the growing pile into a paper shredder.

Part of her dark mood was also coming from the need to Change or Shift, depending on the werewolf or Shifter or, as some called themselves, Shape-changer or Skin-slipper, depending on the cultural background of said being and what they felt fit them. Willow tended to like the old school werewolf thing. Some might go by lupine or lycan.

So Willow Stone was just a single female werewolf who worked as the manager at a coffee shop on the tourist beat town of Lemon Hill. Yes, that was the town's real name. Lost in the northern woods of Lower MI, it sat just 10 miles away from Huron's white beaches and claimed the settlement date of 1766.

"Thinking of lemons, I could use a treat of a lemon bar." Willow blinked, feeling the female need of something sweet in her moment of anger and annoyance at having to pay the bills to keep this place going.

Also, the full moon being in only two days was making her skin itch and her blood pressure go crazy. She tended to crave sweets around this time, before a Change would come calling and make her run, all furry, in the woods for a few hours.

Leaning back, the patter of the rain and the leaking matting call of the bucket also were sharper, and filled the void known as her brain. She still had a good two hours before opening at ten in the morning, which they only did twice a week due to deliveries and business reasons.

Willow leaned forward to look at the time on the clock. It was 9am sharp. "Mary's late with the delivery again? Third time this month I think?"

Mary Bishop lived one town over and delivered homemade bread and rolls to their shop. As a baker, she liked to spread out her business, which had grown a lot in the last few years.

So why was she late?

"This is all I need." Willow muttered, leaning over to let her upper body lay on the desk and softly, papers around. "Just please no more drama oh mighty gods of drama! Spare this one!"

Shuffling sounds of the back door opening, with a sound of two voices, indicated that two of the employees had come in a bit late also. Willow muttered more prayers to the drama gods and sat up to push away the chair and see who had dragged out their carcass to work in this weather. Peeking around the corner, she pushed back her fading scarlet dyed hair from her green eyes to smile.

Sandra Black was shaking off her neon blue umbrella and muttering something in German, which didn't sound too good. Her other coworker, Simon Stills, was trying not to laugh as he dried off his glasses. Sandra was actually Apache, but her father had been German and was raised by her aunt from Lemon Hill, who had also raised her. Not much was known on about who her mother was after her father had given the baby to his sister; it just seemed she had inherited a trait from her native blood out of the blue: she was a shifter, becoming a coyote in her animal shape. All of her German side was known to be human.