Cael (Were Zoo Book 11)

and we don’t do promos like you’re suggesting. Your information isn’t accurate, so perhaps you have the wrong store. I’ll say it again, what we have is what you see, period.”
“Get your manager, right this instant!” the older woman said, her tone furious.
Novi’s fingers tingled, and she clenched them together as she turned to get Katya from the office. Novi had no idea why she was feeling so emotional, but it sometimes happened. Her mom said they were panic attacks from being confronted, but Novi didn’t feel panicked, just pissed. The women had no right to question her integrity off some random social media post. It was a thrift store for goodness sake.
She quickly explained the situation to Katya.
“Wow,” Katya said. She rose to her feet and then froze, staring intently at Novi’s face.
“What?” Novi asked.
“Your eyes are blue. I thought...aren’t they usually brown?”
Novi blinked rapidly a few times and tried to calm down. “They change color when I get emotional. Those women pissed me off.”
“Ah, my eyes get really green when I cry. I’ve never heard of eyes changing color completely, but that’s pretty cool. Well, it’s not cool you were treated badly. I’ll handle them, you hang out back here and take a break.”
“Thanks. I really need one.”
Novi went to the tiny bathroom and flicked on the overhead light. Sure enough, her chocolate brown eyes were an icy-blue color with gold striations.
She rubbed the space over her heart with her fingertips. Her skin tingled and the urge to growl rose again.
She’d had these strange symptoms when she was overly emotional—eyes changing color, gums and fingers tingling, and wanting to growl or snarl. She’d had them for years, even since she could remember. The first time she ever actually growled at someone was when she was in public school in kindergarten and a little girl had taken her fingerpaints. That was the one and only day she’d been in public school. Her mom had snatched her out of there really fast.
Panic attack? It just felt like something inside her wanted justice in a feral sort of way. To lash out with claws and bare fangs she didn’t have.
It sure didn’t feel like a panic attack.
She knew she couldn’t tell her mom about the incident, because her mom would freak out and tell her to quit the job she’d only had for a week. And she might get scared enough to move them again when they’d only been in New Jersey for a few weeks. She’d keep the situation to herself. She could handle it, she just had to remember to walk away before she did anything strange in front of people.
If only she could figure out why she felt like she did and had these weird episodes. She was certain it was related to her biological father, but that bastard was never going to give her any information. He was the reason they were on the run in the first place.
He’d tried to kill her when she was a toddler.
“Wow, those women were bitches!” Katya said, walking into the storage room.
Novi chuckled. “Yeah. What did you say to them?”
“I told them if they wanted dresses from a wedding shop they needed to go to one and not expect miracles at a thrift shop. And that if they didn’t like our selection they could kindly shove it up their ass.”
“You didn’t!”
“Well, I was diplomatic. They’re gone, and they’ll probably post on social media that this is a terrible place to shop, but who the hell cares? We have a great clientele who come in looking for deals and are nice to boot, we don’t need bitches calling us liars. Which, PS, is like the opposite way to get me to want to help someone out.”
“Yeah, me too. Thanks for handling it.”
“That’s what I’m here for.”
Katya returned to the office, and Novi knelt in front of the boxes and poked around, moving books from one box to the other and setting aside ones that caught her eye. By the time the store was closed at eight and her shift was over a half hour later, she’d found two air fryer cookbooks for her mom, and two old romances with swashbuckling pirates on the front covers for herself, the heroes both with open shirts and long flowing hair just like the ladies in their arms. She’d also found a container garden book, which she thought would be fun to look into.
She paid for the books and placed them in her knapsack, then said goodnight to her boss.
The car she shared with her mom had seen better days, but it worked, as did the radio, and that was enough for her. The drive across town took only seven minutes. The house she shared with her mom was a cute three-bedroom ranch with a red front door and a small porch. They were on a quiet street with the houses spread far apart, which was what her mom looked for when house hunting. They generally stayed away from apartment complexes because they were too close together and could lead to people asking too many questions.
Once more she thought about how unfair the situation was. She wanted to stay put and make friends and build a life. They hadn’t heard from her father in several years, but her mom was still worried about being found.
She parked in the gravel driveway and went to get the mail. Inside the box was a few pieces of junk mail and something from the Amazing Adventures Safari Park, addressed to the previous tenant.
Novi turned the large, colorful postcard from the park over and read it as she walked up the drive to the house. The postcard was actually a ticket for a free VIP safari tour and doubled