Chapter 32

Celeste stifled a yawn as she began her morning walk to work. After whatever had left the balcony and she had gotten something to eat since she felt better, she wasn't able to properly go back to sleep.

Her body wanted to but her mind wouldn't let her with everything that had happened earlier that day. No matter how much she wanted to forget about it, she couldn't keep her mind off it.

About the time that she thought she might be able to go back to sleep, the wolves outside started howling again and that made her wide awake again.

Now though she was suffering from the lack of sleep mixed with the fatigue from her hangover. She was never going to go to the club with Jen again if it ever came up later. Once was enough for her.

She just hoped that she would be able to stay awake enough for what her job. She was new and didn't want to get in trouble already for messing anything up.

About half way there Celeste became distracted as she noticed that there were two rather large dogs following her or at least she assumed they were following her as each rude she stopped, they also stopped as well.

They were on the opposite side of the road from where Celeste was but that didn't stop her from noticing how big they were or how rich and deep their coats looked.

She would've coaxed them over to see if they belonged to anyone but was too worried something might happen with all the traffic going by. Most cars wouldn't have cared to stop even if the dogs did try crossing.

Celeste decided the best option would be to see if they followed her the rest of the way to the coffee shop and hoped that there was something dog friendly that she could give to them to coax them into coming over so she could see if they had any collars or tags on.

She didn't remember seeing them around before, but with how often people were always coming and going in the part of New York that she lived in it wasn't impossible that they belonged to a new neighbor and managed to escape from their yard and ended up getting lost.

"Fancy seeing you here!" A cheerful voice caught her attention as she approached the coffee shop. The young man waved rather enthusiastically at her with his mitten clad hand though she couldn't remember who he was or why he looked rather familiar.

"Celeste wasn't it?" He asked as he walked over to the other, a rather charming smile on his face. Based upon how excited he was, it certainly seemed like they had met before even if she couldn't quite place who he was.

"Crescent?" She aske hesitantly when she noticed the spot of silver hair sticking out from under the cap he had on. It certainly was chilly outside, but he seemed far more bundled up than most people usually were for this type of weather.

"Glad to know you remember me. I hope my brother hasn't been causing you too much trouble?" He inquired as glancing behind her when he saw something move out of the corner of his eye.

"That's debatable." She replied as she turned to look at what had caught his eye.

"They've been following me since I started heading over here. I think they must belong to someone because of how well taken care of they look, I'm just not sure who though." The two dogs had stopped some distance away from them and were both now sitting with their heads titled at exactly the same angle as they watched whatever conversation that was going on rather intently.

"They've been following you? For how long exactly?" Crescent asked rather surprised, turning his attention back to Celeste though he kept an eye on them out of the corner of his eye.

"Probably the last twenty minutes or so. It isn't that far of a walk from my apartment from there." She explained.

"I was hoping that there might be something inside that I could give them so that they might be willing to let me see if they have tags or anything that would indicate who they belong to."

"I'm not sure that's such a good idea. They're rather large and dogs who tend to travel like that have been known to go after people before due to pack mentality." He cautioned turning to look at the two creatures whose attention had been now become completely shifted on to him.

"It might be better to just call animal control and ask them to look into since they're more trained to deal with this kind of thing." He suggested.

"Besides, I'm sure you wouldn't want to be late for work." his comment made Celeste realize that he was right. If she took too much time to mess with the dogs she would end up being late for work as much as she did want to do something for them.

"I guess you're right." She replied, a little disappointed that she wouldn't be able to do anything to help out the two dogs who seemed rather like they hoping for her to assist them.

"What are you doing here though?" She then asked she turned her attention to the other as they both headed to the front of the coffee shop.

"It's my day off and I'm just here on a little errand for my brother. I thought that I could get him some coffee today since he has been swamped with work and won't have a chance to get it himself." Crescent replied as he held open the door to the shop so that she could go inside before him. When the werewolf glanced behind them, he noticed that the two dogs had suddenly disappeared and this made him narrow his eyes before he stepped into the shop.

"I do hope you know what he likes? I kind of wanted to surprise him only to realize that I don't know what he usually drinks and he wouldn't appreciate me calling him all of a sudden with something that isn't serious."

"I do and Edgar the manager here knows for sure exactly how to make it since he's the one that has been serving Bane the longest." Celeste replied. Somehow she felt a little bit relieved that she wouldn't have to see the alpha today. Her mind was still muddled from anything and she wasn't certain that she would be able to react normally around him.

"Great! Are there any treats here you might be able to recommend?" Crescent asked he walked to the glass case so that he could peer at everything that was inside. They certainly did have a large selection of rather delectable looking things.

"Is it for you or your brother?" Celeste asked as she slipped behind the counter so that she could put on her work apron.

"Neither. It's actually for my mate. I'm not so huge on sweets, but she really loves them." He replied with a small laugh. He only noticed the slightly odd look on Celeste's face when he looked up to see what she was doing.

"You said mate too." She remarked.