Animal Secrets: A Paranormal Romance (The Animal Sagas) (7 page)

But she was getting close to completion now, she only had three more items left to add to create the magic necessary to complete their own brand of popular love potion. “Red rose petals, gold shavings from a wedding band and purple violets.” Susan muttered the remaining ingredients to herself over and over as she rummaged through her incantation rooms reserves, quickly locating the items.

All the shelves in their little store were filled with an assortment of jars, boxes and containers, each one filled with something unusual and intriguing. And these shelves and tables in the back were filled with items normally collected before a potion was made so that all ingredients would be in arms reach at any time during the brewing process. She had just grabbed the bottles containing the first two items, and was about to take the box filled with the third, when a noise from the front of the potion shop interrupted her concentration.

“Sue, I’m gonna take a break! Can you watch the front up here for me until I get back? You’ve finally finished the love potion, right? Sue?” Susan’s younger sister Emma popped her head in the door to the potion incanting room when Susan didn’t immediately answer her back. It was clear from Emma’s voice, that she was a bit perturbed over the delay this potion was making.

Guiltily Susan blushed as she glanced up at her sister. “Sure, oh yeah, go on ahead, I just have a few more things to stir in and I’m all done! Shouldn’t take but a couple more minutes.” Susan grabbed the last bottle quickly, and strode back over to her bubbling pot. She tried to focus once more on the recipe. It was just as important to be clear of thought as it was to add the right ingredients when mixing up a love potion.

The jingle of the front door bell told her Emma had already headed out of the shop for her lunch break. She knew her sister was already an hour overdue and didn’t blame her for being a little upset. Quickly she added the last three ingredients to the pot already at full boil. She hesitated momentarily as she glanced at the violets, frowning a bit at the light color of the dried flower. They should have been a dark, deep purple but instead were more of a lighter mauve color. “We need to talk with our supplier about these.” Susan muttered to herself. “These purple violets are really off color.”

She was always very specific about her ingredients when she placed her orders from suppliers. There was nothing that she detested more than someone who did not take good care of the products they sold to her store first, or someone who did not pay perfect attention to all the items they were sent or sent them the wrong thing all together.

Every single concoction, potion, elixir and tincture on the shelves of their little shop was carefully created and hand crafted, a labor of dedication by the two sisters. They took absolute pride in their work and full well understood the implications of a bad mixture, most importantly for their customers but for themselves and their reputations that they had so painstakingly created over years and years of work too. Susan took her role and influence in the town very seriously. She knew that many people still considered what they did to be a bit strange, maybe even odd if you asked some, if not downright fantasy.

But Susan had enough confidence and experience with her own skills to be absolutely certain that the spells she created always worked. Always! And sometimes too well. So she always made sure to warn her customers, that they be careful what they wished for, and be certain that they really wanted what they thought they did. Finally, when the last of the ingredients was added to the bubbling caldron, she sighed with satisfaction. She knew this potion was done. With a dramatic poof of fragrant mauve smoke, the potion condensed down and finally, a few minutes later, she was done.

Just then, their little shop’s front door bell jingled, letting her know that a customer had just arrived. “Hello, Welcome to Henry Sister’s,” Susan called out into the shop in the sweetest voice she could muster, as she brushed the hair back from her face. “I will be with you in just a minute!”

Susan carefully poured the contents of the swirling mauve liquid through a funnel, which filled out into another container, which eventually poured itself in a group of 10 awaiting tiny green glass bottles, all lined up perfectly in a row, to capture the fragrant concoction. She quickly closed all the little bottles with a cork plug and walked out into the front shop area, with the last bottle of the love potion still firmly in her hand. With her free hand she straightened her strawberry blonde hair, and raked free a stray sprig of peppermint as she walked to the front.

She finally happened to catch a glimpse of her customer standing at the front counter, a handsome young man. Immediately she found that she was somehow a bit startled by him for some reason, not just because of his attractiveness, because he was really a good looking man, but because something about him, she couldn’t quite put her finger on it, just seemed a little different.

Judging by the nervous expression marring his striking features, he was clearly uncomfortable being in the shop. Moving up to the counter, closer to the handsome young man, Susan set the love potion she was holding down on the counter and smiled her best, encouraging smile at her new, handsome, yet fidgety, uncomfortable customer.

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End Notes

Did you like this book? I certainly hope that you’ve enjoyed being in the land of shape shifting Were’s, wolves, witches and she-cats, if only for a few moments.

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And if you are looking for even more books by Susan G. Charles please feel free to check out some of my other works below:

Animal Heat: A Paranormal Romance
– the first book in The Animal Sagas series. In it little sister, Sonya is kidnapped, and Lynda, the oldest, must do her best to get her back – using any means possible.

Animal Nature: A Paranormal Romance
– the second book in The Animal Sagas series. Sonya now lives safely within the Strongheart wolf pack with her sister Lynda. Still, she longed to hunt the mountainous woods of the pack’s territory all by herself.

The Master of the Hunt: A Paranormal Romance
– Everyone in her family knew that one day Elizabeth Fox would make a fine horsewoman, and she certainly lived up to that and well surpassed all their expectations. But one foggy winter morning an ordinary ride turned into something completely unexpected as she encountered a handsome stranger and his small hunting party while out on the trail. Should she join them or not?

Paranormal Beverages, Potions and Tonics
– Who would ever have thought that a simple chain of events could have such an everlasting effect on a persons life? Now imagine if that whole cycle of events were based on a series of mistakes? But just what would be the outcome when an unexpected stranger came to purchase a potion and received the wrong one by mistake?

Toots and Poots in a World Full of Snoots: The Amazing True Story of One Boys Gas-tly Abilities
– is the story of a kindergarten aged boy, Timothy Oscar O’Toole, AKA, Toots, with a talent for farting – a skill he obviously loves to share with all his friends. A great story for kids of all ages!

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