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Bit by bit Reid heals and so, bit by bit, Luke feels okay leaving him for longer periods of time, tending to the store on his own, helping Jack with his homework, taking him places he needs to go. They seem to be getting back to normal, at least in some ways, and mostly he's just thankful every single day that the accident hadn't been worse. That Reid is still here for him to dote on, to curl up next to at night, to read stories to Jack while Luke looks on from the doorway.

He's in the store now, moving around, dusting the tops of shelves and rearranging books that have found their way into the wrong places. It's not a particularly busy day, but every so often a customer comes in and Luke has helped a few of them find what they're looking for, then sent them happily on their way.

This isn't the life he was supposed to have. He isn't supposed to be a werewolf, he isn't supposed to own a bookstore, he isn't supposed to be married to a man, raising a young boy who ended up in this city, torn away from his family like the rest of them. Luke isn't even supposed to have this name, but he can't imagine himself as anything else. He was never a very good Shadowhunter, too desperate for approval, too weak minded to be a true leader. It had taken being bitten and turned into something else to change him. To make him what he's meant to be.

And so he's happy with this life he isn't supposed to have and he's whistling as he dusts, waiting to hear the tinkling of the bell above his door to let him know someone else has come inside.

(no subject)

They still haven't found the sword.

Since it was stolen, Luke has spent countless hours trying to track it, trying to follow any lead he can, talking it through with Magnus or Alec or Reid, anyone who will listen, and they still haven't found it. The fact that it's out there weighs on him.

He was supposed to keep it safe. Those first few months in Darrow had been spent tracking it, trying to make sure no one else got their hands on it, and then when he'd found it, keeping it safe had been his only priority. For a time, in his basement, locked away under the wards Hermione had placed on it, he'd felt confident it couldn't be found or taken, but things had changed. Jack had changed things.

It had been Luke's idea to move it. He had been the one to voice concerns about keeping it in the same house as Jack and people had agreed with him. He knows no one blames him for the sword having been stolen, but it was still his idea in the first place and it's still gone. Maybe no one else blames him, but he blames himself.

Going to see Raven is a good idea, even if only to get out of his head for a little while. He's meeting her near the store, at an ice cream place Jack had practically dragged him into one day. It's nice to get out, to think about something else, and he thinks it might be just as nice, too, to get someone else's opinion about the sword.

(no subject)

It doesn't happen often, not in Darrow, but every once in awhile Luke can pick up the scent of an unfamiliar werewolf coming around.

Most of the other werewolves in Darrow are either people he already knows and knows well, or those who simply keep their distance. He knows not all the Downworlders in Darrow are like him and Derek, he knows there's bound to be trouble once in awhile and that's why he's glad for people like Alec and Isabelle, but because his scent is all over the store, most of those who want to cause trouble don't come around here. They know better.

It's interesting to him, but he does tend to keep his distance. After being a pack leader in Idris for such a long time, Luke has a tendency to shy away from other wolves, not because they've done anything wrong, but because the idea of a pack is something he equates with war. Wolves in packs fight for territory, they fight for anything they need to, and Luke is done with that. He's done with war, done with fighting, and he's done with being an alpha.

But at the scent of a wolf he's never met before, he pauses in the midst of his shelving and turns toward the front of the store. Whoever it is, they may not come in here, but the scent is getting stronger and Luke can't pretend he isn't just a little bit interested in who might walk through that door.