This is a spice and wolf fanfiction only.

As I looked at him I knew there was more to this man than being a simple owner of a vineyard. "Actually, I don't carry any money with me on my travels. I buy merchandise from an association or a producer, thus I carry no money to attract the attention of any robbers. I may be a werewolf, immortal I am not. There is also the fact that my wife travels with me. What kind of a man would I be to place the love on my life in needless danger?"

He looked at his own wife and nodded his head, "Indeed, it is hard enough having them endure the toils and discomfort of all this traveling. Since you are such an honest person, I feel like I should share with you a little information I got from a town merchant down south."

"I heard that this nation is going to reissue their coins, and it could be that they are planning to increase the silver purity in their coins. I already began buying as many Trenni silver coins as I can, since if they increase in value it would net me a tidy profit. Since you are a traveling merchant I would advise you to do the same. It could never hurt to have a nice nest egg after all."

I looked at the situation and knew there was more to this information than he was willing to disclose. I also notice that he had the emblem of a trade association that was direct rivals with Milo Trading and the association I was a member of.

This could easily be a trap to cause both the association I am a member of and Milo Trading to lose a lot of money and thus lessen our reputation among other independent merchants. If the life of a werewolf was fraught with dangers, the life of a traveling trader was no less dangerous.

Holo pretended to look bored and leaned close to me, "Well I am sorry, but I think I better take my beloved to bed, she seems quite bored, or simply tired. I do appreciate you sharing that information with me."

He looked at his own wife and smiled, "No problem, I think that I shall do the same. May the grace of god be with you on your travels." I didn't expect him to say that in the least.

"May god keep you safe as well." I stood up and helped Holo get up, as we walked towards the exit I could tell she was thinking about something. I guess I would have to wait to ask her once we were in the privacy of our room.

As soon as we were inside our rooms, she sat down on the bed. Looked at me and I knew a question was coming, how I knew that I don't know but I knew. "So do you think his information is credible? Or was he trying to deceive us?"

"His heartbeat never changed, and he honestly seems to think that he was doing a good deed from the way he behaved. I, however, am a trader, and I know that it could also be a scam done by an expert liar. So instead of wasting time on where it is or isn't, we are going tomorrow to a money handler I know. We should be able to determine if the information is true or not then."

Holo looked at me and smiled, "And if the information is true, we could contact that trading association we visited before, for sharing the information we could ask for a percentage of the profit of the deal. I guess being honest with that man from Milo Trading was not such a bad idea as I thought."

I decided to take off most of my clothes and get to bed, we had a lot of work tomorrow and I would need a clear mind. At least that was my intention until I felt someone grabbing from behind.

"Lawrence I need to know somethings if you don't mind. Why is the silver purity in the coin matter? Why are you in my bed? And do you honestly think of me as you wife?"

I decided to be direct since I really needed my sleep. "To the first, it's more to do with the prestige of a nation. The higher silver purity means that that nation is doing very well economically. A lower silver purity means that they are having some financial issues, and other nations might want to take advantage of that."

"To answer to the last two, you are my mate, my wife and since you are such this also happens to be my bed. Human concepts of marriage always seem to change with time, but we wolves the concept remains the same no matter what year it is. Now I really need my sleep, or I am liable to kill Wis when I see him."

I closed my eyes and began to dream of the forest lands Holo described, it was indeed beautiful but suddenly it changed, the forest was clear cut, the land had countless of mines, and several small cities stood where the forest once was. The people killed most of the wolves and had grazing animals and a few farms.

I woke up the next day and looking at my own waist I saw her arm holding me tightly. I guess I wasn't the only one that had a nightmare. As we got dressed and ate breakfast we began to walk towards the bridge where most of the money handlers did their business.

I could recognize Wis from at least a hundred yards away, he always wore that sickening lotion that smelled of flowers. I knew full well that it was not his lotion, more than likely he slept with a few unfortunate married women if the way he smelled was any indication.

As I walked over to his little place of business, honestly it was a scale and a box for packing fruit. "Lawrence it is always a pleasure to see you, and who might your lovely companion be?" He touched her hand trying to act romantic. For a second I wanted to break that very hand, but I need some information so I simply decided to make him know I didn't appreciate the way he was holding Holo's hand.

I leaned down near his face and put my hand on his shoulder. "I have some business to discuss with you Wis." He took the hint and let her hand go. "It's always business with you Lawrence, can't you see I am busy getting to know this lovely young lady. You don't have a romantic bone in your entire body, shame on you."

I was getting more and angrier, "I do have a romantic side but business comes first. Now tell me has there been any new Trenni silver coins issued recently?" He still was looking at Holo, I think my foolish friend is developing a death wish, and if he even tries to kiss my wife I will happily grant him that wish.

"Yes, there has been a new silver coin issued recently, before I answer anything else you need to answer my questions too. Who is this lovely lady to you? Have you slept with her? And if you haven't minded if I do?"

Now I was mad enough that I was feeling my teeth begin to change even as I tried to control my anger. "This is Holo, and she is my wife. So if you even try to do to her what you do to those poor victims you visited today. I will make certain that the only woman you will see is the healer a few blocks from here for the next eight months."

Wis finally got the idea in that thick head of his, "What a shame, to monopolize such a beauty all to yourself. Why do you need to know if there was a new silver coin issued? It's not like it would hurt you since you deal with small items."

"The value of the silver coins might be less and that influences my profits. Is there any way to check if the silver purity in the new coins has changed? The only way that I can think of it melting one down." Wis looked quite puzzled by what I said, "Well I don't have the equipment necessary to do that. I guess we could weight them, but if the people making them are careful, they will add more iron to make up for the weight difference if they did reduce the amount of silver in the coins."

Holo decided to pick up two of the new coins and began to knock them against each other in her closed hands. She did the same with a pair of coins I had given to her to buy the apples. "Holo it's impossible to tell the difference just by hearing. I heard that several experience money handlers can do that, but I often believe it to be an old wives tales."

I saw her ears move almost as if her ears moved because she noticed something. "You are right, I can't tell the difference at all. Sorry to waste your time." He once again grabbed her hand and I felt like I needed to glare at him some more, this time, my teeth were changed and gave him what other merchants call my wolfish grin.

"Get your hands off my wife or I am relieving you of them." He immediately took off his hands looking rather afraid. As I walked away, "Be sure to join us for dinner tonight. It's my treat as thanks for helping me with my coin question."

Wis Immediately perked right up and asked if it would be in the same place. I told him where else would I mean? You always wanted to be comfortable in a place where you eat, especially if you were going to drink.

As we began walking towards our inn, I decided to ask why was Holo so chipper all of a sudden. "You can't hide anything from me, you were a little jealous back there, it is true males are foolish for feeling jealous and females are foolish for feeling happy about it. You could also tell, couldn't you? You with being partially transformed I imagine you heard the difference between the coins."

I smiled at her and placed my hand on her waist pulling her closer to me as we walked, "The new coins sounded duller than the ones I gave you. Which means the purity is not increasing but decreasing. This nation must be in need to increase the number of coins in circulation, which mean the nation is in financial trouble."

"The only way I can see that guy gaining is that I will go bankrupt when the value of my coins are less than what I sold to get them, I guess he wanted to get rid of potential competition. I still feel that there is more to this than simply the change in the amount of silver. There must be something else or he would not risk me telling my association about this."

Holo looked at me and told me why would it matter? I told her that a business may lie to a trader, but to lie to an association would mean having their reputation come into question, and if that association told any other their business would be ruined.

"Here is what I think, we have a stranger give you information on currency that will decrease in value, but he told you it would increase and that you should buy as much of the current currency as possible because according to him it would increase in value. Why would he tell you this, he doesn't owe you any favors, and he didn't ask for any money in exchange."

She stopped and she then decided to ask something completely different, "And why don't you trust your friend?" I leaned close to her and gave her a kiss on her lips, it was a brief kiss but I placed my head on her shoulder and kissed her cheek.

"It's because he is an unrepentant womanizer, he will attempt to sleep with any woman he finds attractive be they single or married. I happen to know of several marriages that he ruined by sleeping with the wife of a trading acquaintance or member of an association I know."

We got to the inn and sure enough, my friend was there and he even had the nerve to bring a bouquet of flowers. If there ever was a time I really wanted to kill a human, it most definitely was now, but the flirtatious, womanizing idiot was one of my oldest friends. I guess having a mate sort of changed me a little, and I became shall we say a bit more territorial especially when it came to Holo.

The dinner was pleasant and quick, as soon as we got back to our room she began kissing me and I somehow knew that something was happening. We decided to get in bed only wearing our underwear. As soon as we put the lights out, Holo got closer to me. "So you noticed the stench as much as I did. I guess being able to partially transform does have its benefits."

"I think they are half a dozen, something tells me they are after us since we discovered the scam that vineyard owner told us about." She nodded her head, "That and there are several ungrateful mongrels from the village I helped make their wheat fields more prosperous."

As soon as I heard someone come closer to our bed, I threw the blanket on then and grabbed Holo's hand. We jumped out the window which we left open for the cool breeze, but in reality, we left it open to have an escape route.

I knew the perfect place for us to seek aid from, and that was Milo Trading. It was owned by a noble I knew very well. As we ran we realized that there were other six people waiting around the inn. "Lawrence, I still stay and keep them occupied. You run for help." I looked at Holo and from the look on her face, she knew I would sooner die than leave her to these jackals.

"I have a better idea, you run to Milo Trading and tell them of the deal. Tell them that you are my wife and they will welcome you and protect you. I will catch up as soon as I am done eating these snacks." As soon as I finished that she had to ask what did I mean by snacks. I decided to go full out, and thanks to the fact the full moon was shining. I transformed into my full wolf form in a matter of seconds.

"If you value your lives, I would run. My husband can be quite protective of me." I heard her also change and run towards the trading house owned by Milo Trading. I also heard one of the masked morons say how much trouble could one guy give them. If only they knew what they were getting themselves into.