Page 9 of Power of Five
Drawing my legs up to my chest, I push myself into the corner of the bed. My body is one large bruise, and with the males gone, a chilling emptiness settles around my shoulders. Pulling Tye’s cloak closer to my face, I take a deep whiff, the lingering pine-and-citrus scent calming my nerves until the servants leave and the steam from the tub tickles the air.
Right. Laying Tye’s cloak carefully on the bed, I strip off the rest of my clothing and sink into the blissfully hot water. Someone added drops of lilac oil to the water and left a cake of lavender soap on a thick towel beside the tub. It’s many times more than a lifelong servant like me deserves, but there is nothing to be gained by leaving the soap alone.
I’ve just finished working up the thickest lather I’ve ever seen when the door creaks open and soft feet tap against the floor. I sink beneath the soap bubbles, turning cautiously to find a pair of yellow eyes staring into mine.
The scream that starts deep in my chest spills into my mouth, and I clamp both hands over my lips to keep the sound in check. The last thing I want is the world running into my room to find me naked. As for the yellow-eyed wolf...
“Hello, Shade,” I say to the giant predator prancing toward me, his tale high up in the air. Now that he isn’t snarling over Zake’s form, he looks more like a gray plush toy than a deadly killer of Mystwood. I’ve no notion as to whether he understands human speech, but I might as well be polite. “Would you mind closing the door?”
Shade cocks his head, flicks his right ear, and proceeds to sniff the base of the tub, then the room itself, and finally leaps smoothly onto my bed to curl up into a large ball of deadly fluff.
Grabbing the towel that the servants left for me, a thick woven terrycloth with just the right amount of softness, I wrap it around myself as I step out of the tub. My thick hair drips in darkened brown waves down my shoulders as I pad to the door and push it closed again. My back now to the wall, I assess the situation. Namely, the presence of a large sleeping wolf in the middle of the mattress that I’d fully intended on occupying.
“I’ll share the bed,” I tell Shade, “but you are not evicting me to sleep in a chair.”
Shade’s ear flickers but his eyes remain closed and his considerable bulk shows no signs of relocating.
Body still wrapped in a towel, I climb onto an unoccupied part of the bed and tentatively push Shade with my foot.
The wolf growls without opening his eyes. The rumbling sound echoes through my body, failing to insight fear. I know this wolf. Somewhere deep in my soul, if not my head.
“Fine.” I curl myself into a ball and slip under the covers, a calm finally washing over me despite the invasion of my privacy and space. The room, still warm from the steam, sways as fatigue claims me. After a few heartbeats, the mattress shifts as Shade rises and circles in search of a better spot. When the wolf settles again, I feel his warm breath on the back of my neck and a solid mass of muscle and fur pressing against my curved spine.
“I dreamed about you, wolf,” I murmur, my eyes closed. My hand reaches back, caressing the wolf’s soft fur, and the beast purrs beneath my touch, the sound a rumble that vibrates his body. I smile. “Before I ever met you, I knew you.”
