Page 98 of Wolf's Bane
“He’s not contagious. Not anymore.”
“I’m not worried about that,” she said. “I failed Lionel. I hardly knew him. I thought I did. He never spoke about his time in the military. He never spoke about anything, really. When did this happen? How could he hide himself from me?”
Solenne left the woman to do her work. If she found any peace or forgiveness in her heart for Chambers, it was her own business.
Among the wedding guests, most injuries were cuts and bruises obtained in the panic to flee the room. The occasional person had a twisted ankle or knee, but nothing serious. Jase has not done significant injury to his leg. The only serious injury had been Godwin. When Drs. Webb and Sheldon declared him stable, they moved him upstairs into a bedroom. Solenne reluctantly allowed Dr. Webb to clean the claw marks where Chambers took a swipe at her. They seemed inconsequential to her father.
Eventually Alek took her by the hand. “You’re exhausted.”
“There’s too much to do.”
“You can’t help anyone when you’re ready to fall over. You need a bath and sleep,” he said, his take-charge tone soothing her in a way she did not know she needed.
Bath and sleep sounded so good.
“I’m afraid I don’t have an available room for you,” Charlotte said, joining them. She looked equally exhausted, yet her eyes shone. This was her element. “I’m afraid we can’t move your father. He has to stay for the time being. I imagine Miles will need to stay where he is?” She paused, waiting for Alek’s response.
“Until he calms down,” Alek said.
“Go home, get some rest and come back tomorrow,” she said.
“I’ll burn the villain tomorrow.”
Solenne thought Charlotte might protest, that Chambers might be a villain, but he was still her husband and deserved a funeral service, but she only nodded.
“Tomorrow or the day after, I’ll write to Snowmelt and tell them of the delay,” Alek said. Everyone had to make compromises at the moment, such as they would not journey to Snowmelt in a few days. Solenne couldn’t leave with her father injured. She felt gladdened that Alek instinctively understood this.
The return to Marechal House took no time at all. They stripped off their ruined finery and took turns scrubbing each other in the bath. Alek seemed…restless.
“You know, the original colonists had an endless supply of hot water on demand.”
“Impossible,” he replied, voice flat like he paid the conversation the minimal amount of attention.
“True. They bathed in stalls calledshowerswhere the water came in over their heads, but through an aerated sprinkler, not a bucket being dumped over their heads.”
He huffed. “Sounds convenient.”
“I agree.” Waiting for the water to heat, filling the tub, and then splashing around took a considerable amount of time, especially when she just wanted to be clean enough to get to bed with her husband.
Her fingers brushed against the angry red bite on his shoulder. “That will never heal, will it?”
“It hasn’t in eight years. It doesn’t always look so—”
“Fresh?”
“A reflection of the cycle, nothing more. It doesn’t hurt,” he said.
She continued to scrub his shoulders and back, eventually moving to his front. Her hands strayed a bit far below his waist. Alek raised a brow. To say she eagerly anticipated the night was an understatement. Perhaps a more refined lady would be exhausted or too distraught to think of skin and kissing and every pleasure a man shared with a woman, but it was all she wanted. The events of the Double Werewolf Wedding—no, she would not call it that!—left her feeling tightly wound and in need of a release.
Alek, too, from the feel of him.
He leaned his head back and groaned at her touch. Before she could continue on, he placed a hand over hers, halting her. “Upstairs. You need sleep.”
“That’s not what I need, Aleksandar.”
“Solenne, do not tempt me.”
She pulled back, stung at his rejection. In the last few weeks, he had been insatiable, demanding touches and her attention. Now he acted cold and disinterested.
