Chapter 3 #2
Zee grabbed a handful of the small dried fish and held one out to Ellie. She sniffed it before snatching it out of his hand. “Whoa! Careful, I need these fingers, if you don’t mind.”
Ellie snuffed, huffing out a puff of smoke, eyes locked onto the fish in Zee’s hand. He dropped them on the floor, and she pounced, scarfing them up noisily.
“I guess she likes them,” I said with a smile. She always appreciated when Zee fed her, but she didn’t seem to have as much patience for him as she did me. A fact that made me feel weirdly proud. Ellie had never once snapped at me or snuffed smoke at me.
After Ellie licked up every crumb off the floor, I indicated toward the door. “Okay, girl, let’s leave them to finish cooking. Thanks, Zee.”
“Sure thing. See ya later.”
At that, I stopped by the custodial closet that was at the end of the hall, near the basement access door, and past the kitchen.
With tools and an industrial snake, I made my way to the in-house salon, an amenity Silas had fought passionately for us to have, and he’d been right to do so.
If the reason for having a safe retreat didn’t include pampering that some beings didn’t typically get to experience, then what were we doing it for?
When I walked in, Silas looked over from the barber chair, where he offered me a smile, before excusing himself from the client in his chair.
Silas was… pretty, there was no other way to describe his intriguing look.
He had this shiny, warm, tawny skin that peeked through the sheer wrap he wore over a cropped black tee.
On top of his head, he had what looked like large, green braids wound into eight tight knots.
It wasn’t hair that rested on his head in such a stylish way, but snakes.
The gorgon finished the ensemble with the dark purple glasses he always wore. Well, one of the glasses he wore. Today’s were black-rimmed with rhinestones at the corners. The lenses were so dark, you couldn’t see his eyes, which was the point, I supposed.
Silas came up to me and lightly grabbed my arm, offering me an apologetic smile. He lowered his voice. “Thanks for coming, sugar. It’s the drain under the wash sink. You know our guest in the VIP suite?”
I leaned in closer and matched his hushed tone. “The sasquatch?”
Silas pursed his maroon-painted lips. “Yeah. I offered to take him to the outdoor station, but he wanted the full indoor treatment. And you know, that’s not something he gets to experience, so how could I turn him down?
I knew it was going to be a mess, grooming all that hair, but it was one of those worry-about-it-later situations. And, well, it's now later.”
Straightening, I offered him a smile. “No big deal. Was he happy, at least?”
Silas grinned, and I wished—not for the first time—that I could see it reach his eyes.
What color even were they? “The happiest. He even had me put little bows in his hair. It was adorable. Do you know I had to get on a stepstool to reach the top of his head? I mean, I expected him to be big, but I didn’t really comprehend it until he was in front of me.
It took hours to get through the tangled mess of hair.
It was all worth it, though, to see the bounce in his big steps when he left. ”
Damn, I wish I had seen it. I knew the sasquatch was staying here, but I hadn’t run into him yet. He seemed to prefer his privacy. Silas gave a nod toward his client and squeezed my arm. “I gotta get back.”
“Go, do your thing, make people pretty.” I shooed him off.
He looked back at me and said, “They are already pretty, Wolfie, I’m just helping them shine.”
Crossing the room to the washbasin and the drain cover behind it, I knelt on the ground and glanced back at the mirror where Silas and his client shared a laugh as he cut her hair. There was no laugh or shared smile for me as I removed the cover.
The visible clog made me grimace. My job definitely wasn’t as glamorous as Silas’s.
Plumbing wasn't my favorite—it probably wasn’t anyone’s favorite—but I was no stranger to hair in the drains.
I’d had my fair share after shifting. Oh well, I might not get the accolades or see the appreciation of our guests, but I knew that my role contributed to the happiness of a guest. At least, I tried to remind myself of that through the toughest jobs.
There was a lot to like about doing maintenance, too.
Fixing something that had been broken or unusable and seeing a visible difference was pretty damn gratifying.
If only I had as much control over myself and my beast as I did with the clog or the stair railing.
The crumpled piece of paper that had set off my earlier incident sat in my pocket like a weight.
It was a completely innocuous item, nothing but a flat image, and yet, it had been enough to force my wolf out, making me break the railing on the outer staircase with my transformation.
The impact of hitting the ground when I fell through it was enough to knock the wind and the wolf out of me.
I was tough, though, and my body had been through far worse than a fall from the second floor of a building.
At least I was capable of fixing what I’d broken without drawing any unnecessary attention.
The thing was… I needed to let my beast out. I needed to shift. When I didn’t, my entire body ached like my bones were on the verge of breaking apart without the relief of it actually happening, but I was out of sync with it. Always had been.
One of the benefits of the inn and the surrounding property was room to run. This should be the safest place in the world for me to let that side take over. Without being in tune with the wolf side, when it took over, I was completely lost to it. Lost and feral and unable to find myself.
I loved my friends. I loved the support they gave me, no matter the state I was in.
The depth of my loneliness before meeting everyone was immeasurable.
Since starting Creature Comforts and having them in my daily life, a lot in me has healed.
Not everything, though. Not whatever was broken between my wolf and me.
I should count myself lucky, and I did, but still… I longed for more. To be loved. To have a partner. But how could I hope to find someone when I spent so much time lost inside my own body and mind? Was there anyone strong enough to be able to pull me back?