Chapter 12
Rudy
Closing the door between Bowen and me was one of the hardest things I’d had to do. Harder still were the steps away from my apartment.
“Fuck, Wolfie, I shouldn’t have to be sent down to fetch you, I’ve got my own stuff to do. Why haven’t you been checking your messages?”
Because I didn’t want my phone to bother Bowen when he was resting.
He looked so beautiful and so peaceful sleeping that I’d silenced my phone and tucked it aside.
I watched the way his mouth would quirk, watched his chest rise and fall, heard the soft hums he made.
I’d never allowed myself a moment like that.
When I pulled his legs across my lap to give him more room to stretch, I had the notion that my only job in the entire world was to watch over him as he slept.
Nothing else mattered. Not when he knew who I was and still gave me total and complete trust. Enough that he was able to sleep beside me after a restless night.
Was it too soon to suggest he sleep in my apartment so he wouldn’t have to have any more restless nights?
Sigh. No. I couldn’t do that, no matter how much I wished I could keep him in my sight at all times.
And in my nose. Gods, I couldn’t get enough of his scent.
His earthy orange marmalade was heavenly on its own, but damn, when it bloomed with arousal, it nearly undid every last little fraction of control I had.
A nudge against my shoulder brought me back to the present. Which was probably good considering I was seconds away from turning back around to return to the man I left in my living room.
“Hello? Are you in there?” Zee waved a hand in my face, making me blink.
Knocking his hand out of the way, I muttered, “Yeah, sorry. I was busy, uh, earlier.”
“Busy? That’s all you have to say?” Beneath the bite in his tone, there was a hint of hurt mixed in.
The realization of that gave me pause. Zee was my best friend.
We talked about everything. Well, mostly he talked; I didn’t often have a lot to contribute, but now I wasn’t keeping things from him.
It wasn’t that I wanted to keep Bowen a secret, but I just didn’t know enough of what was happening to share it yet.
There was also the matter of how he’d been treating Bowen, and I feared that if I opened that door, I would do or say something to my friend that I would regret.
Even now, my wolf pushed from within at the thought of Zephyr saying even one wrong thing about Bowen, and I needed to keep my cool.
“Later, okay?” It was all I could manage through clenched teeth.
Zee clicked his tongue. “Fine, but then we’re going to have a heart-to-heart, you and I.”
I gave a tight nod. I wanted to tell him everything. Well, almost everything. I wanted to be able to talk out all these new, big feelings, but at the same time, they were so big, I didn't know how to put them into words. Work, though. Work was something I could do. “What’s the emergency?”
“It’s one of the casitas, the amphibian one. Maxime said something about the pump being on the fritz.”
“Shit, that’s not good. Is it currently occupied?”
Zee shrugged. “Beats me. I'm just the messenger, and I gotta get back to the kitchen.”
“All right. Thanks for coming to get me. I’m sorry about the phone.”
An arm whipped around my neck and pulled me to him. Zee rubbed the top of my head, likely making my shaggy hair even messier, but I appreciated the familiar action that displaced some of the weirdness between us. “Later, yeah? And then you’ll tell me about ordering a vegetarian meal to your room.”
My eyes rounded, and my cheeks flushed. Of course, he would have noticed that; it wasn’t something I would ever order for myself. “Okay.”
“If you're finally ready for the birds and the bees talk, I've been practicing.
It'll be epic, like your own personal Ted Talk, with charts and graphs and everything.” That playful smirk of his returned, and while the idea was mortifying, I much preferred his teasing to hearing the hurt in his voice.
We parted ways at the dining hall, and I picked up my pace to figure out how bad the situation was. When Maxime saw me, I could see the relief in his expression. He was talking to a frantic customer and indicated for me to join them.
“Here he is now. This is Rudolph. He’s our head of maintenance. He will take care of it straight away. I do apologize for the temporary displacement.”
Maxime ushered the woman to a seat in the lounge, and when he returned to me, he spoke in a hushed tone.
“The Land and Sea Suite. Our guests are freshwater only, and the pump got reversed somehow, bringing in water from the salted tank instead. Luckily, she noticed before her kids went into the water, or it could have been disastrous. Please tell me you can fix it.”
“I should be able to if I can find where or how the pump glitched.” Under Maxime’s intent stare, I added, “Yes. Yes, absolutely, I can.”
He gave an approving nod at my answer. “Good. Thank you. Best get to it.”
I hurried toward the casitas and the tool shed near them.
Some of the units required specialized equipment, and it was easier to keep them nearby instead of having to haul them in each time.
Each of the casitas offered unique environments and options to cater to different needs.
The Land and Sea Suite was designed for beings that needed to be in water more frequently than trips to the pool.
Half of the small cottage was dry with a bed and furniture, but the floor sloped down into a pool for easy entrance and exiting in any form.
We designed a system that would allow us to set it up for freshwater, saltwater, or even brackish, depending on the guest.
Other casitas included the Wind and Air suite, which had a retractable roof for flyers, the Fire and Ice Suite, which allowed for temperature control, and then we had some with different climates and humidity levels to suit tropical or desert dwellers.
It had been one of the biggest challenges when we were building the place, but it was an important part of what we were doing here, to allow options for those who couldn’t usually travel due to their unique needs.
I’d had to figure out how to maintain all the equipment used to create these special environments; there were no manuals or specialists to call in.
At the rear of the suite in question was the pumphouse that held the pump and filtration system we used.
I spent the next hour or so tracing every part and every pipe to find the problem.
It ended up being a simple blockage, thankfully.
Once I found and fixed the water flow issue, I drained the indoor pool, making sure every last drop was gone, and refilled it with freshwater.
With a test kit, I checked the salinity to ensure it was at the right levels and snapped a picture to send to Maxime.
Me: Land and Sea is fixed and all good to go.
Maxime: Well done, friend. I’m sure our guests will be happy to hear that.
Pride made my heart swell, and my first thought was about wanting to tell Bowen. Maybe being a handyman wasn’t saving the world, but I had a hand in saving the vacation of a family staying here. It had only been a couple hours since we’d been together, and already I couldn’t wait to see him again.
Maxime: Rudolph?
Me: Yeah?
Maxime: Do come in and see me. I think we need to have a chat.
Shit. First Zee, now him. It looked like I had a lot of chatting ahead of me, and not with the person I wanted it to be.
Though I owed them both an explanation for having my phone off and for how I’d been acting—not that I fully understood it myself—except the need I had to be near Bowen overwhelmed almost everything else.
Me: Okay.
When I returned to the lobby, it was a similar situation to the one the other day. Great. Everyone’s here. I was really hoping for one-on-one conversations and not having to discuss my whatever it was with Bowen with everyone. Well, might as well pull off the Band-Aid.
Assuming Kieran had done his privacy thing again, I tucked my hands into my pockets and began talking as I walked to the empty chair. “Listen, I’m really sorry I turned my phone off. It was a one-time thing. Aren’t I entitled to a little break?”
Zee, surprisingly, offered me a sympathetic look. “It’s not that, Wolfie. Well, not entirely.”
Maxime dipped his head. “You are more than entitled to a break, however you see fit and with whomever you choose to share it, until either of those things endangers us or our guests.”
I sat up straight in my chair, my wolf prickling from within. “If you mean Bowen, he’s not a danger to anyone, I swear.”
“Rudolph,” the gentle tone Maxime used might as well have been a shout for the way it pressed in on me. “You told him what I was.”
Kieran and Silas both snapped their heads toward Maxime and then to me, shock filling their faces. Ash remained as still as he usually did, but Zephyr simply watched me with a look that was begging for it to be untrue.
“Listen, I can explain. Bowen isn’t a threat, not to any of us.
He’s special. He can…” I bit my lip before sharing his secret, wanting to protect him, even if I had shared the secrets of some of my friends with him earlier.
I had to tell them, though, so maybe it would help them understand. “He can communicate with animals.”
“He… what?” Zee asked.
“Hmm,” Ash responded slowly. He folded his hands together in front of him. “Interesting.”
Maxime’s mouth opened as if he was about to ask me a question, but instead, he turned toward Ash. “What’s interesting?”
“This Bowen, he came to my yoga class this morning. I sensed something very old about him. Something I haven’t sensed in a long time.”
Old? Bowen wasn’t old; he was a few years younger than me. But Ash… he was the oldest of all of us. Centuries, as far as any of us could tell. What was it he could have possibly sensed?