Page 54 of Murder Mittens

I saluted her with my hot chocolate. “And now I’m off to the spa, as I have a long day of being treated like a princess ahead of me. I just wanted to check on you before I left.”

“Is everything okay with that guy who came up to you? He looks a bit upset.”

“He’s only cranky because he’s a temperamental lion who wants to be treated like a prince, and I’m a cat who goes off and does precisely what I want when I want, which doesn’t involve treating him like a prince.”

“Damn it, Wells!” Sebastian roared in my direction.

As always, I purred. “I really like that roar of his. It makes my mornings so nice.”

“You’re a lycanthrope?”

I lifted my cup again in salute. “Of the feline variety, and let me tell you, it is good to be a cat. Now I must go see how many more times I can make that lion roar before he goes insane. It’s the little things in life.” The girl laughed, and I returned to Sebastian grinning and with a spring in my step. “You are cranky this morning, Mr. Mane.”

He checked his phone. “There’s time. If you hurry your ass back to our room, I’ll show you cranky.”

“I’m getting paid, I got a roar, and now I get to see the lion get cranky. This is going to be a great week.”

“You’re something else,” the lion muttered.

“And you like it, so don’t try to deny it, Mr. Mane.”

With my understanding Sebastian would hunt for me the instant he realized I’d slipped out of bed on him, I turned our week stay at the spa into a game. We spent the day at the spa and the evening together in our room, running up the room service bill to terrifying heights. In the wee hours of the morning, I would slip out of his warm clutches and go hunting bounties.

He won if he caught me before I made my hit. I won if he showed up while I was collecting my pay. Even when I lost, I won, as he made my job more pleasant, and without fail, I’d get at least one roar out of him before it was time to head back to the spa to be pampered. While I’d put in for several bounties, I only bagged three of them during the week. Another hunter beat me to the chase twice, one took more time and effort than I had to dedicate to the hit, and the final one crossed Mr. Mane’s lines.

That one liked killing lycanthropes for the fun of it.

As I had a lot more reasons to keep on living than I did even a week ago, I let him cancel my claim on the bid with a note that a non-lycanthrope should handle it to mitigate risk to CDC operatives. His concern amused me.

When it was time to leave the spa, we’d both earned a ridiculous collection of gift bags and baskets for our exemplary behavior, and as we hadn’t racked up even a single incident breaking the spa rules, we both got another basket when we checked out.

Sebastian stole the bill before I could get my hands on it. “You’re not winning this one, Wells.”

“But I ate at least half of the room service.”

“How tragic for you, being wined and dined. Purr for me, little kitty. You can pay me in purrs.”

Ruthless, wicked lion. Rather than purr for him, I huffed, grabbed my basket, and pulled it close. “Fine. This basket is mine, and you can’t have it.”

“Yes, that basket is yours. It is a prize for being possibly the best behaved lynx on the entire planet. I had no idea it was possible for a lynx to masquerade as an angel, but that is your reward for having pulled it off. As lions are perfection, I was given a basket as a gift for gracing this fine establishment with my presence.”

“You are such a lion.”

“We didn’t even receive a single noise complaint,” the woman said with a sly grin. “That is even more miraculous than a lynx behaving like an angel.”

I laughed at Sebastian. “Lions have a reputation, I see. For being noisy.”

His strained sigh amused me almost as much as his roars. “Your establishment’s superior soundproofing is the only reason I earned that basket.”

The woman laughed. “Thank you. We hope you have had a pleasant stay with us.”

Sebastian finished paying for the room, hid the receipt so I couldn’t peek at how excessive our indulgences were, and took hold of his basket. “We’re going to need to make a few trips, and we’re going to be challenged fitting this all into the cab.”

We really would be. We hadn’t even opened most of the presents, and I still had unwrapped boxes from the first basket. “You’re a good distraction, Mr. Mane. I’ll fetch the truck, you guard the presents.”

If I gave the lion a chance to argue with me, he would, so I headed for the door with my basket. While I’d checked on my father’s truck every day, I checked it over again, satisfied it had survived its adventure to Cincinnati without incident. I put the basket on the backseat, got behind the wheel, and eased the monster of a vehicle to the front doors so we could load everything inside.

Everything did fit, although it took us a few minutes to organize it. “This stuff won’t even fit in my place. There won’t be room for me.”