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“Wha- Dru?” Caleb sat up, instantly alert as he glanced around in concern, searching for me.
“I’m dirty,” I told him, brushing at the sheets as I tried to get any dirt that may have flaked off of me when I slept. “I don’t want to mess the sheets up.” He stared at me in disbelief, and captured my hand when I got close.
“It’s okay,” he assured me, his gaze bleary as he realized there was no danger. “We’ll wash them.”
“Exactly,” I protested. “Washing sheets is my least favorite chore. I usually make Paige do it.” Her name brought a sudden stab of alarm. “Paige!”
Caleb shot out of the bed, alarmed. “Was she taken too? We didn’t see her.”
“Huh?” I cocked my head and he stared back at me, confusion written on his face. “No,” I said, catching on. “They didn’t take her, but she’s probably worried sick about me.”
Caleb sank back down on the bed and I noticed for the first time that he wore a random set of clothes, as if he’d just grabbed them from a box or something. “She can wait,” he replied. “Gregory has gone to your family lands to try and make peace with your Gran.”
“Gregory?” I questioned, not sure which one that was.
“The old one,” Caleb answered, adding, “The one who knew Mildred. He called her Millie.”
“Oh, okay. Brave of him,” I muttered, scratching my arm, the dried blood itchy.
Caleb caught my arm, rotating it carefully, but there was nothing there. “I checked you for injuries, but I couldn’t find any. There was so much blood though.”
“Not mine,” I assured him, as it flaked between my fingers. “The other wolf, Dylan, it’s mostly his.”
“He was shot?” Caleb questioned and I nodded.
“He was, but he wouldn’t shift. I managed to heal him.”
“You healed him?”
My gaze flicked down as I said, “I did. It was weird. I’ve never been able to do that. I felt the power like I’ve never experienced. It surged through me, like it wanted me to use it.” I plucked at the filthy shirt I still wore. “Do you have a bucket and some more clothes?”
“I have clothes,” he mentioned, his forehead wrinkling as he asked, “What’s the bucket for?”
“So I can clean up.”
“You can take a shower,” he suggested, pointing to a door I hadn’t noticed. “Plenty of hot water. Dom is famous for taking 30 minute showers so they have a tank less hot water heater.”
Most of what he said didn’t make a lot of sense, but I followed him as he walked over to the door. There was a sink, a toilet, and the biggest shower I’d ever seen. It was like the one we had outside but clean and nice, the walls made of a slick tile and the shower head went into the wall. “Where’s the cistern?”
“We don’t have one,” he replied, twisting a handle on the wall and water came pouring out, steam quickly filling the room. “Just turn it to make the water hot or cold or turn it off.”
I stretched my arm out and flinched as the droplets pricked my skin harder than I expected. “It won’t run out?”
He shook his head and I smiled excitedly, stripping the shirt over my head. He backed out of the room, keeping his eyes averted, as he said, “I’ll go get some clean clothes. Have fun.”
I didn’t even hear him as I stepped under the stream of hot water as it came down harder than the most torrential downpour. I played with the knob thing, turning it the wrong way and the water turned cold, and I hurried to turn it the other way until the water came out scalding. I scrubbed my skin, then saw a bar of soap, but it wasn’t like anything I’d used before, it smelled wonderful and as I rubbed it over my body, bubbles formed on my skin. I used it to wash my hair since it smelled so good, then just stood under the water, letting it rain down over me, and wished I could show this to Paige.
“Dru?” Caleb called through the door, tapping and then opening the door as I continued to stand under the waterfall. “Hey, you coming out? You’re going to turn into a prune.”
I blinked at him through the water, but steam coated the glass door hiding him from my view. He finally opened the shower door, reaching over to turn the water off. He grabbed a towel, wrapping it around me as he tugged me from the shower.
“That thing is amazing,” I told him and his lips curled up. “You should have put me in there before you let me get in the bed and dirty the sheets.”
“I’ll wash the sheets,” he promised, knotting the towel so it wouldn’t fall, and I nodded, not arguing since I really hated laundry. His hands framed my face, brushing the wet strands of hair from my cheeks, and intensity radiated from him. “I told myself to wait. To give you time.” He shook his head. “I can’t. Dru, you are everything to me. Everything I didn’t know I wanted. Everything I didn’t know I was missing. Giving you up was the hardest thing I’ve ever done and I know I can’t do it twice.”
