Winter Howl (Sanctuary) (9 page)

Renee noticed that although he had put on a white undershirt, jeans, and the boots before coming in, he had blood smeared on his cheek near his mouth. Grant sniffed the air and turned to see her watching him. He chuckled in amusement.

“What did you do? Bury yourself alive and then dig yourself back up again?” Grant asked.

“What about you? Did you go hunting in your human skin?”

“What?”

“You have blood on your face,” Renee said.

“Who are you to talk?” He wasn’t argumentative, just sparring for the hell of it.

“I know what I’m covered in,” Renee replied. “You just didn’t seem to know what was on you.”

Grant muttered under his breath something with the word ‘you’ in it, and Renee did not even want to ask him to speak up. If it was innuendo, she did not want to hear it, and she didn’t believe in making people repeat themselves more loudly if they’d intended to keep quiet in the first place. Some things just needed saying aloud, even if they were not meant to be heard.

“Well, aren’t you going to thank me for getting dinner for you and your friends?” Grant asked after he’d finished muttering.

“Thank you,” Renee said politely. “Start cleaning them before Jake gets in, and you’ll get a bigger thank you later.”

“Oh, really? Dare I ask what that thank you will be?” Grant said, raising his eyebrows in interest.

“It’s not what you’re thinking,” Renee said, backing out of the door.

“Then I’m not the only one thinking it, love,” he called after her.

Renee shook her head as she returned to her work. With Grant’s contribution, she supposed that all the shapeshifters would be getting a treat tonight, so she’d better find more makings for a salad.

When Renee finally came out of the greenhouse again, she could not see Grant anywhere, and Jake was finishing up cleaning the meat. Jake was pretty thorough when he dressed meat, and tried to use all the parts that he could, burying the rest near the compost heap. Using hunted or slaughtered meat was nothing new for Jake. The dogs had managed to bring a few hunted animals in over the years, and the shapeshifters sometimes had a yen for new meat rather than thawing frozen meat. Also, they had their small set of farm animals to eat, mainly chickens and turkeys—the latter mostly for holidays—since they used the cows for milk.

“Tell the wolf that he did well,” Jake muttered as she passed by him.

“Tell him yourself,” Renee said. “I’m not your mediator.”

“Will he be eating with all of us?”

“I imagine so.”

“So we’ll use the big dining table tonight so the others can be invited in?” Jake asked. There was a breakfast table in the kitchen area where the core pack generally ate. But they also had a dining table in the great room that seated twelve, or more if they all squeezed in. Renee did not think that all the shapeshifters would be eating with them with Grant there. The dining room table would work fine.

She nodded and continued through the kitchen. She probably had a few hours before dinner.

As she left the kitchen, she heard Jake muttering, and she knew he was offering something of a prayer—a word or two of gratitude towards the animals for surrendering their lives. It was a ritual that the three shapeshifters who cooked—Jake, Ki, and occasionally Britt—followed regularly. Renee had once asked whether they really believed that the animals could hear them. Britt had answered that everything was energy, and even if the animals could not hear them, it was respectful to show thanks nonetheless for the energy that would go to nourish their bodies. It was not a matter of talking to the spirits of the animals, although some shapeshifters believed that. For Jake in particular, and to some degree Britt, it was just good manners.

Before going completely down the hall, Renee looked into the two bedrooms for the other shapeshifters. There were actually three rooms, but the two that were currently occupied were the largest ones. The one that was unoccupied had been empty for several years, since Renee had moved out of the small room. It had been Britt’s idea, back when Renee was around sixteen and only did the occasional ‘sleepover’ up in Britt’s loft. Britt had not liked the idea of Renee sleeping in a place that shut her off from the rest of the world, even from her own sanctuary. She’d thought that Renee would benefit from sleeping in a room with someone else, a room that didn’t have proper walls. For the first few months in that room rather than her own, she had slept badly. But over time, she had grown accustomed to it and now enjoyed Britt’s company. Even as a human instead of a service dog, Britt grounded her in a way that no one else at the compound had ever been able to, not even her father. Her mother had never seen her at her worst, for which Renee was sometimes relieved.

It had been the perfect little room, though. It held her high, full-sized bed, her dresser, and a small desk in a tight squeeze, but it also had its own small full bath. Just enough to live in for most of the day—which was why Britt had wanted her out and about. Her father had encouraged the move. The room had stayed the way she’d left it, sans the clothing and toiletries and her stuffed teddy bear. Her stuffed polar bear guarded the room now.

Renee climbed the stairs to her loft, grabbed a clear pair of jeans, a royal blue sweater, and a clean pair of panties before heading into the bathroom. She undressed after closing the door behind her and threw the utterly filthy clothes into her hampers.

Looking into the mirror, she could not help but snort at the places where the dirt abruptly ended at her collarbone, her arms—above her elbow because she had removed her jacket—and the area above her ankles where her socks stopped. In contrast with her pale skin, which was slightly sticky with sweat, her dirty skin looked as if it had been smeared with charcoal.

She turned the shower on as hot as she could stand. She cracked the bathroom door open a bit in order to let the moisture from the bathroom out of the room. As she pulled the blue-and-brown patterned shower curtain behind her, she felt the hot spray run over her chilled body. She ran her hands through her loose hair and shuddered at the knots she found.

Around the time she reached down to wash and shave her legs, she thought she heard the door creak. With the shower water pattering against the porcelain bottom of the tub, she could not be sure, but she paused to listen closer. She could not hear anything else, so she just continued with her routine, closing her eyes as she sensed the contours of her legs with her razor. Breathing out into the steamy air within the shower, she ran the razor past her thighs and carefully over the swell of her mound, over the labia. She could not remember exactly when she’d started shaving between her legs. She remembered first trimming it from the ginger bush that it had been until the hair was close against her skin. She’d wanted it to look clean and controlled, but she’d worried that she was going to get a shaving cut in a very inopportune and inappropriate place. She had been surprised when she hadn’t cut anything at all the first time she’d tried.

She remembered what it was like the first time she’d used the showerhead on it, then her vibrator. It was as if the feeling had intensified just a little bit more. And she had done it ever since then, and liked the look and the feel for herself. She liked the routine, feeling the guarded blades sliding over the flesh and revealing it to her gaze when she looked down, seeing the tease of lip and clitoris whenever she looked in the mirror. It felt sexy to her somehow, especially since it had not been done for anyone but herself. Britt, who never shaved between her legs herself, had said—on one of the few occasions she had seen Renee naked—that she liked the way it looked on Renee. That it was beautiful, even. Another one of those moments when Renee hadn’t been sure about what Britt wanted from her.

Renee circled her clit lightly at the thought and wondered whether she could ever get up the courage to ask Britt. Or take her up on any potential offer. She did not really want to get off now, just a little touch, a little push. Enough to get her going without going off. She considered pulling out the shower head, but she was not in that sort of mood.

Once she’d shut the shower off, she pushed the shower curtain back and peered out to make sure that she had just been hearing things. Everything was as she had left it, the door at about the same distance from the door frame as before. She still felt nervous, because she could not be sure whether the order of her clean clothes on the vanity counter was the way it had been when she’d thrown them there, nor was she sure that the distance between the door frame and the door was that exact distance. But everything was there, and she just figured that she was being paranoid. If someone had been there that she had to worry about, there was no reason that they would just come in to hear her in the shower instead of pulling open the shower curtain to see her.

And of course, when she was thinking ‘they’, she meant Grant. Then again, Britt could have come in looking for a hairbrush.

She pulled on her clean clothes and slipped into her house shoes before heading downstairs. She paused a bit when she saw how many people were in the cabin. She knew all of her shapeshifters pretty well, but it was different when they were outside to when they were in the home itself, filling space that she was not used to being filled. Or rather, she was not used to so
much
space being filled.

“Hey!” Britt came over and gave her cheek a kiss. “Long time no see, Red.” True to form, she was wearing jeans and a loose blouse, but had neglected to button it.

“Where have you been all day?” Renee asked.

“Out and about—needed a good run today, ease out some tension of the stranger variety,” Britt answered. “Took a pack out with me in the afternoon. We didn’t see whatever animal has been ripping up other animals, and we didn’t see any fallout from it either.” She sat on the arm of the sofa and trained her dark brown eyes on Renee, running her fingers through her already wild, curly hair.

“So,” she said.

Renee waited for her to continue.

“How has the stranger been so far? I heard he got us our dinner,” Britt said.

“He’s been an arrogant asshole, but he asked what he could do and said he liked to hunt,” Renee said, shrugging off the underlying concern in Britt’s question.

But Britt knew what Renee needed to hear—a direct question, something she could not shrug off. Britt knew all of Renee’s weaknesses, and honesty was one of them. “Did he behave himself? Keep his hands to himself, and that sort of thing? Refrain from killing things that won’t be on our table tonight?”

“Well, he wasn’t a perfect gentleman,” Renee answered quietly, so that the others around them could not overhear. “But it’s not like any of us are expecting him to be. And he
was
willing to go out and hunt for the people who don’t like him. Please, Britt, work with me here. Give him the benefit of the doubt and let him prove himself guilty.”

Britt clenched her teeth, showing off the line of her cheekbones. She was not angry at Renee. That kind of clenching meant that she was trying to withhold an opinion. “Look, honey,” Britt murmured. “The way he was looking at you… I’m just worried.”

“
You
weren’t exactly ignored, if you’re talking about wandering eyes,” Renee said. “Wandering eyes aren’t anything to worry about, and as long as he makes an effort—”

“Wandering eyes, no,” Britt said. “But wandering eyes can lead to wandering hands, and you don’t exactly have the best natural defences, Renee. At least I can change into dog skin and teeth.” It was rare to see Britt so serious. “You might look into investing in some protection. I’m just saying.”

Renee did not know how to respond to that. Britt was right when she said Renee was incredibly vulnerable to that kind of danger in a way that the other shapeshifters were not.

When conversation waned in the great room, Renee knew that Grant had come in. He was still wearing the clothes that he had been wearing when he had come into the kitchen earlier. There was a spot of blood on the collar, but he had cleaned his face. He took the collective slight in stride and just went about his business with that small grin on his face. He raised an invisible glass at Renee and Britt from the other side of the room, sat down in an armchair, and waited for conversation to return to normal.

“Look, honey,” Britt said, lowering her voice even more so that Renee had to lean in to hear her. “Maybe being a werewolf doesn’t automatically make him dangerous. Like you said, maybe that’s just another shapeshifter prejudice. But I could
swear
that
he
is dangerous. And I want you safe. I don’t want you alone with him at any time.”

“He hasn’t killed me yet, Britt, and we have been alone together,” Renee protested quietly. She held up her hands. “I’ll be careful, okay. But I just… I don’t want to condemn him before he’s even had a chance. I refuse to be afraid just because he’s here. I have too many things to do to be afraid here, on my own land where I’m not supposed to be afraid. Someone can’t always be with me. I know what you’re trying to do, and I know that you care, but…”

Britt touched a hand to her cheek and lifted her face a little so that she could press her lips against Renee’s mouth. It was a chaste kiss, certainly more chaste than anything that Renee had witnessed her doing with Jake. Britt was cautious in her impulsive decision, but when Renee relaxed rather than tensed up after the initial surprise, Britt tilted her head more for a closer kiss.