One Bite

Chapter 3-5

If the Northern territory's packhouse was a castle, then the East's had the flavor of a Tudor-style, second manor home. The interior breathed a casual, home-away-from-home coziness, with lower ceilings, small and quaint rooms with multiple fireplaces, and casual 'sit and relax'-styled decor. The walls were white and lighter wood-toned furniture contrasted the terracotta floor tiles.

"No four inch heels, Elena." I frowned at the tile floors' deep grout lines. "Please."

"I wouldn't dream of it." She rolled her eyes at the melodrama in my voice but smiled. She tugged me through a welcoming front foyer that housed a marble statue of -

"What is... that?" My feet rooted to the spot, lurching my head, and blinked at the statue that greeted us in the entrance.

My brain had trouble comprehending why this structure was inside the house as much as its subject matter. A circular, marble statue fountain of a wolf perched on top of a rock presented flowing blades of grass underneath. Four snakes circled around the wolf's front paws as if tethering it down. Streams of water flowed out of the wolf's and each snake's mouths and water ran down the sides of the rock like slow trickles of blood. A large, empty space on the rock sat next to the wolf, as if a component was missing, or had been removed.

"That's kinda... creepy." Leaning closer, I stared face-to-face with the wolf's beady eyes and bared teeth.

"I'm glad you feel that way," she whispered. "We haven't been able to figure out the missing piece and were hoping you could ask future Alpha Torak."

"I'll put it on the list for conversation topics." I gave the fountain one more lookover, then followed Elena down a hallway ahead of us.

"Alpha Stephan and Luna Rashida are in a pack meeting right now, but they requested I show you to your room to get ready for dinner. We're all on the first floor, with guest spaces ahead."

She steered me to a room on the right side of a narrow hallway and stopped.

"Raina's across the hall from you." She pointed at the closed door across from mine, then further down the hall. "Cole and I are four doors down."

"Four doors down?" My eyes shifted where she pointed.

Not that their room location mattered since we could mindlink, but their close proximity in the North territory was comforting.

"Some odd request of separating mated and unmated guests." She shrugged her shoulders. "Wash up for dinner, I'll get you in forty-five minutes. I laid out a nice selection since you're meeting the pack leaders but..."

Her eyes and voice softened as she finished, "Wear what's most comfortable."

"Thanks Elena." I gave her a quick embrace, thankful she didn't hug my back, and opened my door.

A smile pulled on my lips as I took in the sight of my guest bedroom for the next month. The space was a lovely, welcoming, modern bedroom. While a small room, the vaulted white ceiling made it appear open and airy. The décor was neutral, with walls of dark gray.

I smiled at the vases of more rainbow roses on white bedside tables flanking the bed and offering a natural, floral scent. A gun-metal framed bed and tufted gray linen headboard took up most of the floorspace but the coordinating linens and fluffy pillows made me want to face-plant onto the bed and call it an evening.

Unfortunately, I couldn't do that.

Pack leaders to meet.

Pack leaders who've generously taken me in, injured and broken, their healers tended to me for four days.