The Reluctant Alpha (West Coast Wolves #1) - Susi Hawke Page 0,11
him bridal-style. I felt better with every step taking us away from his awful bed and away from a room stinking of hovering death.
Although I knew where the guest suite was located, this might as well have been a different home than the one I’d lived in. Everything was updated and far fancier and lusher than my father ever would’ve had. Nothing in the hall was familiar. Even the paint color had changed since I lived here, but muscle memory took me straight to my old room and past it to the old guest suite.
How had I forgotten its existence? Easy. My father had never needed it, having had no use for making nice with the territory chief or the supreme council.
The guest room was cold and lifeless, if well decorated. The single scent I picked up was a faint trace of lemon polish and a whiff of whoever had last cleaned in here. Good. A blank slate was exactly what Elisha and I needed.
I nudged the switch with my elbow, flooding the room with light before kicking the door shut. It was a large, well-appointed suite with a king-size bed to my left and a small sitting area straight ahead, arranged to enjoy the view from a multi-paned picture window. None of the details mattered at the moment. I only noticed a large dresser to my right when I nearly walked smack into it after I spotted the open bathroom door.
Yes. A shower. Perfect to get all these damn feathers off Elisha's body.
I couldn’t care less about the deluxe bathroom or the floor which heated beneath my feet almost as soon as I hit all three switches next to the door, rather than figuring out which one operated the light.
The one thing I was pleased about was the huge walk-in shower, standing beside a bathtub wide enough for two. Elisha shivered, his body trembling harder from the cold air. Making soothing sounds, I reached into the shower and got the warm water flowing.
Reluctantly, I settled Elisha on a built-in bench inside the door. He curled right up, his knees flush against his baby bump as he huddled and rocked. I rested a hand on the top of his head. "Shh, easy now. You're safe, little wolf. Give me two seconds to get my britches off, and we'll get you cleaned up."
If I'd thought to grab my bag from the storage compartment on my bike and had a change of clothes, I wouldn't have even worried. I winced at the thunk when my jeans hit the floor and remembered my phone in the pocket. Oops. Good thing I hadn't walked into the shower fully clothed.
As soon as I had my shirt over my head, I let it drop behind me and went straight in. Scooping Elisha back up, I put him under the water and tried to get him to stand. "Come on, honey. Lower your legs and get on your feet so we can get you clean." I tried to get his body to respond, gently pushing at his knees as I murmured in his ear, “Please work with me, Elisha. We need to get this shit off your skin.”
Nope. Nothing. He burrowed his face into my shoulder as he tried to curl into a tighter ball against my chest.
Even though I tried again, no amount of alpha persuasion in my tone worked. "Sorry, little wolf. I know you’re in pain, but we really need to get these feathers off your body. I don't know if you can hear me, but your wolf can. I need you to stand. Do it for me now."
Still nothing. My own wolf paced desperately. We were on a tight clock to claim and save our mate, but I couldn’t stomach doing it covered in an allergen causing him pain. No. I would save him, but I would make it as painless as possible. There was time. If there wasn’t, surely the fates wouldn’t be so cruel as to have brought me here.
Lowering myself to the floor, I decided to come at this from another direction. I cradled him in one arm, grabbing the detachable sprayer and rinsing the detestable feathers away. Thank heavens the drain had big openings, or we probably would have had a flood to deal with, based on how many clumps washed off.
Shifting his body this way and that, I managed to get every bit of his skin feather free. I was glad to see a bottle of the odorless