Page 27 of The Healer and the Wolf: Part One

I blinked. I’d been so lost in her touch I hadn’t realized enough time had passed for her to have dragged the thing in her hand across my face multiple times.

“You wanna feel?”

I cupped my chin, fingers barely brushing over Ven’s as she released me. Sure enough, my thick beard was gone, leaving behind smooth skin that felt incredibly foreign.

“You’re all good to rinse off. The clothes are on the toilet. I’m going to go change in my room, okay?”

I nodded, and Ven extricated herself from me, then left the room. After rinsing myself off once last time, I stepped out of the tub.

It really was over.

I felt rattled, and yet so much more human. The creature was still me, but so much of it had been rinsed away, purged in that glorious spray of hot water and fine soaps.

I stood, rubbing my hands over my body and my smooth face before I remembered the clothes Ven had mentioned. There was a larger square of cloth on top of them—another towel.

She really was so thoughtful.

Touched yet again, I dried myself off as best I could. I had just managed to put on the pants—they were a bit tight—when Ven entered again.

“Wow, look at you,” she said, bright smile on her face. “You clean up nice.”

“I can’t look at myself,” I murmured absently as I pulled the shirt over my head. The top part was going to get wet from my hair, but I didn’t really care. It would dry eventually.

“Oh, right. Here, let me fix that.”

Ven opened the cabinet under the sink and pulled something from the depths that I couldn’t identify. She connected it to the wall, then turned it on.

I flinched at the awful sound coming from the thing. Ven gave me an apologetic smile before turning it toward the foggy window right above the sink. I watched, curious as the thick steam over it dissipated. Instead of showing the world outside, Ven was reflected in it.

Wait! I knew what it was. A mirror. My great aunt used to call it a looking glass because she was an old-fashioned Southern shifter.

“Why don’t you take a look?” Ven asked, stepping out of the way.

My gut clenched in anticipation. In the back of my mind, I wondered if it was a bad idea. Yet I stepped forward anyway to see the man I had come to be.

Well, shit.

I locked eyes with myself, and for the first time in what could have been years…

I saw Leo.

I sawme.The human. The shifter.

Thealpha.

And like a dam had suddenly burst, so much came rushing back to me.

12

VANESSA

Was it possible to feel like I’d known someone my entire life when I’d only met them a few days ago?

I found myself wondering that over and over as the days passed with Leo’s presence in my house. After I’d helped him bathe, he’d excused himself. I’d left him to his own devices because it looked like he could use some time to himself, but as I’d gone about my own business, I couldn’t help but think back to the shower.

It should have been such a simple process, yet it turned out to be so muchmore.

Leo was settling into his skin in a way he hadn’t been able to since the curse had broken. He was going through some personal revelation and figuring out so many things. It touched me in a way I hadn’t expected to, and as the days wore on, I still found my mind returning to that moment.

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