Page 19 of The Lone Wolf Café
Rowena shook her head, that faint smile still hanging on her lips. But she didn’t look amused. She looked…sad?
“Sleep well, Nettie. I’ll see you in the morning.”
She walked across the cabin, her boots clicking faintly on the floors, and slipped through the creaky front door before I could formulate a response.
The sound of the door closing behind her was deafening. It was an unpleasant reminder that I was stuck in the darkness of amusty old cabin in a village I shouldn’t even be in, lusting for a mysterious witch who probably thought I was a weirdo.
My anxiety returned as quickly as it left. Except this time, Rowena was gone. I was truly and utterly alone.
I promise, I will not let anyone hurt you. You’ll be safe here. No one will find out your secret.
I tried to shake Rowena’s words – and emotions – out of my head, but they wouldn’t budge. And part of me didn’t want them to. I needed to figure out what they meant. I needed to learn why she went from nearly chasing me out of her café to offering me a job. And a home. And safety.
And that protective urge… the way it radiated from her…
I sighed. Right now, I had other worries. I peered around the dark cabin, and my nose twitched again. I gasped before letting out three loud, painful sneezes.
Ugh, I grimaced.I need to start cleaning. At least that will keep me from fretting about being alone.
It was nothing, right?I scraped the spindly broom across the floor, and another cloud of dust plumed up, hanging in the air like smoke.
Just an offer to have some tea. She loves tea. Even if I don’t.
I sniffled, and I felt deep in my lungs how saturated the air was with grime. I could barely take a breath without coughing or sneezing.
Gods, Nettie, stop dwelling on it. You’re not even planning on staying in this town.
I’d barely swept half the kitchen area, and the air was already too polluted for me to breathe. The musty old windowswouldn’t open, and the cracked front door wasn’t nearly enough ventilation.
On top of that, I’d barely swept up any debris. The broom I’d found behind the damaged cabinets was missing half its bristles, meaning all the dust it touched merely got kicked up into the air. I barely managed tocleananything, and now the air in my ramshackle home was no longer breathable.
I stumbled outside, planting my hands on my knees and inhaling the fresh autumn air like I was starved of oxygen. The sun finally disappeared beneath the horizon, and the fiery pinks and oranges of the sunset were slowly being replaced by the ever-darkening night sky. Various chirps and croaks hung in the air, serenading the change in both light and temperature, and I heard the unmistakable screech of a barn owl in the distance.
I need real cleaning supplies.I scowled at the damaged broom I had leaned against the door and tossed it into a pile of fallen leaves.Not the junk that’s been rotting away in here for decades.
Throughout my futile attempts at tidying up the cabin, my mind still swirled with thoughts of Rowena. I couldn’t deny I was attracted to her. She was both beautiful and a mystery to solve, something that satiated my wolfish senses of lust and curiosity. But I’d known her less than a day, and even if Rowenadidn’tcurrently think I was overbearing and weird, forming attachments in this town was a bad idea. I didn’t intend to stay. I couldn’t even if I wanted to.
I rubbed a filthy palm across my cheek in frustration.
Loneliness and werewolf hormones definitely don’t mix.
I missed my family. Back on Hollenboro, I was always surrounded by activity. From my neighbors and relatives bounding around town to settling at home with my father and sisters in the evening, I was never alone. Here, I was a stranger, an outsider, and no one to rely on but myself.
Right now, it was just me, alone, in a broken-down old cabin that was barely habitable.
I took a few deep breaths, stood up straight, and collected my thoughts. Getting the dust out of the cabin, at least for tonight, wasn’t going to be an option. But I needed to be able to breathe, so I decided to force open the filthy old windows, even if I had to break them in the process.
An hour later, I was somewhat lucky. After pushing and pulling until my upper back ached, I’d managed to force two windows open. Their hinges were so old and worn that they practically screamed in agony when they moved. There were rotting leaves and dead insects cluttering the windowsill, but I could worry about that later. For now, at least I had fresh air.
By that point, the sky was pitch-black, and I was exhausted. The two windows I’d been able to open were on opposite sides of the cabin, so I would at least be able to get some cross-ventilation. A sharp nighttime breeze swept through the window, and I welcomed it with open arms, even as my skin prickled from the cold.
By werewolf standards, the night was still young. But since I had to be awake at an ungodly hour, I decided it was best to get some sleep.
Or at least try.
I curled up on the one section of the kitchen floor I had been able to sweep up, using my cape as a pillow and cradling my arms above my head. With the windows open, the air was no longer stifling, but the temperature dropped significantly. My torso and legs began to shiver from the cold, and I gave up on having a pillow, using my cape as a blanket instead.
I longed to shift into my wolf form. Not only would sleeping on the ground be far more comfortable as a wolf, but my thick fur coat was warm and insulating.
