Page 118 of Howl You Doin?
Chapter 38
Connor O’Doyle
Living the fur dream.
“That water is disgusting.I can’t believe you put me in the bloody moat.”
I scrub the towel Whitley thankfully handed me a moment ago over my hair and glare at Odette, who stands just inside the castle doorway. She tips her head into the air as if studying the ceiling closely and disappears inside. I’m going to murder that woman.
“You peed on me and yourself! What did you expect me to do?” Vlad bites out, his red eyes ablaze, stealing my attention. “And I didn’t throw you. You needed a bath, so I gave you one.”
“It was uncontrollable,” I snap. “I don’t know if you noticed, but I was living life as apuppyat the time. You’re fucking lucky, else you’d be in a bloody cat carrier right about now!”
Thank the gods all the guests have now gone, or someone would be seeing a lot more than what they paid for, and then some. Luckily, once my skin touched the moat, whatever spell Odette cast let go, probably because of Lachlan’s curse that holds him there. Maria, one of the employees, did see, but Odettedid her special hand wave, and the woman forgot everything, including me as a dog.
“What in the hell has happened since I left?” Vlad’s gaze darts around, stopping at the sight of Whitley before he catches my stare.
I grab Whitley’s hand in mine, kiss her knuckles, and hoist our hands at him. “Meet my mate.”
“Ye lads are just as sweet as the highland heather, ye are.” Lachlan’s voice booms out, echoing off the stone walls of the drawbridge close to the castle entrance.
“Lachlan?” Vlad’s pale hand grips the stone rail as he looks down into the moat.
Lachlan’s hairy chest is bare, and he’s wearing swimming trunks while sitting inside a pink coffin floaty with a drink in his hand.
“Lookie what I got.” Lachlan points down at his coffin-shaped floaty then waves, as carefree as ever, the git. “I bought ye one, too, Vlad. The internet is a wonderful place.”
“Since when do you move about?” Vlad asks, his lip curling at the sight of the gaudy flotation device. “You look ridiculous.”
“That’s the cutest floaty I’ve ever seen,” Aubrey murmurs. “Who is that, anyway? I thought all the guests left.”
“That’s Lachlan,” Whitley attempts to whisper back. She’s up on her tiptoes like the rest of them, all trying to see the idiot below. “He’s the Loch Ness monster, but he’s cursed to the moat and can’t leave it.”
“This place is so cool,” Aubrey whispers back. “Vlad did tell me about him.”
“The humans think I’m a bloody animatronic, Vlad. What is the world coming tae?” the Loch Ness monster grates out, glaring up at us.
When that doesn’t get a rise out of my newly returned friend, Lachlan shrugs and settles back onto the floaty, then slurps atthe straw from his drink. A straw that suspiciously looks like it has the wordNessiewrapped around it. He raises his brows, forcing the sunglasses atop his head to fall and shield his eyes.
Before I can get a word out, Vlad goes on a tirade, his face flushing almost as ruby as his eyes.
“What the fuck did you do my ancestral home while I was gone?” he thunders, his nostrils flaring.
“You should be giving me congratulations, but instead you start whining and complaining before you’ve even set foot in the castle,” I snark.
“I’m not sure whether to offer you congratulations or go purchase puppy diapers for you, sinceyou peed on mebefore I could even get through the fucking door,” Vlad intones, his gaze on Whitley, obviously still annoyed when I’m the one who smells of moat water.
“Why don’t we all go relax and watch a movie? We could have some snacks!” Whitley blurts, and everyone starts talking at once.
An hour later,Whitley, Aubrey, Vlad and I are all situated in the theater room as the scents of popcorn, candies, and chips permeate the air. Odette isn’t the type to watch a movie with strangers, and with the way she and Vlad constantly spat, it’s probably for the best she didn’t join us.
The girls sit on the big sunken couch together, while Vlad and I are seated in two singular chairs at the side of the room.The Mummy IIplays in the background as the girls sit and talk with one another, and I smile at how at ease Whitley seems with Aubrey.
A line creases my forehead. We’ll be having a lengthy discussion about Odette and her fertility potions later, and I’m not sure how that’s going to pan out.
“How long has Odette been here?” Vlad mutters, his head angled as he tries to keep his voice down.
“A little over a week, but she says she’s leaving this evening,” I answer.
