“She isn't just a guest, Molly,” I reply. “This is Leena and she'll be staying with us till further notice.”
“Welcome,” Molly greets her with a genuine smile. “I'm glad to have you here with us. Can I get you anything?”
“We'll circle back to that,” I state. “Can you gather the rest of the staff and wait in the kitchen in about thirty minutes? I'll show Leena to her room and we'll be right back.”
“Will do,” Molly says before leaving.
“Who's the nice lady,” Leena asks, genuinely looking happy. I'm pretty sure it's because she realizes now that we aren’t the only ones living here.
“She's Molly, the chef,” I answer. “You'll meet the rest of the staff soon enough. Don't worry about it. Come on.”
I walk toward the stairs and Leena catches up. “So, I'm one of them, right?” She asks when we start climbing the staircase.
“In a manner of speaking. You'll be working with me, but you're not a house staff. They take care of the building, but you are here as my assistant.”
“I see,” Leena replies with a nod. “I hope the rest are as nice as Molly.”
“We're a family here. Everyone cares for each other.”
“Good, because I can't be fighting anyone off. I hope they know I'm not a threat.”
“A threat?”
“Yeah, like I'm not trying to intrude on their space or take you away from them. I don't want some crazy lady coming after me because they think I'm trying to steal their man.”
I shake my head. “You have nothing to worry about,” I say as we reach the top of the stairs. “You're not my type.” Leena pauses three steps down with an annoyed look. I chuckle as I walk away from her. “Aren't you coming?”
She catches up as I stop at one of the doors on the top floor. I twist the knob and open it, revealing the space. Leena and I enter the completely furnished room.
“Woah,” she says. “It's like I'm in a hotel.” She remains wide-eyed as she moves from the bed to the dresser, to the wardrobe, to the reading table, and finally to the bookshelf. “You even got me books. How did you get all this set up if you just found out you're going to have an assistant.”
“I texted Jackson on our way here. He's sort of the handyman around the house. I'm not surprised he was able to get all of this set up so quickly. What's shocking is that he took books from my private library for you.”
Her eyes light up again. “There's more? You have a private library? Can I see it, please?”
I lift a hand, stopping her. “It's private for a reason, Leena. It's just for me.”
She pouts but forgets the sadness when she goes back to the books. “You must have a lot to be able to fill a shelf on such short notice.”
“You could say that.”
“Am I sharing this room with anyone?” Leena asks. She tugs some of her hair behind her ears as she talks. The subtle motion is enough to distract me, but I quickly recover.
“No, this is yours alone. No one else is allowed to come in here. You have all the privacy you want… and a good view, too.”
I move to the window and open it, letting in a strong breeze. Leena gasps at the view from up here. “I can see everything… wow. Is that the town we passed on our way?”
I nod. “We'll get to that later. You're safe here, Leena. I want you to let your wolf side free. Here, there are no cages. You can even go into the woods and transform as much as you want.”
Leena rubs the side of her arm and looks away. “I'm not sure I want to do that… It hurts too much. I don't want to transform unless it's absolutely necessary.”
I let out a small sigh. Wolves that get turned usually have it worse because their transformations are as painful as what young wolves experience, maybe even worse. Leena is still new, so there's a lot more pain to come.
I feel so bad for her.
“Come. It's time to introduce you to the staff.”
“Okay,” she chirps.
