I wasn’t sure if I was ready to say goodbye.
I cleared my throat and asked in a small voice, “Is it okay if I have a bath?”
He stepped away again and whispered something to Tanix before leaning against the edge of the counter, for all the world looking important and unimpressed. Hadriel peered through a doorway on the left, his fingers tapping against his leg in impatience.
Keys were handed out and Weston began walking away without looking back.
“Here we go, step lively.” Hadriel directed me forward in the middle of the procession. “The sooner we get situated, the sooner I can grab an ale and get all the newest gossip. Inns here are famous for their worldly secrets.”
Weston was nowhere to be found on the second floor. Tanix was waiting at the top of the stairs, directing people. When I came up, he pulled me to the side.
“Wait here for a moment.”
When everyone else had their room assignments, he took me down to the end of the hall. The door had a shiny metal “B” on it, and he wasted no time turning the handle and directing me in.
“You’ll have your bath now. The alpha will be in momentarily.”
With that he closed me in. I heard thethunkof his boots on the worn wooden floor as he walked away.
The room had various chairs and benches with little hooks and stands for clothes. On the right at the back a purple curtain separated this room from whatever lay beyond.
“Just give me a moment, dearie,” came a woman’s voice from the other side of the curtain, and I heard water splashing into a basin. “When we have important customers we do it the old-fashioned way. It infuses the scent of flower petals better.”
That sounded nice.
“Just go ahead and get out of your clothes and come in when you’re ready,” she called.
I stepped behind a little screen and slowly shrugged out of my clothes, the twisting and turning needed to undress far from ideal for ribs in the state mine were in. I heard the door opening and felt a little draft. I froze, knowing it was Weston but not wanting to call attention to myself just in case it wasn’t.
His footsteps stalled in order to close the door. A metallic click said he’d engaged the lock before he moved to the middle of the room. It occurred to me that, somewhere along the way, I’d memorized his gait. I knew it was him from how he moved.
“Almost done,” I whispered.
“Do you need help?” he asked softly, confidently.
His voice sent a flurry of butterflies through my middle but the way he said it made my stomach flip with unease. Just like in the mornings after one of our hate-filled trysts, reality slowly seeped in.
This was the first city I’d ever been in. The establishment was large and luxurious and even the robe hanging next to me, used by and meant for strangers, was as fine as I’d ever seen.
Meanwhile, this was nothing to him—I could tell. This was a standard affair. He’d worked for kings and queens. He had buckets of gold. He’d passed himself off as a rich merchant, garnering respect with just his presence, but in reality he was so much more.
It was easy to forget the enormous disparity in our social statuses when traveling, but now, here, in a real establishment and under a real roof...
I swallowed thickly, trying to push that thought away. It didn’t really matter. Our futures lay in different directions, I’d always known that. I might as well soak up the good life before the dragons got ahold of me.
“No, I’m okay. I can bathe on my own, if you want,” I murmured, tucking a bit of hair behind my ear.
“I’m not going to bite, Little Wolf,” he replied, humor evident in his tone. “Not until you’re better, at any rate.”
I grabbed the robe, almost sheer and reaching down to nearly my shins. It wrapped around me nearly double, meant for someone much larger. Taller and curvier, like the women he probably dated—women with large manes of white hair and sparkly teeth or something, I didn’t know. I had no idea what a fine lady looked like. They probably wore layers of fine jewels that jingled when they walked around, enveloped in fragrant perfume and, like, sashes or…sun flares or something.
I moved around the screen sheepishly, holding my robe tight as though it might develop a mind of its own and flee from my body.
He was also clothed in a robe, the bottom reaching down to his ankles and the sleeves rolled up so the arms fit. The middle wasn’t too big, and he filled out the shoulders, but it was clear his robe was meant for someone taller.
“I thought maybe I was just a shrimp.” I grinned, rustling the bottom of the robe.
He looked down at his own. “These are clearly meant for a larger creature.” He glanced over his shoulder at the curtain. His lips curled just slightly, unwilling to say anything more when we might be overheard. I couldn’t imagine what secrets he might need to divulge about robes.
