One story he’d heard was that the power of meeting your mate could break curses. There had been all kinds of wild tales about that kind of thing amongst shifters, and he’d usually ignored them as wish fulfilment and fairy tales, but… could it be true? Could meeting Luna have broken his curse, however it had happened, or whatever it was?
He pondered this until eventually the water started to grow cool – and the more he thought about it, the more sense it made. He hadn’t knownwhat, exactly, was the source of his problem, but being a shifter who didn’t have a lot of contact with other shifters meant he hardly knew everything about all the possibilities the world contained.
But maybe some of those fairy stories had had a grain of truth in them after all – maybe the mate bond was like true love’s kiss, able to disperse evil spells and break evil – or at least really, really inconvenient – curses?
It would explain why there wasn’t a bevy of animals trying to throw themselves in through the window right now and ruin his relaxing bath – so that had to be it.
Meeting Luna had saved him.
Shehad saved him. He’d be able to court her now the way he wanted to – to show her justwhyhe was the right man for her, the mate bond aside. Show her how much he could care for her, protect her, make sure she’d never have to worry about anything ever again. He could get his old job back – no, a better job! Hellhound or not, he’d find a way, and he’d make sure Luna never wanted for anything ever again.
I can’t believe it. It was all so simple.
Henry felt lighter than he had inweeks.He could feel his heartbeat thudding joyfully in his chest.
As much as he wanted to top the bath up with more hot water and stay there forever, he didn’t want to still be in here when Luna got back. He’d just sorted one problem out – he really didn’t want to cause another one.
He hauled himself out with no small amount of regret, luxuriating in the feel of the floormat beneath his feet, which was just as soft as he had thought it would be.
Wrapping the towel around his waist and whistling a little, he padded out into the main room. He still had some time to kill before Luna would be back, and he had to admit that he was thirsty.
He poked around in the kitchen cupboards, pulling out a teacup… then, on a whim, he pulled out a second one. He wasn’t sure if Luna was the tea-drinking type – hell,hewasn’t really the tea-drinking type, but when in Rome – but he thought maybe she would appreciate having a cup of tea waiting for her when she got back. He should at least dosomethingfor her, after all her kindness.
He turned on the electric kettle, marveling at its tiny size, and poured two cups of steaming hot tea, leaving them to brew.
Probably I should go put my pants on now. Don’t want to give her actual, completely well-deserved creepy vibes.
He started heading back toward the bathroom, when he noticed for the first time a window with curtains pulled across it.
I bet the view is amazing from here.
Curious, he pulled the curtains back, and looked out the window – and stared.
And the bear standing on the other side of the window pane stared back.
Chapter 4
“Okay Fillmore,” Luna said, lifting him up to her face so he could look directly into her eyes and understand how serious she was, “you cannot let me mess this up. You cannot. Okay?”
She couldn’t tell if Fillmore understood what she was talking about – let alone how serious she was about it – but certainly, he seemed to be wagging his tail and lolling his tongue a little more solemnly than usual.
“You like him too, right?” Luna said, as the washing machine behind her – which was definitely way fancier and shinier than the one back home in her apartment – started its final spin cycle. “I mean, I’ve never seen you act that way before! It was almost like you were leading me to him… except that’s kind of stupid, and I shouldn’t let myself get my hopes up about it. Ididmake him lose his cake. Maybe that’s a dealbreaker as far as he’s concerned. I mean, could you blame him?”
Fillmore tilted his head, blinking his big bulging eyes at her.
“That’s a good point, Fillmore.Youactually did that. So maybe he’d cut us a bit of slack? You’re just a dog, after all. You can’t be held responsible for your actions.”
Luna certainly hoped Henry saw it that way, at least. She hoped she’d done the right thing in bringing him back here to wash his clothes – she definitely couldn’t have just let him leave with his shirt all covered in cakey mess, but at the same time, she couldn’t deny thatmaybeit came across as her having some kind of ulterior motive.
Like getting him shirtless in my room…but no! That’s not why I did it! That was just a… a side benefit! And I didn’t look, anyway!
Shereallyhadn’t – well, not much. But she really hadn’t had an ulterior motive when she’d first made the offer. It was only once they’d actually been standing in her room and Luna realized she’d actually have to ask Henry to take his shirt off so she could clean it that the full implications had hit her.
And the idea that he was… right now… at this very moment…
No, don’t think about that!
Luna forced the thought of a naked and very possibly wet Henry out of her head as quickly as she could. It was true, she’d never felt more attracted to anyone before in her life, but she had to be able to look him in the eye once his shirt was washed and dry.
