Filed to story: The Healer and The Wolf PDF Free
“Time to lather you up with some shampoo.”
She said it in a sing-song way, like it was the simplest thing, but to me it wasn’t. She reached to the side and grabbed another bottle, then squeezed some liquid into her hand that smelled like roses and vanilla. Yet another thing to add to the many things flooding my nose, but I welcomed it.
Then she was putting it in my hair. Her fingers moved across my scalp in concentrated circles, scrubbing gently, almost like how she’d cleaned my back.
I wasn’t prepared for how damn good it felt. All sliding sensation and thick, honeyed relaxation pouring over me. It was inescapable, but I didn’t want to run. I wanted to be fully enveloped in it, drowned it in, until it washed away the last of the confusion clouding my mind.
While she cleansed my scalp, I drifted off into some completely magical place. Again, I wouldn’t have minded if this moment went on forever, but all good things had to come to an end.
“Time to rinse. Close your eyes until I tell you to open them, okay? This stuff burns like hell if you get it into your eyes.”
“Okay.”
Standing, she took the showerhead and poured heated water down my chest and lap. She fiddled with it and then the spray of water became narrower and stronger. I barely remembered that she’d told me to close my eyes and slammed them shut right as the suds began to pour down my forehead. It was pure bliss-there was no other word for it-and I succumbed to the loveliness of it all.
Time meant nothing while Ven tended to me, every caress more soothing than I ever imagined it could be. It was connection in its purest form, and something I had been missing for so long. It was beautiful, poignant, and so completely raw that I was sure if my eyes weren’t closed, I would have been crying.
Ven went through multiple steps, including conditioner and some other things, before she softly told me to tilt my head back.
I didn’t think it was possible, but every cell in my body was even more attuned to Ven’s everything as her thighs bracketed my shoulders. The way they gave under the pressure of my arms was intoxicating, and I could feel the soft cushion of her curves, and strong, resilient bands of muscle underneath. She was strong. Shifter strong. Our pups would be?-
Whoa.
Whoa.
I cut that line of thinking off. Ven was helping me. Getting carried away with fantasies of breeding her wouldn’t do either of us any good, even if she was a siren beckoning me to worship every aspect of her. I could control myself.
“Be very still for me, okay? I don’t want to nick you.”
I didn’t have the wherewithal to tell her it would heal before the blood could even get down my chin, too enraptured as she lathered my beard. Another floral fragrance. So many scents, and yet hers dominated them all, turning the wellspring of smells into a bouquet that emphasized her and only her.
Was this what being human was all about? The excitement, the sensations, the connection? It seemed like it. How had I lived so long without them? How would I survive if it was taken away from me again?
“There you are. All done.”
I blinked. I’d been so lost in her touch I hadn’t realized enough time had passed for her to have dragged the thing in her hand across my face multiple times.
“You wanna feel?”
I cupped my chin, fingers barely brushing over Ven’s as she released me. Sure enough, my thick beard was gone, leaving behind smooth skin that felt incredibly foreign.
“You’re all good to rinse off. The clothes are on the toilet. I’m going to go change in my room, okay?”
I nodded, and Ven extricated herself from me, then left the room. After rinsing myself off once last time, I stepped out of the tub.
It really was over.
I felt rattled, and yet so much more human. The creature was still me, but so much of it had been rinsed away, purged in that glorious spray of hot water and fine soaps.
I stood, rubbing my hands over my body and my smooth face before I remembered the clothes Ven had mentioned. There was a larger square of cloth on top of them-another towel.
She really was so thoughtful.
Touched yet again, I dried myself off as best I could. I had just managed to put on the pants-they were a bit tight-when Ven entered again.
“Wow, look at you,” she said, bright smile on her face. “You clean up nice.”
“I can’t look at myself,” I murmured absently as I pulled the shirt over my head. The top part was going to get wet from my hair, but I didn’t really care. It would dry eventually.
“Oh, right. Here, let me fix that.”
Ven opened the cabinet under the sink and pulled something from the depths that I couldn’t identify. She connected it to the wall, then turned it on.
I flinched at the awful sound coming from the thing. Ven gave me an apologetic smile before turning it toward the foggy window right above the sink. I watched, curious as the thick steam over it dissipated. Instead of showing the world outside, Ven was reflected in it.
Wait! I knew what it was. A mirror. My great aunt used to call it a looking glass because she was an old-fashioned Southern shifter.
“Why don’t you take a look?” Ven asked, stepping out of the way.
My gut clenched in anticipation. In the back of my mind, I wondered if it was a bad idea. Yet I stepped forward anyway to see the man I had come to be.
Well, shit.
I locked eyes with myself, and for the first time in what could have been years…
I saw Leo.
I saw me.