Embraced By The Park

I sat up and shot him the most heated glare I could manage. "This is not my home. And I don't remember telling any of you monsters my name."

"It was on your shirt." Smiley Guy tapped his collarbone. "Your name tag fell off on the way to the van."

"You mean it fell off when you were dragging me to the van."

"Carrying you, actually," another of the guys corrected.

There were too many of the werewolves to keep them all straight.

I was so freakin’ screwed.

"Well, if it bothers you that we know your name, I'm Elliot." Smiley Guy offered his hand.

"I'm Ford," Seatbelt Guy added.

The rest of them told me their names too, but they all went right over my head.

Jesse jumped up next to me on the couch. He dropped his big furry head to rest on my thigh, so I slid away from him. He scooted toward me in response, and I moved more.

That continued until my side met the armrest, and then I was stuck… with a damn werewolf head on my bare thigh.

I should've worn leggings to work.

"We'll leave you two alone for now. Dinner's at Ford's place tonight, it's the one next door." Elliot, AKA Smiley, gestured off to the side. "Get some rest and a shower. You reek. We'll find you some clothes, but for now, just wear Jesse's."

"You guys are insane." I scowled at them. "This is crazy."

"Yup. Welcome to Moon Ridge." Elliot grinned.

He was the second person to say that, yet somehow after hearing it twice, I felt even less welcome.

They all left, and I watched until the door closed behind them.

And… they had to be completely out of their minds if they thought I was going to stay in Jesse's house.

I slid off the couch, hurrying toward the door. It was true that I stank; I was a sweaty mess, and my feet were either soaked with sweat, pus-covered, or bloody and hurting something awful. But my life was my priority.

I found a key-hook by the door, and a perfectly good set of keys hanging off it.

Bingo.

I sprinted back to the garage door I’d just been carried inside through.

A scream tore through my throat when the wolf smoothly jumped over the couch, landing between me and the door a fraction of a second before I reached it.

"What the hell?" I screeched. "Get out of my way!"

The wolf growled. Somehow, I could tell it wasn't a threatening growl...more like an answer. A simple, "No."

I raced toward the front door.

He had no problem beating me there, too.

"Damn, you." My hands clenched in fists around the keys. I released the fists, shoved the keys into my pocket, and headed for the stairs.

I’d have to take a shower, then make my escape while Jesse was napping. Wolves slept as much as dogs, right?

The wolf jumped up a couple of steps, then walked up the stairs with me at my pace. Every step was excruciating given the mess that was my feet, but I pushed through.

At the top of the stairs, there were two bedrooms and one bathroom. I ducked inside the first bedroom and determined it was Jesse's. His closet was a smallish walk-in, but a couple of the racks were empty like he was expecting someone else to move their stuff in too.

I grabbed one of his shirts from the closet and opened the drawers, rifling around until I found a pair of his sweats. It was still too hot outside for sweats, given that we lived in Northern Georgia and it was September, but what looked like his shorts' drawer was empty. And I wasn't going to wear the man's boxer briefs; I didn't even know him.

Glancing down at my feet, I thought about the suspicious wetness in my shoes and reached into another of Jesse's drawers, grabbing some of his socks, too.

I needed to cover those suckers so they didn't leak blood and/or pus everywhere. I didn't care about my kidnapper's house staying clean, but if I couldn't escape, I wasn't about to walk all over my dried foot pus.

After shutting the drawers and then closing the closet door too, I headed into the bathroom. The wolf followed me in before I could shut the door to keep him out.

"Out," I commanded, pointing to the door.

He plopped down on the bath mat. The shower curtain was dark blue and only a little see-through, but I still didn't want to shower in there, all exposed to the wolf.

"Seriously, get out," I snapped.

Jesse wasn't just a wolf—he was a man too. That was easy to forget, but not when I was getting in the damn shower.

I looked around for a weapon. Like a broom, or maybe a razor...

All I found was a bottle of Febreze spray and one of those electric face shavers with three disc-looking things to trim facial hair.

I grabbed the Febreze and pointed it at the werewolf.

"Get out or you'll be eating perfume," I snarled. The sound could’ve rivaled the one the wolf had made earlier. "I'm exhausted and in pain, this is not the time to mess with me."

The wolf sat up straight at that and gave a soft growl.

"Don't you growl at me for threatening you? You're the asshole who kidnapped me and trapped me in your house, wolf."

He leaned his nose to my foot and sniffed, then growled louder.

What the hell was wrong with him?

He nudged at my shoes with his nose. When I didn't do anything in response but glare down at him, he carefully caught one of my shoelaces between his teeth and gave a gentle tug until the lace came undone.

"You want me to take my shoes off?" I asked, incredulously.

The wolf looked at me and bobbed his head vigorously.

"You're out of your damn mind," I muttered but sat on the closed toilet seat anyway. I eased my shoe off my foot carefully, wincing and cursing a couple of times as it came off. My sock was soaked, and the white fabric was stained red in a couple of places. In other places, it was the yellowish color of pus.

Blood and pus. Yay.

My eyes started to sting as I peeled my sock off my foot, and I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek to stop from crying out.

Jesse started whining, trying to put his nose up close to my injury. I swatted him away, but he remained close and kept whining.

I did the same with my other shoe and sock and had the same results.

Intense pain.

Massive blisters on my heels, toes, and the backs of my ankles.

I should've worn athletic shoes and leggings to work.

"Happy?" I grumbled at the wolf, who was still whining. "Me neither." I leaned my back against the toilet, my eyes closing as my body relaxed just a little. "Damn, I'm tired."

Jesse poked my leg gently with his nose, then poked the cupboard beneath the bathroom sink. With a dramatic sigh, I leaned over and pulled it open for him. He dug around for a minute before dragging out a small red fabric bag with a white cross on it.

"A first-aid kit? That's helpful, thanks." I took it from him.

He sat down and watched me pull some things out.

"I don't know much about first aid. I've never really been injured before," I rambled as I spread items out on the ground in front of me to take stock of what I had. "Other than the usual scraped knees and neck burns from curling-iron fails, of course. But I've never broken a bone or had anything like this before." I gestured to my feet.

He made a weird noise.

"I have no idea what that's supposed to mean," I told him. "I don't speak wolf."

The noise of frustration that followed, I did understand.

He gestured toward my foot with his nose, then went up on his back legs and stuck his nose in the sink.

"You want me to put my foot in the sink?" I checked.

He bobbed his head, then gestured to a bottle of hand soap beside the sink.

"You want me to wash my raw feet with hand soap?" My eyebrows shot into my forehead.

He nodded again.

I had no idea what else to do. With a sigh/groan, I forced myself back to my feet and carefully lifted one of the raw devils into the sink. I had to contort my leg to do it, and resting my weight on the other foot was hell, but I managed.

Lifting the handle on the faucet, I put it on warm and hissed when the water flowed over my burning, throbbing skin.

The wolf bumped the handle with his nose, setting the temperature right in-between cold and hot.

The water ran over my foot until the throbbing faded to dull, aching pain. Jesse hit the soap bottle with his nose, and I sighed again.

But, since I didn't have any other ideas, I shut off the water and pumped a little soap into my hand. While I cleaned the area gently, I flooded the bathroom with enough curses to make a pirate grin.

After a minute, Jesse bumped my hand to stop me from scrubbing, then flipped the water back on. He took care to make sure it was right in the middle between hot and cold again.

More cursing ensued when I rinsed off the bubbles, and even more when Jesse shut off the water and gestured to my other foot.

I repeated the process with foot two, then finally sat back down on the lid of the toilet seat. And honestly, I'd never been so thrilled to sit on a toilet in my life.

Since my feet were still dripping wet, I reached for a towel. Jesse growled, and I jerked my hands away.

His growling stopped instantly.

Looking at him curiously, I reached my hand toward the towel again, just to see what he'd do.

Sure enough, he growled again the moment my fingers were nearing the towel.

"You want them to air-dry?" I checked.

He bobbed his head.

"Alright." I shrugged.

He wiggled beneath my legs, lifting them so I was using his back as a leg-rest while my feet dried off.

He was warm and fuzzy, so it was actually kind of relaxing. The pain eased a bit with my weight off my feet, so I leaned my head back awkwardly against the toilet seat and shut my eyes.

I managed to doze off until my leg rest began to rumble with a growl.

Yawning, I sat up.

Damn, my body hurt.

"What now?" I asked the wolf.

He slowly slid out from under me, his eyes sweeping the medical supplies on the ground. His nose touched a tube I recognized, and I picked it up.

Triple Antibiotic Ointment.

Maybe he did know what he was doing.

He used his nose to gesture to the bottoms of my feet.

"I know how to use this," I told him.

It took me a while to spread it over my blisters. When that was done, the wolf pointed to some square-shaped gauze pads and a roll of what looked like tape.

I slapped the gauze on my feet, used a little tape to keep it there, and then grabbed Jesse's socks off the ground. Wrestling one on without too much pain or swearing, I looked over at the other sock and stared for a minute.

"Dammit," I finally said.

The wolf tilted his head. It was kind of adorable, not that I’d admit it.

"I haven't showered yet. I stink," I gestured to my feet. "I'm going to have to redo all of this."

The wolf shook his head at me. He gestured to the shower, which was one of those combination shower tubs.

I waited for more of an explanation.

He hopped into the tub with ease, then rolled to his back. His back legs popped over the edge of the tub, and he wiggled them around.

"Clever bastard," I muttered, shaking my head as I eased the second sock on. "Now, out." I pointed to the door.

He gave me puppy dog eyes, and I grabbed the Febreze again. "I will use this."