Chapter 48 – part 2
Valen POV
Her shower is tiny. Every time I turn or move, I was knocking crap down off the shower caddy or smashing my elbows on the walls. Getting in, I nearly knocked myself out of the showerhead; it was that low, and why was everything pink? Pink shampoo, pink soap, pink shower curtain, and floor mats; it was like a pink explosion in here. I didn’t pick her for a girlie girl.
I should have used the kid’s bathroom, not the joint one between Zoe and Everly’s room. Turning back to the task at hand, I grab the pink loofa and sniff it. It smells of Everly, so the fluffy pom–pom pink thing must be Zoe’s.
I am bending down under the showerhead trying to wash the shampoo out when I hear the door open and thought at first it was Everly until I listen to the mention of fudge mumbled, and I freeze. That’s not Everly.
“Remind me to ring Emily tomorrow to check on her,” she sings out. Frozen, I wonder what she is doing in there before I hear what sounds like someone peeing. Were they that comfortable peeing in front of each other? Then again, Marcus and I were close, and he had no care about taking a leak in front of me.
“Everly?” she asks. I say nothing before suddenly the shower
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Chapter 48–part 2
curtain is ripped back, and we make eye contact.
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Her weary gaze goes to my shocked one, and her eyes widen when she screams, scaring the crap out of me, and I grasp the shower curtain, trying to shut it while she tries to cover herself where she was sitting on the toilet peeing.
The shower curtain is flimsy as I yank it closed only for it to rip off, and the motion catches me off guard. I lose my footing on the slippery surface. I somehow end up sprawled out on the floor, my legs spread in a very inappropriate manner, exposing me to a very horrified Zoe, and my head bends awkwardly in the corner of the shower.
“Shit, fuck. I thought you, ah I can see your penis and balls I can see it all, I want to unsee it,” Zoe shrieks, covering her
eyes.
“Everly!” she calls out.
“Shh, shh, stop, don’t call her in here,” I choke out, trying to un–wedge myself. Bloody, how embarrassing and awkward. We make eye contact, eye contact, while both of us are in a very vulnerable state.
“What, are you alright? Oh my God, you’re bleeding, I will get Everly,” she gushes, about to run from the room, but I move, grabbing her ankle as she went to dart out.
“I’m fine, let’s just never speak of this moment again,” I gasp,
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Chapter 46–part 2
my back killing, and I reach behind me before pulling out the pink back scrubber that is digging into my rear. I drop it on the floor before looking up at Zoe who is staring at the ceiling.
“You good dude, alive?”
“Just great,” I tell her, covering myself with the torn shower curtain.
“Nice chat,” she says, quickly closing the door. I stumble out of her death trap shower and over to the mirror. The corner of my ear is bleeding and running down the side of my face. I clean it up before drying and putting on some boxers. Will add that memory to the most awkward situation file in my head. Man, I can never look that girl in the eye again.
Walking out, Everly is passed out on the couch. Her mouth is wide open with her head tilted, bent back awkwardly. I sigh, relieved when I realize we hadn’t woken her.
Scooping her up, she doesn’t even wake, making me wonder how much she actually works since she could sleep through all that noise I just made and Zoe screaming. Walking up the hall, I stop when Valarian calls out as I pass his door.
“Are you sleeping in here, dad?” he asks, rubbing his eyes.
“Go back to sleep. I will be here in the morning when you wake up,” his eyes move to his mother in my arms.
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Chapter 48–part 2
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“Can I sleep with you and mom?” he asks, suddenly brightening up excitedly and I look down at Everly. I was planning on sleeping on the couch because Valarian’s bed was way too small, but if Valarian is in there, maybe she won’t mind?
“Please?” he whispers, but he is already climbing out of bed.
“Okay, but be quiet, we don’t to wake your mother.”
“Mom could sleep through a tornado. The only thing that wakes her is her alarm once she is asleep, Aunty Macey let off an air horn, and she didn’t even move, yet her alarm wakes her,” he says, walking ahead and pushing the door open.
“Really?” I ask him.
“Yep, probably the medication that Grandma Val gave her. She takes them sometimes when she can’t sleep. She took them just before dinner,” Valarian says as I place her down on the bed. I thought she took panadol, so this was news to me, yet she did give me a funny look when I caught her popping pills like she was caught doing something she shouldn’t be doing.
“Valarian climbs in the middle,” tugging the blankets up.
“Grandma Val works here?” I ask him, climbing in beside him.
“No, she died when I was a baby. She gave us the hotel to
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Chapter 48 part 2
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build our village,” Valarian says, yawning. He places his head on my chest and snuggles closer,
“If you were a baby, how do you know she gave them to your mom?”
“Because I heard Aunty Zoe and Aunty Macey arguing with mom over her taking them, something about them making her infertile. They said Grandma told her to take them only sometimes if the pain is too bad because they have wolfsbane in them, and she shouldn’t spend her life numb.” I stared up at the ceiling feeling guilty. Wolfsbane was poison to werewolves, but it also had medicinal properties in low doses, like pain relief because it killed the nerves and paralyzed you temporarily, yet too much could kill you.
“What does infertile mean?” Valarian asks. I don’t answer and just ask another question.
“And your mom doesn’t take them all the time?” I ask him, and he shakes his head.
“No, Aunty Zoe banned them from the house, but she has a secret stash in the pantry. I saw her grab them out earlier while Zoe wasn’t looking. She keeps them in the sultana’s box. Zoe hates sultanas, and so does Casey,”
I glance over at Everly passed out cold. “Get some sleep,” I tell Valarian kissing his head.
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Chapter 48 – part 2
“Love you, Dad,” Valarian mumbles.
“Love you too,” I tell him.
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Tomorrow I would find that stash and confront her, I think to myself as my eyes close.
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