“Is there a sofa in there?”
“Yes.”
“Good enough then. One night.”
“Sorry. There is a three-night minimum.”
Malcolm sighed and gestured toward him. “Fine. Three nights then.”
The clerk hit a few buttons and a printer whirred behind him, printing out a slip for Malcolm to sign. He ran his credit card and gave him the keys to the cabin. Malcolm helped Autumn out the door and walked to the cabin nearest them, thankful that it wasn’t one of the ones further away. He sensed her uneasiness as they entered.
“Listen, I know you are a bear shifter. I can smell you. I know you’ve smelled me. I’ve no problems with you. I helped you because I couldn’t leave an injured person on the side of the road. I suggest you shift and let your bear do some healing. You might not be one hundred percent in the morning, but you should be considerably better. We’ve got three days here, so if you stay in bear form as much as possible, you should be well enough to move on a lot quicker.”
“Thank you. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your help.”
“It’s no problem. Do you need anything before you shift?”
“No. I’m good,” she told him, disappearing into the back room.
She excused herself to go to the bedroom. From the front room, he could hear the groans and grunts as her damaged body shifted into bear form. He looked at the sofa and retrieved a pillow and blanket from the hall closet where the clerk had told him he would find them. Overall, the cabin wasn’t bad. It was small, but it was clean and well supplied. In the morning, he would go and find some food for them as there was nothing of that nature, but there were glasses and such, so he made himself a glass of water and got ready for bed himself.
The sofa didn’t pull out and he was a fairly large guy. Sleep wasn’t going to come easy, but he’d manage. He had planned on driving through the night, but he wasn’t opposed to whatever sleep he could manage. If she were better in the morning, he would let her keep the cabin for the remainder of his paid time and move on while she stayed behind and healed herself. A part of him felt the urge to venture toward the bedroom and see her bear, but he couldn’t explain why and decided it would be creepy if he did it.
Instead, he threw the pillow and the blanket on the sofa and stretched out awkwardly across it, letting his long legs hand over one end. After a while, he fell asleep.CHAPTER SIXAutumn-1
Autumn awoke, sprawled across the bed in bear form. She couldn’t remember ever having slept in a bed as her bear, but there she was. Everything hurt, but she made the transition back to human form and wrapped the blanket around her to peek into the living room area. The man that had picked her up—Malcolm, she had heard him say to the desk clerk when he checked them in—was snoring lightly on the sofa, his tall, muscular frame hanging over. She felt bad that he had slept in what looked like an uncomfortable position.
Tiptoeing back down the hallway, she saw that he had laid her bag from the bike just inside the bedroom door. She retrieved some clean clothes from it and went to take a shower, enjoying the way the water felt against her aching body. Beneath the fluorescent lights, she could see the bruises, now faded, but still visible and more severe cuts and scrapes from having been thrown across the asphalt and down into the ditch. She stayed in until the water ran cold and then climbed out and dried off, dressing before she left. She was starving. She made her way quietly to the kitchen area so as not to wake him up but found he was already awake and putting away his covers.
“How are you doing this morning?” he asked as he caught sight of her in the door.
“A bit better, still pretty sore.”
“How are the wounds?”
“Closing up, but they still have a way to go. Can you give me a ride back to my bike?”
He laughed and looked at her uncertainly. “Your bike? Are you nuts?”
“What do you mean? I just skidded and laid it down. It should be fine.”
“Okay, one: it is not fine. Your front wheel is bent to hell and back. Two: even if it was, you are in no shape to ride it.”
She tried to control her face as panic set in. “I can’t leave it there.”
“It’ll be fine for now. It’s off the road. You can get a tow truck to bring it in later on.”
“No. I need to get it in now. I can’t leave it there.”