Free Werewolves In The Kitchen by Shauna Aura Knight

Ellie dropped down onto a large rock and wiped her brown hair back. Sweat dripped down her arms. She looked up through the trees—it was nearly three.
    Of course, weeks ago she’d never have been able to tell the time by the sun. She’d been a total city girl. Surveying her work, she drank from her nearly empty gallon of water. A few feet away was the growing pile of large flat stones she’d hauled from the creek. One of the SpiralStone retreat center staffers, Kerri, was building a flagstone area to beautify the gardens.
    Sighing, Ellie hauled the rock closer to the pile. She was no artist. She was just a grunt here. After rotating her shoulder, Ellie crouched to haul another rock over. Though sore, she certainly felt more accomplished than when she was answering phones, typing memos, and taking orders.
    When she’d been fired, she had panicked and immediately started job-hunting, but responses to her resume were scarce. When they found out her nearly completed degree was in physics, they’d frown and say, “You wouldn’t be happy in a job like this.”
    Grappling with a rock that was almost heavier than she could lift, she growled and finally heaved it, dislodging it. Ellie wasn’t built like an Amazon like some of the women at SpiralStone. She had always thought she was tall at five-foot-eight until she’d moved here.
    Panting, she waded out into the creek for yet another rock. Of course, this wasn’t the type of work she’d had in mind, but she was grateful to her friend for recommending she take a work-study sabbatical. She did grunt work, got free room and board, and got to attend workshops during events.
    Somehow, she’d also overcome all her fears and ventured to an unknown place in the woods. She was grateful to have the time to think about how to return to school. 
    Soon Kerri would drive the tractor down here and haul the rocks to the main house. Ellie’s job was just to get big rocks to the shore. She was sure that Moira, the silver-haired woman who ran the retreat center, was disappointed that she didn’t have more artistic skill, and other staffers seemed to sigh when she needed to be taught how to use a screwdriver, but she’d been a quick study. She was surprised how low-tech some of this work was, but she enjoyed the monastic simplicity of it.
    Ellie grimaced. Monastic was definitely the word. Sex wasn’t prohibited among people living at SpiralStone, though there were rules of conduct to prevent unethical behavior by staff and teachers. She appreciated that, given that she’d gotten fired for telling off her boss after he sexually harassed her. Being one of the few women in the physics program at school, she’d never had any lack of boyfriends. It just turned out that all the men she dated seemed as dysfunctional as her stepfather, just with more videogames. She’d thought it would be therapeutic to have some time away from men.
    Of course, once she arrived, she had met the two sexiest men she’d ever seen working as cooks.
    She’d assumed they were off limits, but it turned out that they were temporary staffers like her. It didn’t matter; neither of them would be interested in her. Sexy guys didn’t pursue her—physics geeks did. Actually, sometimes Kyle and Jake gave off the vibes of being a couple. She wasn’t sure since there were people of all genders and sexual preferences at the retreat center. She was slowly learning not to assume everyone was heterosexual.
    Ellie had resigned herself to being sexually frustrated for the duration of her stay. She’d forcibly stopped following them around like a lost puppy, resisting the temptation to take shifts in the kitchen. At first she’d found herself looking for any excuse to hang out with them, and they put up with her.
    They all talked about their various approaches to spirituality. She’d talk astrophysics and growing up in the city, while Kyle and Jake talked about cooking, growing up with in the homesteading lifestyle, and