Free Winter Howl (Sanctuary) by Aurelia T. Evans Page B

offering something of a prayer—a word or two of gratitude towards the animals for surrendering their lives. It was a ritual that the three shapeshifters who cooked—Jake, Ki, and occasionally Britt—followed regularly. Renee had once asked whether they really believed that the animals could hear them. Britt had answered that everything was energy, and even if the animals could not hear them, it was respectful to show thanks nonetheless for the energy that would go to nourish their bodies. It was not a matter of talking to the spirits of the animals, although some shapeshifters believed that. For Jake in particular, and to some degree Britt, it was just good manners.
    Before going completely down the hall, Renee looked into the two bedrooms for the other shapeshifters. There were actually three rooms, but the two that were currently occupied were the largest ones. The one that was unoccupied had been empty for several years, since Renee had moved out of the small room. It had been Britt’s idea, back when Renee was around sixteen and only did the occasional ‘sleepover’ up in Britt’s loft. Britt had not liked the idea of Renee sleeping in a place that shut her off from the rest of the world, even from her own sanctuary. She’d thought that Renee would benefit from sleeping in a room with someone else, a room that didn’t have proper walls. For the first few months in that room rather than her own, she had slept badly. But over time, she had grown accustomed to it and now enjoyed Britt’s company. Even as a human instead of a service dog, Britt grounded her in a way that no one else at the compound had ever been able to, not even her father. Her mother had never seen her at her worst, for which Renee was sometimes relieved.
    It had been the perfect little room, though. It held her high, full-sized bed, her dresser, and a small desk in a tight squeeze, but it also had its own small full bath. Just enough to live in for most of the day—which was why Britt had wanted her out and about. Her father had encouraged the move. The room had stayed the way she’d left it, sans the clothing and toiletries and her stuffed teddy bear. Her stuffed polar bear guarded the room now.
    Renee climbed the stairs to her loft, grabbed a clear pair of jeans, a royal blue sweater, and a clean pair of panties before heading into the bathroom. She undressed after closing the door behind her and threw the utterly filthy clothes into her hampers.
    Looking into the mirror, she could not help but snort at the places where the dirt abruptly ended at her collarbone, her arms—above her elbow because she had removed her jacket—and the area above her ankles where her socks stopped. In contrast with her pale skin, which was slightly sticky with sweat, her dirty skin looked as if it had been smeared with charcoal.
    She turned the shower on as hot as she could stand. She cracked the bathroom door open a bit in order to let the moisture from the bathroom out of the room. As she pulled the blue-and-brown patterned shower curtain behind her, she felt the hot spray run over her chilled body. She ran her hands through her loose hair and shuddered at the knots she found.
    Around the time she reached down to wash and shave her legs, she thought she heard the door creak. With the shower water pattering against the porcelain bottom of the tub, she could not be sure, but she paused to listen closer. She could not hear anything else, so she just continued with her routine, closing her eyes as she sensed the contours of her legs with her razor. Breathing out into the steamy air within the shower, she ran the razor past her thighs and carefully over the swell of her mound, over the labia. She could not remember exactly when she’d started shaving between her legs. She remembered first trimming it from the ginger bush that it had been until the hair was close against her skin. She’d wanted it to look clean and controlled, but she’d worried that she was