Chapter Eighteen

After Harold changed back into his human form at the SUV, Josephine gave him her long skirt to wrap around his waist.  She had to suppress her laughter at the sight of a big muscular, long haired and bearded man wearing what looked essentially like a flowered miniskirt.  Harold did his best to retain his dignity as he searched the ground for his keys, wallet and room card key.  “You going to help or just snicker at me all night?” He asked indignantly.   

“Sorry.  You keep looking around here.  I’ll follow your trail.”  Josephine soon found his wallet and room card key on the forest floor.  Harold found the SUV keys in what was left of his jeans not far from where he’d violently changed form earlier.  

“Here, give me the keys.  I’ll drive.  You just sit there and look pretty in your new miniskirt.” Josephine laughed.  Harold sat in the passenger seat and buckled his seatbelt.  Josephine laughed some more and asked “Would it help if you thought of it as a kilt?” through her laughter.  Harold didn’t look at Josephine and just said in an offhand way, “Hmmm… I think dinner is giving me gas.”   

“What?!?  Don’t you dare!  You’re disgusting!  Give that skirt back!” Harold started to pull the skirt from around his waist.  “Wait!  Stop!  Keep it on.  I’ll just toss it out after we get back to the lodge.”  Harold smiled.  

Arriving at the lodge parking lot parked the car and turned to Harold.  “So, are you going to trust me to go into your room and get some clothes?  Or do you plan to walk through the lobby like that?”  Harold had been thinking about this on the drive back to the lodge.  His laptop was secure, it required a password and his thumbprint to log on.  The rest of his gear, clothes, and weapons were of no consequence if Josephine saw them.  He didn’t mind Josephine going through them if she had the chance.   

“I’ll trust you.  Here’s my room card key.”  Josephine took it and walked into the lodge.  There was an older man behind desk in the lobby.  He smiled at Josephine and watched her walk down to the elevators.    

Back at the SUV Harold sat with the windows down and smelled the breeze blowing the night air around.  Someone had drank too much and thrown up in the parking lot and his nose wrinkled at the smell.  Josephine walked back out after about ten minutes and gave Harold some underwear, socks, jeans, a pair of boots and a shirt.  She turned her back to the SUV as he put his clothes on.  As he got out of the SUV she asked him, “So is brightly coloured underwear a werewolf thing, or is that just you?”  Handing Josephine’s skirt back to her, Harold coolly replied, “I’ll answer that question after you let me rummage through your under garments.”  Josephine laughed.  “That’s never going to happen.”  As they walked into the lobby Josephine said, “You go ahead.  I’ve got something to take care of.”  Harold’s brow wrinkled but he was too tired, and he just realized, too hungry to care.  Perhaps he would order something to eat when he got to his room.   

Josephine walked to the concierge as Harold pushed the button for the elevator.  Harold had walked down the corridor to his room and was just opening his door when he heard the elevator door open behind him and smelled Josephine.  He waited at his door for her.  She walked up to her door and quietly said.   

“I ordered you a late night dinner.  There’s more we should probably talk about, but it’s late, I could hear your stomach rumbling and you look like hell.  It can wait.  I’ll knock on your door around 8am OK?”  

“Thanks.  Eight.  That’ll be good.  See you then.”  Harold walked into his room and stood next to the TV.  He wasn’t sure what to do with himself.  The adrenaline rush from going berserker had long worn off and he felt drained. But it was more than that.  He felt responsible for Josephine, but he didn’t have the strength to give it more thought to what that meant.  All he could think about was the smell of the forest in her hair.  A knock on the door brought him back to the here and now.  It was the smarmy young man from the other day with a tray of eggs and bacon and four large glasses of milk.   

“Oh! Umm… your friend ordered you a late night breakfast.”  He seemed a little scared.  “Well, here you go.” He turned quickly and walked hurriedly down the corridor.  Harold pulled the cart into his room with a smile.  He felt a small satisfaction that the bellhop was afraid of him.  

Sitting down on his bed, Harold ate straight from the cart and gulped the milk down.  He finished quickly and pushed the cart away from the bed with his foot as he took off his shirt.  Pulling of the rest of his clothes and dropping them on the floor he crawled into bed and closed his eyes.  Sleep didn’t come to him.  He sat up in the dark and looked at nothing.  He wanted to think about the night, and he didn’t want to think about the night.  He looked at the fireplace.  It was a gas fireplace and wouldn’t have the smell of wood or coal when it burned but it was a fireplace nonetheless.  Harold got out of bed, pulled off his underwear and changed form.  The fireplace was controlled with a remote and his large hands with his long claw like fingernails made it difficult to operate, but he soon had it going.   

Curling up in front of the fireplace he covered his face with his hand and finally fell asleep.