They all left to let me shower and get dressed. It's not like I had an array of clothes from which to choose, so I put on the dress. I was pleasantly surprised to find out it fit me perfectly. I looked in the mirror just before putting on the shoes Selene had also given me, a white pair of sneakers from her own closet. While we had very different bodies, she was on the curvier side and was at least a head shorter than me, our shoe size was the same.
The wounds on my face and most parts of my body had healed nicely. And even though I had severely neglected my hair, it looked fine. The mess of curls pouring over my shoulders looked somewhat stylized. Maybe this werewolf thing has advantages after all. My skin looked healthier and my hair stronger, my eyelashes seemed to have multiplied, and I feared so would my eyebrows. Or maybe that was a hurtful stereotype. None of the women I had seen seemed particularly hairy.
I finished examining my face and body in the mirror, not having missed the under-eye circles or the offputting bite-shaped scar that now adorned my waist on the left side. It had scarred horribly. It was a keloid. I'd seen worse though, so maybe it wasn't so bad.
I was trying to be positive that day, but as I emerged from the room I hadn't left in a week and found Harlan, my mood plummeted.
He looked up from his phone, looked me up and down twice, and then back to it as if he was bored. He didn't even say anything, got me feeling self-conscious and shit. Did I look bad? I didn't think that I did. Jesus, this guy was getting me nervous.
"Ah!" Selene squealed from the end of the hall. "You look so beautiful!" she said, coming over to the little sitting area I was standing at. "Melody has got a good eye. She guessed your measurements and it seems like she nailed it!" she said more to herself than to me.
"Thank you, for this and for the shoes," I said with a soft smile. "Well, and for everything. You saved my life." I owed these people. If it weren't for them, I would have died alone in the forest.
"Don't say that. It sounds like a permanent goodbye." She squeezed my hand. "You should go now," she said to Harlan.
"Fine," he said, turning off his phone and grabbing the bag I had just noticed was beside him. He simply stood up and started walking, not even acknowledging me.
Selene saw this and rolled her eyes. "Harlan may seem like a jerk sometimes," she started, "but really he cares too much and tries to conceal it by keeping people at arm's length."
"Well, he just seems like a jerk to me," I said with a half smile, and she gave me a knowing look before sending me off.
By the time I had gotten outside of the house, Harlan was already waiting in the driver's seat of a large and beautiful black Range Rover. He had sunglasses on, but I could tell he was giving me an annoyed look for taking so long.
I said nothing as I got into the passenger seat of what definitely smelled like his car. It had his musky rain scent. I wouldn't know how else to describe it.
Damien smelled like a summer breeze, and Harlan smelled like rain. I did like Harlan's scent better though. It seemed strangely comforting in a way.
We drove in silence for what seemed like an eternity. And it was starting to get really uncomfortable, so I reached over to turn on the radio when Harlan stopped me by snatching my wrist.
"Don't even think about it," he said with a serious tone, taking his eyes off the road to look me in the eye.