Page 4 of Accidentally Wedded to a Werewolf (Claw Haven #1)

It was a pretty ugly sign. The font was too small, the edges gilded with cheap golden plastic. They didn’t even have a logo. Not that it mattered now, since it was broken in half and rapidly getting covered in snow.

Luna shivered, looking up at Musgrove Inn. It was, as the reviewer had claimed, rough around the edges. The roof was crooked, the porch needed repainting and it had a general air of disuse.

She stumbled through the snow, clutching her suitcase and cursing herself for wearing such thin clothing. Her skirt was already getting soaked, snow leaking into her boots every time she stepped in a fresh bank. Her jacket was cute, but not nearly warm enough for a snowstorm.

She struggled up the ramp and burst into an empty lobby.

“Hello,” she called, tugging her useless jacket tighter around her wet clothes. “Anybody here?”

No response. Luna dragged her damp suitcase toward the front desk, eyeing a pair of buckets that were catching a steady stream of drips from the ceiling. One of them was overflowing.

“Not a great start,” she muttered as she stepped around the puddle. “Helloooo? Very cold, wet and adorable woman here… I would love a hot towel!”

Nothing. Luna leaned over the desk and rang the service bell. Then she rang it again. Then a few more times just for good measure. She did not want to go back out in that snow. Also, she had to tell the manager she’d broken their ugly sign.

She was about to start yelling again when a man stumbled out of the back room.

Whoa, Luna thought. She’d been expecting a minotaur or some sort of bird dude.

As far as she could tell, this guy glaring at her was…

just a guy. A grumpy, stupidly gorgeous guy with a too-tight shirt who was glaring at her like she’d kicked his puppy.

Maybe he was a vampire. Or a shifter. Shifters looked human, right?

Luna knew a couple of cat people in high school.

They’d looked normal, except that one time they got into a massive fight in the cafeteria and started growing whiskers and clawing each other.

At least they hadn’t shifted fully—Luna had never seen a monster shift all the way.

Some people said it was horrifying. Others said it was beautiful.

“Hi,” Luna started, trying to stop her teeth from chattering. “Do you have a room available?”

The guy stared at her. He still seemed annoyed, but mostly he looked confused. Luna realized with a start that he was holding a big fancy bottle and swaying slightly.

Luna let out an incredulous giggle. “Um, is there a party? I’d love to join, but I’m kind of freezing my butt off, so… Can I have a room?” She looked pointedly back at the overflowing buckets. “And can I expect my room to be as well-maintained as the lobby?”

The guy’s eyes flashed gold. He bared his teeth, and Luna gasped as she saw a hint of fangs.

“You’re a werewolf!”

“We all are,” Hot Jackass said. He straightened, broad shoulders getting even wider. “Is that a problem?”

“No,” Luna said. She lifted her chin, trying to remember her Power Pose training. “Wait, the whole town are werewolves?”

“What?” Hot Jackass scowled. “No. Just us. Figured Claw Haven needed some wolves.”

“I hope they’re just as friendly.”

Luna gave him her cutest smile, curling a strand of hair around her finger as she tried to imagine this guy as a full wolf. In her mind, he kept those grumpy eyebrows.

“So…cards on the table,” Luna said. “I crashed into your sign.”

Hot Jackass blinked. He had very long eyelashes.

“What?”

“The sign outside the parking lot,” Luna explained, wringing out her wet blond hair. She’d only been in the snow thirty seconds and it had already drenched her. “I crashed my car into it. I can pay for it—”

But Hot Jackass was already groaning, kneading his forehead with his hands. Big hands, Luna noticed with annoyance. Long fingers, big veiny hands connecting to toned arms—

“Tonight is the worst,” Hot Jackass complained.

“I said I’ll pay for it,” Luna snapped, irritation cutting through the Cute Girl persona that got her backstage passes and free drinks and that one guy to watch her car for five hours even though he wasn’t the valet.

“Calm down! God. Also, do you have a phone? Mine’s not getting any bars in this crappy—sorry—I mean quaint little town. ”

“Sure,” Hot Jackass said, taking another swig of mysterious spirits. “Want anything else? A foot massage? My kidney?”

Luna let out another laugh. Who did this guy think he was?

“Look, asshole,” she started. “I just got into a car crash; I’m wet, I’m freezing, and I just said I’d pay for your stupid sign, which doesn’t even have a logo. News flash: Signs are supposed to be eye-catching.”

Hot Jackass stiffened, looking behind her.

Luna turned.

A tall elderly woman wearing an envious number of layers smiled at her.

Tattoos peeked out from her thick sleeves, winding down to meet her knuckles.

She had this incredible air of calm about her, like she’d already been through everything and would gracefully offer you the solution to all your problems if you only asked.

“I’ll show you to your room,” the woman said. “Follow me.”

She started down one of the hallways.

“Oh,” Luna said. “Yay! Thank you!”

She grabbed her suitcase and stumbled after the mysterious woman, dripping on the carpet.

“I’m so sorry about your sign,” she continued. “Seriously, I have five hundred in cash on me right now, you can have it—”

“You can worry about everything else later,” the woman said, looking back toward the front desk. “Oliver, could you fetch another bucket for the leak?”

Luna expected Hot Jackass—Oliver—to sneer at her. Maybe roll his eyes. Something to match the overall vibe he’d demonstrated so far.

But he straightened up, placing the mystery booze on the desk. “Of course, Grandmother.”

“Grandmother,” Luna repeated as the woman led her down a beige hallway. “So, this is a family business? That’s cute. I’m in one of those myself; you’ve probably heard of it—”

Her soaked boot caught on an uneven rug. She fell forward with a yelp only for the woman to grab her and haul her up effortlessly.

Luna blinked. Right. Werewolves. Super strong with killer reflexes. Luna tried to imagine this woman in her wolf form and came up with an elegant, lithe creature who moved every paw with purpose and grace.

“Thanks,” Luna said, picking her suitcase back up. She shook her wet hair out of her face, trying to stop shivering long enough to give a good first impression. “I’m Luna. Luna Stack.”

The woman gave her a curt nod. “Good to meet you, Luna. You may call me Grandmother. Everybody does.”

She pulled open the door across from them. “I’ll put you here. This hallway is for guests, and down that way are the family rooms.”

Luna stepped into the room. It was…small. Plain. More peeling wallpaper. One twin bed, a bedside table and not much else. At least it had an en suite bathroom, though what she could glimpse from here looked equally unimpressive.

“Go get changed, warm up,” Grandmother Musgrove continued. “Then, if you’d like, you can come and join the housewarming party. It’s around the corner. Follow the noise.”

Luna sniffed. The room stunk like mothballs. If she could smell it, how could the wolves stand it?

“Thanks,” Luna said. “I’ll see if I feel like it.”

Grandmother Musgrove nodded. Before she could turn around, Luna gasped.

“Oh! Do you guys do massages here? Not feet—like, back stuff. Or a seaweed wrap? I’m pretty tense after this whole…ordeal.”

Grandmother Musgrove’s calm smile didn’t change, but Luna felt like she was missing something important.

“Not tonight, obviously,” Luna continued with a shivery laugh. “It’s so late! But maybe tomorrow?”

Grandmother Musgrove looked her up and down. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thank you!” Luna smoothed down her ruined hair, smiling hard as she waved the woman goodbye. Destroying her inn’s sign and getting into a fight with her asshole family member might not have been the best first impression, but Luna was sure she could salvage this. She was a Stack, after all.

* * *

The shower was awful. Weak water pressure that took forever to get past lukewarm. Then again, even lukewarm was a godsend after being out in the snow.

Luna stayed in the shower until the water finally got hot enough to scald her, then climbed out into the thankfully warm bathroom.

Which, of course, was when Luna realized the extent of her clothing troubles.

Her suitcase was drenched from dragging it along the snow, and now half of her clothes were wet.

She pulled on her warmest clothes: a gauzy long-sleeved shirt and the only full pair of pants she’d bothered taking because she’d packed for the Bahamas, goddamnit, not this Alaskan hellscape.

She was still too cold when she finished getting dressed.

Lucky for her, there was a complementary robe in the built-in wardrobe.

It was scratchy and a gross shade of off-white, but it would work until Luna put her clothes through a dryer.

They had a dryer here, right? They had to.

They didn’t have a hairdryer, even when Luna turned the place upside down looking for one, but they had to have a clothes dryer.

That was just basic. Probably. Luna had never actually stayed at an inn before, and so far, it was starkly different than the hotels she was used to.

She called Hector on the landline, glaring at her out-of--service cell phone as she dialed.

“All coverage, my ass,” she muttered as it rang.

And rang, and rang.

Luna groaned. “Come on, babe, I know you don’t like picking up for unknown numbers, but your fiancée’s call did just cut out in the middle of nowhere—”

Click. “Hello, this is Hector.”

“Hector,” Luna said. “Oh, thank god. I’m on a landline.”

“Nostalgic,” said Hector.

Luna paused. There was a lot of chatter on his end of the line, and a voice that sounded a lot like a flight announcement.

“Are you—are you at the airport?”