Shorts

Mitch (part 1)

“I’m Sorry” the perfect looking receptionist says, without looking even a tiny bit sorry “The hotel is fully booked, the computer must have made an error in the booking, perhaps it confused the Spa booking with the hotel residential system.”

“But…. But I paid in full!!” I wail. I know it’s not lady like but I am standing in the huge expanse of marble and gold that is the foyer of the most expensive and luxurious hotels in the state. I know I look like death warmed up, for months I have been traveling around trying to find a place to stay, living in the car and motels, eating junk food and drive through and more coffee than water which is why I have a kidney infection. My temperature is spiking, my back aches and I have a literally burning need to pee every 10 minutes. I know I look like hell. That’s why I paid up front, fully, when booking the room and treatments in the spa. So they couldn’t turn me away.

And still this beautiful, perfectly made up, sleek, glossy, beautiful receptionist has taken one look at me and said nope we don’t want trash in here, even if she has paid. My shoulders slump.

“Okay” I say and dig out my card for the refund.  Behind me across an acre of perilously glossy marble the elevator dings, I hear the doors slide open and the faint aroma of French coffee, cinnamon, hot chocolate and butter pastry wafts through the air, as footsteps near the smell gets stronger until I am enveloped in the rich, comforting, warming smell, it instantly soothes me, making me feel calm and almost happy. Despite the ache in my back, despite the burning pee, despite the fact I’m now in desperate need of somewhere to stay while I heal. I just want to curl up on the spot and snuggle into a fuzzy blanket and sip coffee while watching dawn break over Paris. I must have a fever and I’m hallucinating.

“Is there a problem?” The aroma and footsteps have a voice. I turn and expect a bellhop to be offering to evict me but instead I'm met with a solid wall of chest, looking up (and at 5 foot 9 I don’t often look up to men) I see the most handsome man I have ever laid eyes on. He is tall, broad and his eyes are a deep amber, his skin is a perfect blend of coffee and milk and his hair is perfect tight little curls cropped close to his head, his nose is fine and straight, and his lips are full and almost a blush rose in colour, the whites of his eyes and his straight even teeth almost glow against his skin. I cannot even begin to judge his age, not young but not old either, maybe mid to late 40s. No wonder he smells so good, he looks like a perfect god.

He sniffs and wrinkles his nose. Then he frowns, “What is going on here?” his voice is thick almost like liquid honey being poured onto gravel, something sharp and not to be messed with, smoothed under a glossy rich voice. His accent is definitely southern, maybe Louisiana but not a thick drawl, perhaps he is New Orleans which might explain the French feel, perhaps he is descended from the beautiful mulatto population I have read about in history books.

The receptionist flusters and proffers me my card back “Um nothing Al…. er Sir the hotel system double booked the lady’s room; I’m just refunding her so she can leave.”

I nod as I turn back and take my card, I wince as I bend to reach my case, “Thank you for the refund, is there a pharmacy near here?”

“Are you sick?” the man says scowling at the receptionist and then looking down at me with a much softer more concerned look on his face. He sniffs the air near me again, “I can smell blood!” I wince, and close my eyes, swallowing the taste of the pain inside my body right now.

“Um……” I look at the receptionist, “bathroom please?” She points across the miles of marble to a discrete corridor. I tun and have to scoot around the huge perfect chest still stood an inch too close for my liking and hurry while internally begging my bladder not to leak right now, I make it into the stall and want to cry with pain as what feels like boiling acid and broken glass rather than urine passes from me. I know it stinks and the man is correct, there is blood, the paper comes away pink with deep red flecks and the rank fluid in the bowl looks more blood than anything else. I clean myself up and wash my hands with the strangely almost scentless soap, perhaps its deliberately designed not to clash with the expensive perfume I assume most patrons’ wear.

Exiting the corridor and back out to the foyer I see the man now holds my case in one hand, another man, tall, slender and white, has joined him, the receptionist is on the phone, if anything she no longer looks so perfect, she looks almost frightened. The two men turn as I near, the new guy is very patriation, if Netflix want to cast a Roman Emperor for a glossy series this guy is it. He even has the slightly hooked nose, the dark hair turning sliver at the edges and the scowl. He too sniffs as I get closer, and nods as if agreeing with something already said.

“Good Afternoon Ms……?” he falters, the receptionist hasn’t shared my name obviously,

“Williams” I supply blinking a bit in confusion.

“Good afternoon Ms Williams, my name is Richard Fletcher, but you may call me Richard, I own this hotel and I am very sorry to hear about the mix up with the booking, I do have a room available for you, and I understand you are unwell? A doctor has been called. He is part of the pack…… package that the hotel offers to resident guests, please follow me. Mitch..”

He turns to the beautiful coffee and warm smelling guy who is holding my bag, “Please bring Ms William’s bag and“ he turns back to me “Please, follow me Ms Williams.”

I have no option, I'm feeling worse and worse, I know the fever is still rising, I must be sweaty, red faced and smell of the infection, the enclosed lift space must be horrible for the 2 men, although neither lets it show on their faces. Richard hits a patch of glass on the elevator wall, it’s a touchpad of floor numbers, the lift obviously starts to glide upwards but it’s so smooth and my head is spinning due to the closeness of Mitch’s beautiful smell I don’t notice and am surprised when the lift doors glide open revealing a richly carpeted hallway. I trail behind the men as they head to a room, Richard opens the door then hands me a pass key, “There is only 1 key issued, no one will be able to enter without your approval. To lock the door from either side please just hold the key to this point here,” He gestures to a small box on the side of the door handle, “The door will lock but should you need to exit in a hurry just open the door from the inside and it will override the locking mechanism. I will bring the doctor up in a minute, please make yourself comfortable in the meantime.”

Richard turns on his heal and walks away. I am left with Mitch, still holding my bag, and looking down at me with a worried look. And … my bladder decides it’s had too long standing up and so tells me it needs emptying again. I rub my lower belly and look around the room, the en-suite bathroom is to the one side of the room and I excuse myself from Mitch, trying not to whimper as the burning dribble of fluid once again stains the while china bowl a dirty pink and room fills with smell of the infection.

When I emerge back into the gloriously luxurious hotel suite Mitch has put the case on the floor beside the bed, he holds a bottle of chilled water from the room fridge and as I watch he cracks the seal, then hands it to me to open and take the top off, I gulp the cold water down, almost the whole bottle in one go, it’s so cold it makes my stomach ache but it also highlights how dry my throat feels. I drink the rest of the bottle is smaller mouthfuls, knowing it will flush right through but that the doctor will certainly want a water sample from me. I had better have something to offer him.

I have no idea what to say to Mitch, and he in turn seems to have no idea what to say to me. I want to say thank you for helping me, for rescuing me from the receptionist and her snooty looks. For bringing me up here and looking after me so far, for somehow getting Richard to give me a room and a doctor. But I have no idea where to actually start and just as I open my mouth there is a discrete tap at the door, Richard and another man, a doctor I think enter, the doctor is older, a more grandfatherly looking man, one who has gentle dark sapphire blue eyes under thick white bushy eyebrows, hair like Einstein and a very fine moustache curled at the ends into little twists. Carrying a proper old-fashioned Gladstone bag, black leather with a metal clasp. He introduces himself as the hotel doctor and shoos both the other men out of the room, Richard walks out quickly while Mitch seems reluctant to leave, “I’ll be just outside” he says to me. I nod, not sure why but it’s comforting to know he is out there.

The doctor guides me over to a small couch by the hotel room window, there is a small table and an armchair, he takes the chair and I lower myself to the couch.

“Right young lady, what seems to be the issue?”

I explain about the water infection, the blood, the pain.

“I'm going to take your temperature,” he says and removes a pink and white gun shaped thing from his bag, he also takes out a plastic packet with a tiny cup in it, opening the packet he uses the barrel end of the gun thing to click the little cup over the end, “turn your head away please” I do and he pushes the cup end of the thing into my ear, it clicks, “Humm, yes you certainly have a temperature, and are you usually fit and well?” I confess to the lack of true self care for the last few month but do not elaborate on what has brought me to this point. “Well, I need a sample from you to run some tests on.” He hands me a little plastic tube with a solid white screw top cap and gestures back to the bathroom, I pee into the little tube as best I can – which is a messy affair – but I do catch at least a tube’s worth of fluid. It is a dark brown and looks as bad as it smells and feels. I screw the top back on the tube, clean myself and wash my hands twice and the outer part of the tube once. Then dry it with paper and wrap it up in more clean paper to hand over. The doctor is holding open a Ziploc bag and I drop the tube out of the paper holder and directly in. Once it is sealed up, he holds it to the light, “Hummmm…. That isn’t very good young lady. I am going to prescribe you a couple of things, an injection of broad-spectrum antibiotics, a slow acting long lasting anti-inflammatory and a mild sedative. I will also have this analysed and bring you some specific antibiotics.  Hopefully, we can stop this now before it damages your kidneys. I will say that you have been extremely careless to let it get this far and any more time passing you could well have ended up in hospital and possibly if it got much worse there may have been a risk of requiring dialysis. However, I think we have this in time now. I will leave and get the medicine – I want you to take a bath – not a shower – a bath and fully wash yourself with ph neutral soap, no perfumes or sanitary products in that area please, I will be back in about half an hour, do you have pure cotton lose pyjamas?” I nod “good, put them on, you will also need to drink at least a litre of water before I return.”

He stands abruptly, putting the sample into his doctor’s bag, and swiftly exits the room, I dutifully go to the bathroom and turn on the bath taps, and then I tiptoe over to the hotel room door, I want to hear what he says to the men waiting outside.

Because I cannot see them, I have to tell by their voices what is going on:

Doctor – Alphas, why am I treating a human in the middle of an international wolf conference?

Mitch – does this mean you cannot help her?

Doctor – quite the contrary Alpha, I am glad I can help here although she may still need to be brought to the hospital if the antibiotics don’t work. And this is a serious infection. But still does not explain why I am doing this.

Mitch (quietly) – She is my mate

Richard – Are you serious? YOU get a human mate? Did you notice she wears a wedding ring? That means she went through a human mating ceremony, and as she still wears it, I think she is still mated?

Mitch – I know, and I will not do anything to change it. What sort of mate would I be to even think of it? I will make sure she is healed and cared for, then I will send her on her way with a promise to be there if she ever calls me. I would never break up a mated human any more than I would a she wolf. It’s a dreadful thought.

Doctor – well whatever is the case she needs urgent care, I will fetch the medication she needs, I will have her samples analysed in the labs and be back in half an hour. She needs water, warmth, one of those heated things that goes under sheets will be best – a low heat will help soother her. I have instructed her to have a bath to clean the stink and she must rest fully. I will be back soon.

Footsteps retreat down the corridor, the plush carpeting making them almost impossible to hear through the door and the sound of running water.

Richard – will you reject her?

Mitch – NO! that might cause her untold pain and she wouldn’t understand what is going on, why would I do that? I have lived without a mate for 45 years Richard. I am past the age of fathering pups, in fact I am almost at retirement age. I can live a while longer just knowing she is out there. I need to get a heat pad before Doctor Phelps returns.

Richard makes a dubious humming noise, and they retreat away from the door, I jog back to the bath before it overflows.

The doctor is right, the bath feels wonderful and sooths the pain in my lower back, I wash my self with the scentless soaps and then wash my hair as well. It takes several goes with the strange smell less shampoo before my hair stops feeling gritty and greasy, I put the conditioner on for as long as I dare before dunking myself fully under the water to rinse it off. But… I need to pee again, and the hot bath has made me feel thirsty, so its out of the lovely warm soothing water, pee, hop back into the bath water to wash off again to remove the horrible smell, get back out and pull the plug. I wrap myself in towels and pat my hair dry. It needs a good cut but at least now it feels clean. I peek into the room but as I have the door card and no one else does, it is empty. I am not sure, somehow, I expected Mitch to be there. I feel somehow a little sad when he isn’t. Definitely have a fever!

My cotton pyjamas have little Disney kittens printed on them, very mature I know but I adore the Aristocats it’s my favourite movie of all time! That and The Emperor’s New Groove, I’m not really one for princesses and happy ever afters, I didn’t get mine after all! And so far, no talking animals have turned up to help me through life! I grab another bottle of water out of the fridge, ugh I hate water, but I suppose this infection is my punishment for living on coffee and junk food for months.

I grab another bottle of water as a back up and settle myself on the top of the bed covers, I need to have a think about the conversation outside. Alphas, wolf conference, human, pups….. My brain is foggy with the fever and somehow it decides I have met werewolves. Hahahhahahahahahahah!!!!!!

Werewolves aren’t real!........ are they? Nooooo it must be one of those funny conferences like you see in Vegas, only rather than dress up these ones act it out.. like Live Action Role play where people pretend to be elves and run around the woods with swords scaring the local dog walkers. Yes!! That must be it!! The doctor was just playing along.

And speak of the devil and he shall appear. There is a tap at the door, I get the hit of the coffee, butter croissants and warm feeling before I get to open the door, Mitch is standing outside with the Doctor.

“Ms Williams?” The doctor asks, “May I come in?” he looks pointedly at Mitch “Mitch will wait out here!” Mitch steps back not looking very happy but complying with the doctor.

The doctor firmly shuts the door in Mitch’s face, and guides me back into the room. I hear Mitch huff from outside in the hallway.

“Now Ms Williams, I have sent the sample for full analysis, but I do believe you have a very nasty kidney infection, as we suspected.”

I didn’t think we were in any doubt about it but okey.

“I will need you to roll up your sleeve, I have a long-acting antibiotic, a sedative to help you rest and I have some powders to mix into the water to help ease the symptoms of the infection in the bladder. It won’t cure it, but it will help settle everything down until I get the lab results back in a day or two.”