Steaming hot water splashed over the tiles and down her muscular back, and her arms were up as she rubbed lather through her hair. She had her back turned to me, but when I gasped aloud, she spun around.

Her white-blonde hair was soaking wet, and beads of water ran rivulets down her breasts, dripping from her nipples and running down between them. I glanced from her breasts to her narrow pubic hair, taking in her beautiful figure before I realized I’d just been caught staring.

I whirled around. “Uhh. . . hey, Astrid,” I said, embarrassed for her and not wanting to seem like a creep. “I didn’t mean to stare, sorry. I heard you singing. I didn’t realize you were in the shower.”

“Hi, Jeremy, it’s no big deal. I’m not shy. I’m just glad you’re alive!” The water snapped off as she turned the tap off and stepped out from under the showerhead. Then she walked right up to where I stood and grabbed a towel from the heated chrome rack on the wall by the door.

Her breasts jiggled as she reached up to towel off her hair. I’d half turned toward her again, seeing as she had said she didn’t mind. The towel slipped from her fingers, and she bent down to pick it up, giving me a clear view of her dimpled ass and her sex.

I had only blown my load a few hours ago, and I wasn’t exactly a sex-starved teenager, but seeing this beautiful beastkin woman so flagrantly flaunting her body made me start to feel like one. I could smell the warm, clean scent of her, and she was close enough that I could have reached out and touched her. I sternly kept myself in check, however.

Astrid wrapped the towel around her torso, but it was too small to completely cover her breasts and barely covered her ass, then she glanced up. The look in her eye said that she guessed what I was thinking, and didn’t mind one bit.

“Honestly,” she said conversationally, “I can hardly believe you survived the Merging. I mean, you’re no slouch—you proved that in the woods—but there’ve been Keepers before...”

“You thought they had a better chance than I did?” I said teasingly.

She laughed. “It’s not that. They were just more clearly strong. You. . .” she paused as though she was searching for the right words. “You have secret skills.”

“Secret skills?” I asked. I got the impression that Astrid wasn’t the most articulate of the agents who’d found me. Still, it was kind of cute watching her try to explain herself like this.

“Yeah, that’s right,” she said. “Secret skills. You’re obviously hiding stuff—like when you kissed me and drained power from me.”