HellCat: Guardian Of The Gate
by wizardtho
Chapter 2:
I couldn't stop my gasp as we opened the double front doors to the mansion, especially when I was met with pristine wood floors and carved columns, along with an immaculate double staircase. I heard Paul let out a low whistle as he wrapped his arm around my shoulder, then said, "Welcome home, Bella." I smiled up at him, saying excitedly, "Let explore, Paul. We need to find out how much money I need to fork out for restorations as well as furniture. I don't know about you, but I don't want to sleep on the floor tonight." He chuckled, then hugged me to him as he walked us further into the house.
The main level consisted of the entry, library with beamed ceiling, dining room, mud-room, conservatory with a central glass bottom koi pond, laundry, kitchen with a rounded bar island, gathering room, breakfast dinette, butler's pantry that separated the kitchen and gathering room from the dining room, a large balcony on either side of the conservatory, two powder rooms for the public areas, one office in the main area and a private one in the master wing, two other stair ways, and an immense master suite. Then the master had a grand sitting area with a see-through fireplace into the luxurious master bath.
When Paul asked me whether I wanted to go up or down next, I said, "Well... how about we go up the main stairs, to see where the other stairways end up leading to, then we can go down." He agreed. We went up to find two skylight filled dual-level lofts on either end of the house (one that led to the private master wing), four bedroom suites, a centrally located study, large open terrace, a few large closets, and an extra powder room or two. We took the stairs down from the loft opposite the master wing, which worked flawlessly, because we were able to round into the breakfast area to go down from there.
The downstairs was full-out geared towards parties; it was clear to see that. There were two more bedroom suites, but there was also the perfect poker/ bar area that was directly under the conservatory, because you could see up into the koi pond from the glass bottom it had. An amazing billiard room was under the library, easily able to house two pool tables and four 2-person pub tables. An awesome step-down theater room that ran the length of the house from front to back was under the gathering room and kitchen, a powder room was nearby, then an incredible game room was under the dining room, with a clever game storage area hiding the entrance to a large safe room with monitors. Then there was the large room we first entered into, which could be made into either another suite or a bunk room. Finally, rounding off the bottom level, was a gigantic cold storage room to hold winter goods, as well as two large verandas connecting on either side of the poker/bar room.
Paul carefully hopped up onto the bar when we got done looking around, then chuckled, "This place is awesome, Chica. I didn't see anything inside that needed fixing, but I'll check the outside stone and roofing more carefully for you tomorrow. We'll want to make sure the water runs alright once we get back, but I'd say you have a lot of money to spend, just filling the furniture needs. This place is massive... quite high-end, too."
I agreed with a smile, "I think they bought this as a party house... somewhere they could hold off-season parties with Phil's team, but I didn't think they'd go for a place more fancy than what they lived in year-round. It's insane!"
Paul nodded, then added, "It's got kick-ass state of the art security too, so I know Charlie and Sam will feel better about you being out here alone... I haven't smelled even a faint hint of leech anywhere. You're as good as gold, as far as I can see."
I let out an unneeded breath, then nodded in agreement. "That's good. You'll keep your nose on alert while we're shopping, though? I want to be as prepared as possible." He agreed, so I said, "Well, it looks like it's time to figure out what the necessities are. We'll need two bedroom suites, a set of bar stools, and I think we'll do the family room furniture for the seating. Then we need massive quantities of food for your wolfy self. With having a full double-door fridge and separate double-door freezer, that huge pantry, plus the storage walk-in down here, this house should never have a food shortage."
Paul chuckled with a nod, "This would make an awesome wolf den, Bella. Emily's constantly having to shop with not enough space to hold our food requirements." I shook my head, offering sadly, "They really need a bigger place... or at least an addition added to their place. With it being the place the pack congregates most, they really don't have enough room."
Soon Paul phased, and we continued our zig-zag until we reached the Durango again. We loaded back into it, then headed back to Rapid City to do our shopping. We ended up finding a very nice old world classic iron and wood queen bedroom set that I thought would look nice in the guest bedroom on the second floor for Paul. We also found a spectacular king-sized wood four poster set for the master bedroom that had detailed iron top railings and a tufted leather panel headboard. It had cool granite insets on the doors in the nightstands, armoire, and long mirrored dresser. It took three more stores before I found what I was wanting for the gathering room, but it was worth it. I was pleased as punch when I finally found it, especially when Paul said it was more comfortable than anything he'd ever sat on. It was a really soft chenille couch, love seat, over-sized chair and ottoman, and side chair set with complimenting wood tables. That's also where I found a set of 8 matching bar stools for the kitchen bar area on the first floor.
The last stop before groceries was the U-haul Rental, where I rented a large box truck for all of the furniture to be put in. We went back to have all three rooms loaded into the truck, then found a shopping strip that had a grocery store and a Best Buy in it. "Shit. We need to go in there, Paul. We at least need a tv and home theater set for now, since we'll want to dock my IPod to listen to tunes. Plus, I brought those movies you haven't seen, so we have something to watch tonight." He grinned, "Can I help pick the stuff out?" I chuckled and nodded, then he practically drug me into the store.
After we both agreed that the Samsung 65" Led tv was the way to go because of all of the features and picture quality (not to mention the 3d and internet capability), we had the salesman help us find the right mounting kit, and we moved on to the theater system. We found a Samsung 3D/Wi-Fi Blu-ray 7.1 all-in-one home theater set that sounded amazing, then we told the salesman everything we wanted. He helped us get checked out, then had one of the dock workers assist with getting the items loaded into the truck.
Paul and I had a blast in the grocery store, with each having our own cart. In mine we decided to put all of our dry goods and non-perishables, then any fresh fruits and vegetables. In Paul's we stocked up on meats, frozen items, and dairy. I ended up having Paul head back before me with the furniture and food, stating that if he wanted to eat sometime tonight, I needed to go to the Sears that was down the street to buy dishes, cookware, and silverware. He agreed, only because he said he hadn't smelled a vampire all day, and knew the food needed to get to the house. I told him I would be no more than an hour behind him, but that I'd call if something happened to make me late.
I ended up getting a Cuisinox 30 Elite stainless steel cookware set, a stainless steel mixing bowl set, a measuring cup and spoon set, an awesome baking sheet and pie pan set, a stand mixer, a BrewExpress stainless steel and black coffee maker, a 4-slice stainless steel and black toaster, an 8qt. multi slow cooker, a dual blender/food processor, a roasting oven, two different kitchen and table linen sets, plus a 20 piece bakeware set. Even after all that, I still needed dinnerware, cutlery, glassware, as well as silverware. I found the perfect 24 piece cutlery set in a wooden block, 3 Corelle square 'Cherry Blossom' 16 piece dinnerware sets (in case I ever hold a party... yeah, as if), 3 glassware sets, and a 65 piece flatware set. I knew I was still going to need a ton of more things, but I already had two full carts, so that was going to have to do for now.
I called Paul while I was in the check-out line just to be safe, telling him that I was fine and would be leaving from Sears within 15 minutes. He let a breath out, thanking me for letting him know I was safe, then told me he got some of the stuff unloaded from the truck already. I told him I would make him a cake tonight for his initiative, causing him to offer up a pleased rumble in response. I chuckled, warning him not to get too excited, but he just commented about how he knew my cakes were the best. He couldn't help it.
When I arrived back at the house, Paul came out the open front doors with a big smile, saying as I opened the back, "I hope you don't mind, but Sam wanted a tour... so I kinda went wolf and walked through the house."
I chuckled in response, "Only you, Paul. It's fine, though. There's definitely room for you to phase in the house, just don't break anything... and don't let your claws scratch up my floors, or you'll be fixing them on your own dime."
He shook his head while grinning wider, "Not a scratch, because I was really careful to tread lightly. Damn, Chica. Did you buy out the store?"
I chuckled as I smacked the back of his head, "Just help me with this shit, or you won't get fed, Smart Ass. Did you get the rest of the stuff unloaded from the truck?"
As he grabbed several things, he nodded, so I followed him into the house. "Yep, everything's unloaded, food's all put away, the surround sound speakers are placed, and the bedroom sets are in their respective rooms. I just need you to tell me how you want the rooms set up, then I'll get everything put together for you."
I nodded, and once we set down the first load, I said, "Let's get the Durango unloaded, I'll tell you how I want them, then get started on washing dishes and making dinner."
The rest of the evening went well. The next day was filled with examining the outside of the house, as well as more exploring. I found out that I had a 12 stall horse stable and tack room that needed some work, along with a separate work barn that also needed work. There was a one bedroom cabin not too far from the barn that needed minor fixing. Paul said with having so much property, it wouldn't hurt to take applications for a live-on handyman/caretaker, then just have Charlie run the backgrounds of the applicants. I agreed that it was probably a good idea, telling him I'd talk to Charlie about it once we got back. We were to leave out the next morning, right after returning both the U-haul truck and the Durango. Charlie was supposed to pick us up at Sea-Tac. It's a good thing I had been taking pictures of everything with my phone, or Charlie would have a fit not being able to see how everything really looked.
My last night in the mansion was filled with dreams of returning, turning this amazing place into my dream home, along with skinny dipping in the waterfall pond. I was sad as I closed up the house and checked the alarm. Paul hugged me to him, saying, "You'll be back in no time, Bella. I just know it." I agreed, but felt like the further away we got from the mansion, the further I was from home. I ended up sleeping for the first part of the flight, then really wanting the plane to turn around for the second part. It was odd how that large stretch of secluded land was calling to something deep inside me.
I couldn't stop my gasp as we opened the double front doors to the mansion, especially when I was met with pristine wood floors and carved columns, along with an immaculate double staircase. I heard Paul let out a low whistle as he wrapped his arm around my shoulder, then said, "Welcome home, Bella." I smiled up at him, saying excitedly, "Let explore, Paul. We need to find out how much money I need to fork out for restorations as well as furniture. I don't know about you, but I don't want to sleep on the floor tonight." He chuckled, then hugged me to him as he walked us further into the house.
The main level consisted of the entry, library with beamed ceiling, dining room, mud-room, conservatory with a central glass bottom koi pond, laundry, kitchen with a rounded bar island, gathering room, breakfast dinette, butler's pantry that separated the kitchen and gathering room from the dining room, a large balcony on either side of the conservatory, two powder rooms for the public areas, one office in the main area and a private one in the master wing, two other stair ways, and an immense master suite. Then the master had a grand sitting area with a see-through fireplace into the luxurious master bath.
When Paul asked me whether I wanted to go up or down next, I said, "Well... how about we go up the main stairs, to see where the other stairways end up leading to, then we can go down." He agreed. We went up to find two skylight filled dual-level lofts on either end of the house (one that led to the private master wing), four bedroom suites, a centrally located study, large open terrace, a few large closets, and an extra powder room or two. We took the stairs down from the loft opposite the master wing, which worked flawlessly, because we were able to round into the breakfast area to go down from there.
The downstairs was full-out geared towards parties; it was clear to see that. There were two more bedroom suites, but there was also the perfect poker/ bar area that was directly under the conservatory, because you could see up into the koi pond from the glass bottom it had. An amazing billiard room was under the library, easily able to house two pool tables and four 2-person pub tables. An awesome step-down theater room that ran the length of the house from front to back was under the gathering room and kitchen, a powder room was nearby, then an incredible game room was under the dining room, with a clever game storage area hiding the entrance to a large safe room with monitors. Then there was the large room we first entered into, which could be made into either another suite or a bunk room. Finally, rounding off the bottom level, was a gigantic cold storage room to hold winter goods, as well as two large verandas connecting on either side of the poker/bar room.
Paul carefully hopped up onto the bar when we got done looking around, then chuckled, "This place is awesome, Chica. I didn't see anything inside that needed fixing, but I'll check the outside stone and roofing more carefully for you tomorrow. We'll want to make sure the water runs alright once we get back, but I'd say you have a lot of money to spend, just filling the furniture needs. This place is massive... quite high-end, too."
I agreed with a smile, "I think they bought this as a party house... somewhere they could hold off-season parties with Phil's team, but I didn't think they'd go for a place more fancy than what they lived in year-round. It's insane!"
Paul nodded, then added, "It's got kick-ass state of the art security too, so I know Charlie and Sam will feel better about you being out here alone... I haven't smelled even a faint hint of leech anywhere. You're as good as gold, as far as I can see."
I let out an unneeded breath, then nodded in agreement. "That's good. You'll keep your nose on alert while we're shopping, though? I want to be as prepared as possible." He agreed, so I said, "Well, it looks like it's time to figure out what the necessities are. We'll need two bedroom suites, a set of bar stools, and I think we'll do the family room furniture for the seating. Then we need massive quantities of food for your wolfy self. With having a full double-door fridge and separate double-door freezer, that huge pantry, plus the storage walk-in down here, this house should never have a food shortage."
Paul chuckled with a nod, "This would make an awesome wolf den, Bella. Emily's constantly having to shop with not enough space to hold our food requirements." I shook my head, offering sadly, "They really need a bigger place... or at least an addition added to their place. With it being the place the pack congregates most, they really don't have enough room."
Soon Paul phased, and we continued our zig-zag until we reached the Durango again. We loaded back into it, then headed back to Rapid City to do our shopping. We ended up finding a very nice old world classic iron and wood queen bedroom set that I thought would look nice in the guest bedroom on the second floor for Paul. We also found a spectacular king-sized wood four poster set for the master bedroom that had detailed iron top railings and a tufted leather panel headboard. It had cool granite insets on the doors in the nightstands, armoire, and long mirrored dresser. It took three more stores before I found what I was wanting for the gathering room, but it was worth it. I was pleased as punch when I finally found it, especially when Paul said it was more comfortable than anything he'd ever sat on. It was a really soft chenille couch, love seat, over-sized chair and ottoman, and side chair set with complimenting wood tables. That's also where I found a set of 8 matching bar stools for the kitchen bar area on the first floor.
The last stop before groceries was the U-haul Rental, where I rented a large box truck for all of the furniture to be put in. We went back to have all three rooms loaded into the truck, then found a shopping strip that had a grocery store and a Best Buy in it. "Shit. We need to go in there, Paul. We at least need a tv and home theater set for now, since we'll want to dock my IPod to listen to tunes. Plus, I brought those movies you haven't seen, so we have something to watch tonight." He grinned, "Can I help pick the stuff out?" I chuckled and nodded, then he practically drug me into the store.
After we both agreed that the Samsung 65" Led tv was the way to go because of all of the features and picture quality (not to mention the 3d and internet capability), we had the salesman help us find the right mounting kit, and we moved on to the theater system. We found a Samsung 3D/Wi-Fi Blu-ray 7.1 all-in-one home theater set that sounded amazing, then we told the salesman everything we wanted. He helped us get checked out, then had one of the dock workers assist with getting the items loaded into the truck.
Paul and I had a blast in the grocery store, with each having our own cart. In mine we decided to put all of our dry goods and non-perishables, then any fresh fruits and vegetables. In Paul's we stocked up on meats, frozen items, and dairy. I ended up having Paul head back before me with the furniture and food, stating that if he wanted to eat sometime tonight, I needed to go to the Sears that was down the street to buy dishes, cookware, and silverware. He agreed, only because he said he hadn't smelled a vampire all day, and knew the food needed to get to the house. I told him I would be no more than an hour behind him, but that I'd call if something happened to make me late.
I ended up getting a Cuisinox 30 Elite stainless steel cookware set, a stainless steel mixing bowl set, a measuring cup and spoon set, an awesome baking sheet and pie pan set, a stand mixer, a BrewExpress stainless steel and black coffee maker, a 4-slice stainless steel and black toaster, an 8qt. multi slow cooker, a dual blender/food processor, a roasting oven, two different kitchen and table linen sets, plus a 20 piece bakeware set. Even after all that, I still needed dinnerware, cutlery, glassware, as well as silverware. I found the perfect 24 piece cutlery set in a wooden block, 3 Corelle square 'Cherry Blossom' 16 piece dinnerware sets (in case I ever hold a party... yeah, as if), 3 glassware sets, and a 65 piece flatware set. I knew I was still going to need a ton of more things, but I already had two full carts, so that was going to have to do for now.
I called Paul while I was in the check-out line just to be safe, telling him that I was fine and would be leaving from Sears within 15 minutes. He let a breath out, thanking me for letting him know I was safe, then told me he got some of the stuff unloaded from the truck already. I told him I would make him a cake tonight for his initiative, causing him to offer up a pleased rumble in response. I chuckled, warning him not to get too excited, but he just commented about how he knew my cakes were the best. He couldn't help it.
When I arrived back at the house, Paul came out the open front doors with a big smile, saying as I opened the back, "I hope you don't mind, but Sam wanted a tour... so I kinda went wolf and walked through the house."
I chuckled in response, "Only you, Paul. It's fine, though. There's definitely room for you to phase in the house, just don't break anything... and don't let your claws scratch up my floors, or you'll be fixing them on your own dime."
He shook his head while grinning wider, "Not a scratch, because I was really careful to tread lightly. Damn, Chica. Did you buy out the store?"
I chuckled as I smacked the back of his head, "Just help me with this shit, or you won't get fed, Smart Ass. Did you get the rest of the stuff unloaded from the truck?"
As he grabbed several things, he nodded, so I followed him into the house. "Yep, everything's unloaded, food's all put away, the surround sound speakers are placed, and the bedroom sets are in their respective rooms. I just need you to tell me how you want the rooms set up, then I'll get everything put together for you."
I nodded, and once we set down the first load, I said, "Let's get the Durango unloaded, I'll tell you how I want them, then get started on washing dishes and making dinner."
The rest of the evening went well. The next day was filled with examining the outside of the house, as well as more exploring. I found out that I had a 12 stall horse stable and tack room that needed some work, along with a separate work barn that also needed work. There was a one bedroom cabin not too far from the barn that needed minor fixing. Paul said with having so much property, it wouldn't hurt to take applications for a live-on handyman/caretaker, then just have Charlie run the backgrounds of the applicants. I agreed that it was probably a good idea, telling him I'd talk to Charlie about it once we got back. We were to leave out the next morning, right after returning both the U-haul truck and the Durango. Charlie was supposed to pick us up at Sea-Tac. It's a good thing I had been taking pictures of everything with my phone, or Charlie would have a fit not being able to see how everything really looked.
My last night in the mansion was filled with dreams of returning, turning this amazing place into my dream home, along with skinny dipping in the waterfall pond. I was sad as I closed up the house and checked the alarm. Paul hugged me to him, saying, "You'll be back in no time, Bella. I just know it." I agreed, but felt like the further away we got from the mansion, the further I was from home. I ended up sleeping for the first part of the flight, then really wanting the plane to turn around for the second part. It was odd how that large stretch of secluded land was calling to something deep inside me.