When the Wolf Reigns

Chapter 3. A Scent.

Chapter 3. A Scent.

It was 3:22 when I noticed my passenger, Criss was dozing off.  I wanted to tell him not to fall asleep because I had just passed Sandy Creek which is only about fifteen minutes away from Wimington.  Waking up someone getting their much needed sleep is not on my favourites list.  Besides he had started to get tired about five minutes ago.  Eyelids drooping, head nodding off.  But it was like he wanted to stay awake.  I can't see why.  He hasn't been very friendly company.  Instead of enjoying his presence like eye candy, he had become an earsore.  There's one thing I can't stand is impenetrable silence.

"Mm, hungry."

My skin buzzed when I heard Criss talk.  My eyes darted to him instantly and my lips twitched into a smile when I noticed he was still asleep.  Sleep talking, that's adorable.  I'd have to remember to stop at a truck stop and offer him a meal before we depart.  A deep rumbling coarsed through me.  I'd have to get something to eat as well... something warm and spicy, my favourite.

I turned away to recollect myself and focus on driving, not his face.  I can't help but watch someone sleep.  There's something hynoptizing about it.  Especially when I'm not even tired.  Ever since that night, I've been staying up until right before sunrise.  That was the only way to lose Torna's trail.  They saw, sensed, and smelled best at night and thought they could catch me unawares.  They almost had once in a mountain range in Colorado.  But I'd outwitted them with the various scents of sulphur hot springs and by taking a different route.  It had cost me two hundred extra dollars, but it's worth it not to get caught.  I can't imagine myself actually trying to pay off the trackers sent after me with cash.  As if.

Yeah, that's it.  The best trackers of Torna were sent after me.  I don't know how many there are or what they look like.  Except one.  Alicia... After being her best friend for so long and trusting her with my life I'm still in disbelief that she would betray me like that.  To make me some savage beast like she is.  To change me into something that kills before thinking.

HONK!

I gasped when the eighteen wheeler drove beside me on the left lane of the freeway.  Why the hell did he just honk?  I looked in front of me to see if I was still trailing an eighteen wheeler.  I was.  I looked behind me and there was still the eighteen wheeler that was tailing behind me.  Okay, so what was the big deal?

I looked to my left.  The 3rd eighteen wheeler was still next to me.  Fear suddenly shot through me.  The scent of black pepper blasted into my nose from outside.  Oh shit.

The eighteen wheeler abruptly turned right to bump me off the freeway right when I did the exact same.  The car started vibrating from the outside white line until I passed over it into the low grass of some park.  The rumbling and bumping felt like a roller coaster while I coasted into the middle of the park, right through the basketball court.  Veering to the right I slowed to a stop in the parking lot, my breath harsh and fast.

My adrenaline was pumping wildly.  My fingers gripped the steering wheel tightly.  I just stared out the windshield in shock.  The tracker that smells like black pepper! I've known since Colorado that it was a guy from my growing sense of smell.  The scent was masculine. He tried to kill me!  Why?  Torna has never tried to kill me before.  They always tried to make me join them, not kill me.

And how did he find me?  How did I not notice his presence before he was right up on me?

The confusion and fear had me feeling panicky.  My eyes darted all over the place in a frenzy.  I half expected someone to pop up in front of my windshield and scare the shit out of me.  I looked at Criss and noticed he was still sleeping.  For some reason that relaxed me.  To explain to him what happened would be an almost impossible feat.

Wait a minute...

Cold chills ran down my bare arms.  I narrowed my eyes at my guest.  He was strange from the start.  But a tracker?  No, I wouldn't let them in my midst so easily.  Torna knows that.  And to even let him into my car would mean they know exactly where I'm going and where I was at at the time.  So it would have been pointless to just seat a tracker in my car knowing full well where I was.

Criss... who are you?

Not able to help myself, I leaned in slowly and inhaled his hair that fell onto the shoulder of his brown leather jacket.  Nothing.  With furrowed brows I inhaled again, much more deeper this time.  I smelled the leather, which was made from cowhide.  But him?  I didn't smell a thing.

A deep frown set on my jaw.  There should be a scent.  Everyone has a scent that if memorized well enough can be discerned even among thousands of people.  It's like a fingerprint for the nose.  Maybe my nose is just stuffy.

"What are you doing?" His deep, clear voice startled me, making me back away a foot.  I could see the side of his face clearly now, his fair skin like marble against the streetlight shining through the windshield.

"Uh... " I mumbled stupidly, trying to think of an excuse.  Sniffing him?  Telling him I was doing that would be awkward.

I lifted an eyebrow.  His eyes were closed.  He was still asleep, wasn't he?  To test it I did the age old act, placed my left hand in front of his face and waved it.  Vigourously.

Snatch. My wrist was caught in his strong grip and I was left breathless.  His arm was so fast it was like lightning reflex.  According to his steady breathing pattern he was not awake.  Still!  My heartbeat was thundering wildly in my chest, while he was relaxed in his seat.  With fast reflexes like his he had to be supernatural.  Was he a werewolf just like I am?

No, he can't be.  I'd smell it.  Why can't I smell him?

"Don't do that again..." he said, solemn and gravely. "... if you want your pretty little lady fingers intact."

I gulped hard and winced when his fingers tightened around my wrist.  I'd been wrong to let a stranger into my midst.  I hadn't sensed danger earlier when he first sat in my car.

But now I smell him.  I smell a scent. The most powerful scent of all.

Danger.