Just a Wolf

Dominic

I come out of the bathroom wearing this plush robe that was hanging up on a hook near the shower, and tell Evan, “Check this out! There’s fancy bathrobes in there for us!”

He opens his eyes with a start, and I realize he had fallen asleep. I see that the scrapes on his face are almost gone. His wolf healing must have kicked into high gear during his tiny nap - clearly he needed it.

He sits up, brushing his hand over his face. “Cool,” he mutters.

I wave my hand over to the bathroom. “I’m done in there now,” I tell him, “go ahead.”

He gets up and stumbles through the door. Hope he wakes up all the way before we have to go downstairs. I go to my luggage and start pulling out the dark blue suit that Mom helped me pick out. I can’t believe I have to wear a suit. I hope I can remember how to tie this frigging tie. I had to practice, like, ten times with Dad before he was satisfied. I know a lot of people my age are already out living on their own, but I like it at home, so I’m in no hurry to move out. And I think it makes my parents happy to have me there, so they can help me out with stuff like this.

I frown at myself in the mirror as I methodically follow the steps to tie the right knot, and manage to get it done in just a couple of tries. I stand back and inspect myself. I was dubious about the color of this suit, thinking that black would be better, but Mom insisted that the dark blue would look nice with my brown skin and black hair, and I’ve gotta say I think she was right. I’ve got a little growth of stubble but Evan is still in the bathroom so I’m going to skip shaving. Not like anyone is going to be paying any attention to how I look.

By the time that Evan is ready to go, seeming both fully awake and fully recovered, I hear everyone gathering out in the hallway. We head out there and see the leaders talking to someone from the River Moon Pack, probably one of their leaders. Beta Nolan looks around, up and down the hallway, probably counting heads, then he nods to the River Moon guy and we all start walking down the hallway.

That yummy smell is here in the hallway too, sugar cookies and wildflowers, and I wonder if it’s more than just air freshener. Could it be, like, their carpet cleaning solution or something? It seems to be everywhere. I’ll have to figure out what brand it is, I’ll bet my folks would like to use it at home too.

I take a huge deep breath as we follow everyone down the hall, taking in the scent, and can’t stop an involuntary groan of pleasure from slipping out. Evan looks at me funny. “What?” he asks.

“Don’t you smell that?” I murmur. “Isn’t it amazing?”

He looks confused and shrugs. “I mean, it smells clean, I guess.”

Huh.

Well, maybe he just doesn’t like it as much as I do. We’re to the stairs, and we all start clomping down together, and I swear that the smell is getting stronger with every step I take. It’s starting to be embarrassingly distracting. I’m afraid I’m going to trip and fall if I can’t stop obsessing about it. I’d take out half the pack as I tumble down the stairs. I grab hold of the banister to make sure that I don’t disgrace myself.

I don’t know why nobody else seems to be noticing it. I glance around at everyone, and see that although they are all looking around themselves with interest, it just seems normal, like they are enjoying the decor of the pack house. Not like what is happening to me, the damn scent drilling itself right into my brain, and straight down through my heart and into my dick. I’m hard again from it, just from a smell, harder than I was looking at that wolf in her booty shorts leaning over her engine today.

WTF is going on?

I suddenly realize there is one other pack member who looks like she is smelling it too. Janine is walking in front of me, one or two people between us, and I see her swiveling her head around, her long dark hair swinging across her back, her cute nose raised in the air like she is trying to figure out what the scent is. I used to have a crush on her back in high school, but we hardly ever talk any more. She lives and works in the pack house, and I don’t see her much since I live in town.

I push forward past Evan to walk next to her as our pack moves through the pack house entryway. I want to ask her if she can smell it too. As we are about to go through the wide double doors into the ballroom, she stumbles, and I reach out my hand to steady her.

She stares into my eyes, looking bewildered, and whispers, “Do you smell that?”

“Yeah,” I murmur back, making sure she is standing all right before I take my hand back off her arm. “It’s amazing. What is it?”

But we don’t get the chance to discuss it any more, because we’re in the ballroom, and everyone is turning around to watch our group enter. We start being directed to tables to sit down, but I can’t follow directions, because that scent is in here, everywhere, commanding my attention like it is physically taking hold of me. I am powerless to do anything but inhale, and stare around trying to find the source, aware that one, my dick is rock hard and that two, my inner wolf is absolutely flipping the fuck out.

What is happening?

I find myself roaming, not sitting down like I’m supposed to, compelled to hunt down the source of that scent. I have to find it. I am halfway up the room when I see the River Moon Pack’s Alpha stand up from his seat in the front, looking like Thor himself, and come walking down towards where I am standing. I spin around to try to duck out of the way, and that’s when I see her.

There she is. The scent is her, and she is the scent, and she is everything. Everything. There is nothing else in the world right now, nothing except her. The sugar cookies and wildflowers swirl around, permeating every cell of my body, reaching right into my soul.

My eyes drink in everything I can see. She has long blond hair, the color of honey, and she is wearing a strapless blue dress, and her creamy shoulders are the loveliest thing I have ever seen in my life. I can only see the edge of her face, because she is turned mostly away from me, watching her Alpha walk towards her.

I realize that my wolf is shrieking inside, “Mate! Mate! Mate!”

Oh my god. I suddenly realize what this is, why her scent has drawn me to her. Every werewolf grows up hearing the stories of fated mates, but it always seemed abstract to me, until right this second. I have no idea who she is, what her name is, what kind of person she is. I don’t even know what her face looks like, but I know she is mine. I have to have her. Nothing else matters to me in this moment. Nothing else will ever matter to me.

I start to approach her, coming up from behind, past Janine who is standing frozen and staring towards the Alpha who is walking up to … to my… my mate.

Wait! What is this? I see the look in his eyes, and it looks like exactly what I am feeling. This intense, possessive, crazed desire that is flooding through me, is clearly displayed in his expression, and he is walking straight to my mate, and I am so confused. Is he claiming her? How is that possible? Do I have to fight him? She is mine, how can he be approaching her, looking like that? I see her back stiffen, her shoulders tense, I can feel the anxiety wafting off of her as he gets to her.

And passes her by.

I don’t know what he is doing, or where he is going, and I don’t care. Nothing matters but her. I focus on her, watch as her shoulders droop, and I can see by the way they rise and fall that she has taken a deep breath. She turns to watch her Alpha as he moves past her, and now I am directly behind her, not able to see anything but her beautiful hair and shoulders.

I am moving towards her again, dying to touch her, dying to see her face, dying to make her mine. And to, you know, introduce myself. I take two steps in her direction, and hear some commotion going on in the room that I completely ignore. Nothing else matters.

I see her start to waver, as though she is going to fall for some reason, and I lunge forward to catch her. I’m acting on sheer instinct, I have no idea what is happening because my brain appears completely disengaged, but I know I have to hold her up.

As soon as I touch her, I feel it. It is like an electric shock, only not painful. It is intensely pleasurable, little sparks of feeling rushing over my skin, as her scent envelops me, the delicious sugar cookies and wildflowers flooding over me like a tidal wave. I wrap my arms around her from behind, because I can tell she will fall over if I don’t, and my nose seeks her scent, burying itself in her hair.

The word bursts out of me without any conscious decision on my part.

“Mate!”