Mating Season

Familiar Scent

Buckle up, kids. Things are going to get SPICY.

Chapter Seven (Familiar Scent)

"Faster, Gaspard!" Amber thumped the sides of Gaspard with her heels as if he were a horse. Her hands —unconsciously—made a fist in his fur.

Easy! he roared in her head, equally tense as she was.

She wouldn't relax. She couldn't! From the sensations flitting through her like lightning bolts, it appeared that her pack had engaged the enemy. Her skull began to protest; she'd been grinding her teeth together since the moment she'd left the house to keep from roaring in rage and frustration.

How dare he trespass upon her property? How dare he tread all over the peace she'd so carefully constructed and maintained for the last four years, and for no reason?! Why the hell was he here after all this time?

How dare he! she roared, positively seething. She was all but ready to taste some blood.

It's him, isn't it?

Gaspard's question surprised her.

How did you know?

Your wolf is...

Amber understood even without Gaspard having to finish. Her cheeks colored in humiliation.

Her wolf was shamefully crying out for her Mate like a bitch in heat.

Why was it that whenever he was concerned, she was made to suffer shame and humiliation?

Silence. Her command crackled like lightning, directed at her inner beast. Her body shuddered rebelliously and she very nearly fell off Gaspard. She struggled to rein in her wolf, who was scratching and clawing at the walls she had built up to restrain her uncontrollable desires, dying to get out. Her stomach trembled with the effort. Knowing that she'd soon come face-to-face with him made it all the more difficult to control her dastardly urges.

Damn him to Hell!

She was going to make him pay for wronging her. Twice.

****

Lucas stopped, sniffed the air, trotted a few steps forward, then raised his nose and sniffed the air again. If his wolf could frown, he would have. There was a certain 'quality' to the air that made the hairs all over his body rise and his ears perk up expectantly. He was restless, and not because he was currently trespassing on foreign territory.

This quality he was distracted with... He'd known it once before, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it just yet.

Is something the matter, Alpha?

He sensed him before he turned his head slightly to see Michael running by his side.

No. It's nothing. Proceed with the plan.

That's right. It's nothing. This he thought to himself rather unconvincingly. It had to be that he was in a new environment and his wolf was picking up on the new scents. Probably.

How much farther, Michael?

Just up ahead. I left some marks on the trees to indicate the way. Just follow my scent.

He sped up, racing ahead of his pack. He'd received reports that the wolves he'd sent up ahead to scout had engaged the pack—an unfamiliar, new pack who went by the name of the Raven Wolves—against his strict orders. No matter. They could rough them up a little until he arrived, then he'd punish them for their insolence and disobedience later. For now, they were headed to where Michael claimed he'd found the body of his second-in-command.

They burst into a small clearing. In its middle he spotted a black, large stain that marred the green field of grass. Dry blood. Eric's blood. His former second-in-command's blood.

Anger, hot and white, flowed through his veins.

Find the Alpha! He sent the command to his pack —a terrifying, bloodcurdling roar that startled and energized the whole pack. Bloodthirst permeated the morning air and low growls filled the silence. Once they found the son-of-a-bitch, he'd answer for his mistake. With his life.

A smell wafted to his nostrils on a gentle winter breeze. His body jolted. Everything in him awakened with a collective gasp. Every nerve ending began to tingle. He breathed in the delicious scent, and as it drifted down his body, it warmed him inside out. His blood grew unbearably hot in his veins and his skin stretched uncomfortably over the bone. His eyes flew wide open.

Her.

Lucas broke into a run.

Her! His wolf barked, overjoyed. He ran harder and harder, to the point where his paws barely made contact with the ground. He flew across the clearing and plunged into the forest on the other side, darting around and whooshing past trees. To a passerby, he seemed like a bullet soaring through the air. He followed the scent adamantly as if he were a starved dog that had finally smelled food.

Alpha, where are you going?!

He ignored Michael. He concentrated on tracking her down single-mindedly, doggedly pursuing the scent of her. He had to see. He had to see for himself whether this scent belonged to her or it was a figment of his imagination. Not that such a thing had ever happened before.

But why the hell was he running to her? He was the one who had rejected her and forced her out of the pack.

No, this is a mistake! I can't see her!

Abruptly realizing that he'd allowed his wolf —his animal—to seize control, he regained control and skidded to a hilt.

It was too late.

He heard a vicious, hostile growl directly in front of him. His eyes flew to the black wolf that sat an equally-dark rider atop it. His wolf howled and called to the rider. Lucas became furious with his wolf's out-of-control behavior which was highly unfit for an Alpha.

More than that, he was... worried that it was her riding the male wolf.

He was about to silence his wolf when he heard a howl responding to his own. The melancholy sound reverberated throughout his skull.

It called to him. Called out to every cell and fiber in his being. Unable to stop himself, he howled back.

The wolf lunged at him. 

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

Who do you think will win? 

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