Hard To Balance: Trials & Tribulations #1 | An MM Paranormal Romance

( 6 ) CHAPTER SIX | CYRUS ROWAN

Shit, that was too fucking careless. I almost wolfed up in a store.

Lucky for me, I only came out with Levi today. The idiot is loyal, so he would never spread what happened to anyone. This isn't the usual supply run. I came into town today to buy some books for Mom and we had also decided to stop by the store for some snacks after we got the books.

But at that moment, I couldn't help it.

I didn't realize at first when we first walked into the store that he was there. That kid I came across a few days back. But then I noticed him by the check-out counter. Even though he wasn't facing my way, I could tell it was him. His scent was mouth-watering as it invaded my senses.

My first instinct was to walk over without even questioning it. My wolf felt the need to get closer. His scent was--is intoxicating. If I can catch it, then I'll be able to recognize it later. I can't say why it was important, but it felt like it was.

He wasn't alone. And that bothered me much more than it should have.

"What the hell was that back there?"

I blink and look down at the brown-haired boy, who is staring up at me doe-eyed and confused. His brown eyes twinkle. He dragged me out of the store and onto the sidewalk. Even without looking I can tell that there weren't too many people close to us. It was about to be sundown.

He frowns. "I knew it, your eyes aren't gold. I couldn't remember before, but they're brown now..."

Fuck.

What do I do about this? I'd tried so hard to be careful, especially since I became Alpha, but I just showed something strange to a human. What do I do if he doesn't let it go? ... Eat him?

You might like that, my wolf, Tiberius, says to me through our mindlink. The urge to roll my eyes was real.

If he spreads rumors around town, the pack surely would never let it go.

Werewolves have never revealed themselves to the humans, not unless that human was a wolf's mate, so I don't know what I should do in this situation. Wolves that are careless enough to get too excited in town received discipline, but . . .

Before I can think myself into a hole, the wind shifts. Though he stands right in front of me, I wasn't paying too much attention to his scent since the wind was blowing it away from me. But the direction of the wind changes, and I'm suddenly hit in the face with the sweetest scent I've ever caught off a human–off anyone really.

I don't have the words to describe it, but my mind is blank for a few seconds. The boy's, whose name I have yet to learn, eyes widen, and I blink. I know my eyes must have gone gold again, but I try with everything in my being to control myself. In those few seconds, my wolf was breaking through and the ability to keep it contained was becoming harder.

Ever since I was a cub, I'd been taught to have perfect control, especially around humans. Since the first time my parents allowed me to come into town as a kid, this is the first time I've lost it, and it's happened twice in such a short time period, too, but my wolf is going crazy over this boy's scent.

While I–and most wolves really–refer to my wolf as a separate being, we are one and the same. It's only that a human and a wolf had very different instincts and thoughts. Wolves aren't intelligent creatures, they are driven completely by instinct, so even though us Werewolves could think and live like humans, there are times when the two sides collide, leaving one unable to understand the other. In moments like these, the wolf and the human seem like entities separated from each other.

For the first time, my human brain falls short and I can't understand my wolf's instincts beyond want–so much want.

I want to get close to him . . . bite him? What? Since I still have to get myself out of this sticky situation, my mind flounders between trying to understand what my wolf is telling me, and thinking of how to explain this so this mere human won't expose the whole pack.