I knew that voice.
I winced, turning with a wobbly smile.
“How’ve you been, Sillas?” I expelled a nervous chuckle, remembering I’d ghosted his texts. Sillas stuffed his hands in his pockets, mirroring my smile.
“Hi, Amaia.”
He got a curt nod in response. No privacy granted.
He eyed my outfit. “Didn’t know you were into this kind of event.”
Before I could answer, two kids ran up to Sillas, beaming at him. “Chainsaw! Can we get a picture?” They were wearing wereball merch—the Comets team, with my brother’s red wolf on the front.
Sillas looked apologetic.
I waved him off. “Go ahead. Catch you later!”
“Ivy, wait?—”
But I was already walking away, my smile fading.
My wolf paced back and forth, panting, without offering a single explanation. My belly twisted like laundry in a spin cycle, and my heart felt heavier and heavier. I almost cupped my chest to contain it.
Amaia was deep in conversation with a couple of doctors from the aid program. She could handle our paperwork without me, so I let her know I was stepping out for some fresh air and
wove my way through the maze of stalls, merch stands, and chatty crowds—families, kids, players, all in high spirits. Everyone seemed to be having the time of their lives.
The moment you least expect something is the moment that something happens, like thunder out of the desert.
Until then, I had never taken the saying seriously.
I wasn’t thinking of fate or omens. I was just looking for an exit. My head was full of my to-do list and the week ahead.
And then there, surrounded by happy strangers, I smelled it.
The scent.
The one our parents had warned us about. The one tailored to grab our souls by the throats, enslave our brains, and hand-deliver our hearts to someone else.
A smoky musk pinched with amber, softened with sugary notes of raspberry jam.
Rich and warm. Absolutely overwhelming.
Asphyxiating.
Before my lungs could send a signal to my brain and connect the dots, my eyes fell on a head of blond hair about ten, maybe twenty feet away. A guy standing off to the side, talking to a small group.
I completely froze. Full system crash. My nervous system went offline, and my heart rate flatlined.
All I could do was stare. People milled around me, unaware of my short-circuiting body.
He had his back to me. Even from here, it wasn’t hard to notice how tall he was. Ridiculously tall. Similar to my father, who was basically a dinosaur.
Spellbound, I watched how he paused, how he tipped his head and lifted his nose up in the air. How he sniffed…something.
Me.
His spine straightened before he slowly turned around.
