The scent—vanilla and cherries and spices and… something else—grew stronger and stronger. My mouth began to water. It wasn’t that it smelled like food, though. This was nothing like the smell of a fat deer or a vulnerable rabbit. It also wasn’t like anything else I’d smelled before, either.
I slowed down once I neared the arena. The tree coverage became much more sparse around here. I wanted to be careful. People in Burlington were generally used to a wolf sighting here or there, but the less we were noticed,the better. I crouched in the bushes and peered out. The scent grew stronger as a breeze rustled the leaves around me.
That’s when I saw him walking toward his car. I recognized him instantly. Elijah Sager, the new trade on our team. Loose, dark brown curls poked out of a black and baby blue Bobcats baseball cap, turned backward so I had full view of those bright hazel eyes. I’d briefly checked out his social media pages and was happy to see he had talent on the ice, so I was prepared for just how exactly my type Elijah was.
Smiley, bright-eyed, wavy hair, athletic, and (from one picture of him at the beach in a tiny yellow Speedo) packing.
But my online stalking could never have prepared me for the way this man smelled.
This otherworldly scent that made the world pause, as if the most fragrant bouquet of sweet red roses had been placed in front of me. Like I’d been dropped in the center of a bright purple lavender field. Like I was swimming in the sea with the salt in the pure air filling my lungs. A mix of it all and more.
So, so much more.
It had to be him. The scent was growing more intense with every step he took toward me. It was intoxicating.
And—shit—it was going to get me in trouble. I ran before he could spot me in the bushes. I tried to put the scent behind me but found myself turning, following him again, all the way to downtown. There, I had shifted back into my human form, and even though the scent was gone, the urge to “bump” into him was still powerful.
So I did. He didn’t suspect a damn thing.
But something else happened when I met him in my human form. It was undeniable now. I was deeply and intensely attracted to the guy.
He had flashed a crooked smile with that pretty little mouth that appeared capable of doing the dirtiest fucking things.
From that moment, I was hooked. A bass on the line being reeled up onto shore.
I felt the tug down in my core, tightening it, spreading flickers of heat outward.
It was as visceral a reaction as if we’d pulled our pants down and shaken each other’s dicks instead of hands.
And fuck, just shaking hishandmade me rock fucking hard.
I knew I couldn’t stick around. Whatever was happening to me had to be sorted out before I trailed Eli into a bathroom and pushed him into a stall. It was an insatiable hunger that gnawed inside me with every lungful of air I took in, breathing in Eli’s sweet, otherworldly scent.
Jesus fuck, what cologne did this guy use? Whoever made it should be a billionaire with how good they got their formula.
I ditched him and practically bolted to my car. A couple of people recognized me and waved. I returned their polite greeting with a pleasant smile. It was funny, the way humans—or shifters—wore expressions like masks. No one could know just how insanely horny meeting Eli had made me if they were simply judging by the toothy grin and friendly wave.
And yet, on the inside, I wanted to whip my dick out and start stroking, picturing how it would feel if it were Eli’s fingers wrapped around me.
I made it to a quiet street withplenty of trees and bushes to run through. It took me another moment to shift, and then I was off, running through the night. My instincts shouted at me to turn around and chase the scent that had me enthralled, but I somehow fought it, pushing forward like a salmon against the current, determined to put as much distance as I could between me and the newbie. I began to follow another scent, one that was much more familiar to me.
My paws kicked up dirt and gravel as I bolted out of a bush and up a long driveway. There were a couple of cars parked out front. I stopped between one for cover and shifted back into my human form. I wiped my hands on the sides of my jeans and headed toward the front door. I didn’t even knock, knowing it was already open. The sound of my laughter drifted out of an open window.
“Hello?” I called inside as I entered, walking through the spotlessly clean foyer, through the slightly messier living room, and into the absolutely chaotic kitchen.
“Gabe! There he is.” A hard slap on the shoulder greeted me. I smiled and gave Emmy a side-hug. “We were just talking about you missing out on seeing the new guy, Eli, out on the ice.”
Hah. Perfect timing.
“Don’t worry, I already met him. Bumped into him downtown.”
I walked over to the kitchen island and grabbed myself a plate. Emmy had barbecued for the pack tonight, which meant we were all going to bed very much fed. Not all of us were here; some had other responsibilities, and others had family obligations. Not everyone in the pack was blood-related. Shifter packs happened more from a natural push toward community than a forced link through blood.
“Hey, did he smell weird to anyone else?” I asked asnonchalantly as I could while grabbing myself a buttered-up corn on the cob. Chris scoffed, and Soren shook his head, both of them on the team. I looked over to Dylan, who shrugged and continued chomping down on his burger.
“Weird as in how?” Emmy asked. He had an arm around his girlfriend and fellow pack member, Raquel Green. She was one of the newest additions to the pack, having found us during a full moon shift. She had no territory and no wolf pack of her own, so after a two-week trial period and a unanimous vote, she had become one of us. It took about a month after that for her and Emmy to officially hook up. Typically, dating within the pack was discouraged as it could bring some bad blood directly home, but since Emmy was an alpha, the rules could bend around him a little bit.
“Weird as in…” I couldn’t even put it into words. The memory alone was beginning to rile me up. “I don’t know. I picked up on his scent from over a mile away and had to chase him down. Maybe it’s from wherever he came from?”
