About halfway back to the venue the wind blowed through the trees, I stopped momentarily closing my eyes enjoying the smells and feelings of nature. Through the crisp evening air I caught the faintest scent of something I could only describe as alluring. My mouth instantly watered and I tried to follow the scent but I was downwind and lost it as soon as it reached my snout.
Before I could process any thing about the scent, I felt my body be slammed to the ground under great impact. I felt the weight of another wolf pinning me down and then the sharp pain of fangs sibk deep into my neck and then everything went dark.
I awoke suddenly looking around wildly for the culprit. The trees showed no sign anything was amiss m, the dirt showed no tracks or the sign of a scuffle. Even the wind betrayed me carrying no scent or evidence and other wolf had been in this area but me. Did I just dream it all? I looked around once again and shook my head. I must have fell and hit my head. I decided to return to my previous destination.
This time I decided to run like I was on a mission as I had no idea if the ceremony was still going or not. I whipped past the trees for about 20 minutes my thoughts stuck on the dream I had and the scent I caught trying to place it. It was defdinatky a new scent yet somehow old and familiar to me. I passed the tiny quickly trying to think if every face and every smell I had ever encountered. No face matched the scent yet it somehow felt like home. It bothered me that i couldn't place it based on memory. It smell of earth with a hint of sweetness and burned wood like a campfire surrounded by wildflowers and fruits. I usually didn't get so caught up in unknown smells as I could usually place a marker on the smell, was it a person? Food? Chemicals? But this scent evaded and such category. No, this scent had a category all its own and I couldn't figure out what it was or where it came from. I was so lost in thought I didn't notice the two wolves right in front of me until I smacked straight into them.
I could tell by their scent they were my two older brothers. Daven was black like me but either brown and white patches adorning his wolf, he was one of the biggest wolves of our pack being the alpha, second only to me. Derrick was a tan wolf with black ears and paws almost looking like a fox under the right light. Derrick shift and spoke first.
'Brooke what the hell?? You missed the entire ceremony we were out looking for you the entire time! You cant just run off in territory that isn't home, you had us worried!!' He scolded. With every word he approached me one step at a time until he stopped dead in his tracks eyes wide.'brooke...why do you smell like that?' He asked. I cocked my head to the side in silent question. What is he talking about?
'what?' Daven asked seemingly reading my mind as he walked closer as well. He shifted half way through Derricks speech.
Once he got a few feet from Derrick he stopped also speaking bo words. This made me nervous. Did I stick that bad? What was wrong? I didn't smell anything off about myself and I had pretty sharp senses compared to a normal wolf because ei had spent so much time in this form my senses far surpassed any ordinary wolf. So what did they sense that I didn't?
'Brooke we can smell your scent and it has changed, it smells like you but also like you're someone else...' daven said. Like I am someone else? I thought to myself very confused now. I am me, I honestly don't know what they're saying. Daven spoke once again, ' we will talk about this later, I am glad you're okay after what those wolves said about you and you running away bit the ceremony is over and we need to head back home.' I nodded and took a step signaling I was ready to go.
We walked ab9ut 15 more minutes when we reached dour destination. I observed many couoles spread through out the venue in various states of togetherness, having found their mates. It seemed to be a good ceremony counting how many mated pairs had found one another. I was happy to see so many find their match. I didn't much care fir my own but seeing others be happy was nice.
'Come on, Dylan is still inside' Derrick said. We climbed the stairs back into the venue, the music had long died down and only a few wolves were inside the venue. The servants and maids were busy cleaning up empty champagne flutes and napkins off of tables as we ascended the stairs leading to almost vacant rooms. We reached the second floor and I could tell Dylan was on this floor, his scent was pungent and thick in the air.
Daven stopped at the last door of the hall and knocked twice. We didn't hear any commotion from inside but the rooms were sound proof for this very purpose. After a few minutes Dylan answered the door naked feom the waste up sweat glistening his entire visible body. My eyes went wide and I looked away quickly giving my brother a kind of privacy only a sister could afford. My other brotgers did not feel bashful about the intrusion.
'What?' Dylan said impatiently.
'Party is over they're closing down we need to go, you've been up here for hours, it's midnight.' Daven said impatiently leaving no room for discussion. Dylan smirked as he looked back at his mate when he heard her gasp I surprise.
'Okay, give us 10 minutes and we'll meet u in the car.' Dylan conceded.
We made our way back down the stairs to the car and just as promised Dylan arrived with his mate in tow faces pink with exertion and smiles wider than I've ever seen before on his face. His mate was beautiful but even more so now with the glow of the night on her face. The rest of us hadn't spoken with her at all but I could tell this was a good thing for Dylan and I was happy for him. I also knew getting home was going to bring some drama to all of us. As we peeled out of the driveway daven started speaking.
'Now Brooke, care to tell us what happened?' I looked at him in the rear view mirror briefly before Dylan snapped this head in my direction.
'What happened?' He asked.
Rarely did I ever speak through the mindlink but this was an appropriate time to explain my side of the story so I opened the link with my brothers. 'After the comments I became sad so I ran off to blow off some steam and feelings. I ran by the river, I stopped and howled at the moon. When the sun had been down for about an hour or so I decided to head back, so that's what I did. I ran leisurely back enjoying the night and the wind brought a foreign scen to my nose, I paused curious of what it was and then without warning I was tackled to the ground by a wolf, and bitten-' I noticed they all perked up at that in unison '- I passed out inmeadeatly, when I woke up there was no sign of the wolf, no scent , no trail, nothing. Then you guys found me' Dylan was the first to speak.
'Is that why she smells like that?' I huffed offended I still don't know what they are talking about.
Dylans mate leaned into me from the seat in front of me and looked deeply into my eyes taking a deep breath as she did. When she pulled away she looked at Dylan and bit her lip, Dylan then looked at My other two brothers woth a panicked look on his face the second she did.
'Brooke how are you feeling right now?' Daven asked seriously. Derrick just kept staring at me from ten lassenger seat not ahaing a word as if he already knew what happened.
'Can someone please explain to me why you're all looking at me Like that? And I feel fine..I don't understand what's wrong with yall' i said a little asher than needed.
'Let's talk to dad first and then we will know for sure.' Daven said on a clipped tone nit wanting to discuss this with me further. I could tell my brothers were in a link of their own by their expressions and I just couldn't figure out why they seemed so upset.