Adrian
There's something wrong.
The second I see him. The strange guy. It hits me. The scent from the woods. The scent that has been following me all day. It doesn't make sense. Human, yes, but not that only. There's something mixed in it. Faint, buried, familiar in a way that makes my instincts shoot out.
It shouldn't be possible. Not here, not now.
For a moment, I can't focus on anything but the scent. The smell clings to the back of my throat, sharp and electric, and something deep inside me stirs. My wolf alert, uneasy. My pulse picks up, unsteady.
He is still watching me. He looks disoriented, like he's trying to figure out what's going on in my head. I don't even have an explanation for what I'm experiencing right now. Pale skin, dirt on his jeans, a faint mark on his arm, that is giving me weird vibes right now.
For a heartbeat, it feels like something in me shifts toward him.
Then Luca's voice breaks through the haze. "Hey, man. You good?"
I blink hard, stepping back like I've been caught doing something I shouldn't. Luca's standing there with a coffee in one hand and that look, the one that says he's noticed.
"Yeah," I say, too quickly. "Fine."
Bev joins us, slipping her phone into her pocket. "You don't look fine," she says lightly.
I almost laugh, but it comes out more like a breath.
Bev's expression softens, though her eyes sharpen with quiet curiosity. "You're doing that thing again," she says.
"What thing?"
"Spacing out like you're hearing a frequency no one else can."
I exhale, glancing back, but he's already gone, swallowed up by the crowd. The air where he stood still feels charged, faintly buzzing under my skin.
"It's nothing," I lie. "Just thought I recognised someone."
Bev tilts her head. "Recognised, or sensed?"
That word. She says it too carefully, too knowingly.
"Drop it," I mutter.
Luca shrugs. "Fine. But whatever it was, it threw you off. You barely blinked for a full minute."
I start walking again, faster this time, forcing my focus on the path ahead. "Let it go."
Behind me, Bev murmurs something to Luca, something about instincts, about the full moon coming, but I don't listen. I can't.
Because even now, even surrounded by a hundred other scents and voices, that one faint trace still clings to me.
And I can't shake the feeling that whatever it is, it's already found me too.
By the time I get back to the pack house, the noise of campus is gone, replaced by the rhythm of the place I call home. It should be grounded. It usually is.
Today is different.
I still can't get that shaky feeling out.
I run a hand through my hair, trying to clear my head. The walls here are lined with family photos and the smell of pine. Safety, order, routine. My sister's voice echoes from the kitchen, teasing someone about being late for dinner prep.
But I can't focus on anything. All I can think about is that stranger's face.
Those eyes.
And that scent. Wrong... impossible.
"Yo," Ethan, one of the Alphas in the pack's voice, cuts through my thoughts. He leans against the doorway, a protein bar half eaten in one hand. "You good. Luca said you've been out of it all day."
Ethan is a confidant, someone I have always been able to trust. His father was best friends with mine. We've known each other since we were young pups.
I glance up. "Yeah, just caught up in a lot of stuff," I brush it off because there's no point worrying him when I'm not sure there's anything to even worry about.
"Caught up doing what?" he smirks. "Please tell me it involves someone hot."
I give him a look. "No."
He snorts, unconvinced. "You sure everything's okay?"
"Yeah," I lie. "Just tired."
Ethan nods slowly, but I can tell he doesn't buy it. He never does.
When he leaves, I sit on the edge of my bed and exhale. My reflection in the window stares back, dark eyes, tired, restless.
I should forget it. He's just a human. Just some guy.
But the way my pulse jumped when I looked at him, the heat in my blood. It wasn't anything. It was instinct.
And instincts don't lie.
By dusk, I've given up on pretending I can ignore it.
I find Ethan, Luca, and Bev near the back porch, where the pines stretch thick and dark beyond the fence line. "We're heading out," I tell them.
Ethan frowns. "Now? For what?"
"The woods," I say. Something feels off."
Luca straightens immediately. "You caught a scent?"
"Maybe. Not sure yet."
We shift fast, no need for words. The night accepts us, three shadows melting into the dark, the earth cool under our paws, the air alive with scents and sounds. The sound of the forest is calming. Crickets, distant owls. the heartbeat of territory that has belonged to my bloodline for generations.
But beneath it all, something's wrong. A tear in the usual rhythm of our runs. The faintest trace of copper and heat.
Blood.
He was here.
The guy at school.
I slow my pace down. My ears twitching, nose lifting. My wolf is at the forefront right now, steady, and ready. The scent burns sharply. Human blood, but laced with that same impossible undertone. My wolf bristles, torn between curiosity and the urge to protect what's ours.
Luca comes up beside me, nostrils flaring. You smell it too?
I nod, eyes narrowing.
Bev pads ahead, her white fur catching moonlight as she circles a fallen log. Over here.
I move closer. The ground's disturbed. Footprints, small and uneven. Blood droplets trail along the leaves before disappearing into the dirt. The scent makes my stomach twist.
He was hurt.
Bev shifts back to human form, crouching to inspect the ground. "This is fresh," she murmurs, voice low and alert. "A couple of hours, maybe. Someone was dragged through here."
"Human?" Luca asks.
She nods. "Mostly. But there's… something else. Like a mark, faint. Almost like—"
"A bite," I finish.
Bev looks up at me, eyes widening. "You think one of ours—?"
"No." I shake my head. "Every wolf knows better. There hasn't been an unauthorised bite in years."
"But the scent—"
"I know."
I stare at the patch of blood-darkened leaves, the earth still heavy with his scent. My wolf claws inside me, restless and hungry, confused by the instinct that says mine even when logic screams impossible.
"Clean this up," I order quietly. "No one else finds out. Not until I know what this means."
Bev hesitates. "Adrian—"
"I said no one."
Her jaw tightens, but she nods. Luca, too.
As we head back, the forest closes in around us, quiet again, as if holding its breath. But every step, every gust of wind, still carries him.
The human who smells like a wolf.
And the question I can't shake.
What the hell are you?