Chapter One: PETA hates turtles
The smell rustled through the familiar trees and dirt and coated them in something foreign. Something both unknown and unwelcome danced along the scent. I resisted an unnatural urge to roll around in the scent and mark myself with it, but the feeling made me wince and feel more like a backyard hound dog than I liked. It was something that smelled so close to "right" but just missed the mark. And it was something I, who knew a hell of a lot about "weird shit," couldn't begin to place.
I was frustrated and tired and I'd been tracking all day long and still nothing. Things like turtles and armadillos began to look a whole lot like volleyballs and soccer balls to a wolf with an inadequacy complex. Don't judge me, armadillos are like those people that talk about really boring or offensive things in overly loud voices that you've always wanted to punch in the face but have never had the courage too. And turtles are idiots, not even PETA cares about turtles, so being my Hackensack was an upgrade in life.
I tried to drown out the anxious voices of my pack members in the back of my head and kept heading towards the mountains. Questions we'd already asked hundreds of times over sang out in redundant lyrics with melodies mimicking Lambchop repetition. "What is it," Why is it here," What does it want," "Where is it going?" And if Paul asked me one more Goddamn time if I'd found it yet, I was gonna go samurai warrior on his unattractively hairy self.
As long as I kept going, the more irritated I could be at petty things like the grating sound of Leah's voice, or my inability to track down this new development, were fan-damn-tastic if they kept me distracted. As long as they succeeded in at least some small way to keep my mind off of Bella, and the fact that she loved a blood-sucker more than she'd ever love me. I tried to pretend that the further I got away from Cullen land, the more the ache eased. That maybe as long as I kept a county, country or continent between us I could forget her. Yep, sure, that'll happen.
How exactly do you tell your own brain to shut the hell up? Even more difficult to tell yourself to shut up when you have a handful of muscle-bound pack members to hear you and volunteer to do the honor. I tried to focus back on my task at hand. Something or someone was tap dancing too close for comfort on the boundaries of our land. The fact that nobody in the pack could identify what it was was disconcerting and alarming at the least.
I had never smelt anything like it before, it almost smelt like pack, but it wasn't like what we had was a particularly common affliction. Could it be a neighboring pack? Maybe there were more of us out there than I had thought about? Maybe I'd get the fight I was just itching to have for so long with some over arrogant dumbass wolf who needed to get put in his place? I felt myself grin and my muzzle lifted back to expose sharp canines in a very not nice form of amusement. Bring it on boy-o. Bring it on.
The thought was so delicious it took me a moment to realize two important things had changed. The first thing being the scent of the creature had changed from something I could roll around on my tongue to an almost imperceptible hint of flavor abruptly without warning. The second being that the moon had swallowed the sun and the stars were yawning themselves awake. The moon was one small slice from full and shone down with a brilliance that would have helped even a human to discern the path.
I stopped and sat down in the middle of the deer trail I had been following. How does a scent just…disappear? I took in a breath and only detected the earthy scents of soil and water someplace in the distance and-
"Jesus Jacob what an idiot you are." I turned and walked towards the East mentally adding "talking to myself" onto my list of issues. Of course, if the creature had gone into water I would have trouble picking up their scent. Maybe it knows something is tracking it and wants to throw it off the trail? With a grin I contemplated the fight to come. This was Quileute land and we had enough on our hands without rogue trespassing furbags.
I could smell the lake quite clearly miles before I was close by, and the unnatural silence of the clearing screamed more loudly than words that there was a visitor. Carefully remaining downwind I phased back into human form to rest a bit, not quite sure what to expect or what I would be up against. The vegetation and trees surrounding the water were thick and melted into each other to form a wall of foliage I had to circumnavigate with some ninja-like stealth.
I broke through the foliage at the same moment something broke the surface of the water and I noticed a few things simultaneously. One: It was quite obviously a "she", and two: that she was utterly and completely naked at the moment. Both the wolf and man in me were mixed parts shock and whole hearted approval, but then who was I to judge…I was naked too.
