Despite not talking to Brady again for the rest of the afternoon, he came back the next morning to complete his Benny-Sitting requirements. He wasn't doing it for me, he was doing it for Sam and for his pack, but it was still nice to see him.

I tried to keep some distance between us because I could still smell the stench of wet dog, stronger than ever before, and I didn't want to get too close. Fortunately, he'd gone back to being as handsome as ever, even if he smelt off. It confused me that my opinion of his attractiveness was so unpredictable, I'd always figured that people were either attractive or they weren't and that while it could change with time, it wasn't a wavering thing. As it turned out, if anyone could be indecisive about something as balanced as attractiveness then it was me and I did it well.

While we were sitting in the lounge room, silently watching some daytime soap opera, my comfort would jump from high to low and back again. The main deciding factor seemed to be whether or not I could smell the 'dog' in the room. Sue was home today and every time she opened the back door a breath of air would waft through and bath me in the scent that I so detested. And when this happened, I felt the spark of anger within my stomach swelling at the limits of its cage.

The cage was built by my own compassion for Brady, who couldn't help the fact that he was born the Shifter that he was. I think part of the cage was my desire to like Brady, to be with him; two things I couldn't do or be unless I controlled the anger. It was far from easy and I knew that it was only a temporary fix, but it was the only option I had.

I couldn't tell him what I was. He'd never want to see me again if I did that. He'd hate me for it, just as I knew that I was supposed to hate him for what he was. It was as basic as Jesse had said, the rivalry between cats and dogs. Only these cats and dogs were twice their normal size and had a human side to them that had a tendency to make things more complicated then they needed to be.

If it weren't for my human side then I would never have been able to consider the possibility of spending time around these men. The leopard in me would have been so disgusted by them and the vampires that staying would have been impossible. Or at least, staying without preying upon them would have been. I was starting to think that it was my time in human form that was making me fall so hard for Brady and I was scared by the idea that the next time I phased I would fall back to hating him.

And hate him I did, when I was in leopard form. I hated them all, detested them simply for what they were. I only put myself in this situation because I thought it would get me away from here and taking human form had well and truly fucked up my plans. These wolves should be long behind me and I should have set up somewhere nice and peaceful, but instead I was stuck in a form that made me uncomfortable and waiting for the time when I would be freed from its constricting grip.

It surprised me that Brady and the others hadn't picked up on anything yet. I'd been listening carefully to their conversations and monitoring what was being whispered when they thought I couldn't hear them. These moments were most common when Leah or Jared were watching me, as they were both Betas for their respective packs. But it occasionally happened when Brady was around, especially if they thought there was something crucial that he needed to know. I felt bad for eavesdropping but it was a necessary evil, as a lot of things seemed to be becoming these days.

They had realised that I smelt of Shifter, more specifically that I smelt like 'Pippa' but they were so blinded by the fact that I had broken my leg that they had bypassed the most obvious answer for one that barely worked. The theory was that my relationship with Pippa had meant that her scent was more ingrained then it would be on other people, they figured that a sexual relationship had changed my scent and that one day I would stop smelling like the Shifter that they so disliked. It was another thing that I had to thank my father and his whore for, because it seemed I now smelt even more of Shifter and they took this as a sign that I had been losing the scent of my lover until she came back.

'Dad' had also made an impact too. The Cullens and Leah's pack had retraced my track after I'd come back and they had found the male Shifter amongst the mingled scents and reported back as much. So everyone now thought that my withdrawal into myself was because Pippa had introduced me to her 'new' lover. I had yet to deny this, or to mention anything of the meeting really, so they were happy to stick to their erroneous conclusions.

I was one lucky son of a bitch to have everything continue to fall so perfectly into place.

The backdoor opened again and my stomach knotted at the smell that filled my lungs. It was worse than getting a whiff of one of my brother's horrendous farts, because unlike a fart the smell wasn't going to go away anytime soon. I couldn't hold back the spasm in my stomach and the retch that tore from my throat, Brady noticed it but didn't say anything.

Leah waltzed into the room, smiling brightly and humming to herself. She didn't normally look this happy but I didn't want to say something stupid and ruin her mood. Truth be told, I didn't say anything because I was afraid that if I opened my mouth I would vomit from the intense stench that was flowing towards me; she must have left the back door open.

The back door slammed shut, as if confirming my mental note and someone walked behind Leah without giving either Brady or myself a glance. He waved his hand towards the room and grunted what sounded like a hello. For a second I thought that it was Jesse, because that was how Jesse used to greet me when he eventually dragged himself home after a night with some random girl.

"Hey, Seth." Brady called as he stood up and looked at Leah, "I guess that you want some girl time with Bennett." It was the same stupid little dance that signalled the changing guard for Benny-Sitters. There was always some bizarre conversation that went far beyond what was necessary to explain away why someone was always here to watch over me. Yes, they jokingly called it Benny-Sitting to begin with but it seemed they thought I'd be offended if they were always Benny-Sitting me. Which I found stupid because who else would they Benny-Sit, surely only someone called Benny could be Benny-Sitted?

"Only if Benny wants too." Leah bubbled as I put my hands to my face and tried to rub the smell away from me, "Are you okay?"

"Fine." I grumbled as I rubbed harder, making sure to disguise my motions so that they wouldn't realise that there was a smell that I didn't like hanging around me. I rubbed so hard that I made my own skin hurt but it wasn't enough.

There was some movement amongst the Quileute Shifters, "Is Bennett okay?" I didn't know that voice but I guessed that it was Seth, because there was no one else in the house, as Sue was gardening out the back. It wasn't all that surprising that I didn't know the voice though. There were nine members of Sam's pack and at least five in Jacob's pack; I only really knew Brady, Jacob, Jared, Leah and Sam.

I continued to rub my face as I responded, "Head ache is all."

There was silence for a few minutes and then someone turned and walked away. The back door opened and then slammed shut again, and the stench was almost halved. Slowly and carefully, I pulled my hand away from my face and looked around the room. Brady was looking at me with deep concern etched on his handsome face, while Leah looked confused. She turned and sauntered from the room, returning moments later with a glass of water and a tablet.

"It's just Panadol, it'll help with the head ache." Leah said as she gestured for me to take the tablet and drink.

For reasons that I really didn't understand, the anger was back. It reared its ugly head and broke the feeble restraints I had on it. Leah was telling me what to do and I really didn't like it. I wasn't some child that needed her to mother me. It was beyond infuriating that she thought that she could or that I would listen to her. She didn't have the right.

A scowl twitched at my lips as I stared at the little white tablet in her hand. The muscles across my shoulders were tense, almost to the point where I thought they might snap from the pressure. I took a deep breath to try to calm my frayed nerves but it didn't work. It wasn't enough. Nothing was enough. The anger that was burning in my stomach was not going to be satiated by changing how I breathed; unless of course, I held my breath until I passed out, but that would only postpone the issue.

I swatted her hand away and the pill flew across the room. The look on Leah's face was priceless. She was shocked by my outburst and had no idea what to do. I'd never lashed out at her before. It seemed that seeing her surprise helped to alleviate some of the anger but not a lot.

"I don't want your fucking drugs!" I snarled, there was no way that I could be any nicer than that.

Leah took a step back and looked down at me. I'd never seen her look so flustered, as she tried to figure out what she'd done to upset me. But, with every second that I had to see her confused look, I got angrier. I had no idea what they were doing to me, this morning I had been okay but now I was infuriated by people that I not two days ago I had liked.

I could only assume that it was their smell and the fact that I wasn't able to phase. Once I had found some way of getting out from under their prying eyes everything would be better. Just one phase and I would be released from anger's painful grip. It had to be the lack of phasing because when I'd first met them none of this was an issue.

Al though, I couldn't help but feel the problem was deeper than that. There was more at play then just the need to phase. The worst bit was that I didn't know what it was. It had been two weeks since I'd phased and I knew that phasing would help, but I'd gone this long without phasing before. There was a time when I was really young and Mum had punished me by making me stay in leopard form. I hadn't gotten angry then so there had to be something bigger happening that was making me angry now.

Leah knelt down in front of me, "Are you okay, Benny?"

Bile rose in my throat as the anger in my stomach mounted. Why was she ignoring my anger? Wasn't it clear that I didn't want her sympathy? Couldn't she tell that I just wanted to be alone? So much for women's intuition, I had a feeling that even Brady knew better than to keep prying when I was this mad. As it was, he was starting to back away from me.

"I'm fucking fine! The only way I could be better would be if you stopped asking me stupid questions!"

She recoiled at that. Finally, she was reacting the way I wanted her to. Maybe she'd get the hint and leave me alone soon. But I wasn't going to hold my breath. None of these mutts seemed to pick up on my emotions, or at least they didn't recognise the intensity of my emotions.

Brady was half way to the back door and he seemed to be inching closer to it with every second, "Maybe we should leave Bennett alone for a little while. You know, give her some space and time to herself."

Leah looked back over her shoulder, "Not until she tells me what's wrong. I'm not stupid, I know something is going on." Even though I couldn't see her face I could tell that she'd stumbled across something, something that made her snarl at Brady, "Did you do something?"

The offense was clear on Brady's face but he didn't say anything to defend himself. I wondered if he realised that saying nothing made it look like he had done something. It didn't help that he had one of the guiltiest expressions on his face that I'd ever seen. Maybe he had done something, maybe I knew it subconsciously but my conscience had yet to catch up with it.

It took a while but Brady eventually spoke up, "Of course not. I'm just reading between the lines and thinking that Bennett doesn't want us hovering around her all the damn time."

Leah turned back to me, "If he's done something you can tell me. You know that, right?"

My curiosity was pushed aside by the anger that I had momentarily forgotten about. It was back with a vengeance because all of a sudden I wanted to rip Leah's face off. I wanted to bite her. I wanted to hurt her just because I knew that I could. Sure, phasing would give away the big secret that I was trying to hide but at the moment keeping that secret didn't seem as important as venting my frustration.

"You know what I know? I know that you're a busy body bitch. I don't want or need your help with anything. What I want is for you to leave me the fuck alone." And with that, I pushed her.

She fell backwards. As she put her hands out behind her to stop her fall, she hit the coffee table with a thud and the wooden edge snapped under the heel of her hand. She was sitting awkwardly by in front of the couch with a palm full of splinters, staring at me with wide brown eyes. Still, the anger was not satiated and it took all my strength to look away from her and stop myself from lashing out again.

This was not good. If I didn't find a way to discharge the anger soon, I was going to do something that I couldn't talk my way out of.