Chapter 7: Basketball

Amara and Benjamin arrived at Zuccaro's and were immediately seated. It was a very nice Italian restaurant with posters of typical Italian actors and movie scenes on the walls and the tables were covered with white and red checkered cloths. Amara ordered a Coke and Benjamin ordered a Dr. Pepper. They grabbed their menus and browsed it.

"What are you gonna have?" he asked her.

Amara shrugged. "I don't know yet. What about you?"

"I think I'm gonna have the veal parmigiana."

"Hmm..." Amara kept browsing the menu. "Ah, hell. I'm getting the shrimp scampi."

Benjamin laughed. "You always get that when we come here."

"I know but it's good!"

The waiter came by with their drinks and asked if they were ready to order. They both ordered their food and the waiter left to go put in the order. Amara took a drink of Coke and sighed.

"So, I need to show you something," Amara said.

"Yeah? What's up?"

Amara grabbed her book bag and pulled out the book she got from the library. She turned to the page about black wolves and handed it to Benjamin.

"Read," she said.

Benjamin's eyes drifted back and forth on the page. After a bit, he looked at Amara with a shocked expression.

"So...your scent is just-"

"Messing with your sense of smell. And Jackson's."

Benjamin leaned back in his chair. "Wow. That's just...wow. So my attraction to you is...fake?"

"I think so," she said with a frown. "I'm sorry if I burst your bubble."

"No, it's...huh." Benjamin handed her back the book and she stuffed it back in her bag. "It's gonna get worse?"

"Yeah. That's why Mr. Shaw was at my work. He was buying me anti scent spray. As a birthday gift."

Benjamin's eyes narrowed. "Why would he be buying you a gift?"

Amara shrugged. "To be nice, I guess." She sighed and rubbed her face. "I'm going to have unmated males flocking to me for the wrong reasons unless I have that stuff."

"Well..." he huffed in resignation. "So much for me kissing you later."

Amara cackled loudly. "As if I'd let you."

Benjamin made a face. "Well, you never know. It could happen."

Amara shook her head with a giggle. "If you tried to kiss me, it'd be for the wrong reason."

Amara frowned at the thought suddenly. No one was ever going to love her for being who she is. They were only going to be attracted to her because of her scent. This saddened her to the core. She lowered her gaze to the table, a deeper frown forming on her face.

"What's wrong?" Benjamin asked.

"I'm never going to be loved for me," she surmised.

"Hey, that's not true," Benjamin assured.

"Yes it is. It'll all be because of my black wolf scent. It won't be real."

Benjamin got up and got into the chair next to her, then he grabbed her hand. "Listen. I don't think the Moon Goddess would have given you a black wolf just so you could never be loved for real."

Amara gripped Benjamin's hand and looked at him, tears threatening to spill over. "I don't think the Moon Goddess made me this way. I think I'm just cursed."

He quirked his mouth to the side and a sad look appeared in his violet eyes before he lifted a hand and cupped her cheek. "You're not cursed. Maybe there's a way to, I dunno, control your scent or something? What else does the book say?"

"I haven't looked."

"Well, let's take a look."

Amara pulled the book out again and opened it. She skimmed through the pages until she got to the part about black wolves. She groaned when she read more of the information.

"While the scent can be controlled through magic or anti scent spray, those are not recommended for long term use. The only way to permanently stop the scent from driving unmated wolves into a frenzy is for the black wolf to find his or her mate and complete the mating process."

Amara slammed her forehead on the table as Benjamin took the book. "Well, crap," he said. "That really sucks for you. You better hope your mate is in our pack."

Amara nodded and looked at Benjamin. "I didn't even want to find my damn mate. Now I'm being forced into the search. But how can I find him if I have to cover up my scent?"

"Hmm. Well, according to Dad, touching your mate will let you know, too."

"So I gotta touch every single unmated male I can find?"

"Yeah, that would be problematic. Well, all you can do is use that spray. I hope Mr. Shaw gives it to you before the weekend."

"Or I could just go buy some of my own."

"True."

Benjamin went back to his seat and Amara put the book back in her bag. They sat in silence for a good while, Amara not knowing what else she could say to him. Finally, their food came and Amara dug in quickly. She no longer had much of an appetite but she forced herself to eat.

"Are you attracted to me, though?" Benjamin blurted out.

Amara nearly choked on her pasta. "What?"

"Are you attracted to me?"

Amara swallowed her food and bit her lip. "Well, maybe a little."

"And Mr. Shaw?"

Amara rolled her eyes. "Even if I was, which I'm not, nothing would ever happen between him and me. He's a teacher and I'm a student."

"But I can tell he likes you."

Amara tilted her head to one side. "How can you tell?"

"Because he's so protective of you. I don't think that's just your scent doing that to him, either."

"How would you know?"

"He said some stuff while you were clocking out," Benjamin offered, eating his food.

Amara's eyes went wide. "He did? What did he say?"

Benjamin laughed. "He passive aggressively threatened me that if I ever touched you in a bad way again, he'd come and beat the crap out of me."

Amara giggled lightly. "Really?"

"Oh yeah. But anyway..." Benjamin ate more of his food. "You need to relax about this scent stuff. It's gonna be fine."

Amara gave him an unenthusiastic nod and went back to eating. The two ate in silence as there was not much else to say. When they were finished, Benjamin asked for the check and paid for the meal. They left the restaurant and got into Benjamin's car.

"Does this mean you're gonna go back to hating me?" she inquired.

Benjamin grinned at her. "No."

"So, what are you going to do about the fake attraction?"

Benjamin sighed as he turned on the car. "Well, I wouldn't say it's entirely fake..."

Amara blinked at him. "What do you mean?"

"I mean before I got a whiff of your new scent, I was...already...sort of attracted to you."

Amara blinked even more. "What? Since when?"

Benjamin started driving and cleared his throat. "When you turned seventeen," he said with a blush.

"So you've been attracted to me for a whole year and not only did you keep it to yourself, you still terrorized me?!" Amara snapped.

"I didn't know how to handle it. I'm sorry," he said with a crinkling of his brow. "Was I really that bad to you?"

Amara scoffed. "Benjamin, you wrote "cursed" on my locker at school when you still went there. How is that not bad to you?"

He cringed a little. "Yeah, I...I'm sorry about that too."

Amara crossed her arms. "So...now what?"

"I don't know. All I know is that I'm really sorry."

"Well, I don't forgive you. Not after all the crap you put me through," Amara growled.

"I know. But you weren't exactly a saint to me, either," he pointed out.

"Only because you were an asshole to me."

"Fair enough."

Amara crossed her arms and slumped into her seat. Well, this date definitely went down the drain real quick...which is what she'd been hoping for, so why was she so mad? She didn't want to think about it or Benjamin so her mind drifted to Mr. Shaw.

Was Mr. Shaw genuinely attracted to her or was it just her scent? Even so, it's not like she could ask him about it. It would be very inappropriate. Maybe that's why he bought her the anti scent spray. So he could stop being attracted to her. This made her even more upset.

"I suppose it's for the best," Amara thought.

"This really bites," Dakota said.

After a bit of driving, they finally got home. Amara immediately got out of the car and went stomping towards the house. Benjamin called out after her but she ignored him. As she got to the door she was turned around and was facing Benjamin. He had the roses in his hand and he looked very forlorn.

"You forgot these," he uttered.

Amara grabbed the roses and went inside. She immediately stormed into the kitchen and threw the roses into the garbage. Gabriel and Sonya raised their brows at her.

"Hey, where did you-" Sonya started.

"I hate men!" she shouted before exiting the kitchen and stomping up the stairs.

"Amara, wait a second!" Benjamin called out.

Amara ran to her room, shut the door and locked it before throwing her book bag by the bed and plopping face down onto her bed, burying her face into her pillow. Amara screamed out of sheer frustration.

"Amara," Benjamin's muffled voice came through the door. "Amara, please open the door."

Amara rolled on her side and pressed her pillow against her ears to block out Benjamin and every other sound that could possibly be heard but it wasn't enough to drown him out. She wasn't even sure why she was acting like this and she hated it. She hated Benjamin and she hated Mr. Shaw. She hated everybody!

"Amara, you need to calm down!" Dakota urged.

"No!" Amara yelled in her mind.

"Amara, please open the door," she heard Benjamin say. "I just want to talk."

"What's going on?" Janine said behind the door.

"The date didn't go very well."

"Ugh, I knew you'd screw this up. Amara, sis, let's talk."

"Go away!" Amara shouted.

"Ben, let's just walk away. She obviously does not want to be bothered. Give her time to calm down."

Amara heard footsteps in the hallway and she took deep breaths. She laid on her back and stared up at the ceiling, glaring at it.

"Why can't I just be a normal werewolf?" she asked out loud.

The next day, Amara decided to run to school so she left earlier than normal. She went to the edge of the woods, shifted into her wolf, grabbed her back pack and went running. Running always helped clear her mind when she was distressed. Amara jumped over rocks and fallen tree trunks as she traveled. After running a couple of miles she slowed down to a trot before dropping her bag and stopping to catch her breath.

After a few minutes, Amara picked up her bag and went running once more. As her paws pounded against the ground, she felt more relaxed. More free. Free of all the negative emotions and thoughts from yesterday, free from all the bullshit of being a black wolf. She felt more alive than ever.

Amara finally made it to the tree line that was across from the school. She transformed back into her human form, got dressed and started walking as she lugged her back pack over her shoulder. The parking lot was pretty empty save for a few cars and she realized she must've run faster than she thought.

As she got into school, she noticed it was completely empty. Well, she had arrived pretty early so it was to be expected. Amara decided to head to the library to read more of that book.

Unfortunately, the door was locked.

"Damn," she thought.

Amara checked her phone. School wasn't supposed to start for another fifty minutes. She decided to go to the gym and see if there was anything to do in there. Maybe she could shoot some hoops while she waited. When she got to the gym she noticed the teacher was setting up some stuff so Amara walked in.

"Hey Mr. Skyler," she said.

Mr. Skyler, a man with dark skin and piercing amber eyes smiled at her. "Ah, hello Amara. What brings you to school so early?"

Amara shrugged. "I just felt like coming early. Do you mind if I shoot some hoops while I wait for school to start?"

"Not at all," he said, going into the storage closet. He came back out with a basketball and tossed it to her which she deftly caught. "Knock yourself out."

Amara grinned and put her backpack down to the sidelines, then she started dribbling down the court and made a lay up. Perfect shot. She grabbed the ball and ran back up to the other side of the court, shooting from the three point line. Ha, nothing but net.

She continued shooting hoops and dribbling around with the gym teacher watching her from time to time. Amara started making consecutive shots from the foul line and she didn't miss a single shot.

"You really should think about joining the basketball team, Amara!" Mr. Skyler shouted from across the gym.

"Yeah, I know! I've been thinking about it lately!" she yelled back, her voice echoing and bouncing off the walls of the gym.

"What's it gonna take for you to join?"

"If you can get other people to stop saying we'd lose because I'm cursed, that would do it!"

The teacher laughed and walked up to her as she made another shot from the foul line. "Listen, Amara. You really are talented and you shouldn't let it go to waste. Especially not because some people think you shouldn't play."

Amara sighed. "I know. You're right. But..." she made another shot. "I just...what if we did lose all the time because I'm cursed?"

"Well, it wouldn't be any worse than we are now," he chuckled.

"Fair point, Mr. Skyler."

"Alright. So, how about it, Amara? Maybe you could come to a couple of practices and prove people wrong."

Amara sighed. "You sure are a persistent man, aren't you?"

"Yes."

A quirky expression formed on her face. "Alright. A couple of practices to see how I do."

"Excellent! We have practice tomorrow after school, then another one on Monday after school."

Amara nodded and shook the man's hand. "I'll be there."

She gave him the ball, announcing that she was done and grabbed her backpack. As she exited the gym, Amara smiled to herself.

She went back to the library but it was still locked. Amara didn't want to go to her math class yet. She felt like things would be awkward between her and Mr. Shaw, especially because of last night. Still, she knew she'd been lying to Benjamin about being attracted to the man.

How could she not be, though? How could any girl not be attracted to Mr. Shaw? The man was sexy as hell and his Scottish accent just added to his sexiness.

Unfortunately, nothing would ever come of it. Not while he was still a teacher at Red Blood High. And his attraction to her was fake anyway. And yet...he continued to flirt with her, even though he knew it was a false attraction. So engrossed in her thoughts, Amara hadn't realized she was now just outside Mr. Shaw's classroom.

"Crap," she thought.

"You need to go in and talk to him, Amara," said Dakota.

"About what?"

"He obviously has feelings for you."

"False feelings."

"But what if they're not?"

"Why are you so insistent on me doing this? You should be more focused on finding our mate," Amara scolded.

"I know, but there's something about Mr. Shaw that I find...I don't know, I just can't put my paw on it."

"You act like he is our mate."

Dakota laughed. "Maybe he is. He smells soooooo much better than any of the other boys you've been around."

Amara blushed. She actually agreed with Dakota on that. The man smelled sensational. He smelled how a man should smell. Did he use Axe for body wash or something?

"Amara?" Amara blinked and saw Mr. Shaw at his door, looking at her with a confused look. "What are you doing at school so early?"

"Um...I went for an early run and got here faster than I thought I would," she said with a bashful expression. "How did you even know I was out here?"

It was Mr. Shaw's turn to blush. "I, uh...could smell you. You're very, um, potent today."

"Oh. Well, I was shooting hoops at the gym just now so that might be why." She sniffed herself. "Is it that bad?"

"No!" he replied with wide eyes. "It's good, actually. Better than good."

Amara rubbed her arm up and down, feeling heat rush to her cheeks. "Oh. I see."

"Speaking of your scent, I figured you should uh, have your present early."

"Oh. Right."

Amara smiled and walked into the classroom.