Title: Werewolf Love, The Deciding Scent

Rating: pg13?

Disclaimer: I don't own Big Wolf On Campus, I'm just a poor student with a bunch of candles, polished rocks, other weird stuff, and an old grumpy cat who only likes girls. Please don't sue, you won't get much . . .
Author's Note: This is absolute first story ever posted for other's eyes, beside my own and my cat's eyes, and it may seem a little sappy. I like to write slash, and this suggests a relationship but does not really go into it. So if you don't like the idea of slash or just don't like the idea of a Merton/Tommy relationship, don't read this.

_______ Means normal POV

^^^^^^^^^^ Means Flashback


Tommy's POV
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I watched the moon peek out from behind the clouds with a certain amount of loathing. It was a beautiful sight, one I used to enjoy and still do almost every night of the month, except one night every month. Every full moon, since I was bitten, brings out the monster in me, bringing out the werewolf full-force. It was on these nights I often spent a few hours running through the woods, trying in some way to tame the beast within me.

A sound from behind me startles me out of my contemplation, and I turn to glance behind me. The figure in the bed behind me shifts, mumbling softly in sleep before settling back under the covers. I watch silently, my gaze focused on the one pale shoulder rising and falling in the gentle motion of deep breathing that only comes with sleep or practice and focus. The body seems very slight just barely a lump in my giant bed, almost dwarfed by it, but at the same times dominates it. I've always wanted to see what he would like in my bed, in my room, in my unspoken territory. Now I know. He fits here almost like he was meant to be here all along, like he was the missing piece of the puzzle I couldn't ever find.

I turn once more to my thoughts, back to my contemplation as he sleeps on. As a human being I know certain scents, and what smells like what. But as a werewolf, I smell things a lot differently then a normal person does. As a werewolf I can identify and track a person's distinct scent should I know it, and the people around me on a daily basis the werewolf immediately knows intimately. Stacy and Lori were both my girlfriends at one point or another, and I know their scents. Stacy's scent was like flowers, but not like the gentle smelling, nice ones. Her scent was like those sickly sweet, obnoxious smelling kind of flowers. So I tried to ignore her scent when I was around her as the werewolf. Lori on the other hand, had a less feminine scent. Her personal scent was like . . . like a spice. Not the bland kind of spices or like the good ones, but a powerful, knock-you-off-your-feet-spice. Needless to say, it didn't bug me once I got used to it, but unlike a bad perfume this smell never went away. I could always handle their perfumes and stuff, but their own personal scents never did go easy on my werewolf sense of smell.

I suppose after breaking up with Lori, is when I realized that I couldn't stand their scents as the werewolf and because of it that weren't the 'one' for me. It also made me realize that in order for me to fall in love and get married, then the person I loved had to except the werewolf part of me as well as the human part and that I in return had to find someone who both the human loved and the wolf would want as a mate.

It was an impossible task in my mind, so I kind of gave up on finding love, getting married, or having a family of my own. But, I knew in my heart that I hadn't given up completely on it yet. So I tried dating, but . . . it didn't feel right to me. I couldn't find someone that both the human part and the wolf part agreed on. I found plenty of girls the human part liked, but the wolf didn't. I even found a girl the wolf was attracted to, but the human part felt nothing for. I was frustrated at the fact I couldn't find someone I could care for completely, but somewhere in the back of my mind something was nagging at me. It seemed to say I already found someone who cared for both parts of me and I could accept but the wolf *wanted* to mate with. It wasn't until one night at Merton's I figured out who it was that the wolf *wanted* to mate with . . .

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Lori had left early that night, complaining of a headache, and I had sprawled out on the new couch Merton had snagged from somewhere. It was an extremely soft, black leather sleeper couch that was more than big enough for me to stretch out on. It felt good to be able to control the remote for once, and I set out to surf the channels. I wasn't planning on leaving anytime soon since it was a full moon that night. Football practice had been cancelled because a rampant flu had most of the football team out of commission. I had planned on probably spending the night, telling my Mom know that we're studying on a really big test and I would probably crash at Merton's instead of coming home after curfew. Thankfully, she always took these excuses happily and made sure to give me snacks to take with me for our "study session."

Merton was on the computer behind me, typing away as he did research on some small, but strange occurrences going on around town. He was hoping to be prepared in case it turned out to be a problem or if it simply escalated at all. As I watched the TV, the typing behind me a comforting and familiar sound, I began to drift off into a light doze even though the sun hadn't even set.
Sometime later, I opened my eyes blearily in response to a soft noise and a presence leaning over me. Merton was leaning over me, a pillow had already been placed under my head and he was now spreading a blanket from his bed over me. He tucked the edges around me and then bent over to retrieve the remote from where I had dropped it on the floor. I watched him quietly, knowing he didn't know I was awake and watching him. He turned down the volume on the TV to a quieter level, set the remote in the chair next to the couch, and turned back to the computer. I watched him over the top of the couch as he settled back into the chair at his desk and went back to his research.

Once I knew he was settled once more, oblivious to me, I shifted position and snuggled under the soft black and silver blanket. My werewolf sense of smell immediately took in the scent on the blanket as I burrowed under it. With a start I realized it was after sun down, and I was wolfed-out. Glancing over at Merton, I smiled softly. Even though I had been wolfed-out, Merton had still gone out of his way to make sure I would be comfortable.
As I settled back down, my sense of smell once again picked up on the scent of the blanket. It smelled like Irish Springs soap, some kind of Herbal shampoo, and the light smelling cologne that Merton all used. But underneath all of that, was Merton's scent. Unlike Stacy and Lori's scent, Merton's scent didn't bother me at all. It was a hard smell to describe, because it wasn't like one particular smell but a mixture of several different smells combined that blended together perfectly into a single scent.

Merton's scent had always been hard to place because I recognized only certain parts that made up his scent, and they were only the undercurrents of his scent. These undercurrents of his scent were a kind of . . . combination of old worn leather, peppermint incense, the black and silver candles he burns that smell like raspberry and blueberry, and the fresh scent of earth. The two main parts of his scent, though, I had never been able to identify because they had seemed familiar but unfamiliar at the same time. Now, though, I think I can place what the scent's two main parts smell like.

You see, earlier in the week, Merton had shown me several plants he was growing in the sill of his window. These plants were to be used in spells, antidotes, and other things in our fight against evil forces. He had somehow gotten his hands on a small, but healthy Wolfsbane plant for emergencies. He had also gotten several simple plants that were in a lot of general spells; like Honeysuckle, Irises, Amazon healing flowers, three different colors of Amazon roses, aloe, lemon grass, several plants I couldn't pronounce the name of, and finally this dark purple plant called nightshade.

The nightshade and lemon grass had immediately caught my attention, but I didn't know why at the time. My human sense of smell had realized the scents were familiar, but couldn't place them as being a lot like those two elusive parts of Merton's scent.

Now, though, in werewolf form I could smell those plants and identify them as similar to the main part of Merton's strange, but soothing scent. You see Merton's scent is a mysterious scent, that sort of creeps over you, almost timidly. It's not unpleasant, just subdued and at the same time distinct. The two main parts of his scent are like the nightshade and lemon grass, two opposites that are subtle on their own. They are two very subdued, but different smells, that seem to war and mix at the same time. Their combined qualities would probably, at any other time, never work. But with Merton, who is himself equal parts light and dark, they just work together.

I smiled to myself as I put that slightly nagging curiosity away. It felt good to be able to finally put a name to the smells that are dominate in Merton's scent. Closing my eyes sleepily, I snuggle once more under the blanket as sleep pulls at me again. "Yep," I thought to myself absently as I began to drift off once more to sleep, "it was nice to be able to sort of have a name for each of the smells that the werewolf part of me actually liked."

That surprising thought jerked me back to awareness. My heart began to race as I thought about that strange thought. Was it true, were there no other scents from other people I cared about that I actually liked and not tolerated. "THERE has to be one other scent the wolf liked, my mom, dad, brother, anyone . . ." I thought wildly. But as I searched my mind frantically for one that the wolf liked, besides Merton's scent, I realized there wasn't. So what did that mean?

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End of Chapter 1

Author's Note: I didn't mean to turn this into a chaptered story, but my muses had other ideas and if I don't let the muses do they want, then I won't ever get anything done. So I'll try to get the next chapter out soon. I hoped you liked my story. Any and all comments are welcome. Flames, insults, and death threats do not bother me. So fire away!