The Dormant: The 5 Goddesses

Episode 10: No Scent

[ 18 Years Prior]

~Bastet~

Selene sat on a rock, her legs crossed, intently watching the moon, her eyes shining as memories passed behind them. "Remember when we used to watch this exact same moon, all of us together?" she asked.

"Yeah, it was the whole gang... the gods-Selene, Quetz, Aine, Triton, Morrigan, and..." I hesitated. The name was vinegar and ash in my mouth. The only mention of that name made my skin crawl, and my light boil in heartbreak, in hate, in red bloodshed.

"Lilith..." she jumped to finish. My eyes turned black with rage at the sound of that name.

"Don't say her name. She is no longer anything to me; we just share the nature spark, but I don't consider her anything but my worst enemy.¨ I stood up from my rock, the memories overwhelming me, making me pass back and forth with the force of them. It happened so long ago, but it was still so fresh in my mind it would always be. ¨She destroyed everything, is still killing everything. She took power that didn't belong to her and selfishly undid the balance. If we are on the brink it is because of her!" I felt out of breath as memories, both good and evil, filled my head.

"The only time I want to hear that name is when she is destroyed, and the spark that gave her life is long gone," I angrily ended at the sound of the insulting name.

"Take it easy, Bastet. She is not the only one to blame; you've also neglected your responsibilities. She is evil, I give you that. She is corruption and death, but her life also means balance. We can't have another episode. It would destroy us all. We all had to learn from what she did, even her," Selene calmly said.

I felt a burst of anger and sadness. "I am calling bullshit, Selene. You sitting there defending that animal?¨ I passed a hand through my hair. If she didn't help me, I was alone and my plan would fail. Lilith would make sure of it like she had done it a dozen times. ¨If I can't trust you, my sister, then that means no one is trustworthy. My heart is breaking now."

My eyes were now angry slits, as I jumped, shifted, and started running away.

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The Present

~Noah~

I entered the packhouse in a lousy mood. Being away from Charlotte was driving me crazy. I sat at my desk and felt my wolf pacing back and forth inside my mind. "Ben, Liam, come to my office." Sensing my state, Ben and Liam swiftly entered the room. Liam slumped on the couch in front of me and put his feet up on the coffee table. Benjamin stood at the side of my desk, watching as I shifted uncomfortably in my seat.

Scratching his head, Benjamin said aloud what we all thought. "Seventeen, eighteen, and seventeen—the small one should know by now if she was magical, but I couldn't scent anything on her."

"Something is not right; the Luna is already showing signs she has a spirit wolf, but she doesn't understand it," Liam added, his face deep in thought.

"Seventeen and already showing signs of connections with her spirit animal. She must be an extremely powerful she-wolf, but who in their right mind would let that creature be raised in the human world?" I stood up and walked to the middle of the room, my hands behind my back. There was something not right about this situation. How can a lone she-wolf live so close to my pack, and we never knew about her? "I've known of rogue children raised by humans. They always end up badly. They turn feral and destroy their adoptive families; for that reason, we have pack laws. If a child is born by a rogue, the she-wolf must be put down and the pup raised in a pack." I continued to explain wolf law. Why would a she-wolf give her own pup away? That was completely outside the natural instinct of our kind.

"Then it's good you found her when you did, or shall we say she found you," Benjamin added, his eyes serious, following me as I walked from one side to the other. He pursed his lips and continued talking. "The other elephant in the room was the scent or the lack of it... at first." Yes, that was also weird, it was like she could turn on and off her scent. It wasn't until she spent the night beside me that her body realized I was her mate and let her scent and her mating sign out and when it did the scent was something so different and exotic for a wolf. Normally, the scent of a wolf is of forest pine. Underneath her mating scent, hers was more like almonds. I had never scented a wolf like her before.

"She is definitely something, but I have never scented that kind of wolf before. What about the two other ones?" I asked, turning towards Benjamin, realizing I hadn't even bothered identifying the other girls. What were we doing here? Did we have a whole new pack of unknown wolves at our doorsteps?

"It's weird—they just don't have a known scent, not even human; neither of them has any kind of scent," Benjamin stated, his voice laced with worry. No, the way they behave today, they didn't know what they stumbled upon. A cult? It made sense for a human looking at a werewolf pack as one.

I sat back down in my chair and pulled the neck of my t-shirt, feeling the close quarters closing in on me. It took every bit of the man not to let the wolf out. "Mate, claim, mine now!" I heard him growl loudly. It was amazing how we were feeling this bond so intensely without her spirit being fully developed. I had heard of the attraction between mates, but this was a full-mate bond with not a fully shifted wolf.

"So, we couldn't scent them, and with the scent emanating from our Luna, I should have picked it up the minute they stepped foot on Camp North," Benjamin said, then looked down at his shoes. I knew he was worried about his own abilities. He was my best tracker, and he had spent a year setting up the pack without noticing anything wrong in the human village beside it.

"Benjamin, tell me you found something about this?" Ben glanced up at where I was seated. "I've been reading. It says fae magic is at work here. They are the only ones that can cloak the scent of another magical, but cloaking three bodies at a time—the fae creating the cloak must be a powerful one."

A powerful fairy, I thought. Well, not a day in my life, and I met a powerful she-wolf who technically belonged to my pack. Still, she doesn't know about this because she was raised human and her scent was hidden by a powerful fairy.

I stroked my jaw, thinking. "...and the cloak—is it still in place?" I asked, my eyes darting towards Ben.

"Not anymore. After you, her true mate, found her, that cloak vanished, making her visible to any kind of magical. You should take her now. She was definitely cloaked for a reason, and a fae worked really hard to keep all of them hidden. Maybe they are all in danger, as the other girls can't be scented either," Ben answered, scratching the back of his neck and looking at Liam.

"Liam, what do you think?" I looked at my Gamma, who was now sitting up. His elbows rested on his knees, and he was shaking his head.

"Well, thinking like a seventeen-year-old teenager, let's say a twenty-year-old cult leader wants to abduct me, marry me, and take me away from my home. I am probably hearing growling and snapping animal noises in my head because I am a wolf coming of age, but no one has explained that to me. To top it off, Tinkerbell doesn't want anybody to find me. That would be a shocker."

He smiled and faced Ben. "Could you imagine finding out you are a werewolf adopted into a human family, your friends are unknown creatures, and have a mate already chosen for you?" He continued, this time getting riled up, his face showing a small grin. "In the best teenager lingo, I would say: This totally sucks!" That last part, he gave us his best impression of a teenage girl.

"Gamma!" I growled, my fist hitting the table. "Sorry, Alpha, just got carried away." He slumped back in his seat.

I breathed in, my fingers grasping my brow, thinking. Even though I preferred Ben's suggestion of bringing her home, the best thing for my Luna would be for me to wait and ease her into this world. Even so, if the bond was this strong now, imagine when she turned eighteen.

"Ben, I need you to set up 24/7 vigilance at her house. I want to know where she is. When and why? If anything, even a street magician, gets near her place, we are bringing her home," I said while looking at him.

Then turning to Liam, I commanded, "Liam, you will teach the girls sparring with me. I will be our Luna's sparring buddy; she needs to learn to protect herself for now until she's safe in my arms. I am going to wait until she understands the bond, this world, and the creatures in it. In the meantime, she needs our protection." They both bowed their heads in submission, nodding at me and saying, "Yes, Alpha." Liam stood up, opened the door, and both exited my office.

My heart was torn apart by not claiming what was rightfully mine, but she needed this. The Moon Goddess spoke to me in a dream, and I would do whatever she wanted me to do. She told me my Luna was not ready for me, and it would be hard. That was what she meant. Soon, my princess, I thought with a smile as I took out papers that needed my signature from a drawer.

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~Poppy~

"Sean is missing," Charly sat down beside me while blurting out that specifically not important piece of information. Who cared where Sean douchebag Stacy was? Not me, that's who

"Ummm... And that's our problem because...?" Danielle asked what I was thinking, not caring about the asshole and turning herself to face the sun. We were outside Charly's house sunbathing. Pork Chop was continuously barking at the fence.

Charly looked at Danielle's indifference, shook her head, and then answered, "Because he told his dad last Friday, he was coming to see me, and the police called." I had to give that a few seconds to compute...wait.

"Why is drama always following you? Don't worry about him or the police. We weren't even here," Danielle brushed off Charlotte's worries while sipping some iced tea.

I propped up on my elbow, realizing the implications of the missing d**k, finally my brain caught up. "Oh s**t! Wait, if the police comes snooping around, they'd know we weren't here Friday night," I said. Charly's eyes opened even wider, looking like a Bratz doll. "... Or Danielle's house. We are totally fucked." She finished my statement, and, yes, we had managed to keep our little adventure a secret, but how long could we if now the police were looking for the i***t?

Danielle shrugged it off, looked the other way, and continued enjoying the sun. Charly looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Dude, why are you so calm about this? You are like a Teflon pan; nothing sticks."

Danielle lazily swatted the air around her and answered, "Again, Sean Stacey is not my problem. He probably just ran away and is getting high on PCP somewhere." She had a point. That was Danny. She was a genius in a different way, still.

Grabbing Danny by her shoulders, I shook her and yelled, "You need to freak out. Freak the f**k out now! Look, even Pork Chop is freaked out." The barking dog started to bark even louder.

"Shut up!" We three screamed at the same time, making the pooch run inside.

"I think there are so many other things to freak out about. For example, today is Friday," Danielle calmly stated, using her hands to explain that simple fact.

"Yeah?" Charly and I both put on puzzled faces, but I noticed Charly's face going from worried to a grin to full of excitement in a second.

"Exactly!" Danny replied, pointing at Charly's face. "Sexy, cult leader and gorgeous followers' training day." She bit her lips and adjusted her sunglasses.

"Are we going?" I asked, rolling my eyes. "I thought that was just an excuse to get the hell out of there." Now that the police were at our heels, I didn't want to do anything that could make us look more suspicious, and going to the mysterious company housing area would raise some eyebrows.

"Of course, we are going. We are not p***y blockers," she answered, looking at Charly. "And even though I am still not sure whom I'll be flirting with, I am up for any of those sexy muscle guys." She laughed. Yeah, she could be a genius, but when she was thinking of good-looking guys her brain fried.

"You promiscuous harpy!" I replied with my mouth fully open.

"Prude," she shot back, giving me an offended face. Yes, I was the straight one, a rules follower, I already had a scholarship waiting for me at Columbia.

"Well, in that case, how do we contact them? I didn't ask for a number, and Charly didn't either. She was in la-la zombie mode, remember," I asked while Charly facepalmed herself, just realizing her mistake.

"Already fixed," Danielle said in a calm, relaxed, and collected voice. "Call them today at their company to remind them of our little rendezvous." She quickly changed her tone from smooth and cool to unbelievable while sitting at her lawn chair's edge.

"Charly, you met the man of your dreams. He is scorching hot for you. You spent all week talking about him and never asked for his contact information? Your priorities are amiss, missy." Charly closed her eyes, flushing, and I rolled my eyes.

"So, the only thing we must worry about, girl number one and little girl number three, is what to wear." A mischievous grin appeared on Danny's face while she continued talking. I scowled, little my ass, and I hated exercising. I had a great metabolism and preferred books to playing sports.

"I'm done," I said, putting my hands up. "You saw those guys' arms, and I am not up for an ass-whooping, and you are only worried about clothes?" Danielle's nonchalant tone was making me mad.

"Priorities," she stated again, sipping more iced tea. "And I think Charly is definitely up for the previously mentioned ass-whoop." Charly looked at me, not knowing if she should agree, cry, or strangle Danielle.

"Mall it is," she finished, then sipped and crunched a cube of ice, lying back down on the lawn chair.

~Noah~

It was Friday afternoon, and my wolf was restless. He was almost taking control and demanded to see his mate.

"Tomorrow, beast," I tried arguing with it while reading some essential business plan on my laptop.

"Now!" he growled again. "I want her now!"

Every single moment, the beast was getting harder to control. I closed my computer and gave the ranting animal a choice. "Well, we won't be able to talk to her, but if it calms you, maybe we could go to the pack limit and see if we can get a glimpse of her outside her house," I tried asking. Before I could finish, the animal screamed with a loud roar.

"f**k, alright crazy beast." I put my finger in my ear, trying to ease the deafening noise inside while finishing up the pack's business.

When I was done, I stood up and went outside, mind-linking Ben. "I am going to the Luna's house. Are there any wolves patrolling it?"

He replied in an instant. "Yes, Alpha, at this time, Michael and Calvin must be on guard."

"Good," I replied, shifting, letting my wolf run to her place so he could see her.

Making my way as fast as I could, I started smelling her. Lately, her smell had become more potent. The only meaning of that is that the bond was already forming, but she hadn't made any attempts to contact me. This morning, her friend was the one who reached Liam at the human company, asking about the sparring classes tomorrow.

I admit I've felt a bit hurt by the situation. I wondered if Charlotte had spent time, like me, thinking about being in each other's arms every moment we spent apart. Tomorrow, I will have her in my arms.

"So, she can leave again. Tell me why is that good?" I ignored the wolf's snarls. I knew he would never be happy unless she was where she was supposed to be. Happy in my bed with me beside her.

I shifted back into my human form and walked through the tree line, finding the two guards watching something and snickering.

"Michael, Calvin, is this what you call guarding your Luna?" The pups jumped up and scurried in front of me, nervously shifting in their place.

"Alpha, everything is alright. No magicals in the area. The mother left in the morning, and her friends came back with her after class." They stood tall in front of me, covering the view of her house.

I walked in front of these two boys. They were not even fully trained wolves yet. They still looked like high school students, unable to control their hormones.

"Ben, do you think these two pups are the best guards to protect our Luna?" I mind-linked my Beta and looked at the two young puppies in front of me.

"Noah, they are still young, I know, but they need the experience, and what magical would attack by day? I preferred them guarding during the day and leaving the night for the most advanced warriors." I knew he was right, but I wasn't thinking with my head but with my heart.

I passed in front of them, hands on my back, looking straight into their eyes. Suddenly, they shifted their eyes downward. An image in the background caught my eye. My Luna was in the middle of her backyard wearing a bikini! My wolf got angry, and it took everything in my power not to run and cover her up.

I felt my nails elongating. These two pups were sitting there laughing, lustfully watching my Charlotte.

"Why didn't you tell your Beta your Luna was wearing that?" I hissed, showing my teeth at the youngsters.

"Noah, don't scare the younger generation. Remember, we used to do the same at that age," I heard Ben, the voice of reason today, say, but the beast in me was angry at the thought of another male looking at his unmarked mate. I raised my hand, closed my eyes, breathed slowly, then opened them again.

"You two are dismissed, and if you don't want eight extra miles of running in the morning, you will forget what you saw and never mention it again." I dismissed them, pointing at the woods behind them. They bowed and ran into the forest to the packhouse where Ben would probably make them do a punishment workout.

I watched her from afar. Her white skin glistened from what I think was suntan lotion. I could see her beautiful long legs resting on the lawn chair while she talked to her friends, throwing her head back, and laughing as one of them said something funny.

I kept scanning her body. I came to the small piece of red fabric that covered her most intimate place, that place that soon would be mine, and no other had a right to see. I felt myself drooling at the thought of her taste as I imagined myself taking her hard, making her say my name.

She had a hand on top of her flat stomach. Then it went to her small waist as she scolded them for something. I imagined myself putting my hand on that waist as I kissed her. Her breasts were covered by the rest of the minuscule shameless red garment, almost bursting from it. Her chest rose every time she took a deep breath, a sweat drop running between the crevasse. My breath hitched, and my c**k throbbed as I watched her.

I traveled to her neck, imagining how my hand would one day caress her there, and my teeth would sink into her skin. She would bear my mark proudly, knowing her mate was a strong Alpha.

Her golden curls were in a messy bun on top of her head, some loose strands falling out of it, framing her face. Those freckles on her shoulders, I wanted to get to count them all, to kiss them all, touch them all. Hear her mouth with those full lips screaming in pleasure or around my c**k, and her eyes, her eyes watching me while I whisper sweet nothings in her ear. The expression they'll give me when I make her explode.

I shook my head and realized I was fantasizing about her, doing exactly what the pups were doing, crouching down and imagining every form of punishment I could give her for wearing such provocative attire. Without notice, I felt my body trying to get to her. The smell of mocha was deep in my lungs. "If I don't get out of here, the beast will be unleashed," I said to myself and heard my wolf whimper when I took my eyes off her.

As I was standing up to leave, I glanced back at her one more time. My eyes darted from her to behind her house. I saw a police car pulling into her driveway. She stood up, giving me a fantastic look of her ass, then stepped inside. I waited for a few moments, watching the scene unfold. She went back outside and asked Poppy and Danielle to step in with her.

I needed to know what was happening. I couldn't do anything from here, trying to see them from afar where I stood. "Ben, those two pups that just left are at Willamette High, aren't they?" I asked and received an immediate response.

"Yes, we have them in high school classes to control the population of young pups. They also give us great insight into the village."

"Bring them in. I need to speak to them. There's a police car at the Luna´s house, and I need to know why," I sent him a mind-link, still hidden in the tree line outside her backyard.

"Sure, Noah, right away," he replied. I waited for a while until the police left and then turned back into my wolf, making my way back to Camp North. "I am leaving her unattended, please send someone."

I soon got to the camp where Liam was already waiting for me. He handed me a pair of shorts. Quickly putting them on, I walked into my office. "A cop car was just at her house. I need someone at the police station now and stay on the mind-link for this conversation."

"On it," Liam said, running out to his office.

I entered my own office. Calvin and Michael, the young warrior pups, were already sitting down. Ben was standing beside my desk.

"Alpha," the three bowed their heads.

"There was a cop car in front of your Luna's house. Tell me everything I need to know about this," I said, looking at the three wolves in front of me. Michael timidly stood up and paced, thinking.

"Well, I am a lab partner with one of her friends, Poppy. She mentioned something about that boy Sean," the three of them winced as they remembered the way I had disposed of that f*****g s**t stain. "He hurt her pretty bad about six months ago; her parents even took out a restraining order against him." He finished quickly, shifting back to his spot when he saw my face.

"So, you are telling me this wasn't the first time he did this to her?" I asked while pinching the bridge of my nose.

"No, they had been dating for almost three years before they broke up," he looked down and tried to divert his eyes from my gaze.

Calvin took a step in front and started pacing the room. "I am in several of Sean's extracurricular activities. We were on the swim team together. He was always bragging while they dated about all the tail he got and how she never knew about it. He was just dating her because he wanted a virgin," he said while shaking his head in disgust. I had to give credit to my pack. They respected the females no matter if they were humans. They knew if any of the leaders got word of them hurting a woman, they would be punished, harshly.

I was on the verge of killing the motherfucker boyfriend again, but at the same time, I was happy she had saved herself. I was going to be her first and last. Rocking my head, my mind came back to the topic. I asked Michael about the restraining order again.

"So what? Do you think they came to see her about that?" I questioned the young wolf.

"Well, I don't know if the police coming to the Luna's house is about this, but his dad is a cop, and he's been dead for a week now."

My eyes landed on Ben. "Beta, didn't you think this was important information that I needed to know?"

Ben stepped up and started answering. "We already knew his father was a cop. Either way, it won't get to that. They will write it as an animal attack anyway. They are going to find his body in that clearing where he attacked the girls, and the marks on his body are all from a wolf."

I sighed in relief, nodding. "Dismissed," Ben told the young warriors, making them leave my office.

He sat on the couch, crossing one leg. "Noah, don't worry, I got this covered. I told you it was going to be messy. I am on it." he reassured me.

"You saw the Luna, how was she? You know in the human world, the art of voyeur is considered a perversion," Ben raised an eyebrow with a knowing smirk on his face.

Through the mind-link, I heard Liam say "In were-wolf culture, it's considered romantic foreplay," Benjamin and I both laughed, shaking our heads.

"Everything ready for tomorrow?" I mind-linked Liam, my eyes fixated on Benjamin.

"Yes, Noah, we have all the boxing gloves and towels. I even managed to ask the omegas to prepare handcuffs if you want to outright kidnap her already."

Pinching my forehead and shaking my head, I looked at Ben and asked, "Why the hell do we stand him?"

Ben sighed, looking up, remembering why we put up with our Gamma. "We love him, he is an essential part of the pack, and if anything fails to remind me, I just think about that teenager knocking him out with a toilet cover while the other one kicked him in the balls." I smiled, and again, Liam talked through the mind-link.

"That's not fair; they both took me by surprise. ¨