The Secret Origin

The Amber scent

I decided to focus my attention on scouting the lone wolf instead of paying the witch a visit. Although I desperately wanted to find out about my past, I realised that my want to be accepted and belong was pushing me to finding an answer, one that I was not sure I was prepared to find out just yet. What if my birth mark meant nothing but a slight birth defect? Then I would have no hope to cling onto. I would just remain the odd one out for the rest of my life, watching the love of my life have another mate, leading the Skulk together. Being ignorant to my past allowed me to dream about the what ifs. And for now, what ifs were fine.

I walked down the High Road, heading towards the roof tops that I first picked up the lone wolf's scent on. Trying to look as casual as possible, I sniffed the air trying to decipher scents. There were lots of human scents mixed with a range of perfumes but no wolf. I stopped outside a book shop, pretending to look at the books on display while turning my head in different directions to see if I could pick anything up. Just then, I picked up his scent. A very faint one. He must have been down this road last night. I inhaled deeply trying to get a better location. His scent was definitely wolf but it had a unusual difference to it. Of course no two wolves smell the same but they were all undeniably wolf scents. This one was different. It had a warm, musky, honey-like tinge to it. I inhaled again, mentally tracking the movements that he must have made.

Just then, a breeze brought with it a very strong scent, four maybe five unmistakably wolf odours.  I frantically looked around trying to locate them but being only 5'5" it was hard to to see over the sea of heads. The wind picked up making it hard for me to hone in on them but standing like a sitting duck was only going to get me caught. I couldn't fight them alone and certainly not in a public place like this. Even if I did survive, Maxim would have me slaughtered for exposing our kind. I turned to my left, said a silent prayer and started to jog. St. Peter's church was at the end of the road and the church gardens led onto miles of fields. This would make a more suited battle ground and I was sure that some Skulk members would be scouting the area at some point.

I looked up to see that the church steeple was around 20 meters away and sighed with some relief. Then, across the road, I could see a group of five men standing and staring at me. The one in the middle was clearly their leader. He had short ginger hair and a ginger goatee. He was the shortest of the men but still towered over me. I started a full out sprint and could hear him shouting out orders to the other men while heavy footsteps pounded the pavement behind me. I hurdled over the church wall and legged it to the field. I would have half a chance if I was able to shift to fox form but there was no time. I pushed my body to run even faster and quickly looked behind me to see how much distance there was between us. There were only two men still chasing me, the ginger leader and another man with long, brown hair. My mind started racing, trying to figure out where the other three had gone. There was a strong possibility that they were shifting into their wolf forms so I knew that I had to act to fast. 

I decided that I had a better chance of taking on these two now before the others caught up so I stopped suddenly and turned around. Maintaining a fight stance, I growled. The two men stopped also but the leader stepped toward me.

"Stay where you are wolf, unless you want to be chocking on your own intestines."

This seemed to amuse the wolf as he laughed while saying, "you're a viscous little thing aren't you. Viscous and pretty." He took another step forward. "We have been tracking you for a very long time. We would prefer to take you alive but will also take you battered and bruised."

A snarl rose up from my chest and I could feel my fox fighting to come out. It would be no good shifting now so I tried to push my anger down. I clenched my teeth, "you will not be taking me dead, alive or battered and bruised. You will be leaving with no balls though."

My body shook with anger as he laughed again, "oooh weeee. I think I'm in love. Derek, grab her."

The man standing behind him, Derek, lunged toward me as I stepped back. He clung onto air as I quickly turned and ran.

I could hear them both chasing me but I was a lot faster than them. I pushed harder and faster and my heart faltered. There, in my path stood a massive, black wolf. It was beautiful in a demonic looking way. It started to run towards me and I knew that there was no way that I was going to outrun this beast. I kept on running towards it getting ready for a tough fight. As soon as I was close enough, it lunged and I threw myself down, skidding under it. I quickly spun around, ready to kick it in the face but it kept on running. It was running towards the two men. Shocked, I looked on as it tackled Derek to the ground. The ginger man started running back toward the church leaving his friend to fend for himself. I watched on in amazement as the wolf's jaws locked down onto the man's throat.

That is when I realised that I knew this wolf. The scent was very familiar. It had the musky, amber tone to it. It was the lone wolf.