The Hunt

Scentless

Where am I? I am lying in bed, but where? The room is spinning and my whole body aches. I can sense someone else is in the room with me, but I’m too tired to open my eyes. I think I can hear people speaking, but the noise is distorted. I can’t make anything out. It’s as if I’m underwater. What happened? I came to the werewolves with Burner, and I was supposed to fight one of them and then… Darkness. I must have passed out. Did I win? Well, I must have since I’m still alive. I need to relax and breathe. Concentrate on my surroundings. I grab the sheets beneath me and try to anchor myself. Slowly the dizziness passes, and the world slows down.

“I told you, Alarick doesn’t want you staying with her,” the girl's voice sounded familiar, but I couldn’t quite put a face to it.

“She’s unconscious!” the other girl answers. Her tone is annoyed. I get a feeling they’re not the best of friends. “Someone should be here when she wakes up.”

“That someone can be Burner. She could be dangerous. We don’t know who or, more importantly, what she is.”

“And what exactly could she be? She smells like a human, and she doesn’t have vampire fangs or the witch's mark. I checked while I was changing her clothes. And you know that Burner won’t be back before tomorrow morning.”

“You know just as well as I do, that she might be masking her scent. Why can’t we smell her? Just the fact that she’s human? Don’t you find it strange? She’s hiding something. No human can possess such strength, she beat me half to death!”

“Well, you kind of signed up for that when you agreed to fight her. She, on the other hand, didn’t have much of a choice. And you’re almost healed by now, so quit whining.”

“You know what, screw you, Alaine! I can’t believe you would defend her over your own pack member and your future Luna!”

“Don’t make me laugh, Monica! You will never be the Luna. My brother still has three years to find his mate. And he will find her. You can’t lead a single fighter team. How do you expect to lead the whole pack? I don’t even know what my brother sees in you, but it can’t be much.”

A door suddenly slams, and I could no longer feel the other presence in the room. The tension is still hanging in the air and I can tell that these two don’t share much love for each other. Now the question is what to make of their conversation? Vampires and werewolves are real, that much I knew already, but now witches too? What is a witch’s mark? Why do they think I can mask my scent? And what in Gods’ name is a mate? I need to go home and get the rest of my father's research. There are too many unknowns in this, and I can’t afford to be unprepared. This hole is just getting deeper and deeper and if I’m not careful I might not be able to dig myself out of it.

I turned lightly on my side and looked up at the girl sitting next to the bed. Her waist-length black hair contrasted with her porcelain white skin looked like they sucked in light, they were so dark. She looked like Snow White. All she’s missing are a couple of birds constantly keeping her company. A wide smile spread on her round friendly face, reaching all the way to her big beautiful ocean blue eyes. She looks familiar. Could Alarick be the brother she was talking about?

“Good, you’re finally awake!” she exclaims excitedly. “You’re Nora. But you know that, of course. I’m Alaine,” she blurts out the words so fast I need to concentrate to catch everything she’s saying. “How are you feeling? Do you want some water? Something to eat, maybe? I could get the staff to prepare you breakfast. Though it is afternoon already, so maybe lunch? What would you like?”

“I would love some water, thank you,” I answered as I pulled myself up in bed. Everything hurts, but to be honest, I was expecting worse. I can already move quite freely. “How long was I out for? Could you tell me what happened? It’s all a bit fuzzy.”

“Less than a day, since yesterday afternoon,” she answers while pouring me a glass of water. “You passed out as soon as your fight with Alarick was over,” Alaine carefully gives the glass to me and I take the first very much craved sip of water. “You were phenomenal. No one could go an hour in the ring with him. You even managed to put him on his back. I don’t remember the last time I’ve seen him actually struggling in a fight. Not to mention that you completely annihilated Monica. Wish I could have seen that” she gave me an exaggerated sad look.

“It felt like hours. I think he broke a rib. Don’t even get me started on all the bruises.”

“Two ribs,” Alaine winces, giving me an apologetic look. “We had our pack doctor check you out for any injuries and patch you up a bit.”

“Thank you for everything, Alaine, but I think I should find a motel to stay in. I can’t overstay my welcome.” I pull off the sheets to see myself wearing a silky black sleeping gown. “What am I wearing?”

“Oh, it’s mine! I didn’t want to dig through your bags, but I had to get you out of your wet clothes,” she smiles sheepishly. “It fits you quite nicely,” she looks down at my overly exposed chest that looks like it’s about to burst out of a size too small piece of clothing.

“Well, thank you for respecting my privacy. In at least one way,” I answered with a grin matching hers. “But I should really find a place to stay at soon. Any motels close by you can recommend?”

“I’m sorry, but part of the deal is that if you want to join us- you have to stay here, in the main house. Most of the territory around here, including the closest town, belongs to our pack and while there are some humans living among us, it would really be the safest for you to stay in the house. We can’t figure out why, but we can’t smell your scent. It might feel threatening to others.”

“What do you mean, you can’t smell my scent?”

“Well, it’s kind of difficult to explain to someone who isn’t a supernatural,” she furrows her dark brows in thought, looking for words. “To us, everyone has a special scent, like their own perfume, in a way. But the only thing we can smell on you is that you’re a human. Nothing else. It’s like you’re somehow masking it.”

“I’m sorry, but I really don’t know what you’re talking about. Even if I am hiding it somehow, I don’t know how.”

“Don’t worry about it, we’ll figure it out,” she gives me a reassuring smile and walks over to the other side of the bed where my bags are laid out on the floor. “Burner brought these from your car, if you like, I could come with you to get the rest of your things?”

“This is all that I have with me,” I shrugged. “You learn to pack light when you’re on the road. I’ve practically lived out of my car for the past two months while tracking Devland.”

“Why are you after him,” she asks, but quickly adds, “if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I’m ready to share that with anyone,” I rummaged through my bag, looking for something to change into, but mostly to avoid eye contact with Alaine. It’s still a difficult subject and I can barely think about it, let alone speak about it to an almost complete stranger. “What about you? Though you don’t have to tell me. I know it’s unfair of me to ask, but…”

“Don’t worry, I understand,” she says while giving my shoulder a light squeeze. “Devland killed Caspian, our uncle. Almost a year ago,” Alaine looked out the window as I glanced up at her, she’s the one avoiding my eyes now. “He was tracking some vampires that had passed through our territory. We normally don’t chase them that far, but this time there were several groups, and they were moving like they were searching for something or pursuing someone. Caspian went to investigate. He never came back.”

“I’m sorry,” that’s all that I could say. I knew very well what it was like to lose someone close to you.

“It’s not your fault,” she turns around and gives me a determined look. “We will take him down. Together.”

I give her a strong nod. I hope that she’s right. I don’t know how much longer I can live with this guilt. With all these questions: why them? What have we done to deserve this? Why did he leave me alive? I must be there when he dies. I must know. I won’t be able to move forward otherwise. He has taken so much from me. I want to be there when he draws his last breath. And I want to be the one who delivers the finishing blow. I want to look him in the eyes as I put a stake through his heart and feel as it beats for the very last time.

“Well, enough of that,” Alaine declared cheerfully, as if sensing my dark thoughts. “If this is all that you have, I’ll have to take you shopping. I don’t suppose you have a ball gown in that bag, and you’ll need one for next Friday.”

“Ball gown?” I asked, confused. “What’s next Friday and how do I get out of it?”

“You can’t!” she grins. “It’s kind of like a prom, but for werewolves. We will introduce you to the pack there. Everyone is coming! So, chop-chop, we need to drive down to town before everything closes. We need to fill your closet.”