The farther we drove from town, the easier breathing became.
Human places always carried too much noise. Too many smells piled over each other until they blurred into something overwhelming if I focused on them for too long. Perfume. Gasoline. Fast food drifting from open car windows. Hundreds of heartbeats moving through one building all at once. Human schools were especially bad. Loud. Crowded. Chaotic.
The deeper we moved into White Wolf territory, the more those things faded away. Pine and earth took place of the human smells, dampened slightly by the rain. And among them, the smell of White Wolf. Of home.
The road narrowed gradually as forest closed in around us from both sides, tall trees stretching upward into darkening skies while rain gathered heavier across the windshield. The
