Scent

I screamed as I flew through the air.

Victor’s throw had been straight and sure. I hit the water in a massive flop and the waves sloshed over me.

I surfaced spitting. Floundering like a drowning cat against all the extra fabric on my body, I desperately made for shore. Water seeped through layer after layer, weighing me down.

Victor splashed in just behind me.

“Come on,” Huntley told Chase. They swam to me and tugged me back into the water just as I hooked my hand into a fistful of dirt.

I felt their cloying hands pawing me, but under all my oversized and padded garments, they were unable to feel anything.

“We really need to get these clothes off her and see what’s under here,” Chase frowned.

~No!~

I jerked from Chase and floundered onto the bank. Throwing my body onto the sandy dirt, I crawled and attempted to climb onto my feet.

They laughed uproariously as I fled, tugging at my hood to keep my hair hidden.

“Ah, Valerie…Come back!” Chase laughed.

“Where you off to so fast?” Victor caught up to me and lightly shoved me, toppling me to the ground. “We didn’t say you could go anywhere, Rabbit.”

~I hate it when he calls me that.~

And he knew it. It was his favorite nickname for me. Mocking how I often cowered and twinged away.

My soaked clothes weighed on me. I chanced looking away from Victor and pulling my knees up to my chest. Miraculously, Victor rejoined his brothers in the river, seemingly content that I was drenched and waiting for them.

There was something erotic about watching them water pour over their muscled bodies in the sunlight, while glittering rays danced atop the water. Their raven hair was flattened back along their heads, soaked from washing.

Chase shook it wildly and tossed tiny drops over his brothers who playfully splashed him back while he objected and retreated.

~They’re always playing,~ I realized.

They didn’t seem to take anything serious. Except for Victor.

Watching them was like witnessing gorgeous wild animals in their element.

They were starkly beautiful and completely free.

All while I sat there covered in soaked pounds of useless fabric. ~I’m as captive to this pack, as captive can be.~

But the alternative was even worse.

~Especially when I still don’t know what I’d been running from.~

Though when I looked at them, I didn’t feel the same threat to my life that I’d felt when I was running.

These males were intimidating, pushy, demanding, and domineering.

~But they wouldn’t kill me.~

~What about under a Mating Moon?~ The cruel, niggling voice in my head queried. ~I don’t know…~

“Do you smell that?” Huntley lifted his head and sniffed the air. His prime hunting instinct firing, as his keen senses caught something he liked.

Chase did the same. “That smells delicious.”

~What?~ I inhaled but smelled nothing new. Tipping my nose up, I sniffed harder.

~What are they smelling?~

Victor paused scrubbing his chest and his eyes lifted to look at me on the bank. Even from where I was, I could see they were flecked with yellow.

And locked on me.

I slowly turned my head to look at the three of them.

They were looking at me like I was their breakfast.

~Uh oh…~

All three males burst into movement.

They streamed through the water, hitting the bank at a crawl and scrambling on all fours. Charging toward me in nearly simultaneous movement. They were coming at me from three different angles.

I slid backward, retreating.

~What’s going on? What did I do?~

My drenched clothes clung to the ground beneath me, slowing me to a pitiful crawl backward on my elbows.

“Is it her?” Chase asked, pressing a foot on my chest, anchoring me to the ground. He sniffed pointedly, his eyes leveled on me.

Huntley dropped to his knees and lifted the hem of my cloak, purposely catching my skirt in his fists as well. He tossed them over his head like a shelter and inhaled deeply.

I yelped and eyed them in panic.

Huntley emerged from beneath my skirts, and I stared at him in shock.

“Yep. It’s her. She’s not wearing underthings.” He said it so matter-of-factly.

I’d only been given dresses and cloaks, but nothing to wear beneath.

“You smelled me?” I lifted my brows, confused.

“We could scent your arousal from the creek.” Victor nodded down at me, his voice dark and husky. Almost raw.

“And the Mating Moon just passed.” Huntley looked at the other two as if he was a bit surprised, himself.

He was still holding my skirt and cloak up, poised on his knees. Making me aware that the other two could get a look at me if they leaned over.

Chase licked his lips. “She smells sooo good.”

“Victor?” Huntley said in a low voice, frowning as he peered under my skirt.

Victor took a couple steps back and tilted to look.

I clenched my eyes closed, horrified, but my she-wolf howled in my mind.

“What the hell do you have wrapped around your waist?” Victor roared, gesturing to my middle.

“What?” I asked in confusion.

~Oh, no…~ When they lifted the skirt, they’d be able to see up to my ribs. They were getting an ample view of the bindings I’d long been using to conceal my form.

“Answer me, dammit!” Victor roared.

“What is it?” Chase was dying of curiosity. He dropped to his knees to peer under as well.

I closed my eyes against the humiliation. “Old cloth.”

“You’ve no underthings on, but you have that?” Huntley asked incredulously.

“Why didn’t you just wrap all that through there?” Chase asked thoughtfully.

“I didn’t know it’d be such a big matter.”

“What are you hiding from us, Rabbit?” Victor demanded. His dark slashing brows drew together, furiously.

“Just—just me,” I stuttered out.

“You’re trying to hide what you look like?” Chase sounded affronted.

And they all looked it.