《My Mate the Wanderer》21. Odors
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The rest of the morning went pretty smoothly.
On our way out of or fourth period class we saw that Nathan was waiting next to my locker.
I groaned inwardly.
No matter how much I love my brother he really does have a way with getting into my business at the most inconvenient times.
"You gonna start explaining Bree?" Nate said shortly.
I glances over at Tyler who just shrugged at me.
So much for him being any help in this.
"Explain what Nate?" I asked him as I tried to play dumb.
"Bree, don't play." He said as he stepped in between me and Tyler. "You said you would at least tell me who this guy who follows you around like a lost puppy is."
Tyler and I let out a small chuckle at the same time, oh if Nathan even knew the half of it.
"He's my friend. I met him before school started, he actually lives in one of those houses not too far from ours." I said as nonchalantly as I could manage.
Nate squinted his eyes at me.
He's always been able to tell when I'm not being completely truthful.
"Fine, clearly your not ready to be honest with me." He said as he turned around and started to stomp away from me.
"Nate, wait!" I said as I roughly grabbed his wrist. "Listen I just can't tell you everything yet. I promise that when I can, you will be the first to know, just please be patient, and for the love of god don't say anything to Mom and dad."
"Whatever, just tell me when your ready to act like yourself again." He said cuttingly as he ripped my hand off of his wrist.
I could feel my heart clench for my brother.
As much of a pain as he is, that doesn't mean he deserves what I'm doing to him.
"I have no idea what to do." I said as I buried my face into Tyler's chest. "He's going to hate me when I tell him."
"I don't think he could hate you from something like this, little one. When you do decide to tell him I'm sure he'll understand why you couldn't tell him right away." Tyler whispered into my hair.
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I sighed dramatically as I pulled away from him.
"Let's just go to lunch, maybe I can drown my sorrows into a boring cafeteria sandwich." I said sarcastically.
As we walked into the cafeteria I notice that there were still so many eyes on us just like this morning.
The feeling of everyone watching your ever move was something completely unfamiliar to me, and it was quite unnerving.
A few months ago, when I lived in the city, I would have buried my head into my hand trying to shield myself from all of the prying eyes.
I knew though that things like that would have to stay in the past because from the things that Tyler has told me it's a dog eat dog world out here.
So I kept my head up and eyes forward as I marched myself into the food line.
As we waited for our turn I couldn't help but think about what all the other wolves in the school thought about me.
Were they all going to be defensive around me, Tyler, and Nate?
Or would they eventually just accept that we're here and mean no ill intent.
After we got our food Tyler pulled me to the front door so we could sit and eat our lunches outside.
Once we found a good spot we sat down and silently dug into our food.
After a few minutes I spoke up. "You must have really trusted my ability to control myself this morning."
"Of course I trusted that you could control yourself. I left you to deal with Bret and that other guy because I wanted you to trust yourself." Tyler said with a compassionate smile.
"Well that was dumb." I said as I shoved the last of my sandwich into my mouth.
"Well I think you did and excellent job!" A female voice said from behind us.
I turned around to see a girl that I somewhat recognized. "Jenna, right? Your in my biology class, correct?" I said as I took in the lanky appearance of the she wolf.
"Yep," she said popping the p. "Bret and Mike can be real tools. They always think that because their the sons of our beta that they can get away with talking down to everyone."
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"Gotcha." I said as I pretended to know what she was talking about.
"A beta is the second in command in a pack. Their there to help the alpha with running the pack." Tyler explained as he cautiously eyes Jenna.
Jenna gasped dramatically. "So it's true, you don't know anything about wolves do you? Can I be your teacher? Please please please?!?" She said and she clasped my hand between hers.
I glanced over at Tyler, who I could tell was hiding a smile and stifling a laugh.
"I don't know." I said as my voice trailed off.
"Aww come on, your mate and I can teach you together." She said playfully.
"How come everybody knows that he my mate?" I said halfway hysterically.
Jenna chuckled and waved her hand in front of her nose. "It's the pheromones dripping off of you two."
I blushed as I looked over at Tyler.
"I guess that's fine, as long as your ok with it." I said shyly.
Jenna did a little happy dance as she stood up and offered her hand to me to help me up.
I gratefully took it and smiled inwardly.
Having a female friend at this school would make life so much easier.
There was only a few minutes left in lunch so we gathered up our garbage and headed back into the building.
As soon as we stepped inside of the school it hit me like a brick wall.
The stench was overwhelming.
My hand shot up to cover my nose and mouth as I looked around for the source of the odor.
"What in the world is that smell?" I said over my shoulder to Tyler.
"Nothing smells different from before, your probably just smelling with your new senses." He said with a light hearted chuckle.
I continued to walk forward as I let myself adjust to the new scents.
I immediately noticed the smell of the different foods floating through the air, but the combination of them mixed into an overwhelming soup of pungent odors.
As I walked deeper in and closer to the students I could pick up smells of student body odor and wolf.
I could tell just by standing near them who was human and who was were.
As useful as it was I could feel Accalia stand up and shake out her fur from our new hyper awareness of the potential threats around us.
A smell caught my nose, it smelled like cinnamon and pine needles, it felt like such a safe and comforting smell.
I searched around the commons for the source until my eyes settled upon my brother who was sitting by himself with his nose in a book.
I briefly plugged my nose to give my brain a second to adapt.
Upon releasing it I took a deep breath in and walked over to my brothers side.
"Nate," I started "I'm sorry that I can't tell you everything right now but just know that I really want to."
I slid down onto the floor next to him and sighed deeply.
"Then when can you tell me, Bree?" He said coldly as he continued to stare at his book.
"It's not fair to keep it a secret from you so if your up to it I want you to meet me out front today after school so you can come train with me and Tyler."
"Train? What are you training for?" Nate asked.
"We can show you after school. Until then you will have to be patient." Upon saying this I felt like a weight was lifted off of my shoulders.
I knew that having Nathan with me through this strange time would be really good for the both of us.
"Alright Bree, I'll meet you in front of the school." He said a little giddily.
"Sounds good." I said as I stood back up and dusted off my pants.
The bell rang a couple seconds after I stood up so i turned to walk to my next class.
"Thanks for trusting me." Nate said earnestly as I headed to my next class.
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