Ms Donna Hole

Here is Donna Hole's entry:

SCENT


“Why are you stalking me?”

Her heels made a confident stuccato on the concrete. The echoes bounced delightfully deep inside his ears. He yearned to twitch the round cups. He blew a snort through his nose, then cursed his carelessness.

The footsteps hesitated. He felt her shift around under the sodium arch of a streetlight, the scrape of her toe nearly imperceptible.

“How long will you play this game? Hmm?”

The cocky lilt to her silky voice tingled on his skin. He shivered from the hair on his head to the strands on the top of his big toes. They stretched in his Vans. He longed to run, chase her down. He was taught better than that.

“Ok,” she said, about facing.

A delivery truck trundled past them, wafting the scent of exhaust through the still air. He loved the smell of the city. He opened his mouth and nostrils wide to take it all in, and as the burst of wind trailed away, he caught her scent again. It was a woodsy smell, reminding him of his time among the balsam firs up north.

She was pretty, sandy colored long hair, not too big in the breast, wide hipped. She looked strong to Reggi. She’d make a fine mate. She was ready too; he smelled her sexuality, that time of whelping before the blood washed it all away.

He was hesitant though. He’d been driven from his pack for taking a female without permission. Reggi eased forward in the shadows, listening to the goatlike strikes of heel against pavement. Instinct nearly propelled him out of hiding when a man raced down the steps of a brownstone and hurried onto the sidewalk.

The man continued past Willa, then turned. “You shouldn’t be out alone you know. There’ve been some weird rumors these last few nights.”

“A full moon and all that,” Willa answered. “I heard the stories too. But I only live a few blocks up the street.”

“Really. How come I’ve never seen you around? I’d notice such a pretty girl.”

Reggi growled low in throat, feeling his canines grow as his ears lengthened and flattened.

Willa laughed. Her scent became heavier. The man’s did too. Hair bristled on Reggie’s muscular neck and chest.

“So, um, can I walk you home?”

“Isn’t it out of your way?”

Reggie’s shoes shredded off his feet. He stepped away from the building, breathing heavily to stop the rumbling of challenge.

A new scent float through the air. Old. Familiar. He lifted his flattening snout, sniffing again. It was gone.

“It’s ok. If your place is as close as you say, then I can still make it to the liquor store and save a lady from molest.”

“How sweet of you,” Willa replied. Her voice was husky, coy.

Reggie didn’t like it. Except, he did like the prospect of winning her affections in a fight. His halted change started again as the door to the brownstone opened and two more guys piled out.

“Hey Franky; you gonna get the beer or what.”

Reggie hid behind the short stone wall that lined the street and moved forward, almost fully his wolf form now. He shrugged out of his ripped clothes and shook his fur. That other scent was closer now. He looked up to the roof line that attached all the townhouses to each other. The smell wasn’t there. He strained his ears and thought he heard the scrape of nails on the concrete. The scent was coming from behind him.

“Yeah, one second, guys. I’m gonna walk this lady home.”

“No, really,” Willa said. The flirtiness had left her voice. “Go with your friends. Sounds like you have a party to tend to.”

“Want to join us?”

“Another night,” Willa said.

The sound of those modern hooves hurrying up the sidewalk was nearly overpowering Reggie’s instincts. His change was complete now. He was done stalking.

“I’ll see ya around again,” Franky called from directly in front of Reggie’s hiding place.

“Man, she was fine.”

The men and their crude talk and the scent of beer and hormones drifted away from the quickly moving heels. Back towards that other, more feral scent. Reggie jumped the stone wall and for a moment was indecisive.

Fight was behind him; a need to prove himself worthy of a mate. But not with the human males. With the other, Older smell. The pull of the hoof sounds drove him the other direction, towards the girl.

He sprinted after her. Running felt good. He almost wished she had a longer head start. The Old smell filled his nostrils as something large and powerful crashed into his rear. He stumbled and rolled. Strong jaws latched onto the back of his neck, where the fur was thickest.

He yelped and thrashed and easily threw off his attacker. Scrambling quickly to his feet he face his adversary. An old wolf growled menacingly two feet from him. Reggie growled louder and lunged at the old wolfs throat.

“Who’s there.” It was Willa’s voice and suddenly the clomping of her heels and the smell of her fear was all Reggie could think about.

The old wolf attacked, biting deep into Reggie’s flank.

“Oh God,” Willa screamed, and started running back up the street.

The old wolf chased after her. Reggie lay there a moment. The pain was tolerable. He licked blood off his hip, decided it wasn’t too deep, and scrambled to his feet. He no longer felt the need to mate. The hunt was all he cared for. He raced after the prey and the fellow predator.

He caught up to them at the top of another townhouse. She was lying half in the door, screaming, the old wolf growling and panting on the top step. He didn’t look capable of feasting on the prey he’d won.

Reggie knew he should kill the old one, do him a favor. Too old to hunt meant too old survive. And this was Reggie’s chosen mate.

The gray wolf howled, raising his throat. Reggie howled with him, acknowledging their kinship. Reggie was lonely for a pack of his own, and the girl was only a human. There would be another.
They lunged together.