I waved goodbye to the wolves, already looking forward to our meeting the following week. We'd meet once a week just to talk about whatever. Try and socialise with each other. So far, we had only met at my house, but I wanted to go out soon too. Small things. Like going to the café together. Meet up on campus as a group. But so far neither Meera nor Samuel was too comfortable with it. They wanted to at least pretend no one knew they were werewolves.

Abel put his arms around me from behind and kissed the side of my head. "How was it this time?"

"I'm worried about Meera. Samuel seems to be opening up. Tasha could be without these meetings at this point. She has just joined in so well."

"I like her. She's going to be such a nice addition to our own friend group. Do you want all of the wolves to be that?"

"Not necessarily. I wanna be friends with them obviously, but maybe not necessarily like I'm friends with our friends. It'd also be nice if they went out and got their own friends. Like Tasha and Liza."

"Mmhmm," he murmured in my ear, kissing my throat.

"What is up with you these days? You're obsessed," I laughed and moved out of his embrace, turning to face him.

He shrugged. "You're hot."

"I haven't changed a single thing about myself though."

Abel grabbed the front of my shirt and pulled me into the house, pushing me against the door. "You have changed. You're so confident and you don't slouch anymore. It's hot." He bent down and kissed me, moving down over my jaw and to my throat again.

"As much as I'd love to do whatever you're imagining doing right now, I really need to take Dave on a walk," I said, having a hard time controlling my voice.

"I wanna join," he said and pulled back, kissing my forehead. "But after..." He pressed his body against mine, pushing me up against the wall again. "After."

"Alright, after," I murmured, having a hard time not just saying 'now' instead of 'after'.

So, we got the leash on the little puppy and then got going. The summer was on its last legs, but it was still warm. The light was turning less and less harsh, softer with autumn coming closer and I was itching to get out and shoot some photos for some references.

I walked down the street with my boyfriend in one hand, my dog in the other and literally nothing could've fucked up my day. If it hadn't been for that smell.

I stopped abruptly in front of the convenience store. The small hairs on the back of my neck rose. As did the hairs on my arms.

"Gael? You alright?" Abel asked, but his voice was all muffled.

I blinked hard and tried rolling my neck to get that tight feeling off it, but it only spread. Then there was this 'ding' coming from the convenience store's doors and I whipped around, coming face-to-face with the source of the smell.

He was staring at me with wide eyes. He had dropped the plastic bag containing what he had probably just bought.

A growl formed in my chest and bubbled out of my mouth. I stalked toward the boy, grabbed his jacket and hauled him out of the doorway, slamming him against the store wall.

"Why the fuck do you smell like that?" I asked, feeling my teeth sting.

"Gael!" Abel yelled out and got me away from the stranger. "What the hell!"

"Tell me why you smell like that," I said, not even acknowledging Abel, but pulled my arm out of his grasp.

He blinked and then he stepped off the wall. "Tell me why this whole town smells like you."

"Oh shit, you're a wolf," Abel said with a hushed voice.

"No shit Sherlock, as if your little friend there would've even approached me if I wasn't." He nodded towards me with a shit-eating grin. "I've been looking for you. For a good while now."

I snapped out of it. Of course, he was a wolf. Of course, he was. But I still couldn't shake that smell.

Abel got us all three home, but we didn't invite the stranger in. We stayed on the porch. Dave was eyeing him and even growled at him when he tried to pet him.

I loved Dave.

No one thought it'd be a good idea to have the whole town as audience for what might turn into a confrontation between two wolves. I didn't particularly like the idea of the whole town knowing I was a wolf.

"What's with the smell?" I asked, getting my dog to settle down beside me.

"That dog does not like me," the stranger muttered and looked up at me. "You probably smell the same as me. We're... Brothers."

"Nice try, I don't have any fucking brothers. And we don't look anything alike," I snapped back.

He was tall. And burly. And he had like super icy blonde hair, extremely pale skin and almost white eyes. Icy was the perfect word for him overall. Like an ice prince. He was also ridiculously pretty. Not in the way Abel was pretty. This guy was more like... Delicately pretty whereas Abel looked like a classic model with his high as hell cheekbones and strong jaw. The stranger on the other hand, had big doe-eyes and more or less looked like a cartoon character. He'd look almost angelic if it hadn't been for the smirk.

"Not that kind of brother. We were turned by the same person. We can both smell that guy on each other, yeah?" He arched his brows, his forehead wrinkling in the process.

I felt something cold run down my spine. I bit down on my lip before bringing my thumb up to my mouth, intending on biting the cuticles to shit, but Abel stopped me, softly bringing my hand to his mouth instead, kissing my knuckles.

The stranger arched just one brow this time, keeping his icy eyes fixed on my hand in Abel's. I glanced at Abel, finding him sending a rather unkind look back at the stranger. I was waiting for it. The comment. Maybe it wouldn't be outright 'oh wauw, you're fag'. Maybe it'd be something along the line of 'you're very good friends, the two of you' which was milder and not nearly as bad as a slur getting hurled in your face, but it was still condescending and fucking dumb. Hurtful too. I hated when someone tried to pretend mine and Abel's relationship wasn't exactly as valid as anyone else's just because we shared the same gender.

The stranger surprised me by saying nothing about that, and instead keeping on topic. "I heard rumours about a happy wolf staying here, screaming to the skies how nice this town is. Had to check out this Happy Wolf, didn't I? And then I realised there's an underlying smell too. Something very familiar, but something dangerous too."

"That's how I felt when I smelt you."

"Yeah. Familiarity can be dangerous. What If I were here to challenge you?"

I pressed my lips together and gave Abel's hand a squeeze. "Not much to challenge, really."

"There is. It's alright you don't wanna say there is to keep up this hippie image you've built for yourself, but there is, and you know it. That's why your heartbeat just sped up."

I clenched my jaw tight before unclenching. I didn't like to admit it, but I definitely did like being in command. Being the first wolf. Being the one the other wolves in the area would refer to. I liked it and I hated to admit it, even to myself. But I revelled in the power. I liked helping. I liked being the one who could help and could take control.

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, getting my heart to settle down to a more normal rhythm.

"I'm not here to disrupt anything. I wanted to find you for this. For what the other wolves come here for." He shrugged a shoulder and shoved his hands into the sports hoodie. It was an expensive athletics brand too. It was part of a full suit and ended with very fresh sparkling white sneakers. He dressed well. He knew how to dress well too. And once again I felt like a little troll.

"Right. We meet on Wednesdays. Here. For coffee and a chat. There's also tea. Don't freak out the other wolves, alright? And don't talk about that weird brother shit."

I didn't wait for him to reply but I almost whirled around, very dramatically at least in my head and went inside. Abel followed after a couple of moments and closed the door behind him.

"You and your wolves are freaky as high hell, Gael," he said with groan and went straight past me and into the kitchen, fishing a blood bag out of the fridge, poured it in a mug with flowers on it and popped it in the microwave.

To be honest, he wasa little right.