right,” Michelle said. “You’re different, and I haven’t taken the time to learn about you like Emmitt asked me to. I’m sorry to ask this again, but can you and Jim keep an eye on the boys? I swear I won’t ever disappear like I did yesterday. I just want to take Emmitt to the front yard where the boys won’t see or hear anything. Then, I’ll ask Emmitt the questions I should have asked from the start.”
“Of course we will. You don’t have to ask Emmitt, you know. You can ask me anything as well.”
Winifred!
I’m just making sure she knows I’m here to answer questions as well.
Instead of coming outside for me, Michelle went to Jim’s apartment. She moved around in there for several minutes before going back upstairs. I waited, watching the door and straining to hear anything. Just as I was wondering what she was up to, I faintly heard her call my name.
I motioned for Jim to take over pushing Liam on the swing, since he could easily handle pushing them both, and jogged inside.
“Tell her I’m her slave for life,” Jim said, before I cleared the porch.
As soon as I hit the steps, I used my real speed.
She was at her door, waiting for me when I reached the landing.
“Jim told me to pass on his pledge of servitude.”
She smiled slightly. “He’ll pay it back today. He and Nana are going to watch the boys so I can spend some time with you and learn what makes a werewolf tick.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“According to your boast, you’re faster, stronger, have better sight, hearing, and sense of smell. I’d like to know just how good you are at each.”
“All right,” I said, wondering how she was going to test me. “What do you want me to do?”
“Let’s go downstairs.”
She walked beside me until we reached Jim’s apartment.
“I went inside and hid something. Can you find it?”
She wanted to see how well I could follow a trail. Her trail I could follow anywhere. Focusing, I allowed hints of sweet vanilla and maple trees to tug at my senses. It would have been easy to lean forward and inhale it from the source. Instead, I turned and strode into the apartment.
The sound of her following me and the false trails she’d left didn’t distract me. She’d been sure to touch everything in here. She’d even sat on the couch where I slept. Maybe tonight I’d sleep better.
Following her scent to the spare room, I walked to the bed and pulled out the aromatic source that had called me there. My shirt. I lifted it to my nose and inhaled. No trace of my scent remained on the material, just hers.
“It will never smell like me again.”
“Sorry,” she said softly.
I opened my eyes and met her gaze. “I like it better this way.”
She blushed and glanced away, studying the room I didn’t use. “How did you know where it was?”
“Your scent is impossible to mask.”
“But I touched everything along the way. I even hid it in two different places before picking here.”
“I know. Under the couch cushions and in the silverware drawer.”
“But, how?”
“The fragrance of you led me. The lighter trails, I ignored. I went to the place where it was most saturated.”
“How long will they last? My trails.”
“The places you touched? Less than a week because of the contaminations here.”
“Contaminations?”
“Your brothers, me, Jim. We are the contaminations. We touch the same things in here and eventually wipe away the traces of your scent. On the road, other vehicles do the same to the scent of your truck. Think of scent trails as delicate strings. If too many other strings cross them, they break and fall apart. We might be able to find fragments of the trail after a week, but the longer it sits, the harder it would be to try to follow.”
She’d looked worried when I’d first mentioned contaminations, but now seemed relieved. I wanted to know what she was thinking. However, asking would probably send her running again, so I kept quiet. Time would earn trust and trust would reveal her secrets.
“Is it just my scent that’s hard to mask, or any person’s?”
I wasn’t sure how to answer that. If I admitted her scent called to me like no other, would she panic? Would she look at me with fear again?
“Am I asking something I shouldn’t?”
“No, you can ask anything. I just don’t want to upset you with the answer.”