Chapter Twelve: A Certain Scent

They had one year left together before college would call them away. Angie knew that anything could happen now. The timing couldn't have been worse. With Eli back in school, he could be around a whole new set of people, or at least people he hadn't seen since before his transformation. With the arrival of new faces at her own school, Angie realized just how possible it was. Nothing haunted Angie more than the thought that Eli would find his imprint and then that would be the end of her world as she knew it.

Even Wyatt seemed to have moved on. They'd sit in class, and he wouldn't look over at her for more than it took to ask to borrow a pencil. It wasn't a huge loss. Angie was quite ready to put everything between her and Wyatt to rest for good. Nonetheless, it was a reminder of how quickly things could change. The make matters worse, the change seemed to stem from a very specific source – a new girl.

She was a grade below Angie, but she looked like a twenty year old super model. She was tall, slender, full bodied shining blonde hair, and a flawless ivory complexion. To say the least, everyone was enamoured of her the moment she walked into the room. In addition, to make her even more disgustingly perfect, she didn't demand or reward any of the attention so suddenly thrust upon her. She wasn't even one of those useless beauties either. She was quiet, keeping company with her brother rather than socializing much, which Angie could appreciate, but if a teacher called upon her, she always had an answer on hand, and usually the right one, too. It didn't matter if it was Math, History, Chemistry, or Spanish.

Angie had lunch with Lauren, as usual, and watched the high school social dynamics. The table was still fully intact, though they had since initiated new members since the seniors of last year had graduated. A few scouts had gone over to try to lour the new girl in, but she just scowled coldly at them until they left. She definitely wasn't the most approachable person at school, but that didn't stop some of the boys from trying, at least during the very brief moments when her brother wasn't around.

If there was one area that the new girl was in over her head in, it was gym class. It obviously didn't seem like running around was something that she was into. She seemed indifferent the whole time and hardly put any effort into it. It was especially bad during a team sport. She'd throw a ball like a stereotypical girl, pathetically. And with the table of athletes ruling the school, a person's contribution to gym class was an important signifier of their school status. Perhaps it made her less perfect, but either way she was still the talk of the school – a mystery that everyone was dying to solve.

It seemed like forever since Angie had seen Eli, but he had called her everyday, reassuring her that he was simply trying to juggle school work, auto shop work, and certain "family" obligations. Angie forgave him. After all, he had a lot to prepare for if he was going to get into the school of his choice for next year. Angie told him all about her day, and the ridiculousness amount of excitement that surrounded the new girl, though she tried not to vocalise her real concerns. He had enough on his plate without a whiny girlfriend to add to it. But Eli did have this uncanny ability to know when he was needed.

He rushed through a unit test in under an hour, still feeling confident about his answers, and ducked out of class for the rest of the day. Angie was still struggling to free her bike lock when she heard a car honk. She looked up, not expecting it to have anything to do with her, but was pleasantly surprised to Eli pull right up to the front of the school. Angie abandoned her bike right there and ran to him as he got out of the car. She practically leapt into his arms, which he didn't mind in the least. He had a huge grin on his face and a kiss ready for her.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, too happy to really care why.

"What? A guy can't give his girl a ride home?" he said. "Go get the bike. We'll throw it in the back."

She skipped off cheerily. She worked on the bike lock again, wishing that it would just come free on its own. She looked back at Eli, seeing if he was laughing at her struggle or sighing with impatience. He wasn't doing either. He wasn't even looking in her direction. His eyes were fixed across the parking lot. He was watching someone, a very particular someone, getting into her brother's fancy sports car.

Angie tried to tell herself that it was just the car that Eli was fixated on, but she knew better. Finally the lock came free and she could pull her bike away. She wheeled it slowly, waiting for Eli to take his eyes off of the car that was now in the line-up of exiting vehicles. He didn't. Angie was standing right beside him and he didn't even flinch. But he must have realized that she was there because he took hold of the bike and placed it in the back of the car, all with hardly even looking at it.

When the sports car hit the main road, Eli's hypnotic gaze was broken. He looked over at Angie with his faithful smirk, but there was something lost in it. He leaned in and kissed her forehead, a sign that they were able to move on now. Angie took the hint and got into the passenger seat.

Eli acted like everything was normal, but Angie wasn't entirely sure. He drove right up to her house and came inside the front door with her, something that he hadn't done in a very long time. Angie threw her backpack in her room and expected Eli to follow, but he didn't. He roamed around the house, very slowly, sliding his arm against the walls as he walked. Angie stood in the hallway and watched him with a puzzled expression.

When Eli noticed that she noticed him, he said, "So you're mom's not home?"

Angie furrowed her brows. Obviously she wasn't, her car wasn't out front. This wasn't a question that Eli would normally ask. He could usually smell her mother from the highway. Angie couldn't figure out why he was acting so strangely.

"Yeah…" she replied.

"Well that's good," he said, bringing back his smirk. He moved in close to her, putt his arms around her and kissed her passionately. Normally Angie wouldn't mind, but it didn't seem natural. She pulled away.

"What?" he said.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

She studied his face for a few moments. She wished that she was able to read him half as well as he was always able to read her, but at this moment she didn't quite know what she was looking at.

He leaned in again to kiss her, holding the back of her head and slowly tracing his lips down her neck. It seemed to her that he was using romance as a distraction, but she couldn't figure out why. She didn't like it. She pulled away again.

"I should get started on some of my History stuff," she said. It wasn't a complete lie, she did have readings to do, but the immediate necessity of it was definitely exaggerated. She didn't have all that much of it and it wouldn't be needed until the up-coming Monday. She retreated into her bedroom, pulled open her backpack and got out the thick textbook. She then sat on the floor against the wall, trying to keep a fair distance from her bed – she just didn't want to put herself in that position right now. Eli watched her from the doorway for a few seconds and then announced that he was going to get his bag from the car. Angie heard the front door open and close, but she didn't hear the car door open. She got up and looked out the window. Sure enough Eli was walking along the house, dragging his arm around the siding. Angie couldn't understand it at all.

Once he circled the house once, he went to his car and brought his backpack back in. Angie watched him come back into the room.

"Okay, seriously, what is going on?" she demanded.

"What?"

"Why are you being so weird?"

"I just went to get my bag," he said defensively.

Angie didn't want to fight, and whatever it was that Eli was doing, she figured that she probably didn't want to know. She prayed that this was just some wolf thing that really meant nothing. Maybe it was like bears using trees to scratch themselves in the woods. She knew that it was a long stretch, but she had to believe it was something innocent before she drove herself crazy.

She went back to reading, hoping that it was just a build-up of stress that was planting these thoughts in her head, and that reading about the world wars would drown some of those thoughts out. Eli sat on the bed across from her, doing homework of his own. He looked far more like himself while he focused on that. It reminded Angie of the first time she met him and he talked her through her Geometry. She stared at him just trying to hold onto that memory. A few minutes went by and then she put her history book down. Eli was still lost in his own work. Angie crept up beside him and then leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder. Eli turned his head and kissed her hair.

"I'm sorry," she muttered.

"For what?" he said, setting his notebook aside.

"Being freaked out," she confessed.

Eli tensed up and sat fully straight. "Freaked out? About what? What is it?" he asked more urgently than Angie was prepared for.

"About us I guess," she said.

He put an arm under her and lifted her over to his lap. She folded into him, her neck curled over his shoulder.

"You've got nothing to worry about. I know I haven't been around as often as before, but I'm gonna try to change that. You shouldn't feel freaked out about anything. It's my job to make sure that everything's perfect," he said, rocking her like a small child, kissing her arm that was wrapped around him.

She sat up and looked at him straight in the eye. "You still love me?"

"Of course. Always," he said.

Angie watched his eyes. He still seemed honest. He still seemed to be in love with her. She let out a sigh. Maybe she was just imagining everything. She leaned in and kissed him. Eli knocked the rest of his stuff onto the floor and scooted himself backwards, all the while still holding and kissing her. He laid there with her for a long while, until he sensed Amanda Pochoda coming back into town from her commute.

He gave Angie a kiss goodbye and let himself out. Angie got up and watched from the doorway to see if he would make it out before her mother saw him. He didn't. She was pulling in as he was pulling out. They passed by each other.

When Amanda got out of the car, she looked like she wanted to say something, but she refrained from doing so.

At least Eli had managed to set Angie at ease by the end of the day, but it could only last for so long. There was still another day of school ahead, and another after that. All of it she would have to face without him.

It wouldn't have been so bad to live in this new state of high school invisibility, after all, Angie was not usually one to seek attention, but she was also not one to be comfortable with the cold shoulder. It wasn't simply that the new girl was drawing in attention, but she seemed to be emitting distain. The new girl was fairly standoffish to most people, but Angie couldn't so much as say "good morning" without a glare and a crinkled nose as response. This made it all the worse when Angie saw her transfer into her math class; apparently the new girl was both smart and drop-dead gorgeous, thereby needing the challenge of skipping a grade at the suggestion of the teachers. When she was told to take a seat next to Angie, the utter stiffness in her countenance made Angie want to hide under the desk. She had never felt so lowly in all of her life. Needless to say, as the days progressed into weeks, the two girls were nowhere near becoming close friends. To make matters worse, it only seemed to be happening to her. Even Lauren, who generally didn't get along well with anyone who could be called popular, was starting to think that Angie was reading far too much into things. Angie was also becoming more and more hesitant to mention anything to Eli. At just the mention of the new girl's name Eli was quick to be on the defensive, wanting to know if anything happened, if the girl had said anything to her or done anything to her. Yet the moment Angie said it was nothing but being actively ignored, Eli just dismissed the whole thing. It was as if he was far more interested in what the new girl was doing than how his own girlfriend was feeling.

It was one thing to be dismissed over the phone, but even in person Eli seemed to jump to attention at the drop of a name and then make up for it with a type of smothering affection that just didn't seem right. He wouldn't just hug her in a light lingering way, he had to bring her in tight against him, stretching his arms around her as if trying to cover the whole of her out of duty rather than genuine affection. The more this went on, the more Angie was certain that she knew the reason why. And on those rare occasions when he was there to pick her up from school, his fixation across the parking lot only confirmed her suspicions – she had lost him. The hardest thing to do now was not to cry in front of him. She had no doubt that he still loved her; why else would he still carry on the charade of being her boyfriend? He loved her too much to hurt her. So instead he was fighting off the very thing that was meant for him in this whole world. Once that reality sunk in, Angie no longer felt like the new girl was abusing her with cold stars and an upturned nose – she had every right to hate Angie for being the barrier between her and her soulmate.

Angie looked out from the bike rack. Eli was there again, standing outside of his car, surveying the parking lot. Angie wondered if he'd even notice if she just biked right on past him. But she couldn't. She wasn't angry with him. She had no reason to stand him up like that when he was trying so hard to play his role right. She walked her bike up to him. It took a minute before his eyes finally met hers.

"I think it's better if I just go my own way today," she said mildly.

Eli's smirk made a scarce appearance. "It'll downpour before you get halfway there," he said.

"I'll be okay," she said. She didn't mean to sound so pathetic, but even worse was that it was enough to draw his attention back to her. He was serious now and he was only focused on her.

"Ange, I'm already here," he said, gaging her reaction, but Angie couldn't fake contentment right now. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she said, but even she knew that Eli would see through that lie.

He put his hand on the bike; barely touching it and yet holding the handlebar with more strength than Angie's clenched fists could. She let go. There was no point trying to fight with him. She didn't want to anyway.

He took hold of the bike and put it in the back as Angie slid herself into the passenger seat. She stared out the window, not wanting to look Eli in the eye when he sat down beside her. He didn't say anything. He just pulled out and drove her home.

When they were out on the highway, Eli finally broke the silence. "So are you going to tell me what's going on?" he asked.

"I told you, it's nothing," she lied.

"Ange, I think I know you well enough to know when nothing is nothing and when nothing is a whole lot of something."

"And I think I know you well enough to know when you're happy and when you're just going through the motions," she said.

"What are you talking about?"

"It's over, isn't it?"

Eli hit the brakes. He didn't exactly mean to, but he could have had a worse reaction. It was just lucky that there wasn't a car directly behind them. Nonetheless, it did scare Angie half to death.

"What are you doing?" she nearly screamed, trying to recover from the shock.

"What am I doing? What are you doing? What do you mean over? What's over? What's going on?" he said all at once.

"Eli, you're in the middle of the road. Don't be crazy. At least pull over or something," she demanded.

He didn't. He swung his body right around so that he was facing her as best as he could despite the stick shift sitting between them. "I'm sorry if you think I'm overreacting, but you kinda come out of left field. What makes you think that anything is over? What did I do?"

"Eli, you don't have to get all defensive about it. I get it. It's okay. I'd be happier knowing that you were with someone you were meant for, even if that meant it wasn't me."

"Who's the crazy person now?" he said. "Ange, look at me. I don't know what it is that you think you get, but judging by the way things are going, I'm going to say that you don't. Are you seriously trying to breakup with me here?"

"No, I'm not trying to. I just think that's it's better to just get it done and over with than have you wait around pretending like this is what you really want. It sucks, yeah, but I'd hate myself more for holding you back," she said.

"Ange, I'm not pretending anything. Has nothing that we've been through proven that this is what I want? Angie, I've defied the pack for you. I nearly killed a guy for you. I have gone out of my way to make sure that everything works out, to make sure that you're happy. Where did I go wrong? Honestly. Just tell me."

Angie didn't want to spell it out, she didn't even know if she knew how to begin. But if she didn't say something soon, there might be a traffic jam at some point. "It used to be that you'd look at me like I was the only girl in the room, but I'm not that girl anymore, not to you anyway."

"You're not the only girl in the room, Ange, you're the only girl in the world," he said sincerely.

"Until you see her."

Eli's puzzled expression couldn't have been more profound.

"You aren't subtle. I say her name and it's like you're off in a different world. You get one glimpse of her and you can't take your eyes off of her. Then you snap back and then it's like you have to force yourself to be near me. You don't hold me because you love me, but because you feel like you're supposed to. It just hurts to know that we're just living out some sort of shell of our relationship. Don't you find it exhausting? If you've imprinted, then you should just go with it. Why fight it?"

Angie watched him, waiting so see the moment when his defensive side would break down and he'd open up about what was really going on inside of him. He did let down his defensive side, but what Angie didn't expect was to see that smirk of his emerge. It seemed that the most impractical moment for it to make an appearance, and yet there Eli was, his dark eyes sparkling and a chuckle billowing up from within him that he was trying to supress.

"Is that what this is all about?" Eli said as if relief had just washed right over him.

Angie couldn't understand why things were suddenly less serious.

"Oh, Ange," he said, swinging an arm behind her, "trust me, there is no chance of me imprinting on her. She is in no way my type."

The fact that he was nearly laughing made the matter all the more frustrating. Why couldn't he just own up to it? It was so obvious that he was completely obsessed by the new girl.

"Like hell she isn't! Every guy in that school swears that she's his type!"

Eli laughed and shook his head. He started up the car again and pulled over to the shoulder of the road. Angie still couldn't believe how casually he was dismissing the whole thing. She wasn't crazy. She saw him be mesmerised by the new girl. Yet the more that Angie argued her point, the more amused Eli seemed to be about the whole thing.

Finally, Angie was so frustrated about proving her point that she was near tears. Eli wrapped his arm around her again and brought her head to his shoulder.

"I'm sorry if I seem insensitive," he confessed, "but you just gotta understand how this is from my side."

"I've been trying to understand, but you won't ever tell me!" she sobbed.

He kissed her head and rubbed her arm. "Ange, I love you more than life itself, alright? But I thought that we agreed that there were a few wolf things that I just can't always talk openly about."

"Well when it affects my life I think I have the right to know!" she said with another frustrated sob.

He kissed her again. "And you're right. I just didn't think that it was affecting your life, not yet anyways. What you've interpreted as being distant couldn't be further from the truth. I'm a protector, Ange, you know that."

She sniffled and nodded her head though it was still against his shoulder.

"I've just never really explained to you what I, what the pack, protect against. That girl, the one that I can't take my eyes off of, she's not what you think she is, Ange. I haven't said anything because right now there's peace, and I don't want you to worry until there's something to worry about. But I'm not stupid. I know what she and others like her are capable of. She's not human, Ange. She might look it, but there's more human about me than there is in her. I can smell it a mile away. I can't keep my eye off of her because I don't trust her. You thought I was fixated on Wyatt – ha! He's a housefly compared to what she is. At least Wyatt was easy enough to work around. He's limited. He can't keep up with me, he can't beat me, and he had no idea what he was up against. That girl, she knows I've got my eye on her. She knows I'm watching. She also knows exactly what I am and what I'm capable of."

"Wait a minute," Angie said, springing up from his comforting shoulder. "She's dangerous? How? What is she?"

"It's a long story," Eli said casually. "My family's been keeping her kind at bay for generations. It's what we do. It's what our purpose is. They kill people. They're monsters, Ange, cold, unfeeling monsters. Some, and when I say some I mean a very, very select few, can be reasoned with. There is a peace treaty, and we respect it so long as they do. So long as they don't lay one hand on a human, we won't kill them. I'll admit that's been a hard rule to follow knowing that they're so close now."

"So why pretend to hug me?" Angie asked. "It's just weird and unnatural when you do."

"Sorry," Eli said. "It's not meant to be a pretend hug. I do love you, Ange. I want to you as close to me as possible. But I'm protective, and I know I can't just be attached to you all of the time, not really anyways. This is kind of the next best thing."

Angie just looked at him with confused furrowed brows.

"I told you, I can smell what she is, and she can smell what I am. I know you can't tell the difference, but people have a certain smell to them. I mean, each person is unique, but there is a common trait among normal people. She smells like freezer burn to me. I guess I smell like wet dog or something to her, but whatever it is, it stands out. My scent is stronger than yours. If I'm around you a lot, some of it will rub off on you," he said.

"So you rub yourself on me so that I stink like you?"

"Pretty much," he said with a defeated smirk. "I know, it probably doesn't sound all that romantic, but I feel better knowing that she knows you're mine. It's one thing if her kind attack a person, that's automatic war in itself, but you make it personal. If they don't want trouble, they'll stay as far away from you as possible."

"So that's why she doesn't like me," Angie said in awe of this epiphany. "I thought she was just snobby."

"Well, she might be," Eli said with a laugh.

"So she really just hates me because I smell bad?" Angie asked hopefully.

"I wouldn't say that you smell bad. You smell perfectly fine to me," he replied.

Angie scoffed at the remark. She wanted confirmation, not sappy compliments. Nonetheless, after rolling her eyes at him, Angie leaned over and threw her arms around his neck. She was so happy and so relieved that none of this had to do with an imprint.

Eli just laughed at it. "I tell you there's a homicidal monster at your school and you're relieved? What have I done to you, girl?" he said shaking his head.

She looked up at him and kissed him, simply happy that despite abnormal circumstances, things could actually go back to normal.

Angie couldn't have felt any more ready to face the school day on Monday morning. She sat up proudly in her seat, a smile on her face, even in front of the new girl. Even though Angie believed everything that Eli had warned her about, knowing that the new girl wasn't altogether human made her actually less intimidating. It was a strange concept to consider, but Angie felt far more compassion and sympathy now knowing that it was forces beyond her knowledge, let alone her control, that caused this unspoken feud between them. Now that she knew the cause, Angie was determined to address it properly.

She waited impatiently for the bell to ring and then sprinted to her locker. Angie knew that the new girl didn't linger around much after school, so she had a very small window in which to work in. She grabbed her backpack and then sprinted out to the parking lot, not caring how ridiculous she looked zigzagging around people and cars. Angie received quite a few stares, but the one that counted most was standing just a few feet from her brother's car.

"Wait up!" Angie called.

The new girl's expression said that she was both puzzled and apprehensive. Angie would take that as a good sign, she had to.

The new girl didn't say a word; she simply eyed Angie and waited for her to explain herself.

"Look, I know that you don't particularly like me, and that's okay, I get it; I'm not offended. But I also know what it was like being the new kid around here, and it isn't easy. So, even though we might not be able to be friends, I know that making it through this school is a lot easier with some. So here," Angie said, unzipping her bulging backpack and pulling out a basketball still in its cardboard cube of a casing. The new girl just eyed it with a little more revulsion than she had appeared to have before. "I know, it's not my game either," Angie continued, "but it at least opened some doors for me. You don't have to be good at it, you just have to immerse yourself a bit. Trust me, it helps."

Reluctantly, the gift was received. "Why are you doing this?"

"I told you, it's not easy to fit in around here. Being a bit different doesn't exactly help out here either. I know that I'm probably not supposed to, but even in the smallest way, I think it's important that people who are a little bit different give each other a hand every now and then."

Angie tried to gage the new girl's reaction, but there was only a very contemplative look on her face as she examined the ball intently.

"That was it," Angie concluded. "I'll see you in math tomorrow."

With that said, Angie skipped off to get her bike from the rack. She knew that she'd have to explain herself to Eli before the week was out, and though he would most likely lecture her about her recklessness, she knew that he'd end the lecture with a shaking of his head, a faithful smirk on his face, and some smug comment about his "crazy paleface girlfriend". Angie was alright with that. He'd love her anyways, and that's all that really mattered.