Unscentable

CH 5

Piper

Piper turned at the sound of Brandon coming from his room, still in his pajamas. She’d heard his alarm go off at eight. The boy was smiling already, excited about the day on the slopes; such a happy kid. She was really glad of that. Smiled right at him and told him breakfast would be here soon.

He grinned right at her “Then to the slopes.”

“Yes, once the runs and lifts are open.” She smiled right back “and the half pipe.”

“Heck yeah, I want you to take lots of photos too. My friends don’t believe I can half pipe already.”

“Gotcha, lots of photos it is.” She nodded. Though she doubted very much that his friends didn’t believe him. He was naturally talented in all areas of sport. He likely wanted photos for himself, he was a bit of a show-off, but that likely came with the territory, at least he wasn’t a bully. Like some young Alpha-blooded wolves were, their need to dominate and be in control outweighed everything else, even the way they treated other wolves in their own pack.

She had heard him, talking to himself while standing in front of his bedroom mirror on many occasions over the last few months. Telling himself and agreeing with himself, that he was going to be very big and strong one day, that he was going to be a super fit athlete and couldn’t wait to hit high school.

To take on all them slow pokes in track and field. He already believed he was going to be super strong and fast, that he was going to be able to out run everyone. Was going to be one of the popular boys that knew everyone, and that everyone looked up to.

Little did he know he was already the popular kid, that his very large circle of friends was because the humans were drawn to him and the power he held in his bloodline. As for the track and field thing, when he got older she would encourage it, it would be good for him to get that excess energy he would have, out.

Though once he got his wolf he was going to have to rein it in a fair bit, only beat those humans by a few seconds, his wolf was not likely going to want that, and she could only imagine how big and fast he would be. He would likely change in appearance as well, shoot up and be big and strong overnight. That was going to be a shock to his friends. Thankfully, the boy was born in the human summer, so it would happen away from school.

She was also likely going to have to put him into a lot of sports to cater to his needs to be out hunting and chasing. She was hoping swimming and rock climbing, along with running, would be a good distraction for him, maybe throw in some sort of martial arts training.

Though if he held no scent like her, he would be just fine. Nothing would scent him out and challenge him or attack him. But if he did scent of a wolf, once he got his wolf, and his scent was of Alpha-blood, that could well find him in a fight or two, and she was going to need him to be able to defend himself.

Piper supposed she could train him, she did know how to fight, had trained hard from the age of 10 to try and make her parents proud, even though they were long gone. She had trained as a junior without wolf, ran the agility course by herself sometimes when she’d not been able to sleep, or had been sad and lonely by herself. Ran around the pack itself till she was exhausted, and lay down on the ground til she could get up again.

Then she joined the junior warriors with wolves the day after she had gotten Harper to be trained properly in full hand to hand. Then she and Harper had trained day and night, increased their skills, in her backyard, well out in the woods, still used the agility course day and night, even trained on it in the pouring down rain. No-one had bothered them, no-one had stopped them, likely no-one even knew about it.

She and Harper had been well on their way to becoming a high-ranked warrior just like their parents had been, might have even surpassed them and made it to the elite warrior rank, something she had been aiming for. Probably would be now if her life hadn’t turned out to be so darned painful.

They had a home gym, it took up half her double garage, and she ran on her treadmill every day, in the morning at sunrise till she had to get ready for work, and on a bad day in the night too, for hours, sometimes she just ran to escape her own thoughts, pushed herself hard on those nights.

She’d already purchased Brandon his own treadmill, and it was next to hers. The boy also liked to run, it did not really surprise her, though he only ran every other day. Piper and Harper found Brandon’s attitude about running next to her quite amusing. For the past few months now he had become quite competitive, and he was now always trying to outrun her. He had no hope without his wolf, though he did not know that. He was likely to outrun her easily once he did get his wolf though, being Alpha-blooded and all.

Brandon was irked by her ability to outrun him and so easily, usually on Saturday and Sunday mornings, the two of them would run together either around their neighbourhood or through the wooded area outside the back of their house. He was frustrated that when he got tired and needed to rest, she could just still bounce along and tease him about not being as fit as she was.

He was actually very fit for a 7-year-old, and could outrun all of his human friends long distance. There were one or two in his school that could beat him. She’d seen them present as a challenge to him, and he didn’t like it, pushed himself hard to try and beat them, became very annoyed when he couldn’t, but those humans had pure track and field talent, likely to be some of the best in the world when they grew up. Even humans could excel at running.

Piper offered him a challenge in the hotel’s gym before hitting the slopes. It was Saturday, the boy huffed at her in annoyance and she burst out laughing “Awe, mummy can still beat you.” she teased him.

“One day, I’ll win, and you know it.” he’d shot right back at her. “No running, we are on holidays.” he’d stated, as though being here was his excuse not to run against her.

Piper laughed as did Harper inside her mind, she hugged the boy. “Well then, I guess, the last one down the slope is a slow poke then.” She threw out another challenge.

“Ha, I always beat you on the slopes.” Brandon grinned now and then ran off to get dressed for the day, yelling “You're the slow poke mum.”

That was true, they had been snowboarding since he was five, three times a year, in different places around the world. If her work took her overseas, and it was the snow season, off they went, but his beating her down the slopes was not the reason he thought it was. She and Harper purposely hung back just in case he came unstuck and needed help.

They did not want to get to the bottom, only to realise that he had fallen and was injured, and she’d left him up there alone and in pain. So yes, he always got to the bottom first. But she never told him that. He liked thinking he was the better boarder and that he had better skills than she did on the snow.

To be honest, she liked his cheekiness out there as well, his cheeky words thrown at her “Your just not fast enough mum.” “to slow old woman.” and then there was that big grin he would get sometimes “you owe me waffles and ice cream.” she loved how happy he looked.

He was so very full of life all the time, Brandon could amaze her at times, sometimes she had no idea how he was so well-adjusted and happy. She and Harper had definitely done a good job of keeping their pain hidden from him all this time, making sure he had all he needed, but not to spoil him so much that he became a brat.

They hit the slopes as soon as the lifts were operating and went from one ski run to another all morning, actually had a really good time with him out there, tormenting him openly, catching up with him and making him think she was going to beat him right near the end of each run, saw that determination in him to win. He did love a challenge.

Played with him all morning, they were laughing a lot, she would tickle him and chase him between runs, just mucking around and having a good old family holiday. They ate lunch on the mountain at Rendezvous Lodge before heading down again to let Brandon hit the half pipe. She took lots of photos just like he had told her too, he was smiling and then grinning and laughing the whole time, so darn happy it was hard not to be happy herself.

They headed out into the town to do some shopping in the afternoon, all boarded out for the day, and ran into a couple of wolves. Piper sidestepped most of them, knowing that they wouldn’t scent her or know she was there, something she was completely used to, gotten used to it as she grew up.

Got run into by one, a large man who’d had his head down looking at his phone. He’d growled at her for the insult she guessed, he was an Alpha. She could scent it easily, heard Brandon snap at him “Look where you’re going jerkwad. You ran into us.”

Piper had shushed him and nodded to the man, who had looked right at her and then to the boy, angered by his worded insult, not something the man would have ever had thrown at him in all likelihood.

“Rude child,” he had murmured, and then turned to move on, thinking they were just human.

“At least I look where I am going you Jerk.” Brandon had yelled right at him as Piper had tugged him along down the path.

“Don’t say that Brandon, just let it go son.” She told him.

“Why? It was his fault,” he had muttered. He was not wrong on that account. That Alpha had been on his phone, likely using his wolfen senses to not run into people, his keen sense of smell picking up when those were close to him, but of course he could not scent her, she was invisible to them unless they were looking right at her.

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it, Brandon.” She’d encouraged him to let it go.

“Mum, people run into you all the time, and you always apologise to them. It’s not always your fault.”

“I know,” Piper nodded “I’m used to it, Brandon, it’s been like that my whole life. Don’t worry about it.”

“People should watch where they are going.” he muttered as they walked into a store, “It’s worse here.” he stated and shook his own head about it as they walked into a store. “And those big men, mum. It’s not like they can’t see you, just ignorant and rude all of them.”

Piper sighed, this was the first time he had come across wolves, en masse. There was no arguing with him about what he was noticing, it was also his point of view. He didn’t know those big bastards were all Alpha wolves and couldn’t smell her, though why they couldn’t see her? She had put it down to their sense of smell. Smell brought memories with it. And if one didn’t smell, one could not be recalled by scent. Or at least that was what she thought.

A part of Piper was wondering if his sudden outburst and agitation at these wolves was because he was Alpha-blooded himself, and didn’t like the disrespect they were showing. “Go shop, come on, let's buy something as a souvenir.”

She walked around behind him, while he looked at the things in the store, saw a woman coming right towards her, who was actually looking right at her. A little unusual could already scent the Alpha blood in her. Internally sighed, that woman bumped right into her on purpose, really hard, and then gave her a bit of a shove, felt Harper’s anger rise and gritted her teeth. Yes, they could see her when they wanted to. “ Oh sorry, but I hate bitches,” the woman stated, and she recognised the voice from the bar last night.

Piper pulled herself back to standing up properly and refrained from smacking the stupid wolf, though she could feel that Harper wanted to let her have it. Saw that she-wolf turn and look at her like she couldn’t do anything about it, only to hear her gasp in pain a second later and whip her head around, Piper also looked and found Brandon glaring right up at that she-wolf. “Don’t call my mum a b***h, you hoe.” he snapped at her.

Piper moved herself right between the woman and her son, as the woman and her wolf bristled at the insult. From the sound of it, Brandon had either hit or kicked the she-wolf unexpectedly.

Saw those eyes of hers glare right at Piper, glowing a little, trying to scare her off, she imagined, and a low growl issued from her, a warning that her wolf had indeed not liked the insult, even though they had started it.

Harper pushed forward instantly at the threat they were posing to Brandon, saw the she-wolf's eyes go wide, and then try to smell her, Piper and Harper rolled their eyes at her, then Harper receded as they turned to Brandon. “Come on son.” she took his hand and walked away, right out of the store.

“Mum, you shouldn’t put up with that.” he muttered, up to her.

“Just let it go,” she sighed. “What did you do to her?”

“I kicked her good and, proper, right in the shin.” heard the actual smile in his voice.

“Don’t be like that Brandon, there are enough nasty people in this world. Don’t be like one of them.”

“She was nasty first mum.”

“I know, don’t lower yourself to their level.”

“What was with her eyes, they went from blue to green?” he asked.

Piper looked down at him now, a little surprised, she thought he had been standing behind her, that he had not seen that, that she had shielded him from her completely, he must have been looking around her to see the woman.

“Like yours, sometimes go white, when you look at me,” he stated, looking up at her.

“Oh. Um I guess she is a bit different to!” Piper sighed. She knew that Harper sometimes pushed forward to watch him, he’d never said anything about it before, thought that he had not noticed it, or that it was normal.

“We should go back to the hotel. Maybe have a chat about that.”

He was quiet for the rest of the walk, was standing with her at the elevator, when he looked right up at her. “What was she?” he suddenly asked.

“An otherworldly creature,” Piper answered him softly after checking there was no one close by to overhear them, waited for people to step out of the elevator when it arrived and ushered Brandon inside, hit the doors closed button before anyone else could join them and then sighed “Brandon what do you think about mythical creatures, real or not?” she asked.

“Like what kind?” he asked right back.

“You tell me. Do you believe in any of them?”

She watched as he seemed to think about it for a long time, the elevator doors opened on their floor, and right there waiting to get in was the Alpha and his daughter from yesterday. She took Brandon’s hand as he stared up at the man. He was quite large and imposing stood at least 6 feet 6, and was muscled up to the hilt.

They stepped aside for her and Brandon to pass. Brandon was looking at the man. “He can’t be human mum, he is way too big.”

She saw him turn and look at the Alpha, her eyes moved to the man in question.

The Alpha smiled as he looked at her son. Alpha’s did like to be noted as large and imposing. “He’s not human,” she stated calmly, there was no-one else in the hallway to hear her.

Saw that Alpha’s eyes whip right to hers, she nodded slightly to him, a show of respect not that she respected him or his kind, it was more a gesture on her part to allow him to know, that yes she knew exactly what he was, then she turned and walked away with Brandon to their room.

“What is he?” Brandon asked as they stepped into their suite.

“What do you think he is?” she countered and saw him really thinking about it, walked over and sat down on the couch indicated for him to join her, he sat though was still quietly thinking on her question.

“Brandon, there are all manner of creatures out there in the world. The humans no nothing of them. Well, they make movies and write books about them, what they believe those creatures are like anyway.”

“Do you know any?” he asked right away.

“I do.” she nodded “in fact...some of them have even bought wedding dresses from me.”

“Is that how you know of them?”

“No son.” she shook her head, guess it was time to have that conversation. “I am one...so are you in fact. Though you will not get your...wolf until later in life.” she admitted to him what he was.

He was just looking at her now, didn’t seem all that shocked.

“I am a werewolf, as will you be.” she told him. He seemed more curious than worried Piper and Harper realised, watched him as he thought about what she had just told him.

“Does...can your wolf talk to you?” he asked a minute later.

“Yes, her name is Harper.” Piper nodded.

“She has the White eyes, right?”

“Yes, do you want to see her?” Piper asked now, if he was curious she could help with that.

“Can I?”

“Not in wolf form, but she can step forward in a manner of speaking and even talk to you, will sound gravelly to you. Do you want to meet her?” Piper could feel Harper sitting up inside her mind now. Waiting on their sons' answer, they watched as he turned to look right at them, tilted his head to the side a little and just stared at them for a good 30 seconds, then nodded at her.

Harper pushed forward instantly to look right at him, wanted to see him, wanted him to see her, she smiled down at him, and he even moved closer to her. Really looked up at her, didn’t even flinch when she reached out and tousled his hair “Hello Brandon.” she said in her gravelly wolf’s voice.

Saw him smile and then chuckle, she chortled right back at him and then started to tickle him, till he was laughing and hitting and kicking at her, trying to shove her away and make her stop. It was really good to see their son accept her wolf so easily.

Piper watched as Harper picked him up and pulled him into her lap and cuddled him openly. She had used to do it a lot, all the time when he was little, but when he’d gotten older, only did it when he was half asleep, now she would be able to do it all the time, whenever she wanted to.

Piper liked that, and she could feel just how happy Harper was about it as well. Harper relinquished control back to Piper and she smiled down at Brandon. He smiled right back “Now, you know you can’t go and tell anyone, no humans right.”

“Alright.” he nodded, though he sounded a little disappointed to her.

“I’m sorry Brandon, they just wouldn’t understand or be able to handle it.”

He just nodded “Mum, why don’t we live with other wolves? Or do we all live alone on our own?”

Piper sighed “No, they don’t live alone, most wolves live in what is called a pack. I chose to live away, for my own reasons. It’s...better for Harper and I this way, to live on our own. Hard to explain, but I will when you’re older, when you're an adult.” she told him.

“So...you’ll not go back to wherever you were. Or came from?” he asked softly, seemed very curious.

“No…” Piper shook her head, as pain touched her. They could never go back, to painful “I guess though, one day you could go there, when you’re an adult. Though... I don’t know if you’d be accepted.”

Watched him just shrug “Then is you and me, mum. Always.” he hugged her “Lets get dinner. I’m starving hungry.”

Piper hugged him back, “Me too.” she said “Lets order lots of food.” she was glad that he seemed to understand, even without all the information, perhaps it was simply because it was the life they lived and so he was used to it, liked his life, his friends, didn’t want that to change.