Rejecting Him

You know there's, like, a bunch of freaks on the internet, right?" I said.

"For the hundredth time, Callie, yes!" Maya exclaimed, heaving an exasperated sigh.

"Okay, just making sure."

Maya bopped me on the head with her makeup brush.

"Hey! Watch it!"

The two of us were sharing a mirror as we got ready for that night's double date; I putting my hair up into bantu knots while Maya did her makeup to expert precision. All that time working the MAC counter at the mall had really paid off for her.

Normally I wouldn't have let myself get pulled into something as lame as internet dating, but then again, I didn't date a whole lot so maybe this would be good for me. I just couldn't help but think that most guys would be put off by their date being a werwolf, so I tried to spare them the drama of such an experience.

Tonight, though, I couldn't help but go. Maya's date had told her at the last minute that he was bringing a friend, and since I was there when she found out, I was the first person she had asked.

"Watcha got against Bryson, anyway?" Maya asked. She eyed me in the mirror as much as her half-lowered lids would allow.

"Nothing," I replied. "Just, you've never met the guy and already you're going on a date."

"He seems nice." Maya shot me a defensive look as she switched out brushes.

"We'll see how nice he is when he's asking you to smell his rag," I muttered under my breath. I wasn't a man hater by any means; it was just too easy to lie online.

"Don't you even go there, Callie. Not tonight. I'm nervous enough as it is!"

I lowered my head. "Sorry, Maya."

She took a steadying breath. "No worries. Just… Be cool, okay?"

"Yeah, I promise."

Maya pressed her lips together, wringing the brush in her hands. "God, I hope he likes me."

"Trust me, he will. besides, you look stunning. You're gonna make so many girls jealous tonight!"

The day before, we went shopping together over on Hawthorne for outfits to wear on the date. At one store, a vintage place called The Red Light, Maya wound up finding a hot red cocktail dress and some matching red pumps. She wasn't too sure about the price, having had a set budget in mind, but I wouldn't let her leave the store without either. The pumps accentuated her legs perfectly and I loved the way the dress hugged her figure. Plus, the red of the dress and the gold bangles I was lending her tonight gave her rich brown skin a beautiful glow.

Maya beamed, then began applying her blush. "I'm just glad you could make it tonight. I'd hate for his friend to be a third wheel."

"Is he cute?" I asked.

"I haven't had a chance to ask for a pic," Maya confessed. "But I'm sure he will be."

I didn't like the way she said it, but I kept that to myself. Truth be told, it was just easier for me to be interested in a guy that was cute. Not that I was shallow or anything--I'd turned down my fair share of cuties for being jerks or having a bad attitude.

"At least you're going. If you'd have dropped off the face of the earth--"

"You'd have found someone else," I assured her, perhaps a little too quickly. Not all of my friends knew I was a werewolf; I wasn't even sure how to tell them in the first place. I needed humans in my life though because it made me feel normal, like I didn't have to worry about all the political pack bullshit just because I was the Alpha's daughter. Losing people like Maya over something I couldn't even control was my worst nightmare.

"Someone as honest as you?" Maya prodded.

Yeah…honest…

"Well…" I must have paused a moment too long because Maya grinned and tapped the end of my nose with the brush's handle.

"My point exactly," she said. "Where do you go, anyway??"

"Places." I tried to keep my voice level as I spoke. "I'll tell you someday."

Someday, when I know how, I thought bleakly.
"You keep saying that, but you still haven't."

"Trust me, I will," I said.

"Is it anything illegal? I won't harbor a fugitive, you know," Maya said.

"Nope, nothing illegal." Unless you count that time I accidentally ate someone's chickens during the full moon. I don't think I'll ever get the taste of raw chicken out of my mouth.

"Good," she said with a laugh. "I don't ever wanna see you on America's Most Wanted."

"I'm not that interested, so you've got nothing to worry about."

Maya laughed again. "And you'll let me know exactly what you think of Bryson after the date?"

"Of course. Any friend worth their salt would say something if they had a hinky feeling about the guy."

Maya smiled, and the bitter scent of her nervousness seemed to melt away.

***

The night was a mild seventy degrees, cloudless, with a light breeze. It was a Saturday night, so I wasn't surprised by the activity downtown. Since the parking in this part of town wasn't always the best, Maya and I decided to catch the bus then walk to the restaurant where we were meeting Bryson and his friend.

Before becoming a werewolf, I used to love going Downtown. Now I had more of a love-hate relationship with the area. As a werewolf, my senses of smell and hearing were stronger than they used to be, and my night vision had sharpened considerably. While Maya got to enjoy Portland like a normal person, I smelled everything, and had to pretend like the sewer-perfume-exhaust-sweaty body-horse mix didn't bother me at all. Every once in a while I caught the scent of a werewolf, which was a combination of blood and wet dog. I knew a good number of the werewolves in Portland as our pack was one of the bigger ones in this part of the country. The Pacific Northwest was like a mecca for our kind, with plenty of places to run around undetected during the full moon: forest, mountains, desert; take your pick. Werewolves without a pack tended to lay low because it wasn't seen as normal to be a lone wolf. What lone wolves I knew about I kept to myself. I hated pack politics like none other, and I wasn't getting others involved if that wasn't what they wanted.

I didn't have to know a wolf to know their scent. Just like I could know a face but not name, I could know a scent without knowing anything else about the wolf. It was just like passing a student in the halls at school.

A scent drifted past me on the breeze as we passed a bar, and I paused, nose to the wind. The familiar blood and wet dog smell clung to the air, though the undercurrents of it--cologne and something else--I couldn't place. This wasn't the recognizable anonymity that I was used to. I turned my head this way and that, inhaling deeply, but the scent was gone. It had drifted away just as quickly as it had appeared.

"I think it's just up ahead, some new Asian Fusion place, he said--Callie?"

Maya's voice brought me back to reality. Confusion was written clearly across her face, reflected in her warm brown eyes. I shifted awkwardly, but nodded.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

A strange expression flickered in Maya's eyes; she opened her mouth then closed it again, reconsidering whatever it was she was about to say. She didn't have to say anything. Werewolves are by no means psychic, but I could tell what she was thinking, and I was stricken by it.

Don't be weird.

"C'mon," I said, and took Maya by the arm. "The guys are waiting for us."