Chapter Three: Scent of a Woman

The next afternoon, Santiago and Tenny stood outside the front entrance of Stacks & Racks.  Tenny was nervously bouncing from foot to foot as if he was about to break out into a jog.  It was a habit that he had when surrounded by a lot of human women.  Santiago knew that he could smell the blood and sweat and hear their heartbeats just like he could.

Sometimes standing around so many others, particularly so many women, was akin to torture for wolves like themselves.

He didn’t really enjoy standing in the line either but he needed to get a closer look at Gabbi Connor.  He needed to try and understand the power that she seemed to have over him even through the television set.

“What’s taking so long?”  Tenny nearly growled the words as he continued his impatient bouncing.

“Settle down. The line is starting to move now,” Santiago assured him as the line crept forward by two full steps.

Tenny sighed loudly and a couple of women in the line in front of him turned around to eye him. Tenny used this opportunity to shoot his shot. 

"Ladies...how are you?" Tenny said in his voice that Santiago thought sounded like a game show host.

As soon as they made eye contact with him, they quickly averted their eyes back towards the front. Santiago knew that when Tenny got excited that had that sort of crazed look sometimes and that it could be off putting to women. 

The last thing he needed was for security to stop them for looking suspicious before he'd even been able to see Gabbi up close.

“Hey, why don’t you take a little walk around the block or something and check back in a half hour or so?”  Santiago suggested.

Tenny seemed relieved at the prospect of getting out of such close proximity to all the women who were waiting in line.  He took off down the street and within moments was out of sight.

Santiago breathed a sigh of relief and surveyed the street around him. He noticed that it was a particularly busy shopping day.  Normally, he’d be working on a Saturday afternoon so he didn’t make it down here on the weekends. But, today, he'd called in sick. 

He knew that the owner didn't sound convinced when he'd requested the day off. He didn't blame him, really. In all the years he'd worked at the bar, he'd never missed a day. In fact, he was never sick. One of the blessings of being a strong, alpha wolf. If you didn't count the food poisioning from the drug dealer, he couldn't remember the last time he'd felt physically unwell.

Of course, that didn't mean that he didn't feel emotionally unwell from time to time. There were moments when he missed his pack. His family. 

When he’d first relocated here, Santiago had decided to use his canine skills to earn money from the over indulgent wealthy of the Beverly Hills area.  You couldn’t spit without hitting a rich woman carrying a dog in her purse these days.  It made him want to scream but it was the way of the world.

So, he’d started working for a small dog care business and it had become quite successful.  He offered services ranging from pet sitting to obedience training.  As the undeniable alpha male, the other dogs always fell in line in short order.  Their owners were amazed by the quick results and kept referring him to more of their wealthy pet owning friends.

It didn’t hurt that he had came complete with his father's good looks and the female customers loved him. He was constantly being requested and received propositions from customers almost daily. It was fine with him because he just wasn't interested in dating.

He'd long ago made a personal vow to himself that he was done sleeping around and that, he'd only settle down when and if he found his one true mate. Of course, when the owner's wife decided that she wanted him and her own little pet project, it didn't matter that he wasn't interested in her.

The only thing that mattered was that the boss was jealous and he'd been fired. 

That had been good money and easy work, but he didn't feel passionate about it. Come to think of it, he didn't feel passionate about much of anything. Until her...

The line continued to creep forward at a snail’s pace as Santiago finally entered the air-conditioned interior of the store.

As the burst of cool air reached his nostrils, he began to search for her scent. It found him immediately. He wasn't sure how he knew it was hers when he'd never met her, but he knew. 

He also knew something that shocked him to the core. The scent of Gabbi Connor was the scent of his mate--his human mate.