It Started With a Scent

Four Too Long

It had been just over a week since Rachael first got a whiff of the scent that had turned her life topsy-turvy.

Since then she hadn't bumped into him once. 

She hadn't even talked about him once. 

When Tina came up to her at work, even after spending time with the pack, she couldn't detect one trace of his scent on her.

She wasn't sure the specifics of how this bonding thing worked however she was sure that after a whole week of no contact, her body would have at least half gotten the memo. Instead, she had taken to dragging her feet around work like the walking dead because if anything, things had gotten worse. 

She was exhausted, in every sense of the word. Not only were her nights restless, tossing and turning in fitful sleep, she was also just fed up of going home every night to a freezing cold apartment with nobody to keep her company. She was suffering both physically and mentally. 

Probably spiritually too.

"Tick Tock," Tina said, pushing a tray into Rachael's hands. "It's only Monday. You don't normally get this spacey until later in the week."

Rachael rolled her eyes to the high heavens and held the tray tighter in her hands. "I've hardly slept, is why." She grumbled, pushing through to give the food to the waiting customers.

When she got back to where Tina was standing behind the counters, she hunched over, propping up her head with the palm of her hand. "After last night you should be glad I even made it in today."

"Why haven't you been sleeping?" A warm hand was pressed against her forehead.

Rachael was reluctant to respond. It wasn't as if she was embarrassed about the fact that she'd been feeling very hormonal and 'omegan' over the last week, she just didn't want any pesky people listening into the conversation and getting any weird ideas. Especially not her boss who was in his office just on the other side of the wall.

Tina took her silence as an opportunity to lean closer to her face and search it for clues. "Not only are you really hot-"

"Why, thank you."

"-Shut up. Your eyes are also really red." Then she took a big sniff, making Rachael jerk in shock, scratching the back of her neck awkwardly.

"Tina..."

"Sorry, I just had to check." She made an excuse for her action, shaking her head from side to side. "You're smelling a bit ripe too."

"Oh for goodness sake." Rachael huffed, taking a step back from her friend. "So now I stink? What does that have to do with anything?"

The corners of Tina's mouth twitched and Rachael was briefly reminded of Graham. It was true that you started to look like your mate after being together for a while, the resemblance between the two was uncanny while she held that expression.

"Not ripe in a bad way. Just particularly strong." Something clicked in Tina's mind and her eyes widened. "It's kind of like your heat is coming on or something. Is it this month that you're due?"

After rubbing her hand over her face a few times in exasperation, Rachael replied, "no, next month."

"Seriously? You're still on suppressants? I would have thought you were a couple days away at most." Tina's voice took on a curious note, "that happened to me after I met Gray, you know. My suppressants stopped working and I still had three months left on them."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. We spoke to our doctor and he said we were so scent compatible that technically we could be classed as true mates." Her voice went all sappy, obviously reminiscing on fond memories before she returned to the matter at hand. "I don't know what your problem is though." She joked.