Page 6

Clearly, Jean-Paul wasn’t what Faith had expected, judging by the pause in her step as Brett led them into the room. Truth be told, he wasn’t what Tala had expected either.

Instead of an elegant Frenchman in an impeccably tailored suit and a silk scarf, Brett introduced them to a tired-looking coyote-shifter in jeans and a rumpled lab coat. Gray stubble grew on his chin and cheeks, as if he hadn’t had the time to shave in days.

“Ah, Tas Peterson, what an honor! I can’t wait for you to see our project…or rather smell it.” He bustled to the back of the room, which looked like a laboratory, and returned with two small vials.

Faith eyed them with obvious hesitance. “This isn’t a love potion, is it?”

Jean-Paul chuckled. “Why do humans always think Wrasa deal in magic and supernatural stuff?”

“I don’t know,” Faith muttered. “Maybe because you can turn into bears, wolves, foxes, and other wild animals?”

Tala bit back a grin. She had to admit her fake mate was amusing at times. However, the comment also showed how she viewed the Wrasa: as wild, dangerous animals.

“Well, there’s that,” Jean-Paul said. “But no, this is all science. We’ve been working on this for quite some time, hoping to use it for commercial purposes, and were already close to a breakthrough when the council contacted us. We’ve been working on it twenty-four seven since then, and I think we finally got it right—or as close to right as we’ll ever get.”

Tala waved her fingers in a spit-it-out gesture. “So? What is it?”

Instead of explaining, Jean-Paul uncapped one of the vials and lifted it toward her nose.

The room filled with a heady fragrance.

Tala’s nostrils flared as she breathed it in. The sweet yet musky scent evoked images of enjoying hot milk with honey on a rainy fall day.

The aroma was strangely familiar. Of course she’d had milk with honey before, but that wasn’t why.

She sucked in another lungful of the essence and started coughing. Great Hunter! It was Faith’s scent, which reminded her of milk and a creamy bar of honey soap. But this time, it was blended with her own tangier essence!

Like most Wrasa, Tala had never been able to describe her own scent, yet others had told her she smelled like crisp fall leaves and an invigorating rain shower.

The liquid in the vial smelled exactly like that, combined with Faith’s scent, plus an extra note that blended the two others and added to their appeal.

Tala’s head spun. Her gaze darted back and forth between Jean-Paul and the vial in his hand. “Is that…us?”

Jean-Paul beamed as proudly as a father cradling his firstborn. “Yes! My team and I created our very first mate scent perfume!”

Of course! Without it, their plan was doomed to fail. Why hadn’t Tala thought of that before?

Probably because she still couldn’t believe they would go through with this weird scheme. A part of her was convinced someone would come up with a better, less risky idea to improve the Wrasa’s public image.

“Mate scent perfume?” Faith repeated as if they were words in a foreign language. “Can someone please tell me what on earth you’re talking about?”

“Oh, my mistake!” Jean-Paul said. “I thought Manark Madsen would have explained it to you already. You see, acting all lovey-dovey might be enough to convince humans that you two are a couple, but that alone won’t fool us Wrasa with our keen noses.”

“Keen noses?” Faith asked. “You mean shape-shifters can smell when two people…um…have been intimate?” A subtle pink suffused her pale cheeks with color.

Jean-Paul shook his head. “No. I mean, yes, that too, but mate scent isn’t just about that. For some couples, making love for the first time triggers chemical processes that change the way they smell. But mostly, it’s what happens when a couple bonds so deeply, it affects even their body chemistry. Their scents combine into a fuller, more complex aroma. We call that mate scent.”

“Wow.” Faith still stared at the vials. “And that happens for every couple? Even when one partner is human?”

“It happens for almost every couple if they’re both Wrasa. Sometimes it doesn’t, especially when one of them has a chronic illness that affects the way they smell. That’s why we’ve been working on a mate scent perfume,” Jean-Paul said. “As for human/Wrasa couples… We used to think they couldn’t develop a mate scent, but then again, relationships with humans were forbidden in the past, so we didn’t get much of a chance to find out otherwise until fairly recently.”

“But Tala and I wouldn’t have mate scent since we’re not actually a couple, so the perfume imitates it?” Faith asked.

“Exactly,” Jean-Paul said. “It’s not perfect, but it’s as close as we can get. Replicating the scent of a human…of any person…is impossible, so this is just an approximation of what your scents together might smell like if a bonded pair note was added. The good thing is that there still aren’t many Wrasa/human couples, so most of us have no idea what their mate scent would smell like.”

He walked around his work table, opened a drawer, and pulled out a big Ziploc bag. “Speaking of replicating your scent… I thought you might want to have this back.” A hint of a blush appeared beneath his stubble. “I swear I only sniffed it for professional reasons.”

Tala took a closer look at the bag. It held a neatly folded garment. Ah, so that was why Madsen had her bring in Faith’s jacket.

“Hey, that’s mine!” Faith sent her an accusatory glare.

“Stop looking at me like I’m a criminal. It’s not like I stole it.” But the snarl in Tala’s voice was half-hearted because she had broken into a human’s home once or twice when it had become necessary to protect her kind. “You left it on the back of your chair when you stormed off at the café.”

Faith took the jacket and hugged it to her chest. “You took it without my permission to recreate my scent. You have to admit that’s pretty creepy.”

Jean-Paul bristled. “It’s not creepy! It’s an amazing scientific accomplishment.” He handed one vial to Tala, the other to Faith. “Here. Put some on. Let’s see how it smells on you.”

Faith eyed the vial as if it contained poison. Carefully, she unstoppered it and applied only the merest hint of the perfume to her neck.

Tala tilted the small bottle and allowed a drop to gather on her fingertip. She dabbed the perfume onto her pulse points. The liquid seemed to warm against her skin, and the scent intensified as it mingled with her natural aroma.

It made her a bit dizzy. She had never before smelled her own scent as a component of mate scent, and inhaling it now was thoroughly confusing. How weird to smell it blended with Faith MacAllister’s essence!

But she had to admit the scent was pleasant. “Very clever.” She gave Jean-Paul a nod of acknowledgment. “You added some ingredient that will appeal to Wrasa, making sure they’ll like us as a couple.”

Jean-Paul stuck his nose in the air and sniffed as if to double-check. “Um, no, we actually didn’t. I’m sure it will appeal to some Wrasa, but others might not care for it. Kind of like with any perfume. We didn’t create it to appeal to people, just to fool them into believing you’re a mated couple. As an added bonus, it will also help mask the scent of your emotions. That’s why we think you should wear it even on your first date.”

“But most couples don’t develop a mate scent until months into their relationship,” Tala protested.

“Just let them assume you fell in love at first sight,” Jean-Paul said. “You need the perfume; otherwise, every Wrasa within smelling distance will be able to sniff out the lies you’ll tell them.”

The hint of a blush on Faith’s cheeks was replaced by an ashen pallor. Various test tubes and beakers rattled as she sank against the nearby counter. “Sniff out?” she whispered. “A-are you saying you can smell when someone is lying?”

Tala shot him a warning look. If Faith didn’t already know, she had no intention of telling her. After all, she was still Peter MacAllister’s daughter.

“Not the lie per se, but the emotional response behind it—like guilt or nervousness. But with the right context, we can conclude that someone is—”

Tala let out a growl to shut him up. Dammit! What was wrong with this blabbermouth scientist? Hadn’t he had the same briefing the council had given her on what he could and couldn’t tell Faith? Being able to smell deception was a huge advantage they had over humans—and now that advantage was gone.

Jean-Paul ducked his head but said, “What? If you want her to be convincing as your mate, she needs to know at least the basics about us.”

Still growling under her breath, Tala shoved the cap back onto the vial and slid it into her pocket. He wasn’t completely wrong, and she hated that. She had spent the last decade protecting the Wrasa’s secrets from humans, and now she was suddenly expected to blab at least some of them to the daughter of their worst enemy?

The Great Hunter had a strange sense of humor.

“She also needs to know about one problem we haven’t been able to solve yet,” Jean-Paul continued. “Any Wrasa you meet while you’re wearing the perfume will wonder why they can’t smell your emotions. Let’s just hope they’ll give you as a newly mated couple as much privacy as possible by not sniffing around.”

“That won’t be a problem,” Tala said. “At least for me. I’ve learned to control my chemical reactions so no one can tell my emotions—unless it’s a really strong one. My family is used to that, and everyone else won’t dare ask.”

Jean-Paul chuckled. “Right. I did notice but hesitated to ask. You can be kind of…um, intimidating.”

Tala didn’t care—quite the opposite. “As for Faith, maybe they’ll assume her emotions are hard to detect because she’s one half of a Wrasa/human couple. It’s not like most people have ever met someone in an interspecies relationship, so they won’t know any better.”

Except right now, Faith’s emotions weren’t hard to sniff out even with the perfume. The stench of her panic hit Tala’s nostrils. She whirled around to see what was going on.

Brett, who had lurked near the door so he could walk Faith out, had crossed the room toward her. He leaned closer and sniffed Faith’s neck to check out the perfume.

Faith shrank back, but the counter behind her stopped her retreat.

“Brett!” Tala flashed her teeth at him. “Back off! Can’t you smell you’re scaring her?”

He looked up. “I just wanted to see if it’s working.”

“It is! Back off! Now!”

He raised both hands and jumped back. “No offense. I didn’t know you were already getting into the protective mate role.”

She wasn’t. Of course not. She just couldn’t stand big guys like him cornering a much smaller woman. Faith was obviously scared, and the last thing they needed was for her to back out now.

But even once Brett had backed off, the odor of panic still clung to Faith like a too-tight suit, despite the perfume that masked most of her emotions.

Tala cocked her head and eyed Faith. Damn. Did she really scare so easily? Tala would have to keep an eye on her. “You okay?” she asked gruffly, not wanting Brett to think he was right about the protective mate thing.

“Yeah. Of course. He just startled me for a second.” Faith frantically rubbed the side of her neck as if trying to remove the mate scent perfume—or maybe to spread it over more of her skin; Tala wasn’t sure which. Apparently, humans did strange things when they were scared.

“I think we’re done here. You can go, Brett,” Tala said. “I’ll walk Faith to her car.”

Brett shook his head. “With all due respect, Manark Madsen told me to—”

“Then go complain to him. And don’t forget to mention how you scared her”—she jerked her head toward Faith without looking away from Brett—“half to death.”

For a few seconds, he faced her in a silent standoff. Finally, he lowered his gaze. “Yes, Tas. But if Manark Madsen has my pelt for not following his orders…”

“I’ll make sure he at least hangs it in a place of honor above his fireplace.” Tala lightly gripped Faith’s elbow and led her to the door and through the labyrinth of hallways toward the exit. The vial of perfume seemed to get heavier in her pocket with every step she took. Its aroma grew stronger, not only from her own pulse points but from Faith’s too, until she could barely smell anything else. Even the odor of Faith’s fear was just a faint trace in comparison.

You’d better get used to it. Starting tomorrow, when they had their first public outing as a couple, she would have to wear the perfume every time she ventured out into public.

~ ~ ~

As Faith scrambled behind the wheel and closed the driver’s side door between herself and Tala, it started to rain. With trembling hands, she started the car and drove away from the art gallery.

“You’re fine, you’re fine, you’re fine,” she repeated to herself. The frantic back-and-forth of the windshield wipers matched her racing heartbeat.

The familiar streets of DC felt like a maze, with potential danger lurking everywhere. As soon as she could no longer see Tala in the rearview mirror, she turned into a side street and pulled over.

She fumbled for her phone, managed to open the contact app, and selected the name at the top of the list.

The phone rang only once before her father answered. Knowing him, he had waited for her call all afternoon. “Faith? Is everything okay? How did it go?”

“They can smell emotions!” The words burst out of Faith. “They are walking, talking lie detectors!”

“What? Tell me what happened—every little detail, starting from the moment you set foot into the art gallery. Don’t leave anything out.”

Her mind still reeling, Faith relayed her conversations with the shape-shifters, from their meeting with Jeff Madsen to the short conversation with Tala before she’d finally escaped into her car.

Outside, the rain intensified, adding to the doom and gloom she was feeling.

“Mate scent,” her father muttered once she had finished. “Lord help us. They are nothing but animals.”

“Very sophisticated animals. I’m not sure I can pull this off, Dad. If I try to bug Tala’s apartment like you told me to, she’ll know right away I’ve done something sneaky. They’ll be on to me before I can find out a thing.”

“I know it’s risky,” her father said. “And I hate putting you in such a tough situation. But just look at what you already found out before this scheme has even really started! I have kept a close eye on the shifters for a year, and yet I had no clue they can sniff out what we humans are feeling. Just imagine what else you might find out if you hang in there.”

Faith gripped the steering wheel with her free hand. “But how can I find out anything without them knowing immediately what I’m up to?”

“The French chemist guy said the perfume will help mask your emotions, right? And it sounds like they can smell what you’re feeling but not why you’re feeling it. Just make them think you’re nervous about fake-dating a shifter, not because you’re spying on them.”

Her father had always managed to calm her down, and now wasn’t an exception. She breathed in through her nose, then out through her mouth. “Okay. I can do that. And I’ll stick to the truth as much as possible. But what if they catch me in a lie?”

“What are they supposed to do?” her father asked. “End your fake-dating arrangement? I doubt they would. They want something from you.”

“They could…hurt me.” Vivid images of her mother, lying on the forest floor, her throat torn out by sharp fangs, rose in front of her mind’s eye, even though she had never seen her mom’s body.

“They wouldn’t dare,” her father said fiercely. “If they harm even one hair on your head, I’ll torch down that art gallery and every other place associated with those monsters. I won’t rest until Congress revokes their citizenship, bans them to restricted zones, and strips them of every right.”

The cold fury in her father’s voice sent a shiver through Faith.

“You’re going to be fine,” he added more softly. “Just slather on as much perfume as you can, and stay calm.”

That’s what she had done earlier. Well, not the stay calm part. She had royally failed at that. But she had secretly applied more perfume, and come to think of it, maybe it had helped.

Tala had clearly known she was panicking, but she hadn’t sensed that it was the revelation about them being able to sniff out emotions that had scared her. She had assumed Faith was afraid of the shape-shifter guard.

If she could do something like that tomorrow, she would be fine. She would smuggle a bug into Tala’s home by giving her flowers when she picked her up for their date, and if she was lucky, the device would capture damning information about the shifters before she’d have to go on a second date.

This could all be over before the end of the week.

The rain lightened to a gentle patter against the windshield.

She took another deep breath. “Okay, Dad. I can do this.”

“I know you can, sweetheart. Call me as soon as you make it home from your date—or if anything goes wrong. I can drum up a dozen members of HASS within a few minutes, all heavily armed.”

“No, Dad. No guns or pitchforks. Let’s try the bug first.”

“All right. Did you find out where you’re going for your…date?” He spat out the last word.

“We’ll have dinner tomorrow. Tala wouldn’t say where exactly we’ll be going, but she suggested we meet at the Wharf at a quarter to six.”

Her father frowned. “The Wharf? How will you be able to plant the bug in her place if you’re meeting her there?”

“Don’t worry. We’re not actually meeting there. I told her our date will be more convincing to humans if I pick her up. I’ll use the same excuse—it coming across as more romantic to her human neighbors—when she questions why I would bring flowers to a fake date.”

“Well done. I’ll send someone over with the flowers and the bug before your date tomorrow.” He chuckled. “I never thought I’d ever encourage you to give flowers to a woman.”

A smile eased the tension in Faith’s jaw. “Me neither.”

Silence filtered through the phone for several seconds, but it wasn’t strained the way it had been a couple of years ago.

“I love you,” her father finally said. “Please be careful.”

“I will. Love you too.”

After a few more seconds of companionable silence, they ended the call.

Faith sat there for a while longer, then pulled back onto the street. She had a date to mentally prepare for.