Hope began smelling herself, her hands, her sweatshirt, but she was not able to sense anything aside from her parfume.
"What smell?" Hoper frowned. "I don't smell anything."
Lana turned on the engine and the car started to move toward their house while both of them chatted inside.
"You will not be able to smell it, but I am different, remember?" Lana glanced at the sullen Hope.
"Yeah, I know that you are different." Hope rolled her eyes dramatically and turned on the radio, but it couldn't catch any program. "Is it broken?"
She was trying to divert Lana's attention from asking her about her new friend and the 'shifter smell' on her, because as creepy as it sounded, sometime Hope wondered if Lana actually knew when she was lying.
"No. It is hard to get a signal around here." Lana mumbled as she threw another glance at Hope.
In her previous school, of course there were a few shifters there, but they were children in the pack, the only reason why they couldn't smell Hope was because the necklace that Kace gave to her when she was a baby, yet it had been destroyed by Gluttony, based on what Hope told them.
However, the scent that Lana smelled from Hope at this moment was the rogue.
Did Hope come in contact with rogue? Or one of her friend was a rogue? She had to find out about this before Kace had a panic attack about the safety of his mate and quarreled with Serefina again.
Despite, Lana didn't pursue the matter about the rogue's smell on Hope, but this would be her next task the moment she informed this to the witch.
Lana and Serefina couldn't be said were being in good term, actually both of them were in mutual need while with Kace, since the vow the Lycan seemed had forgotten about that and had never mentioned it again.
"Lana…" Hope mumbled her name.
And Lana hummed in response.
"Why are we not living in the pack?" Hope tried to sound like she didn't care. "You know, most of your kind lives in a pack."
But, without Hope knew it, the question that she asked had concluded Lana's suspicion toward her that she had been talking with the rogue.
It was not usual for Hope to ask anything about werewolf world.
"I have one before I met Serefina and Kace." Lana told Hope with her eyes still on the road when she turned her head and stared at her in surprise.
"What happened?" Now the sound of Hope's voice was no longer ignorance.
"My previous pack was attacked by vampire." Lana answered her truthfully. "I am the last survivor of that pack," then she added. "I guess…"
"Vampire?" Hope's eyes widened in disbelieve. "It feels unreal to hear something like this…"
Serefina glanced at her way. "You have seen me and Kace turn into our beast and Serefina was doing witchy thing." She pointed the truth.
"No, I meant… I had never seen any vampire before." Hope elaborated. "It feels unreal because I had never seen them."
"Don't ever wish to see them. Our kind is not in good term with them and since you carry around our scent, it will not end up good." Lana made Hope grimaced with her bluntness.
"Do vampire not walk in the daylight? Because of that you are not allowed me to go out by myself alone after the sunset?" something clicked in Hope's mind.
"No. they walk in the daylight." Lana drove to the garage. "And yes, they are one of the reasons why we don't allow you to go out alone, but Hope…"
Lana turned off the engine of the car and turned her body to face her. Lana expression created a furrow between Hope's brows. She was very serious when she continued.
"…the universe is so big, there is so many mysteries in it and vampire, shifter, devil are not the only predator out there. So, be careful who you hang out with."
Though it sounded like Lana was giving Hope advice about her last action, but from the sound of it, there was underlying meaning from it.
"Okay." Hope tried to smile, but failed.
Lana could hear how nervous Hope became, but she didn't expose her and acted as if everything was fine, at least for now.
==============
Hope was eating alone because Serefina and Lana were going out, ever since she turned thirteen, there would be occasion when the two of them would leave her alone.
Because they thought Hope could handle herself now.
It didn't mean she was protest or something, but before they go, Serefina would send her a threat or two to make sure she didn't step out of the house, which Hope always obeyed until this time.
However, Hope didn't like it when she had to eat alone, it felt so lonely when all she could hear was the noisy that she made.
"Don't spacing out while you are eating."
Kace's sudden voice caused Hope to choke on her food and the lycan immediately gave a glass of water to her.
"Drink this." Kace was panic, he didn't know that Hope would be surprised.
The moment Kace massage her neck and when their fingers touched each other, Hope could feel the spark that Rossie had mentioned before.
But, for now she had to save her life first before she wondered about that. Hope drank the water painfully until the clog in her throat disappeared.
"Don't do that!" Hope snapped irritably at Kace.
"Sorry, I don't know that you would be surprised." Kace scratched his head, it was apparent there was a little bit stress by the accident before on his face. "Why are you alone here?"
Kace couldn't smell Lana or Serefina's scent.
"Both of them have something to do." Hope mumbled.
"Ah, this witch!" Kace grumbled under his breath as he poured a glass of water for himself.
"Hm, Kace…" Hope was hesitant whether she had to ask this or not.
"Hm?"