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The thing with Malcolm Bright aka Malcolm Whitly. That not many people know or observed enough to realize, was the young alpha had an extremely, almost painfully strong sense of smell.
Especially when it comes to people's scents, even with some of the strongest pharmaceutical scent patches and neutralizer sprays. Malcolm could smell right through them, and lock onto someone's scent as if they were wearing nothing at all.
Which is why, when he quite literally ran into you. A beta's whose scent was milder, closer to nonexistent if you were telling the truth. Malcolm stuck around...
You found the scrawny alpha to be strange... no, eccentric would be the right word. It didn't take long for you to figure out who he really was, not because you were trying to find out.
He told you. One night, about six months into your strange little friendship, if you could even call it that. You weren't sure if you were being honest, he clung to you like a moth to a flame and you just kinda went a long with it.
You've always been someone who just went with the flow, not many things could throw you off. Learning of Malcolm's true identity definitely didn't, if anything it put the pieces together.
His ability to profile serial killers so well, his nightmares, hallucinations, the reason why he took medication. It made sense.
You had shrugged when he told you and went back to eating the food on your plate, though... you wouldn't lie and say watching the alpha fidget and stress out in the seat across from you wasn't the least bit amusing.
The first time Malcolm had complimented your scent, which you didn't even realize people could snell. You've had doctors tell you that your scent was nothing to fret about, it was so faint you didn't even need to worry about scent patches.
You froze then proceeded to chuckle, assuming he was just trying to mess with you.
"What? What's so funny?" The corner of his lips perked up for an awkward moment before pulling down.
"My scent," You deadpan. "Is practically nonexistent, you're probably smelling someone who walked by."
"Uh... nope," Malcom shakes his head back and forth. "You reek."
Reek. The way he said it, the way his eyes darted down to your small, almost invisible mating gland. Then finding your gaze once more, a look flashes in his eyes, one that you had no idea what it meant.
That was almost enough to unsettle you, it would've to. If it wasn't Malcolm Bright, and if there was something you've learned about Malcolm Bright... nothing he said was ever normal.
Life went on. You never brought it up and truth be told, the short conversation was pushed to the far back of your mind.
Malcolm on the other hand was loosing his mind, even more than normal. He didn't mean to say that out loud, in fact he had a whole apology speech ready to fly out of his mouth as soon as it registered what he said.
He really didn't mean to say it out loud. Blame it on his lack of sleep, his brain working a million miles an hour. Hell, he even put part of the blame on his stupid alpha hindbrain.
His counterpart couldn't get enough of you. Your scent, your presence, how nonchalant you seemed to be about everything. How you always carried his favorite candy around, how you never complained when he showed up to your door in the middle of the night.
How you never pushed him off when he hooked arms with you, or cuddled up to you on the sofa, or on the bad nights you would wordlessly tilt your chin up. Allowing him to press his nose directly against your mating gland, where your scent was the strongest.
He had even caught himself scenting you and your den, subconsciously. He expected you to grow angry with him, here he was with his stupid alpha instincts trying to mark you, and your den as his.
All you did was chuff, and bump your cheek against his shoulder and went on with your day.
No yelling. No attempt at covering his scent with yours, nothing. Not even a hint of anger or annoyance in your pheromones, and when he did it again and again and again.
All you did was chuff. Bump your cheek against his shoulder and moved on like nothing happened.
That was dangerous. In Malcolm's eyes, in the eyes of his alpha counterpart. You, willingly encouraging his behavior, so he pushed.
Like all alpha's do, because for thousands of years they had no consequences if they acted out. Marked their territory in public.
So he would rub his chin against your hairline. Take your wrist and press his own wrist against it, allowing his scent to bleed directly into your scent gland. He would trail his fingertips across your shoulders, leaving his scent behind.
Guide you towards the places you two needed to go, stood on the outside of the sidewalk, allowed you to cut in front of him. Something seen as extremely disrespectful if you weren't mated or in a courtship.
He would stand behind you when you spoke to another alpha, push his scent out a little. A warning to the other alpha that you were taken. Even if you didn't quite know, or if you did just never said anything.
You never corrected him, and eventually he wasn't "pushing" he was doing these things instinctively, subconsciously is a better word.
So it wasn't a huge surprise for people to gain the impression that you and Malcolm were a bonded pair.
He acted like your alpha.
You acted like a typical beta, but you reeked. You reeked of Malcolm Bright aka Malcom Whitly.