Unscentable
Chapter 40

Piper POV

It was a very long night of staring at the ceiling, or at the wall, as Piper tried to figure out just what the hell had happened. She understood Eddie had been able to use his Gamma's charm on her and keep her calm. She had been able to feel his aura on her all the way back to her suite. Even in the elevator, his hand had been on her the whole time and she'd not been able to do anything about it. Stupid Gamma and his Charm. He'd used all he had on her too, he was so damned strong, she'd had no hope of fighting him off once he'd actually gotten skin-on-skin contact. Annoyed her now, she'd thought being a rogue she'd have some resistance to it, but now she knew differently.

As for the other issue?

Bradley touching her, and his touch full of those electric sparks which she had experienced that night with him. She did not know what to do about that. Harper was not talking at all, was lying inside of her mind, appeared to be sleeping, but Piper didn't really think so, just actively ignoring everything.

Couldn't feel what Harper felt at all. She had shut herself off. This was not the first time that Piper had seen her like this. It just meant that she was not willing to talk or deal with what they'd both felt last night, when Bradley had touched them.

All Piper knew was that Harper had fled from her Mate as much as Piper had also tried to. Not that she had gotten far, Bradley hadn't wanted to let go. Neither she nor Harper had handled it well at all.

But Harper's usual aggression and threats when being touched had not sprung forth, she'd simply just run away to the far recess of Piper's mind. Shut herself down and stayed there, was still there, in fact. There was nothing Piper could do to make her come forward. She would do that only if and when she so chose too.

The sun was barely rising and she was nowhere closer to figuring out what she was supposed to do. She had barely had any sleep, though she knew sleep had come at one point, because she'd had some weird a*ss dreams that just went nowhere, felt like she was trapped in a building and couldn't get out of it, no matter how many times she tried.

She was betting on it being related to the turmoil that was currently her life, which appeared to now be spiralling out of her control, and she was rapidly being unable to stop it. Her uncertainty was invading her subconscious mind and causing weird dreams. Pipers' bedroom door opened and Brandon climbed on to the bed, "It's dawn." He smiled at her.

"Mm, it is." Piper nodded, and sat herself up. "Why are you up so early?"

"Aspen wants to run." He smiled right at her.

"Oh, um" I don't even know where we could run out here in the city."

"Treadmill2" he asked right away. Seemed to be very excited, good to see he was happy and not as confused as he was yesterday.

"I'm actually tired, Brandon. Didn't sleep well."

"Haha, then we'll win." He grinned right at her, obviously thought this was the right time to actively challenge her.

Actually felt Harper lift her head for the first time since dinner last night. She huffed inside Piper's mind, then stood up and stretched herself out, appeared her wolf was good for the challenge against their son.

Alright, go and get dressed." she told him and he was gone off to his room to do so.

"We've created a little monster." she muttered to Harper as she got out of bed, found her new gym gear and pulled it on, reminded herself to find somewhere to let the boy run out in the woods later, likely going to have to leave the city for that. Could google it later, glanced at the time. It was barely 0620.

She yawned as she made her way to Izzy's room to let her know what was going on, didn't want her to wake up and think they had run off and left her here. Pushed the door open and stopped dead. Edward was sleeping in that bed with Izzy. She was certain she had told Izzy she didn't want that. She had also not known he was here either. When had he arrived?

She did not know, with Harper refusing to be around, she had no wolf hearing to pick up anything.

"Hey, wake up." she snapped.

Watched Edwards eyes snapped open in an instant, alert right away. His eyes shot to her, though he didn't move, Izzy was practically asleep on top of him, then he smiled at her "Morning Piper."

She ignored him, her eyes moved to Izzy as she rolled off of Edward and looked at her bleary eyed" I couldn't say no." she watched as Izzy bit her l!p guiltily" he was begging me all night, until I caved in" "Where are you going?" Eddie asked her.

"Running away." she snapped, annoyed with him. He had used his bond with Izzy to weasel his way into this hotel suite and she knew it, she had absolutely no idea he was in here, saw him start to get out of the bed at her words.

"She's kidding." Izzy put a hand on him, at least the woman had clothes on still. "Piper is a dawn running machine."

"Sweet, we could all stretch our legs." his eyes moved off of Piper and back to his Izzy. "Come on we'll all run."

Both Piper and Izzy looked at each other and snorted in amusement "Izzy doesn't run" she turned to leave "Likely why you were able to catch her slow a*ss, yesterday."

"Hey." it was Izzy, but it was only feigned anger and Piper knew it. The girl hated exercise, was just naturally thin. A good metabolism, she guessed.

Brandon finally appeared, hopping out of his bedroom, pulling his shoe on, stopped and stared at Edward who had a very unhappy sounding Izzy tossed over his shoulder "we're coming too." Edward grinned right at her and then Brandon. "Yay." Piper rolled her eyes, reached out for Brandon's hand, who looked right up at her.

"Mum, is Aunt Izzy really gonna run with us?" Piper shook her head, and was at least glad to see Izzy was put down on her own feet in the hallway "Referee more like it." she smiled as Izzy hit Edward right in the chest and then frowned and rubbed her hand. "bet you could run circles around Izzy."

"Heck yeah I can." he grinned right up at her "and him to." he pointed at Edward.

"I'm Eddie." Edward smiled down at Brandon "and challenge accepted young man. I bet I can beat both you and your mum."

It was Izzy that laughed now, "Good luck. I'll get the coffees for after all you crazy people run."

"Nope, you will be running to lzzy." Edward informed her.

"Make me." she stared right at him. Piper knew there was no way he could actually make her.

Piper chuckled now. "Yeah Edward, make her." She knew that he couldn't, his Gamma Charm wouldn't work on her, and there was nothing Izzy hated more than running on a treadmill, she and Brandon could get her to hike occasionally but never run. "Are you going to go and get changed?" she asked him as they waited on the elevator.

"I got clothes coming. Everyone is in on this challenge."

Piper glared at him for a moment and then just sighed, running was her thing, just her or her and Brandon. But his statement meant that he had at some point informed his Alpha and the rest of the unit. She had not even thought about that. But should have she supposed.

The whole unit was waiting down in the hotel gym for them. She wondered if they were already down here, or had used the stairs to make good time. The elevator had stopped on nearly every floor to let people in.

Brandon huffed, sounded and looked annoyed, he wanted to challenge Harper, it was their thing to run against each other, and now also an Aspen and Harper thing when Aspen was awake.

"Morning Piper. Brandon." She heard Bradley state as Harrison tossed Edward clothes.

"I believe you lost someone last night." She muttered, still annoyed to have woken up to find Edward in her hotel suite.

"Mm, I guess so. Can't control him, you're aware of that already, I believe." Bradley returned all casual like, like it didn't concern him greatly.

"So I hear, young Brandon challenged Eddie."

Harrison smiled at the boy, "that's my big brother and I bet you can beat him too. He's real slow."

"Hey watch it." Eddie shot at him as he headed off to get changed.

She and Brandon stood waiting on them, they were all stretching together, "Why are they all doing that?" Brandon asked her.

"They don't want to injure themselves," Piper answered him.

"We never do that, just jump on and go." and he looked up at her questioningly.

Piper smiled "I'm a natural born runner and so are you. They have to train themselves to run like you and I."

"Oh.." he seemed to think about it for a minute. "Good, I'll beat everyone of them then," saw Brandon rub his hands together at the thought of a bigger challenge. Piper leaned right down to his ear and asked quietly. "Is Aspen awake?"

"He is." Brandon nodded and smiled right at her, clearly his wolf was wanting to challenge all of them.

"Then get your a*ss on the treadmill," she tickled him.

The pair of them stepped up, she'd had enough of waiting on them, it had been a solid 5 minutes already and she was bored.

"My money's on Piper," Izzy called out.

"Traitor:" Brandon called right back, only to have Izzy laugh.

She watched them all hop onto their treadmills, rolled her eyes at the smirk on all their faces. Yes, they were the Alpha and his unit. But no-one knew her or Brandon for that matter, they likely only actually ran once or twice a week during training and if she recalled correctly for about 30 odd minutes she doubted much had changed on that. This would be a time challenge, not a sprint to the finish. Let's see who could run the longest.

She grinned at Brandon, it was highly possible that even Brandon would outrun one or two of them, saw Aspen's eyes flicker to the surface up at her and they were off. He'd never beat her yet and though she wasn't about to let that start today, she was hoping he was going to kick some Delta and Gamma a*ss.

She was running between Brandon and, no surprise, Bradley on her other side. Brandon had Edward on the other side of him, seeing as the boy had challenged him and Edward had accepted it. The man himself was a constant torment of chatting to Brandon till Brandon snarled at him to shut up and just run. About 15 minutes in, Piper nearly laughed. She knew Brandon hated that.

She did it to him sometimes too.

Her eyes moved to Izzy who was sitting not too far away on a piece of gym equipment, comfortable and cross-legged, she was on her phone had a slight frown on her face. "Izzy, what's wrong?" she asked, full of concern, knowing it would distract Edward, and boy didn't it, the man damn near fell of he back of his treadmill as his head whipped around to look at Izzy.

"Arg, Phillip called me." Izzy rolled her eyes and sounded bored. And Edward was gone, off the treadmill before it even stopped.

"I win," Brandon yelled. "You loose Eddie," he sounded very happy about winning.

Piper snorted, fully amused, she knew Phillip had not called, Izzy was over there on the work mobile, not her personal phone. She was likely just working, reading emails, but knew it would distract Edward herself. He must have mentioned something to allow Izzy to know it would work to distract him.

"You play dirty." she heard Harrison laugh behind her.

"I didn't do anything." and she hadn't, simply had posed a question. It was actually Izzy who had played dirty. The woman was looking to see her Mate get beaten by Brandon, a little payback for dragging her backside out of bed at this hour in all likelihood. Hit the 30 minute mark and she could see Brandon was pacing himself nicely, would run for an hour alongside her without Aspen, wondered how strong Aspen was. His eyes turned to hers and Aspen was right there on the surface, his wolf smiled right up at her. Piper chuckled, Harper hadn't even joined in the run yet, might not at all with Bradley running along side them. Guess she would find out soon enough. Harper was good and strong, had lots of stamina, but her real fun was running at full speed. She was fast. That's why Aspen couldn't win in a race.

1 hour in, she heard Harrison call it quits.

"I win again." Brandon grinned right up at her, so excited. She smiled right back at him, happy for not just Brandon but Aspen also. Though she knew they were coming up on his limit, or would be soon.

Piper, however, had learned to run a very long time ago. Running had been a good escape for her as a child, she would run till she was utterly exhausted and there was no pain from being alone, had been able to run the entire outer perimeter of the pack by the time she was 11. and had continued to run as her form of escape, pushing herself constantly till she just couldn't run anymore, built up her endurance and stamina over all the years.

Could run in human form for hours. Her longest to date was 3 hours on her own without Harper. Knew if Harper joined her could likely run for much longer, also knew Harper wouldn't join in till she was good and ready herself. Then would push her fully. But they had not had to do that in a long time.

Turned her eyes on Bradley and then Cooper. They both looked quite comfortable and relaxed, as did she, hmm. We'll see she thought absently, knew that they were the two strongest in the pack possibly only matched by their own fathers.

Brandon and Aspen were the next ones to call it quits, and Aspen snarled right at her all annoyed as usual at her and then stalked off away at 1 hour and 20 minutes in.

"Your only young," she told him, but still chuckled to herself as she watched him march himself right over to Izzy and plop into her lap to sulk, muttering "It's only a matter of time." she and Harper were actually fully amused by him. It was likely only a matter of time. And when that day came they were actually going to love it.

"A bit of a sore loser." Bradley commented, obviously watching the boy as well.

She turned her eyes on him, raised an eyebrow at him "Probably, takes after you in that department." She shot right at him, saw him blink in complete shock but heard his entire unit snort in amusement, and she wondered if she had hit the nail on the head with that one. Turned back to her treadmill and focused on her running once more.

2 hours in and Cooper bailed with and "I'm done." sounded annoyed that he to could not our run her, likely the Beta in him didn't like being out done either. Watched him walk over to the rest of the unit.

He came back a moment later and handed her and Bradley a bottle of water each. She smirked right at him, just like he had when he'd gotten on that treadmill to siart with. Sipped it only, she didn't need to feel water sloshing around inside her belly, or hear it for that matter. Could be a very distracting thing.

Felt Harper actively step up and joined in the challenge at 2 and a half hours, apparently didn't want to lose. They both knew not many could out run an Alpha wolf and Piper was determined to push him harder than he had ever been before. Harper, on the other hand, she got the distinct impression she was going to make that man run till he could not run anymore.

They would be unlikely to actually beat him in a run that was all speed, but it was completely possible that they could out run him in this endurance, long-distance run, though his wolf would have stamina in spades, was his human body used to running constantly for hours on end as hers was, it was unlikely. In his wolf form he probably could run all day, but she was willing to bet that his human muscles were screaming at him.

She was starting to feel the burn herself, and was likely going to need one hell of a nap afterwards. On the bright side, she'd likely get that desperately needed sleep, she'd not gotten last night.

2 hours and 45 minutes in she heard him drag in a oreath, Harper snorted amused at the very sound. Oh it was on she could really feel her wolf wanted to beat him now, was itching inside of Piper to crank the speed up all the way and push him past his limit. "We can beat him if he suddenly has to run at top speed. she heard Harper, Turned her eyes on the man himself. He was a lather of sweat and his breathing was off, he was starting to wear down, she could pick it all up. All those tell-tale signs that he was tiring out "Edward." she called out, and then turned her eyes on the Gamma, "I'd like a real challenge, come over here and crank up your boss's treadmill all the way, when I say so."

"Sure Piper" he sounded fully amused by her words.

Felt Bradley's eyes on her, did not look at him, looked right at Edward as he stepped over "on 5." she smiled right at him, Well Harper did, as she pushed forward all the way. Saw Edward start to laugh, he knew they were not about to loose, and then he counted them down. And it zero tapped Bradley's treadmill speed button until it was maxed out at 20klms an hour, as did she with hers.

"Kick his a*ss mum." Brandon was yelling all super excitedly at her.

"Oh I intend to." it was all Harper and she was not even tired. Hadn't even stepped up into the challenge until 20 minutes ago, ran flat out on that treadmill, stretching out her legs real good, really actually enjoyed running at top speed.

It took all of 15 minutes for Bradley and his wolf to be done. His wolf snarled at hers as he stalked away.

Unhappy he had been beaten by hers. Piper snorted "A bit of a sore loser" she mimicked his words about Brandon. Both she and Harper were fully amused. Eased her treadmill back down and jogged on for another 5 minutes at a slower pace, then simply hopped off the treadmill.

Brandon ran right over to her. "Your awesome mum. You beat them all"

"Never a doubt, son." she winked right at him "you'll run like me one day too."

"Sweet, I'm gonna kick all their a*sses too." he looked so excited about it.

"Breakfast." she heard Bradley state, he still sounded put out to her as he stood up from where he had gone and sat down with the rest of them, while she jogged on a bit more just to put all of them in their place.

"Your boss is a sore loser, I see." she smiled at Edward.

"I have a name Piper. Use it." Bradley snapped right at her and stalked off out of the gym altogether. She nearly laughed, strolled out of the gym and back to her room, to shower and crash out. She needed a good nap, not food, Harper was also feeling good at the moment, showed them up, liked putting that whole unit in their place, especially it seemed the Alpha himself.

Sat to eat when Izzy called her to let her know it was here, "I bet right." Izzy smiled at her. "But what's with all the growling everyone does. That's weird."

"Not for them? and doesn't Edward growl at you?"

"Yeah." she smiled "I kind a like that." she actually chuckled "Mr Drake did not like loosing to you Piper." imagine that man doesn't like losing to anyone.

"Let alone me a tiny little woman an all." she was only 5 foot 6, tiny compared to him.

Everyone was laughing now.

"I need a nap, hardly got any sleep last night" she yawned.

"What you run like that, and on little sleep? How much?"

"Mm two hours maybe." Piper shrugged "Helps that I have..." stopped that sentence, had been about to say Harper "Been running everyday since I was 10. that I have a bone to pick with him, and that he likely doesn't run everyday. Doubt any of them do." "Well you got along with him today." Izzy commented. "That's a start."

"I guess, if you can call it that."

"I'm going to." Izzy smiled right at her. "Might not be so bad"

Piper didn't say anything, she'd ticked Bradley off this morning. Not only had she beat him with apparent ease, he'd snapped at her about using his name, a little odd. Didn't bother her not to use it. Yawned again "I'm gonna go crash out, I'll need to go and talk to Devon, this afternoon. Call him and make that arrangement, please Izzy."

"What for?"

"Promotion, or have you already forgotten Edward will want you in Montana, when he leaves, so will you be.

"I don't have to go right away." she shook her head.

"They'll need to get back, have things to take care of, Izzy. Will not want to be out here for days on end." She hugged Brandon and smiled down at him "You ran amazingly today."

He grinned right at her, proud of himself and she was also proud of him today. Was curious if he would have been able to out run Edward. It did seem possible, Harrison was his brother and it was clear they did not run like she and Brandon did.

Crawled right into her bed and crashed out. That run it seemed, was exactly what she needed to pull sleep towards her, it had also cleared her mind. The only thing she or Harper had thought about the whole time was beating them and nothing else.