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I pack up everything but my pen and turn around in my seat when class is over. I’m glad to see that the guy is still behind me. He gets up to leave, and I, being the best talker in the world, yell, “Wait!”
The guy is on edge right away and turns to me, ready to fight the threat he thinks is there. When the few stragglers stare at me and wonder why I just yelled, I feel embarrassed. “I’m sorry. I just wanted to give you your pen back.” I smiled shyly at him, feeling embarrassed by the attention. He laughs back at me, takes the pen, and puts it in his front pocket so he doesn’t have to open his bag again. “Not a problem.”
I walk home after class and say goodbye to my mom. I stop for coffee on the way. Maisie and I spend the rest of the day and night together. We eat the pot roast, color, bake brownies, and read a bedtime story. By 9, she is asleep, and I can read a new book I just bought from the bookstore across the street from the café. I stay up until my mom gets home, say goodnight to her, and then get ready for bed so I can get up early tomorrow.
**************
Oh my god. If he asks me one more time where his friend is,
“Jaxon, have you heard from Skyler?” my Beta Ezra links me again. This is the twelfth time in the last twenty minutes. I suddenly get up from my chair, not even caring that it hit the wall with a loud bang that the whole pack house could hear. I run down the two flights of stairs to the front door of the house, where I find Ezra pacing back and forth.
“Ezra, you need to calm down,” I said to try to ease his fears. I don’t do a good job of comforting people, but I’ll do my best for my best friend and second in command. “He should be back by now. His last class ended at five, and it’s 5:45. He’s not answering his phone or the mind link.” I put my hand on Ezra’s shoulder and lightly squeezed it to get him to stop pacing, which seemed to make him even more stressed. He closed his eyes and pulled on the strands of his dirty blonde hair with his fingers. His wolf’s eye color was changing from green to dark green, which is the color of his wolf’s eyes. This made me think that his wolf was trying to take control.
“He’s fine, I’m sure. Knowing Skyler, he probably just got sidetracked by something and—” I heard footsteps on gravel and smelled Skyler’s scent. I could see Ezra relax and rush to open the door. Skyler was on the other side, holding a coffee in his right hand and his backpack on his back. When he saw Ezra standing there, his brown eyes lit up—at least the ones that weren’t covered by the brown curly mop on his head.
“Hey, Ezra. I missed—ugh,” Skyler groaned as Ezra hugged him so tightly that it hurt. I’m sure some of his bones would have broken if he weren’t a werewolf. “Hey, be careful with the coffee!” he said as he let go of the hug and smiled at his friend. “Where were you? I was trying to mind link you and—”
“I apologize! After class, I went to this cute little coffee shop and talked to an employee about their coffee. I lost track of time; I’m sorry for worrying you,” Skyler said to Ezra. Ezra put his hands on Skyler’s cheeks and kissed him quickly in response. I turned away to give them some space, but after ten seconds, I had to tell them to stop kissing by the front door.
“Okay, that’s enough. Get a room,” I said with a smirk. I was glad they got together. They were friends, like soul mates. The Moon Goddess finds the perfect match for each werewolf. Most werewolves find their mates when they are 16, but I’m almost 23 and I still haven’t found mine.
My other half and I lay awake at night dreaming about her. I wonder what she looks like, smells like, and likes to do. Will she love me as much as I love her? I’m afraid something has happened to her. What if she died? Or what if the Moon Goddess doesn’t think I deserve a partner and is making me live a loveless life full of pointless one-night stands?
Ezra lightly punches me in the arm, then takes Skyler’s bag off his shoulders and holds it for him. I’m going to the kitchen right now to see how dinner is coming along. They walk there hand in hand. A few of my packmates are walking around on the first floor. They all bow their heads a little and say “Alpha” to me as a sign of respect. I nod my head at each one of them to show that I respect them. I go back to the kitchen table to sit with Ezra and Skyler after checking on the food, which smells great.
I ask Skyler, “How was your first day of college?” He turns to me with excitement and moves closer to tell me all about his classes. When he pushes his chair forward, I smell something strange, like roses and honey, that wakes up my wolf side right away. The smell is so sweet and makes you feel good. I lean into Skyler to see where the smell is coming from, and my eyes get bigger, and my body gets stiff.
I quickly find the source: a simple ballpoint pen in his shirt pocket. I take the pen away from him and put it to my nose. The smell is faint, but it’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever smelled, and I know right away that it belongs to my friend. In a matter of seconds, I have Skyler pinned to the wall without really thinking about it. My human side gives way to my inner wolf. I held his neck tightly with my hand and waited for him to give in and tell me what he knew.
I immediately growl at Skyler, “Where did you get this pen?” Skyler is no longer Skyler; he is now the thing that stands between me and my friend. Ezra grabs my shoulder and pushes me away from Skyler, who is now holding his neck with his hand and catching his breath.
Ezra yells in my face, “What the f**k are you doing with your hands on my mate?” He is standing right in front of Skyler in a protective stance. Werewolves are very protective, but as an Alpha, I am even more so than most. My Beta is the only one who can beat me.
I scream back at him, “What I want to know is why Skyler smells like my friend!” Skyler steps in between us and talks us out of a fight just before I lose my temper—yes, that was me holding back.
“Calm down, both of you. Jaxon, I don’t know who your friend is, but if the pen smells like her, I know what she looks like. She’s in my Psych class. Her pen ran out of ink, so I gave her mine to use for the lecture and then she gave it back to me. That was the extent of our interaction,” Skyler said calmly.
“Bring me to her,” I told him. Skyler shook his head a little. “Alpha, she’s a person,” he said. Those words hurt me. Not because she has to be a werewolf—she’s perfect the way she is—but because she doesn’t know anything about mates, werewolves, or alphas. I know she’s my other half, but she won’t feel the same pull I do. I will have to win her over slowly, which will take a lot of time and be a lot slower than I had hoped it would be.
Most wolf mates would just walk up to each other and kiss, but I couldn’t do that. Some of the other wolves in my pack have human mates. It doesn’t happen very often, but it does happen. I guess I’ll have to act like a person for a while until I can get her to believe I’m hers. Because I already own her.
Calla’s point of view
I rub my hands up and down my arms as I walk to Psychology this morning. I thought that a long-sleeved sweater would be enough to keep me warm, but as soon as I went outside, I knew I would be cold all day. I didn’t have time to go back and change, so I rubbed my hands up and down my arms to keep warm.
It was very cold today, and as I walked to class for the third day of college, I saw that everyone else was wearing at least a coat. Some people even had beanies and scarves on. At least I’m in jeans.
When I got to Psychology, I felt like a frozen popsicle. The heat from the building rushed through me and made me feel warm all over. I rubbed my hands together to get the blood flowing back into my fingers. I got to the lecture hall ten minutes before class started, so there were more people there than there were on my first day, which was Monday. I had Biology and Calculus yesterday, and they were so boring that I almost fell asleep. We hope that we start learning more interesting things in those classes.
I looked around for an empty seat as soon as I walked into the room. I wanted to sit down without looking antisocial but still be a part of the crowd. But when I saw a familiar face waving at me, I couldn’t help but smile a little. The guy who gave me his pen was the one who did it. I walked down the aisles until I got to his. He patted the seat next to him when I got closer, so I sat there. He had on a long-sleeved shirt, jeans, and a black beanie on his head. When I realized I didn’t even know his name, I joked, “Hey, Pen Guy.”
He gasped loudly and put a hand over his heart. He smiled and said, “I’m so hurt! After I saved your a*s in this class, all I get is a Hey? I was at least expecting money or coffee.” I lightly punched him in the shoulder, and he fell out of his chair and lay on the floor. Everyone in the lecture hall turned around and stopped talking to look at the guy who was making a scene. “Oh my god! And you’re violent. What did I ever do to you?” he yelled at me in a joking way, or at least I think he was joking. I did not hit him hard enough to make him fall to the ground.
I whispered, “Crap, sit down! People are staring!” He got up from the floor and leaned down to whisper in my ear, “I’ll stop if you promise to do me a favor.”
A favor? Hot guys only want s****l favors, and I am NOT going to do that.
“No. I don’t even know you. Now stop making a scene.” The teacher came in through the side door and started getting ready for the lecture just as he was about to answer. When I looked into his eyes, he smiled wickedly. He took a deep breath and was about to yell at me again, but I quickly stood up and put my hand over his mouth to stop him from making any noise.
“Fine! Fine, but you have to stop talking right now!” I said quickly, hoping he wouldn’t keep drawing attention to himself. I hated being around a lot of people, so I did everything I could to avoid it. Pen Guy smiled at me, and I could see two cute dimples on his cheeks. It almost made me forget that I had just agreed to help him.
“Great. By the way, what’s your name?” he asked me as he held out his hand for me to shake. “Calla. And you? I can’t call you Pen Guy for the rest of the semester,” I say, and he laughs so hard that he rolls his head back. “That’s right. I’m Skyler.”
When the lecture starts, I take my notebook and a pen out of my backpack. I packed at least two extras so that what happened last time wouldn’t happen again. Skyler drops twenty loose pens on my desk while I’m writing. Some of them land on my lap, and some of them clang on the floor and make noise around the room. The students in front of us turn their heads to give me a mean look, and the teacher stops talking for a moment before starting again.
Skyler shrugs his shoulders and gives me a look that says, “What can you do?” “What? I want to be a good friend and make sure you have all the pens you’ll need.” I shake my head and say something about how annoying he is while I pick up the pens and put them in the front pocket of my backpack. Even though I looked annoyed and embarrassed on the outside, I secretly liked Skyler’s sense of humor. I hope we can be friends.
I pack up my bag and say goodbye to Skyler when the lecture is over. I’m going to face the storm again. Okay, I’m being a little over the top, but it is really cold outside!
Skyler grabs my hand and pulls me along the sidewalk with him as I walk outside and start my walk home. “Um… Skyler? What are you doing?”