H.A.

1

I sighed as I reached out to the rack to store my coat. Another exhausting day at university. On top of that that stupid oaf professor had assigned me with all the correcting work. 237 students to grade, by the end of the weekend? He had most certainly lost his mind. Then when I'd tried to do some of the work on my way home on the train, I couldn't concentrate because of those obnoxiously loud teenagers going home for the weekend. And then what, he wanted me to go to some three day long congress next week, out of the blue, in his stead no less, "I'll take on the rats for the week you'll be gone, make sure to take notes and make me a full report, due the week after." What did he think? That I did not have a life outside of my work?

Grumbling I picked my bag back up and went for the common office space but the beta's wife stopped me before I could reach for the doorknob.

"Your mother wants to talk to you in her office, dear," she whispered lowly, giving me a sympathetic smile after noticing the exhaustion seeping out of my every pore.

Sighing I told her to tell my mother I'd be right over and went into the common office to drop the exam papers into my locker. A sense of dread came over me as I approached my mother's office. Ever since my father had caught a cold last summer, my mother had been fussing over him nonstop. Even now, cold gone long ago, she talked about him retiring on a daily basis and it drove both me and dad crazy.

"Adalyn dear, sit down will you," her stern voice bore no relief to my sense of dread. However I promptly sat down on the chair in front of her desk and waited for my ill omen to turn into reality.

Turn, it did.

A moment later my mother announced in a harsh tone that dad and her would be retiring from the alpha position they held in the pack, giving me till my 25th birthday to make a decision. Either lead the pack, with the help of a male of course, or give it up and let it merge with an adjacent pack.

"But mom, you know I haven't found my mate! At this point it would be a wonder if I ever found him! And besides, don't you think me capable enough to manage the pack on my own. You've done so, why do you think I couldn't?"

"Adalyn, think of the pack. Even if you were to manage on your own, what do you think the pack will think? A lone female, even if you're an alpha-female... and what will happen after you grow old? Who will take over? My terms are final child. You have till your birthday to make the decision."

"So basically you're telling me to decide: either find a sperm donor so I can produce an heir or give away the pack? To another pack?" tears were streaming down my face and I took a haggard breath. I felt sad and frustrated. "How can you do such a thing? You know it's nearly impossible to find my mate in that short a time and getting impregnated by someone other than my mate? Am I not miserable enough? That you would have me do something like that?"

"Then you've made your decision already? You won't take up your position as an alpha? You'll let go of the pack?"

"NO!" she looked down her nose at me, her eyes unforgiving. "No, how can you say that. If we let them go they'll have to move, the whole pack would have to move, where would they go? No one would be willing to take whole families in, all at once!"

"There will be no we. You'll be making the decision! Your father and I will let you decide. So make sure you think it through. You have until your birthday. Give me your decision by then. Further arrangements will be made after. You're dismissed."

Nothing remained of the once so loving mother by the end of the conversation so it did not take me twice to react to her dismissal. I stormed out the door and ran right into someone. The person, taller than me, automatically gripped me tight so we wouldn't topple over. I stayed in his arms for a second then stepped back. It was my father. He looked at me with concern "Addy? What's wrong?" he asked in his ever-soft voice and a fresh flood of tears left my lachrymal glands, but I was mad, at everyone and everything. I rudely brushed past him, not listening to his bewildered outcry for me to please talk to him and went for the backdoor, but then changed course and went back to the common office space, grabbed my things from my locker and went to my room. The sooner I'd finished grading, the sooner I could go on a run and let go of my frustrations.

ΩΩΩΩΩ

23

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38

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56

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109

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118

Halfway there.

I looked at the clock, nearly 3am. I sighed, the run would have to wait. Again. I thought back to the last time I'd gone for one, more than two weeks ago. I felt the collar of my blouse scrape against the sensitive flesh on my neck and realised I'd been crying. Balancing between being an assistant professor and being a wolf shifter was hard. Between commuting every day, grading exams, correcting papers, giving lectures, helping with the pack, I barely had any time to myself. No wonder I never had not found my mate, I never stepped out to meet new people and now my own mother was threatening to give away everything I'd ever worked for...

My headhit the desk and before I knew sleep took over.