Picture of Kai on the side. I know his eyes are a different colour but oh well. --->
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Kai's POV
"I can't believe you're actually making us go to this stupid school, Dad," I complained.
Tomorrow would be the first day that myself, and some of the other pack members, would start school. High school. I mentally shuddered. I was the soon-to-be Alpha, I didn't need school! And it would only be for one year, so I just didn't see the point.
"Son, we've been over this," my father responded, his patience clearly wearing thin. "So please stop asking the same question." He rubbed his temples in a circular motion, indicating I was giving him a headache.
I rolled my eyes. So dramatic.
"It wasn't a question," I retorted sarcastically. At this point, I was deliberately trying to make him angry. Don't get me wrong, I loved my dad, but it was fun to annoy him.
My father was the current Alpha of our pack. Most Alpha's were hardcore, cold, and mean. But not my dad. He was kind, caring and understanding. That was the difference between him and other Alpha's. My father was respected by the pack, other Alpha's were feared by their pack. My father always told us that loyalty brought through fear was forced, whereas loyalty brought through respect was earned.
"Honey," another voice cut in, "just go and get ready for bed, leave your father be," my mother said, coming around me. She stood next to my father, who wrapped his arms around her waist in order to calm himself down.
I always wonder what it's like to have a mate. Sometimes, I think I don't want one because I don't like commitment; but at other times, I do want one. My parents always told me stories about what it was like to have a mate, and frankly, they made it seem pretty amazing.
"Okay, Mom,"I sighed, leaning forward and kissing her on her forehead. "Goodnight, Mom, Dad."
I ran up the flights of stairs until I reached the top which housed my room. We were pretty fortunate to have such a large pack house, and being the next Alpha meant I was even more privileged. I got the biggest room in the house, even bigger than my parents. Being their only son, they loved spoiling me. So when we moved here they let me take this room. I wasn't complaining, being an only child definitely had its perks.
I was staring at the ceiling for about thirty minutes before my door opened. I didn't need to look to see who it was, his scent was all too familiar to my nose.
"Kai, my man," my soon-to-be Beta, Cairo, greeted, jumping on my bed.
"What's up?" I responded, sitting up to face him.
"So, you excited about tomorrow?" he asked eagerly, already knowing my answer.
"No," I snorted. "I don't even see why I have to go."
He rolled his eyes and punched my arm playfully. "It wont be that bad," he assured me. "You might even find your mate."
I grunted in response. "How would you know?" I asked. "Tyler and Jasper are like the only pack members that actually started High school from the first year and they hate it."
"And I don't care about finding a mate," I added as an after thought.
"So? You only have to endure one year. And you forgot to mention Sofia, Alicia and Chris," he pointed out. "And there's so many other pack members that enrolled last year. You could've started earlier, it was your choice."
"If it was my choice, I wouldn't be going to school tomorrow," I muttered.
We had pack teachers, they taught us everything we really needed to know. I didn't need stuck up know-it-all human teachers telling me why shapes and letters belong in math. They didn't.
"Chill out, man," he laughed. "It'll be cool, trust me."
I grunted again in response.
"Anyway," he yawned, stretching out his arms. "I'm gonna hit the hay. Night, dude." He patted me on the shoulder as he walked out.
"Night," I called back.
I stayed up for about two hours after that, just thinking. About school, about becoming Alpha, and about finding a mate.
I wasn't sure when I drifted off, but next thing I knew, my alarm was going blaring in my ears. Why is it going off so early? I rolled over in my bed to turn it off so I could get back to sleep.
"Wake up!" a loud voice boomed through my door. Then it dawned on me, school was starting today.
A look of disgust found it's way to my face at the thought.
"I'll be down in twenty," I called back, sleepily.
After showering, brushing my teeth and changing, I made my way downstairs to the kitchen to get some breakfast. Most pack members ate in the dining room, but myself, along with a few others, preferred to eat in the kitchen. I called a greeting to everyone I walked past and took a seat across Jasper at the kitchen counter. The others who were in the kitchen were Cairo, Tyler, Sofia, Chris, Alicia, and Mark. We were quite a tight-knit group, but I was closest to Cairo, Tyler, Mark, and Jasper. Most of the time Tyler, Jasper, Chris, Alicia, and Sofia would spend their weekends with their school friends, but they spent weekdays with pack members.
I filled my plate with almost everything that Maria, the pack chef, had cooked up and finished it all in under ten minutes.
What can I say? Werewolves have a large appetite, girls included.
"Come on, let's go," Jasper said. "We're gonna be late if we don't leave now." He got up and putting his plate in the sink, heading out. I slowly followed suit, dropping my plate in the sink, too.
"Thanks, Maria. That was awesome," I grinned at her. She returned the gesture with a warm smile.
When we finally reached the school, we were 5 minutes late so most people were already inside. Jasper, Tyler, Sofia, Chris and Alicia left a little earlier than the rest of us because they wanted to get to school before their other friends got there. The rest of us newcomers left slightly after.
All 28 of us made our way to the administration office to collect our locker combinations and schedules. The only way the school accepted all of us was because my father had some werewolf connections in the Board of Education, and because the Headmaster of the school was also a member of our pack. We were all given different classes because 28 new students in a class with probably already 20 students wouldn't go down too well. I checked my schedule and it said my homeroom was in room 101.
"What's homeroom?" I asked Kimberly, a pack member, who was walking beside me.
"Jasper said it's like a registration room. Where students assigned to that room get together in the mornings before they go to their other classes. Or something like that," she explained.
"Oh. Thanks." It seemed like a waste of time to me, but I kept my thoughts to myself.
Weirdly enough, none of the other pack members seemed to share the same homeroom as me. It was a little unsettling knowing that I would be the only newcomer in the room but I shrugged it off.
I finally found Room 101 and walked through the door without a care in the world. That was the only way to get past the nerves. Fake it 'til you make it.
"Oh, you must be one of the new students," the teacher acknowledged. I simply nodded my head in response. He shuffled around the papers on his desk, then finally held one up close to his face, scrutinizing it carefully. "Ah, Kai Black," he read off the sheet of paper. "I'm Mr. Woods," he introduced himself. "You may take a seat wherever you can find one."
My eyes scanned the classroom. I smirked when I noticed the girls staring. All, except one: Alicia. But that was because she knew me, so she's didn't care for my looks. When she noticed my smirk, she rolled her eyes, making me laugh a little. I decided to take the seat behind her.
"First day here and they're already falling at your feet," she muttered as I walked past her.
I grinned down at her. "As always."
The rest of the day was the pretty much the same. Girls all staring at me and trying to talk to me, but I just shrugged them off. None of them were my mate, so I didn't care to entertain their shenanigans. My classes were boring, I didn't even bother trying.
I recognised some of the younger pack members as I walked down the halls. They all discretely bowed their heads when they saw me. Hey, I might not be Alpha yet, but they still respected me as one.
I made it to the cafeteria and noticed all the pack members that started today were already seated at a table. Well, tables. They had pushed two other tables to the first table to make it bigger. I walked over to them and took a seat between Mark and Kimberly.
"Why aren't Jasper, Alicia and the others sitting with us?" I asked looking around, noticing their absence. "And where's Cairo?"
"They didn't want their human friends to get suspicious," Mark informed me, "and Cairo's peeing."
"Oh, alright," I nodded. That made sense. They were already students here. It would be strange if they suddenly left their friends to come and hang out with all the new kids.
Lily handed me a tray full of food. I looked at her questioningly. "Cairo got it for you. He said you were probably too... lazy, to get it yourself," she explained, shyly. She cautiously used the word 'lazy', as if afraid it would offend me. Probably because we weren't that close so she didn't want to come across as rude.
I grinned as I took the tray. "He was right."
I started eating the turkey sandwich when I smelt something. It was extremely enticing, but I didn't recognise it. And I didn't know where it was coming from. I looked, my eyes searching the lunch room to find where the smell was coming from.
I snapped my head to the side as I felt someone's eyes on me. There, a few feet away from our table, or tables, stood a girl. An incredibly beautiful girl. Her dark blond hair fell over her shoulders in beautiful waves and her mysterious greyish-greenish eyes bored into mine. She looked confused, and my expression probably mirrored hers. Why did I feel so attracted to her? I couldn't look away.
I could feel everyone at the table sending curious glances my way, but my eyes never left hers. I inhaled once again, trying to figure out her scent.
She was a werewolf, I could tell. But why didn't she smell like one? And why wasn't she part of our pack? Was she a rogue?
I started to doubt myself and think maybe she wasn't a werewolf. But what was she? A hunter?
Then my wolf screamed something I didn't think I would ever hear. Well, at least not for a while.
Mate.
She quickly averted her gaze, realising she was staring. But I still couldn't look away.
Mate.
My mind repeated the word again and again. It couldn't be...
My wolf howled in delight, ecstatic because we had finally found our mate. He wanted me to run over there and embrace her, but I couldn't do that.
Understanding finally dawned on me. She must not know she was a werewolf. But how was that possible? Surely she'd have experienced shifting. Every werewolf did on their 16th birthday, and she was definitely older than 16.
The more curious I grew, the angrier I grew, too.
What the hell was going on?