A high-pitched noise rang loud in Pip's ears. "With the same person?" he asked, being the one to stare intensely into Krey's dark eyes, though Krey didn't shy away, and stared back just as firmly.
"Yes."
"A-And that's me?"
"Yes."
Pip's thoughts exploded, making a mess in his head. "Why me?"
"I told you. My soul chose you."
"So... it wasn't you?"
"Not a conscious choice," Krey admitted, "but the right choice."
Pip's mouth hung open. His eyes glazed over for a moment as he digested the information. "How did you know it was me?"
"I dreamt about you." Pip frowned, and Krey warmed to the core. "I think the night you broke into the institute started everything."
Pip thoughtfully ran the tips of his fingers across his bottom lip and uncrossed his legs. "How does it all work? N-not just the mate thing, but the wolf thing. Is it magic?"
Krey shrugged. "The wolf isn't physical until I've shifted forms. Right now, my wolf is just a feeling, I guess."
"You can feel it inside you?"
Krey nodded. "Like when there's a full moon; it gets a little agitated, or when there's a cat or something nearby, or when I'm near you."
"Y-Your wolf is agitated around me?" Pip asked, his blue eyes turned a little rounder.
"You're my mate, Pip. Your scent drives my wolf crazy."
Pip blushed and pursed the lips that Krey wanted to kiss. "So... um..." Pip tapped the ends of his fingers together. He was now a lot more curious than fearful. He wanted to know everything he possibly could about Krey. Pip didn't have to question whether Krey was playing a joke on him because he had seen Krey's transformation with his own eyes. Pip also didn't think Krey was the type to be quite that cruel. "What, uh- what does it mean to be a mate? I don't quite understand that part. Is this a magic thing? Or- or is it just attraction or something."
Krey frowned thoughtfully. "It's more than attraction." He sighed. "I don't really know how to explain it without confusing you." Krey moved on the bed and crossed his legs, making himself comfortable. "You're not just my mate, but I'm yours too. We'll both feel, I don't know, connected. We're both bound by, I guess, a force that we won't see but can feel." Pip didn't look like he understood just how much Krey cared for him now that he was a mate. "When you trespassed, I couldn't care less about you. Now that you're my mate, I would die for you. Do you understand?"
Pip's brows almost shot through the roof. "That's an extreme way to feel for someone you've known for only three weeks."
"It's not for mates, and you'll feel that way too, eventually."
Pip looked around Krey's face. He seemed serious enough. Pip glanced down to his fingers and flexed them. Just hints of bruises remained, and they didn't hurt anymore.
Krey thought about the night Pip was in the cellar and how ruthless he had been to his future mate. He wished he wasn't, but yelling threats was the most efficient way to get people to do what he wanted, in his experience. "I am not a kind person Pip. It's best that you know that now." Krey turned his head with a scowl. He didn't want to see Pip's expression.
Pip climbed off the windowsill and onto his bed.
Krey felt the mattress dip, but he still didn't look.
Pip sat down at the other side of the bed and crossed his legs too. "You've been kind to me, though."
"I'm not always like that. I can be really horrible. I'm sorry that you're tied to me like this." Krey didn't look. He hated how unfair the bond was for Pip. His mate deserved someone so much better, and a life free from fear. If Krey got another werewolf, at least he wouldn't drag his mate into a dangerous way of living.
"Krey," Pip said, leaning forward, "I-I'm pretty sure I live the most boring life in England, well, until a few days ago."
Krey finally looked. Pip's eyes were shiny and bright, like little moons of their own. "Are you not scared of what you saw? I thought you'd be running and screaming at me for at least a week."
Pip nodded to say yes. "I'm over the shock, but it'll take me a while to, you know, get used to the fact that werewolves are real, a-and you're one of them. But um, I can't deny that it's exciting, and a little terrifying and overwhelming too." Pip fiddled with his duvet. "My heads a bit... crazy right now. But at least I don't want to cry anymore." He chuckled.
Krey's fear of Pip's rejection had stopped making his chest so tight. "But... Aren't you freaked out that you're my mate? You understand the importance of it, right? Werewolves mate for life, and my world is very different from yours and much more dangerous. You'll be a part of it whether you want to or not."
"None of this has really sunken in." Pip frowned. "Wait, I suddenly understand why you're called an Alpha."
Krey cocked a brow at Pip's changing thoughts. "Why?"
"Your wolf terminology is because... because you're werewolves!" Pip clasped his hands together, proud of himself.
"I tried dropping clues. I had planned to make you familiar to my wolf before telling you my secret, but obviously, you saw me transform."
"Would you have come back to me as a wolf that night I saw you?"
Krey nodded. "That was the plan."
"If I saw you coming as a wolf, I would have run too, I think."
Krey's face hardened. "I saw the way you acted around that farmer's dog on Crescent hill. You were nervous. You said that you used to like dogs. Did something happen to make you so on edge?" Krey had to ask, or he would never know.
The shine in Pip's eyes dimmed. "Is it okay if we talk about that another time?"
"Yeah," Krey said, lowly clearing his throat. "Of course." Krey didn't dare to press the topic. He knew when things were too tough to talk about in the open. He had an odd suspicion that dogs, or maybe even wolves, had done something troubling to Pip. "So, uh... are you feeling better about the situation?"
Pip rubbed his eyes and yawned into the back of his hand. "Well, I think I'll manage to sleep tonight."
"Me too." Krey never shared his feelings, but with Pip, his barriers were invisible. "I was worried you'd hate me."
"Hate you?" Pip was surprised.
"Well, yeah."
Pip could see why he would think that. He had run and refused to talk for days. "Sorry for worrying you."
"Sorry for scaring you."
Pip smiled, and Krey's lips twitched at the sides, and his brown eyes melted. "Do you have any more questions?" Krey asked.
"Probably a lot, but I can't think right now." Pip tapped the ends of his fingers together, thinking and thinking, but he was so tired, his flame had burnt out for the evening.
"I should leave you so that you can get some sleep." Krey didn't want to go. He never wanted to leave Pip, but his mate was exhausted.
Pip yawned again. Tiredness pressed on his skull. Pip was starting to get a headache.
"Can I see you tomorrow?" Krey asked, standing up.
"I'm working at the café after college."
"I'll come and just- hang out." Krey didn't care if Pip was busy. As long as he could get near, he would be happy.
"Is that like... a mate thing?"
"To be with you?"
Pip nodded.
"Yes. Being away from you is hard." The truth was weightless compared to a lie.
"Will I feel like that too, eventually?"
"Yes." Krey stalled. He wanted to say that it wouldn't matter because he would live in the institute anyway so that they would be together all the time, but that was a conversation for another day. "I'll see you tomorrow, then."
Pip climbed from his bed too. "I'll see you out."
Krey followed him from his room, down the corridor, and the stairs. He didn't want to go home to the stresses of being Alpha, and a mother who didn't understand why he was so absent, and a bedroom without Pip's scent. Soon, Krey thought. I'll tell them about him soon.
When Pip opened the front door, the cold seeped in, and an icy breeze made Pip wrap arms around himself. He smiled up at Krey, who stepped out onto the broken path.
"Um, g-get home safe... well, you probably will because, I mean, you know..." Pip rolled on his feet and bit his tongue.
"Get some sleep, Pip." Krey glanced to Pip's lips. As much as he wanted to kiss Pip, he had to cherish his lips for another time. He crouched and kissed his mate's warm cheek instead, taking his time to indent his skin.
Pip's eyes gleamed when Krey pulled back. At least they could part on good terms.
"Bye, Pippor."
"Bye, Krey." Pip watched as the werewolf left his home and walked from his front garden.
Pip watched until Krey was out of sight, then he rushed to his bedroom and turned off the light.
Instead of collapsing into bed, Pip went to his windowsill and watched the woods below. He soon saw Krey's head going down the side of the fence. When he was at the back of Pip's garden, standing on the track Pip had made from his morning runs, Krey stopped and looked up to Pip's bedroom window.
Pip wanted to duck, but there was something thrilling about connected eyes with Krey. How can he see me? Pip thought when Krey gave him a short wave. Oh yeah. Pip waved back. Werewolf eyes.
Krey continued on his way, and Pip sank onto his bed, sitting in the dark. His cheek fuzzed from the kiss.
He was exhausted. His eyelids were heavy, his eyes stung with each blink. His bed had never felt so comfortable, yet his mind was wide awake.
Now, when Pip thought about Krey changing in the woods, he only shivered with mild discomfort, and not paralyzing terror. The thought was still a little disturbing, and something from a nightmare, but at least Pip wasn't on the verge of a breakdown every ten minutes.
Pip curled up in his duvet. Krey is a werewolf, and I think I'm okay with that.
"Oh gosh," Pip whispered and face-planted his pillow.