The Alpha King’s Human Mate

*”I was a handful growing up.”

Olivia Wilde*

“Were we supposed to have a test in Biology today?” Lily asked as she drove.

“Yeah,” I shrugged, “It’s on the anatomy of the wolf form, and what genetic factors. play into the size of someone’s wolf form.”

“Shit,” Lily cursed, “I totally forgot about that. Guess I’ll just have to copy off Brody. He’ll let me do it, I’m pretty sure he’s obsessed with me. I can practically see his canines drooling whenever I walk by.” (3

I rolled my eyes playfully, although Lily was right. Brody was definitely obsessed with her, and he salivated like a dog or more like a horny werewolf whenever

–

–

she walked by.

Ugh, I am definitely not in the mood for a test or school today. 7

Remember how I said that the pack had its own grocery stores and infirmaries? Those weren’t the only things on pack lands we also had our own school too:

Blacktooth Primary School.

Here’s the thing. When you’ve got hundreds of adolescent werewolves with heightened emotions and the ability to shift at will, you can’t exactly throw them in public school. Sooner or later, someone would shift in front of the humans and expose werewolves to the rest of the world.

Apparently, some former Alpha King made a law hundreds of years ago that declared each pack had to provide its young werewolves with an education.

Packs made their own school curriculums, of course. Why teach teenage werewolves calculus when you could teach them warrior training? Why bother with World History when you could teach Werewolf World History?

You still got most of the bare-bones classes you’d get at any other school – like math, history, science, and English – but most of them had a werewolf twist.

The custom curriculum made plenty of sense for the werewolves, but

unfortunately, as the only resident human in the Blacktooth pack, I was just along

for the ride.

When I started living with my dad, he insisted I attend the werewolf school with my siblings and the rest of the pack. I had protested about it for a long time. Living with my dad had already broken most of my ties to the human world, and the last thing I wanted to do was leave my human friends behind too.

We fought about for a while, but eventually, he got his way.

I tried to keep in contact with some of my human friends, but without any real way to see them, those friendships eventually faded.Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g

“You’re so quiet this morning,” Lily commented, glancing over at me from the driver’s seat. “You’re being sulkier than usual.”

“Sulky?”

“Yes, sulky,” she said, “I can always tell when you’re sulking, which is most of the time, by the way. So, what is it this time? Are you worried about this big diplomatic meeting next week?”

“I wouldn’t say I’m worried,” I replied, “I don’t really have anything to worry about – not like you and Seb do. Am I dreading it? A little bit. I could think of better ways to spend my weekend than locked in a stuffy room with a bunch of angry wolves.” Lily smirked at that last sentence.

“I’m sure it’ll go fine for you,” She said, and then she paused. “I’m kind of dreading it too.”

I looked over at Lily, surprised. Her eyes were fixed on the road, but from her furrowed brows and the way she chewed her l*p, I could tell she was being honest.

She was worried.

“Really? Why’s that?”

Lily sighed like she wasn’t sure if she wanted to open up.

“Promise not to say anything to anyone, not even Sebastian?”

“Of course.”

“I don’t know, I’ve been thinking…there’s a good chance that my mate will be there,” she said, “I already know my mate isn’t in Blacktooth, I would’ve met them by now. So that means they’ve got to belong to another pack. And this weekend? Every single future Alpha, not including any pack members they bring with them, is going to be there. That ups my chances of meeting my mate by, like, at least 50%. Maybe more.”

As she talked, I could see Lily’s knuckles tighten around the steering wheel until they were white.

I processed her words slowly.

Lily and I had never talked about the “mate” thing much. As a werewolf, we both knew she had one her and Sebastian both. I had heard fantasizing with friends about who her mate would be over the years, but she’d never confided in me personally about it.

“Are you nervous about it? The idea that you might meet your mate this weekend?”

I asked.

“I don’t know,” Lily said, “It just seems very soon, that’s all.”

“Yeah, it does,” I confessed, “It’s okay if you aren’t ready yet, that would be

normal. I mean, we’re not even out of high school yet.”

Instead of comforting her, my words seemed to set Lily off.

“I never said I wasn’t ready,” she snapped, “I just said it seemed soon. I know when

I’m ready to do things. I’m already eighteen years old, and I’ve got Alpha blood running through my veins. Whoever I’m destined with, I’m more than ready for them.” She was scowling now, and I heard the steering wheel crack under the pressure of her fingers.

I didn’t say you weren’t ready yet, Lil,” I replied, “I just said it would be okay if you weren’t ready, that’s all.”

Lily rolled her eyes, but I could see her grip on the wheel loosen up. “Whatever,” she snapped, “I’m not sure why I was even talking to you about this, it’s not like you’ve got to worry about this. You’re human, you’ll never have a mate.”

So much for a little sisterly bonding.

Although her words had clearly been intended as an insult, I only felt relief. She was right. I was human, and that met my life would never have to change just because I made eye contact with a stranger.

Before I could drum up some sort of response that wouldn’t antagonize her further, Lily was already pulling into school. She parked in the same front spot she always did – perks of being the Alpha’s daughters.

Lily stormed off to find her friends almost immediately, but I took my time getting. out of the Jeep. It was nearly class time, and there was a constant stream of students swarming into the large, brick building.

This was one of my least favorite things about school: the noise. I might not have had sensitive supernatural hearing, but it still felt like my ears were getting assaulted. All around me, there was just constant activity.

There was some guy who had gone shirtless in the parking lot, and his friends were egging him on to shift into his wolf form. Just a few feet away, some mated couple. was in the midst of a screaming match. I had no idea what they were saying, but the girl was pointing fingers and the guy had his teeth bared at her.

Beside them, there was another mated couple aggressively making out.

Going to a school full of werewolves was sensory overload.

Take a deep breath, Clark.

Just as I did every school morning, I took several deep breaths before I felt calm enough to exit the car and join the swarm.

Nob*dy paid me a second glance, but I didn’t mind.

It was time to head to my first class of the day: warrior training.