Mate

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Clarisia

A whisper spread through the corridors, the wolfish students put their heads together and murmured quietly.
I rolled my eyes and popped a chewing gum in my mouth while Lorelie chewed my ear off about Damien's maturity.
"Whatever", I muttered absently.
The air thickened and the atmosphere became increasingly tense.
That could only mean the presence of an Alpha. Even the human students turned down their volume.

"Well?", I began mockingly. "Not found your mate yet, as we hear."
With a smirk, I turned on my heel and froze.
Damien was standing in the middle of the hallway, his ash-blond hair disheveled as always, his brows furrowed in annoyance.
Our eyes met and my heart skipped a painful beat. Damien's chest rose and fell with heavy breathing as his eyes slowly darkened.
I watched in horror as his fingernails dig into his palms. For a brief moment I feared he would lose control of his wolf in front of all the students.

He started moving stiffly, coming straight towards me without taking his intense gaze away.
He stopped so close, that I could feel the heat radiating from his body.
Hesitantly I looked up into his eyes, they were completely black, but not just because of the fight against his beast or anger, as I had often seen in him during training. In the shimmering black I could see something else, something that I wanted to bury deep inside me and that sent a hot shiver down my spine.

"Fuck off, Rollins", he spat.
I let out a slow breath, lowered my head and obediently took a step to the side.
Lorelie let out a quiet hiss as soon as Damien turned the corner. "Seems like he didn't take your comment at all."

The whole class I felt like I was going to throw up. At the back of the room I could hear Damien wobbling in his chair, constantly tapping his pencil against his desk.
Annoyed, I glanced over my shoulders and he responded with an aggressive stare.
"What!", he hissed, half rising from his chair.
"Mister Lynch", Misses Perkins said sternly. "Slow yourself down."
He reluctantly sat back down and I quickly looked away. I stared stubbornly at the tabletop and fought the nausea.

"Miss Rollins, would you like to answer the question?" My teacher's voice made me raise my head.
I desperately tried to decipher the words on the board, but my head was blank. "Um..."
A snort made me jump. I swallowed hard and stared at the desk again, a sinking feeling in my stomach.
"Mister Lynch, you are welcome to answer the question for Miss Rollins." Misses Perkins raised her thin eyebrows with a stern expression.

"No thanks", he replied scornfully.
"Turned off your bulb", Jayce said and a giggle spread through the class.
"Shut your dirty mouth, Jayce", Damien growled.
Jayce just laughed, but Misses Perkins snorted through her nose.
"Enough!" The teacher launched into a tirade about immoral behavior and sent Damien to the principal.
I breathed a sigh of relief as his angry energy left the room.

------------------------------------------------------------

With my knees pulled up to my chest, I watched Lorelie play a game of UNO with Mariah and Derik. Lorelie raised her arms in celebration as she tossed her last card onto the carpet.
She turned to me, beaming with joy. "Are you sure you don't want to play?"
I shook my head and forced a smile as my friends shuffled the cards.

The whole thing had to be a mistake.
I couldn't have imprinted on Damien, the moon goddess was just cracking a bad joke. He had certainly found his true mate by now. My fingers were shaking uncontrollably and I shoved them deep into my pockets so my friends couldn't see.

It was already dark when Damien returned to the main house. He was alone and my hope was fading.
He briefly returned his friends' greeting. His gym clothes were sweaty and without even looking at me he sprinted up the stairs.
The wolf in me was raging, wildly longing for its mate.
After a while I got up and went upstairs.
I stood in the middle of the hallway for a long time, but finally I knocked on his door.

An angry growl sounded, I gathered my courage and pressed the handle.
Damien only wore a towel around his hips, he ran his hand through his damp hair, which seemed dark due to the wetness. Before I could stop it, my gaze slid over his toned body.
"What do you want." His voice sounded sharp.

I cleared my throat and quickly looked away from his abs.
Lust flickered in his darkened eyes, taking my breath away.
"What do you want!", he growled, his Aura becoming angry.
"Damien", I said, trying to be calm and making my voice sound reasonable. "We should talk about it."
He looked away, jaw muscles tense. "About what."

I stared at him in disbelief.
"About what happened today", I tried to help him.
He raised his eyebrows. "What do you mean?"
I shook my head annoyed, the beast inside didn't find it funny at all that he denied our imprint.
"Listen, I know, it seems... it doesn't seem to be a good fit." I frowned at his profile as he grabbed a fresh shirt and new boxers from a drawer. "You and me."

He threw the clothes onto his bed a little too violently. "There is nothing."
He looked at my face, his black eyes glowing against my skin. "Between you and me."
Sharp anger flared in my stomach. "So today was nothing? Believe me, I'm anything but thrilled that we've imprinted on each other."
He paused, fear quickly creeping across his face, before he put his dark mask back on.

"You wouldn't reject the imprint with an Alpha, you wouldn't dare do that." Damien's greenish eyes studied me carefully. "True?"
As I stared at his face, I realized that he was right. As an average Pack member, refusing to be imrpinted with an Alpha would mean shame. A shame I couldn't bear.
My jaw tensed. "So you're admitting it?"
"What should I admit?", Damien replied coldly. "You're talking nonsense, Rollins."

I suppressed a frustrated growl. "Now act like a man!"
Anger flared in his eyes and he pointed to the door with a shaking hand. "Stop telling bullshit before someone else believes it and get out!"
"Fine!", I shouted.
I turned on my heel and rushed to the door. Damien came closer, I used all my strength to stop myself from staring at his toned body.
"Get out!", he ordered briskly.
I stepped over the threshold with my head held high and Damien slammed the door so hard that I jumped.

Without saying goodbye to my friends, I crawled into my bed. The scene from this morning kept running through my mind in an endless loop.
Maybe he was right about that and I actually imagined the imprinting.
I could easily blame his lustful looks on his hormones. Unleashed male Alpha hormones, ready for mating.
I swallowed hard and pushed away the thought that tried to creep into my mind.

But doubt gnawed at the back of my brain. What if? What if the moon goddess had actually chosen us for each other. Groaning, I burried my face in my hands.
After two hours of feeling sorry for myself, I made a decision. I couldn't refuse the imprint, so I had to get Damien to do it.
If he really was my mate, of course. I couldn't tell for sure how it felt like to find his soulmate.
Because I couldn't imagine a life at Damien Lynch's side.

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