Atticus hadn’t slept well. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw Blake’s face. And as much as he’d enjoyed staring at the guy before, now he knew there was a chance that Blake was his mate, it felt awkward.

The thing with being mated to a human, was that there wasn’t much available information on how it worked - there had been very few cases of it occurring, and mainly back several hundred years ago, when the werewolf population was much smaller.

As big as it was now, there was a much higher chance of being mated with another wolf, rather than a human. And so, Atticus had no way to tell if the bond behaved the same way as it did between werewolves.

Did this Blake, whether it was Riya’s friend or a different one, also get dreams about him? Were they of his features, like with werewolves? Or did he also hear Atticus’s name?

He got the dream because he’d met his mate. The point of not having it before was so that so long as mates never met, they could fall in love with whoever they wanted. They could have totally independent lives, so long as they never met.

Unless they got the dream where they saw their mate’s features, in which case, tough luck. The point of that dream was so that mates would look for each other. Whatever God or Goddess was up there would probably be pissed if all their matches just chose someone else instead.

You could reject the bond, or simply not accept it, like Riya had done. But, it was pretty difficult, and took an emotional and physical toll on wolves.

Again, Atticus had no way of telling if his mystery Blake experienced these effects either. “The thing with who the Blake is though,” he said aloud. “If I’ve already met them, it could be some other random person I’ve made eye contact with.”

Atticus groaned, rolling onto his side. “Ughh, plus Blake could be a girl too. Oh please, I really hope the universe didn’t do me dirty and put me in a hetero relationship.” Sitting up against the wall, Atticus thought about the one Blake he definitely knew he was into.

“What if I’m super attracted to him and he’s just some poor random human with a werewolf creeping on him?!” He groaned, flopping over to shove his face in a pillow. “I’m honestly surprised no one’s asked what happened to my broken leg, but it’s handy they haven’t…”

Riya threw the door open, sitting down on his bed. “They probably don’t want to remind you about what happened. Now stop talking to yourself like a maniac - I have a proposition.” Atticus glared at her. “How did you hear me talking?”

She patted his leg condescendingly. “Aw, sweetie baby boo, did you forget I’m a werewolf?” Atticus snorted, kicking at her hand. “Yeah, and that’s why all the houses are soundproofed. How did you hear me?”

Riya pointed at the door. “You didn’t close the door properly. It has to create a seal, so I could literally hear you talking to yourself up the entire hall.”

Atticus groaned again, kicking his duvet in frustration. “Riri help me, I’m going crazy thinking about all this mate stuff.” She smiled fondly, offering him her hand. “Let’s go for a run, I’ll tell you my proposition after. You haven’t changed in like a full week because of your leg, you need to let your spirit have a little fun.”

Nodding enthusiastically, he went to the bathroom to strip down, so that Riya could do the same in his room. When he nudged the door open with his red and white muzzle, a black wolf pounced on him, knocking him to the floor. Riya licked his face enthusiastically before the two raced each other down the stairs and out the door.

They ran through their half of town, getting greetings from a few people, or scowls from others, depending on their views on Atticus. Like he’s said before, his pack members didn’t really like him. It wasn’t his fault - it was just proof of how much they missed his mother.

Still, to blame her child for her death was extreme, and everyone who liked him knew this - they missed the older red wolf, but loved her son because he was lovely, and she gave her life so he could live.

As they passed a large building, Riya abruptly stopped, skidding on the cobbled ground a little as he raised her nose to the air, sniffing. She turned to Atticus, whining slightly before looking in the direction of the building. After a quick sniff also, Atticus recognised Ceyden’s scent.


He barked gently at her, nuzzling each other before he ran off, leaving her to wait for her mate. As Atticus reached the edge of their side of town, he let his wolf fully take over. When he reigned the spirit back in, he realised he wasn’t in their town at all anymore.

Oh shit, you big dumb idiot! He screamed at himself, but all that came out was a little whine. At least his wolf was smaller, at around 100 cm rather than the usual size of 130-160 cm.

But, he looked like a wolf. He was just red. He really hoped no one saw him. Where even was he?

Turning to go around, he sniffed the air, trying to find a trace of home. As he did, he caught a scent of something which definitely wasn’t home, but still just as comforting. Turning back again, he saw a human.

He froze, panic and instincts pumping adrenaline through his veins. The human had also frozen, and he was just standing there, holding a bag of grocery shopping. Scaling his gaze up the human, Atticus whined when he caught sight of oceanic blue eyes.

Blake stared back at him, gripping hard on the bags, before slowly lowering them to the ground. He tilted his head away, reaching one hand out, and closed his eyes.

Are you fucking dumb?! He yelled, wondering how this guy thought he’d survive if Atticus was your average wolf.

Blake just sat there.

He kept his hand outstretched for a good five minutes, and Atticus was admiring the arm strength on the guy because holding your arm out for that long gets old real fast.

Eventually, curiosity and his wolf spirit got the better of him. Atticus stalked forwards, sniffing Blake’s hand hesitantly. Slowly, he pushed his nose into said hand, letting the hand slide up until it rested on his head, stroking the soft hair between his ears.

This was definitely not how Atticus had thought his day was going to go.