A bright smile lit up her face at the sight of the two and a squeal of delight was heard from her.

Riley's father had a huge smile on his face, crinkling up the side of his eyes at the sight of his son and his son's mate getting along so well.

The two took their seats next to each other before the rest of the pack members were admitted into the hall to take part in the celebration for the alpha's son finding his mate.

Once the doors were open a flood of people filed into the hall, taking seats around the huge table.

On the table a variety of meat dishes, vegetables, and other foods Alex couldn't recognise were placed all over, leaving very little room.

Riley's father waited for a moment while people took their seats and filled their glasses with wine or juice depending on age.

Alex was surprised when his mom poured him a glass of wine, his mom never let him drink, but today was a special occasion for him so she relented.

Once everyone was seated the Alpha stood up and cleared his throat, "I thank you all for coming on such short notice, as you've probably heard already this celebration is due to the fact that my son Riley finally found his mate, now raise your glasses for Riley and our new honorary pack member Alexander. Cheers!" he said in a loud voice before draining his glass in one large gulp.

Cheers echoed around the room and people finally sat down and began passing foods around, piling food onto their plates and enjoying the variety of tastes and scents.

Riley and Alex smiled at each other before filling their plates and settling into their seats to eat.

The evening passed in a blur of food, drink and general merrymaking, all too soon, the feast drew to a close.

Neither of the boys had drunk too much, and the two parents hadn't either, instead they had all chosen to enjoy the atmosphere of the feast.

Afterwards they all retired to the lounge for a conversation, Riley and Alex taking a seat on a small two seater sofa while the adults took positions in armchairs near the fire.

The alpha was silent for a moment, before speaking softly "I have had a serious conversation with Amelia here and we have come to a compromise on this, with Alex being Riley's mate, and both having accepted the bond, it will cause misery should they be away from each other for too long a period, Amelia has decided that i shall have a small cabin built on the pack lands, in which you both may live and grow closer, the cabin shall be constructed tomorrow with a goal of being completed at the end of the week. In this time, i want you both to spend as much time together as possible, learn one another's likes and dislikes, that sort of thing, you are both excused from training this week while Alex gets his things packed up."

The two boys were a little shocked at the development, but neither of them complained after the explanation about them being separated.

Amelia listened intently while the Alpha spoke, "before we go through this however, we need you both to formally accept the bond before us as witnesses." she said.

Riley flushed before turning to Alex.

"I Riley Andrews hereby accept you, Alexander Thomas as my mate." he spoke quietly, the blush on his face still visible.

"I Alexander Thomas hereby accept you, Riley Andrews as my mate." Alex responded, feeling his face burn in response to his words.

"Good, you boys are now officially a mated pair, we can have the mate bonding ceremony at a later date of your choosing." Robert said happily, "you are both welcome to spend the night if you so wish with the hour growing late, i'll have Amanda prepare rooms for you if you'd like."

He looked at Alex and his mom who shook their heads.

"Understandable, you probably need some time to work through things, but while you are an honorary pack member to us, don't hesitate to call or come visit if you ever need advice."

Alex climbed into his mom's prius with her deciding to come collect his car the next day.

The drive home was quiet, just some background noise coming from the radio.

When they got home Alex kissed his mom goodnight before heading upstairs to shower before bed.

Sleep eluded him however, he laid back in his bed mind churning with everything in his head.

Eventually exhaustion overtook his thought processes and the sweet embrace of sleep overtook him.

His wolf was waiting for him, differently now however, the wolf was awake and happy, knowing that it was only a matter of time until his other self was with his mate.

Alex spoke with Goliath about of lots of things, learning all the wolf could teach him.

He woke up the next day feeling refreshed and remarkably happy, he made his way downstairs where his mom sat at the table waiting for him, she'd made a full breakfat that morning.

She smiled at Alex as he came downstairs and pulled him into a hug, "Good morning love, it's gonna be weird being in the house alone but it was the only way for you boys to be together with any kind of protection, you'll be safe on pack lands, I have also been accepted as part of the pack and shall be moving into pack territory in a while when i can sell the house, it's a lovely place so it shouldn't take long."

Alex's heart ached a little at the sadness in his mom's voice, sadness that her little boy was growing up too fast for her to deal with, but also sadness that she knew about the inevitable split that would form between them due to belonging to different packs.

Alex's mom had taken the week off work and pulled Alex from school to help him pack his things up.

Meanwhile, in pack territory.

Riley was packing up his most important things to take to his new home with Alex, his mind a whirlwind of emotions, happiness because he would be with the one destined to be with him forever and also sadness that he was having to move out of the home that he had lived in since his birth, the place held a lot of fond memories for the boy.

Amanda, Robert's Omega was helping him pack his things, Riley had never liked Amanda, something about her personality just rubbed him the wrong way.

Eventually Riley stopped packing for a while and decided to ask Alex out for dinner.

Alex hastily agreed and they settled on meeting at a little mediterranean restaurant in the centre of town.

They both ordered drinks before browsing the menus, the restaurant was owned by a pack member that had attended the celebratory feast and so the owner had given the boys a private booth away from private eyes and everything was on the house for the two of them which was a pleasant surprise.

Riley settled on lamb moussaka, while Alex settled on a simple greek salad with chicken.

The conversation flowed easily between the two while their food was being cooked, each asking questions about the other such as favorite colours, favourite foods, stuff like that, to appease their parents, they could both feel themselves getting closer together which made both their wolves howl in happiness internally.

The food arrived and they both ate, just happy to be with one another.

One of the waitresses gave them a wave as they left, recognising them from school.

They walked together for a while, just chatting, enjoying each others company before finally heading home for the night.

The week passed quickly, the cycle of packing and spending time together repeating on all but the last 2 days where they were both packed so they just spent the day together.

Finally moving day arrived, all Alex's stuff was packed into his SUV ready to go, his mom was following in her prius.

Finally, Alex's new home came into view.