Impossible, I thought to myself. I had been pacing back and forth ever since my wolf made that declaration in front of Asha a few minutes ago. I hadn't gone to class, school be damned. I drove home immediately. The absurdity of what I had done still weighing on me, I had just unknowingly allowed my wolf to claim a human, a special human but still a human nonetheless as a mate. The moon goddess only gave werewolves and not Lycans human mates, they weren't strong enough to deal with the ferocious nature of the Lycan wolves. So what does it say about me, when I just claimed a human as my mate.
This had to be Nixa's doing. It had her handwriting all over it. She loved manipulating people and I had just let her manipulate me and I in turn did the same to Asha, gods what have I gotten myself into. Her last words in the cafeteria was directed to me and I had dwelled on it too much which must be the reason why I had the slip in that moment but that doesn't explain why I'd feel the pull with Asha…. unless that was the reason why Nixa spelled her in the first place, to confuse my Lycan wolf. That still doesn't make sense, you can't fake the mate pull…
"What the fuck is going on?", Jesse asked immediately he opened the door to my office. I hadn't even heard him enter the house, goddess I must be losing it.
"What are you doing back home by this time", I asked wearily. "Well someone kept opening and closing his mind-link, giving us all a hint of his thoughts right in class so how the hell are we to pay attention", he replied moving to take a seat.
"I'm sorry about that, but you know you could've just called me right", I asked him as I sat down across him. "Well I called you", he said matter of fact. "Like five times and you didn't answer. So I was the designated person to come check up on you".
"What happened now?", he asked. I didn't think it was possible to be this embarrassed but I was. "I claimed Asha as my mate", I answered hesitantly. The look on his face told me what I needed to know, I had just fucked up big time.
"Why the fuck would you do that", he asked instantly. "And your wolf consented to this?". "Well the bastard did it himself, I was just the mouth piece used", I replied resignedly. "This is bad", he said quietly, as if just coming to terms with the reality of my fuck up.
"I've thought about it over and over again but still it doesn't make any sense to me", I told him exasperatedly. "The only feasible reason I can give is, I think Nixa had a hand in this". "That makes perfect sense", he agreed. "But I thought the mate bond and everything associated with it can't be tampered with and cannot be faked or isn't that what the ancient books say about this kinda thing".
"That's the dilemma", I told him frankly. "Did you at least give her an excuse or…", he said leaving the sentence hanging. "I just told her it was something I randomly remembered and had to go deal with immediately. I don't think she bought it but I didn't give her much of a choice", I said uneasily. "Why? What did you do?", he asked suspiciously. "I bolted", I replied immediately.
***Asha's POV***
'Mate', that word had been ringing in my head for the first ten minutes of my Applied Chemistry class. I heard that word the first time in the vision I had about Nixa and the picture I saw of Xander in that vision was the same one I saw earlier in the hallway today. He looked deadly with his grey eyes darkening to obsidian. I felt the same crackling electricity from him like I felt in that vision and he had said the same word, 'Mate'.
Yet he had lied to me and said he remembered something and he had to go deal with it before he made up some flimsy excuse to run away and left me standing there staring at his retreating form. Seems like that's all I ever do.
I managed to get my distracted self into the class anyways and since then all I've done is try to figure out what that word could mean. He had started acting strange since that word came out of his mouth and I was losing my mind with curiosity. I think I spaced out for the entire period of the class, it was disgraceful.
At the end of the class, I knew I wouldn't be any better during P.E so I had to do something and do it fast. I was thinking of the perfect excuse to skip my next class on my way to my locker, when I felt heat like fire burning through my stomach.
I nearly hit the floor due to the pain, it was unlike anything I had felt over the past week. Aunt Maia had told me that the change was going to be a painful experience, but I definitely underestimated the level of pain she was talking about.
I broke out in sweat and I could feel myself burning up badly. It was with shaky hands I grabbed my phone out of my pocket and called Adam, the only words I managed to get out before fainting was, "help… it burns".
***
I woke up a few hours later in my bed at home, no clue how I got there. Turns out Adam actually got my message and he drove to school like a mad man, got there in time to bring me home. Now no matter what my excuse was, I wasn't going to be allowed out of the house until the stupid change was over and done with. I was tired, angry and weary. I just wanted it all to be kaput, but I didn't dare argue with my mom when she put her foot down about my stay at home. Even I knew it was the right decision at this point.
Since waking up, I've had a bath, eaten and now I'm just laying down on my bed and looking at my ceiling like my life's meaning and purpose was just going to magically appear. I hate my life. So many things don't make sense anymore. I laid down for a while longer before I decided, I can't continue like this. I need to know everything and that starts by asking the right questions. Google here I come.
For the next half hour I searched everything I could online, from werewolves to Lycanthropy to the shift, the differences between the two, to the seal on my back, every and anything I could ask. But it turns out, there are certain things Google can't answer. I was able to learn different histories of werewolves, but there were certain irregularities with the Lycanthropy aspect. After going through the results, I decided a consultation was the next move. I picked up my jotter and went to look for Aunt Maia, since she was the one with the most information about this whole shit. She might be able to clarify everything for me.