(Alaric's POV)
"Can everyone please take their seats or leave my class?" Professor Larkson walks into the classroom, ushering all the young adults out of his way.
I take my seat in one of the identical university seats of The University of New Orleans and pull out my notes. Professor Larkson starts writing random things on the smart board and we wait for his instructions. No doubt he'll just write down some reminders for us and leave. College teachers don't really care if you pass or fail.
They still get paid either way.
"Hey," Emily, the girl who sits next to me every time I have this class, greets me. She pretends to be ditzy, but I can see straight through her. If she were ditzy, she wouldn't be taking the same business classes as me. Business takes a lot of mind and she definitely has a lot of it.
"Hello, Emily. How have you been? Manipulated anyone recently," I ask her. She chuckles at my greeting, but her expression is answer enough.
"My mother made me go to a meeting to exercise my business skills. The Flint Wine Company thought I was some stupid little girl and that they could make up some fake deal that would drain all our money to them right under our noses, but let's just say they were surprised when I one upped them. My mother made me CEO after that deal, but I still have to get my degree. How have you been, Lykos?"
Emily is among the small population of humans that know of the existence of the supernatural world. Her family, the Barry family, has had connections with supernaturals since the beginning of time. I've known her for a couple of years, but she was always traveling for her modeling career before she settled back in New Orleans to take over her mother's company.
Everyone that didn't know Emily enough thought that she wasn't smart enough to handle a big wine company because her modeling career showed her as someone with little brain cells. She used it to her advantage, built allies and enemies, and she's one of the most powerful business woman I know.
We met at one of the town's balls where all types of important people attended. Back then I was still the shy boy and she never calls me by my real name. She always calls me lykos, which is another word that means wolf.
"I've been great," I tell her.
"Your lying straight through your ass. You still feeling sorry for yourself because your soulmate ran off to New York," she asks me, lifting up a perfectly arched eyebrow.
Her attitude reminds me of Anne's when we first met. Unlike Emily, Anne's eyebrows are always messy, but that adds to her beauty.
"Your silence is answer enough. Why don't you just go visit her? Gianna will be fine fending for herself while your gone." Emily isn't a big fan of Gianna and she only met her a couple of times. Everytime they see each other, they're basically at each other's throats the whole time.
"I can't do that even if I wanted to. Don is determined to let the girls have their space as they wish and Gianna won't let me live it up if I ever leave her to fend for herself."
"Admit it, Ric. Your a coward," I hear my wolf, Apollo, tell me from inside my mind. I roll my eyes at him and he howls back.
Every werewolf can communicate with their wolf. They're another half of you, but they can have different personalities like any other being. They're matched with us at birth and stick with us as we grow.
Apollo has always been outspoken, unlike me. He's an Alpha wolf and always has been. He's strong and smart. Sometimes even smarter than me. I wish I could be more like him. I wouldn't let my father determine my life and I'd be with Anne.
My father is the reason I'm taking business as a major in college right now. He says it'll help me when I become alpha.
"Don is beta and your alpha. I'm 100 percent sure he can't stop you. Your stronger than him. Your just a coward. What's really keeping you away from her," she asks me. A pang goes through my heart at the thought of not being able to be close to Anne.
"I just want her to be happy. If traveling the world and staying far away from me is what gives her happiness, then I won't stop her."
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
"Hey, baby." Gianna greets me when I walk into her room. "Did you bring me food?" She gets into a sitting position in her bed slowly. That alone takes a lot of her energy.
Her stomach is huge, but it definitely isn't done growing. The doctor put her on bed rest, which drives her crazy, because according to her "she won't be there to stop other women from ogling at her man."
I sit down on her bed and hand her the food.
"Thank you, my love," she says and I can't help, but cringe. "I've been feeling so sick, honey. This pregnancy sickness is the worst. Can you rub my back for me?"
I had to remind myself I had to do this for the baby. No matter how much my body rejected her, I had to be here for the baby.
I have thought about this over and over, but I can never remember the events. I just remember one day I got really drunk because I was stressing over Anne wanting to stay away from me after she found out I'm engaged and soon to be married to Gianna. I was in my room and Gianna came in. I told her I wanted to be alone, but she came in and tried to comfort me.
I remember her saying she was going to kiss my pain away, but with all the alcohol in my system that I mixed with wolfsbane, I blacked out and I still can't remember what happened after that.
It was better to just say I had sex with her than to tell Anne I don't know what happened. She would have just thought I was lying. The guilt eats at me everyday to think that I might have actually had sex with Gianna.
"Baby, I can tell you're far away in that head of yours. Want to talk to me about what's going on up there?" She's trying to be all sweet and seductive, but it isn't working on me.
"Just thinking about the baby. You sure you don't want to find out the gender," I ask her, distracting her.
"I want it to be a surprise, but I'm pretty sure the baby's a little prince." She twists her head towards me and lands a kiss on my cheek. My stomach churns in disgust from the kiss not being from my mate. My body rejects her in every way, but I suck it up because it's my duty as alpha to marry her.
I really hope I find my mate because I don't want to live an eternity with Gianna, but I can't imagine being with anyone else other than Anne.