Roan sneaks into his lecture late, sliding into the closest chair at the back. "Roan, I thought you had the rest of the week off."
Some of his classmates turn around to look at him when the lecturer calls him out but they avert their eyes when he dares to match their glances.
"I'm fine."
"Are you sure?" he asks. "I think maybe you should miss this one."
"I'm fine." Roan repeats before rummaging around his bag for the last piece of paper. In the chaos of waking up late he somehow managed to forget his scribing tablet.
"Today, we will be learning about our fellow Lycans and Alphas." Roan's hand stops but he keeps staring down at the paper. "Lycanthropes and Alphas are the closest related shifters out of the four subtypes of wolf-shifter but even they are different from each other.
"Lycans can shift whenever they want into Primal Wolves, twice the size of an elf and true forces of nature whereas Alphas only transform when it is a full moon into wolf-like beast that walk on two legs."
The Lecturer places his hand on the board and uses the energy of Space to move the chalk on the board. It reshapes into a series of eyes. "A pack is usually made up of an average of ten Lycans with one or two Alphas as protectors of the pack. In most cases, the Alpha is also the Atari, the leader of the pack, but the are some rare cases where the eldest Lycan son of the previous Atari is chosen to become the next Atari."
A hand goes up in the air, the sudden movement making Roan look up from his scribbling of notes. "So were Alphas once Lycan?"
"There is a complicated history surrounding the creation of Alphas and it has everything to do with the war between the Patron gods of the Moon, such as Artemis and Kalfu. We will be looking at that next week along with the hides-shifters and the spirit wolves but no, Alpha's are not born Lycan."
"So what about mates? Do Alpha have soulmates like Lycan do?"
The wound on Roan's shoulder begins to ache. "Yes, Alphas claim to have soulmates, just like Lycan do."
"Why do you say claim?"
Beads of sweat drip down the side of the Lecturer's face. "Well..." he starts. "There is no proof that their claims that everyone has a soulmate are true."
The Lecturer steps away from the board, shoving one hand into his pocket. "Lycans argue that everyone can feel the mate bond but this idea isn't very popular among our people. A concept like that strips us of our free will."
"If we are destined to be with one special person then what about the rest of our lives? Are just living out the twisted fantasies of the Creator? If our love has already been decided for us than what else is being influenced by outside forces?"
The Lecturer chuckles. "What would be the point of fighting for anything? If one of us happens to be the main character of the Creator's design, then what is stopping that one person from jumping off a building? Right? They would still survive if that were what the Creator wanted so what would be the point of existing..." The classroom fills with sombre silence once the Lecturer stops talking.
"Food for thought." he hums before turning away from the students and presses his hand against the board once more.
Roan scratches at the dressing that covers the side of his neck which only starts irritating it even more. "I need to take this stupid thing off." he growls, trying to settle back down when the Lecturer turns around again.
"Lycan's also mark their soulmates as a sign of...." The Lecturer searches for the words. "Ownership, I guess, of each other. They will scratch, bite and mark their mate somewhere on their body, mostly on the neck where I guess others can see it."
Roan's heart skips a beat when he looks up at the board. The wound on his neck suddenly feels like fire and venom pulsing out of his veins.
His head feels dizzy, and his vision becomes blurry, forcing him to stand up and stagger out of the classroom. He runs to the nearest bin, grabs it with both hands before vomiting.
When he feels a little stronger, Roan dashes into the nearest bathroom, taking his shirt off and rips the new dressing off his neck.
The Healers have been using the energy of Time to speed up the healing but they can only do lesser amounts each visit because too much Time energy could cause him to age rapidly.
Admittedly the wound is healed but it has left three ugly brown scars that slice down his neck, starting at the back and reaching for the front.
Roan stops looking at the mark on his neck and looks at himself in the mirror. He does not cry, even though his eyes are already wet, he does not scream, even though he wants to. He just lets reality fall on top of him and bury him alive.
Roan imagines himself hiding underneath the warmth of his blankets, hidden from the sunlight behind his impenetrable blue curtains, under his own sleeping curse where he couldn't dream so that his thoughts couldn't be corrupted by his memories of him.
Roan simmers, letting reality crush him.
Coal turns to Diamond, he'll be stronger on the other end...or maybe...maybe not. Perhaps he will choose to stay buried under a pile of hard rock but what do I know?