Chapter 1
*****
*Corey’s POV*
“We’re going to Inferno after school. You coming, Man?” Sean spoke from behind me as I walked towards my locker.
It was our last day of school with about only two hours of it left. After more than twelve years, I would finally be able to breathe and completely relax again… for a couple of months, before college started.
“Nah. I’m good, ” I said, opening my locker when I reached it.
The last thing I wanted was to ruin my day by visiting the Inferno pack. I had not been there in months and intended to keep the streak going. Possibly forever.
“Corey, you can’t keep avoiding him. Plus, we’ve just finished exams. We all need to hang out together, come on.”
Izabella, one of my best friends since childhood, leaned against my back as I rummaged through my locker. Where was that flash drive?! I was sure I shoved it in there about three weeks ago. It held my mother’s birthday party pictures, along with the single essay I had stored on it. She was going to kill me if it was gone.
“Wait, who’s he avoiding?” Jason asked.
I glanced over to find him appearing just as confused as the guys around him before I looked back at my locker in dismay.
I should never have let it get that messy. I would need a box to throw everything into and sort through it at home, hopefully find the flash drive while I was at it.
“We’re all sleeping over there for the week. I know you miss Trent and the others. Corey, we haven’t seen them in three months.” Hayley completely ignored Jason’s question, which I was quite happy about.
We could thank school and our final exams for keeping us that busy. I wasn’t complaining though; the further I was from Inferno, the better.
Not that the distance helped much. I could feel a strange pull towards that pack no matter where or how far away I was. I felt it even in my sleep.
I looked at Hayley, giving her a smile.
When we were younger, I only had her and Izabella. We were mostly isolated from everyone our age in the pack, even though I was Beta because our pack had ostracised Izabella, and Hayley and I when we became her friends.
It was a weird time for me; everyone wanted to be around me because of my position when I wasn’t with Izabella. I was almost always with her, unless I had training.
Then Izabella found out she was mated to Sean, the prodigy Alpha of our pack. One day, he would lead our pack of wolves, and I, as Beta, would be his right-hand man; the person that handled everything and took care of the pack when he was not around or if anything happened to him.
We were born with the titles. In our pack, marks – or tattoos – that appeared from birth showed the main positions in a pack.
Positions were often random and unpredictable, and because of that, we were naturally gifted in strength and were forced to work hard to improve and get stronger every single day.
“I’m fine, really,” I said.
“Fine, go home, then. Just know that you’re going to be alone with Alpha and Beta. Lots of training for you, Junior.”
I froze at Matt’s words.
With there only two years remaining before Sean and I would take over as Alpha and Beta, the current leaders were definitely going to kill me with training as much as they could. They already had been. It was part of the reason I was so exhausted.
During our exams, when we weren’t studying or writing, Sean and I were training, fighting or working with the current leaders.
“Fine, I’ll come,” I said quickly.
Anything, even Inferno, would be better than going home. I could think about the problem with that pack when I got there.
“Yay!” Izabella hugged me from behind, making me laugh.
“Why aren’t you kids in class?” Mr Taylor’s voice boomed as he stepped up to us.
“It’s our final day, Kevin –” I turned to see Mr Taylor glare at Jason, we chuckled, “Mr Taylor.” Jason rolled his eyes. “Not even our most dedicated nerd is in class.” Jason nudged Eric who frowned but said nothing because it was true.
“Fine, I’ll let this slide only because I’ll never have to deal with you again,” Mr Taylor said, frowning at Jason.
I laughed with the others as Jason kissed his teeth.
“Oh, come on. He wasn’t that bad,” I said.
“As I recall, you both decided to throw a string of firecrackers into my class last year.” Mr Taylor glared at me.
Okay, that’s my cue.
“I… don’t seem to remember that… I should get going. Have to see my girl.” I smiled, turning to leave but I stopped, gritting my teeth when Hayley spoke.
“Your girl? But you have a mate.”
“What mate?” I asked, turning to walk away from the group.
“Wait, why haven’t we met our female Beta? Who is she?” Sean called out to me.
Damn it, why did Hayley have to point that out in front of them? I had done a great job hiding that in the past few months.
“Because there is no she. I have no mate!” I called back.
Mate.
A stupid, sickening word.
It was how we referred to the fact that every wolf had a single soulmate, someone they were connected to unlike anyone else. Once finding them – In our pack, usually after the age of 16 – the pair were connected and felt a strong pull to each other, they would be so in tune they could feel each other’s emotions and physical sensations or pain. They could always tell where the other was or sniff them out in a place filled with thousands of other people.
Of course, Hayley was right. I had found my mate. An Amarelo-type werewolf part of the Inferno pack that our pack had such great an alliance with.
The only problem was ‘she’ was a fucking ‘he’.
I didn’t understand why. I wasn’t gay and after finding my mate, even the thought sickened me. I had been fine with it before. I mean, I didn’t go out of my way to hang out with those kinds of people, but they didn’t bother me.
According to Kaden, Jayden my ‘mate’ was gay. I hated him for it.
Our pairing was obviously his fault.
I never wanted to see him again in my life.
I hated him so much and yet I had never once spoken to him. We both knew when we first saw each other, and I left immediately.
How could I be mated to a guy? It didn’t make sense. I had never been attracted to one before and I still wasn’t.
I had not been back to Inferno since that day.
“Hey.” I smiled at Kristy as I spotted the pretty human girl I had been with for the past three weeks.
“Baby!” She hugged me.
I tried not to sniff her too much. Finding my ‘mate’ really messed up my sense of smell. His scent was the only one that wasn’t dull and did not have something wrong with it. Kristy always smelled way too sweet to me, it kind of made my head hurt and irritated my nose.
Usually, after finding a mate, the wolf side of a werewolf would become even more uncontrollably attached than the human side, but not mine.
My wolf definitely didn’t seem to have a problem with my avoiding our ‘mate’. He was as pissed off as I was. Our pairing just didn’t make sense to either of us.
“Corey.” A hand waved in front of my face. “You there?” she giggled.
I had noticed, since finding my mate, that I couldn’t be with anyone for long. Everything about them eventually began to annoy me. With Kristy, it began with the giggling. I was angry about that because I used to find her laugh quite cute.
I smiled down at the beautiful blonde girl and tried to ignore the part of me pulling towards Jayden, the part that felt guilty that I was touching and hugging someone other than my mate.
“Yeah, what were you saying?” I asked, brushing strands of hair from her face.
“My parents are having some friends over later. Maybe you could come by? We would love to have you.”
I stepped back, suddenly happy that I was going to Inferno.
Meet her parents? We had not even been together for a month and, seeing as I never actually asked her out or anything, we weren’t even together. Why would I want to meet her parents?! I had not planned for the relationship to last long anyway.
“Actually, I’m going to go see some friends. I won’t be back for a few weeks; their houses are very far away, so I can’t visit.”
Inferno was within a five-minute running distance if you were a werewolf, and about a two-and-a-half-hour sprint if you were a human.
“Aw, really? When will you be back?” she asked.
“Probably won’t… I got accepted to a university there.” That was me breaking up with her.
Her mouth dropped open a little.
“So… you’re just gonna leave?” she asked, shocked.
“Yeah, I’m sorry. It was nice getting to know you. I’ll miss you, Kristy.” I kissed her quickly before I turned and walked away.
—–
“Izzy! Hayley!”
I chuckled as Alexis literally speared them both to the floor. As if that wasn’t enough, our friend Trent joined the pile and then Izabella’s little cousin, Clara, did too.
“I missed you so much!”
I zoned out of their yelling as I greeted Izabella’s cousin Tyler with a hug before my eyes fell on the Inferno prodigy Alpha, Kaden.
I began to reach my hand out to greet him, but he stepped back.
“You haven’t answered your phone,” he said.
“I’ve had exams,” I replied, dropping my hand when it became clear he had no intention of greeting me.
“Really? That’s it?”
I sighed, tilting my head at him.
“Kaden. If there’s something you want to ask me, ask directly. I’m not going to guess.”
He was two years younger than me. Though he was slightly stronger, being an Alpha, it seemed that I still intimidated him because he just clenched his jaw.
I continued to stare at him, giving him the time to answer through his hesitancy, but suddenly my nose caught a whiff of a scent that blocked out every other, just the possibility of their presence making my heart skip.
An overwhelming excitement suddenly burst through my chest, making me feel blissfully happy, and yet at the same time, it made me nauseous as panic rose through me.
I shouldn’t have come.
My eyes flicked by Kaden to see the reason I had dreaded returning to Inferno.
Jayden.
*****
Hi!
This is the 10th-anniversary rewritten edition of this book. Though I may have uploaded it in 2013. I can’t remember, lol. The first few chapters may not be much different, but I’ve added more to the later chapters. Hope you enjoy rereading or reading for the first time! 😸
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