Mated with the Alpha's Daughter

Chapter 4: I Met Your Mate

***MICHAEL POV***

    Oh boy, the first day jitters!

    Every single semester, I got them.  I always felt the need to ralph immediately before the first day of classes.  You've got this, Michael, I kept telling myself over and over again.

    Being the good Eagle Scout I was, I decided to go to school about an hour before students were supposed to show up.  I had always been at my best when I over-prepare for the day and week, and I'd always use my work as a coping mechanism for whenever I was being tormented by one of my insane exes at the time.  While I was making copies, I got approached by someone who I assumed was a fellow teacher.

    "Don't worry, I won't be long.  I'm sorry if I'm taking up too much of your time," I said quickly, hoping that this wouldn't start an argument of some sorts.

    "Not at all why I was here, do not worry about it in the slightest.  I was actually coming over to introduce myself.  I'm Justin Daniels, by the way.  I'm over in the English department in case you need anything.  All of us need to have a contact for our first day, my friend," the guy said, reaching out his hand to shake.

    "Michael Bartholomew," I responded, getting pulled into the strongest handshake I've ever had in my life.

    "Holy s**t, Dude," I said as I flexed my hand after the shake.  "Where in the hell do you work out, and can I join?"

    Justin laughed.  "Thank you!  I didn't mean to put so much into it.  My best friend looks like he was a linebacker in a previous life, so I have to have obnoxiously firm handshakes to even phase him.  As for where I work out, my buddies and I have a fitness group we all are part of.  We do a lot of hand-to-hand training that can get pretty rough, so not at this point."

    I felt my face fall a bit.  "Okay, that's no problem.  I was just curious."  There was just something about him that made me want to get to know him further.  "How long have you been out here?"

    Justin smiled.  "I've been here my whole life.  My ancestors actually moved here from New England in the late 1800s as part of group exodus west to escape the brutal weather that far north.  In fact, members of that group all have living ancestors that are around my age and we still all have property in and around this area that was willed to us from all those generations ago."

    "THIS IS f*****g COOL!!! " I thought to myself.  "That's incredible!  Where is your family's land?"

    "It's actually part of the forest preserve just north of Hayforth.  Because we've been there so long, the federal government actually granted the forest preserve around our land.  We keep it unnamed for a reason.  My family has been through hell on earth and we've earned our right to get a little peace."

    "This man is trying his damnedest to be my new best friend," I thought to myself, immediately taking a liking to him.  "Dude!" I exclaimed, barely able to contain my excitement.  "I own property right against the forest preserve.  I'm in the three acre lot and massive house on the southern part of that thing!"

    Justin slopped a bit of his protein shake down his front, and I swear his eyes turned faintly yellow.  "Are you dead serious?  That's unbelievable.  Mind if I stop by for a beer tonight?  I'll make sure I bring my wife."

    Beer?  A new friend?  A wife?  I'm making new friends?  Oh, ho!  If I had told my former self that this would be happening on my first day on the job, I would have lost my mind.

    "Absolutely!" I exclaimed.  "What kind of brews do you prefer?  I'll make a stop at the liquor store on the way home for some if you have a special request."

    "A six pack of the absolute strongest beer you can find, preferably a stout of some kind," Justin responded, while sending a text message to who I assumed was his wife.

    "Brilliant!  I'll remember," I responded, and turned to see how my copies were rolling, hiding the fact that I was internally dancing.  "What would you guys like for snacky stuff?"

    "Nothing spicy, my friend.  My darling Kristy is heavily pregnant with our first child, due in a little over a month.  If you get anything spicier than Salt and Vinegar potato chips, there will be no sleep for me tonight," Justin laughed.

    "Congratulations, Justin!"  I responded as enthusiastically as I could.  I had always wanted children and as many as my future wife could give me, but the thought of reproducing with either Maggie or Jaiden made my stomach turn and would consistently send my anxiety through the roof.

    "Thanks, Mike!  Mind if I call you Mike?"  Justin asked.

    "You can call me anything except late for supper," I responded enthusiastically.  Justin looked at me weirdly, as if I had five heads.

    "Oh...sorry.  I meant, "late for dinner."  I'm from Illinois, and my dad is an old farm boy from Wisconsin whose parents grew up during the Great Depression.  They called their middle meal "dinner", because they didn't know when their next meal was coming, so they would always gorge themselves during what we call "lunch" now.  I was raised by calling the daily meals "breakfast", "dinner", and "supper", I hastily explained.

    "Mike, you get more and more fascinating with every single word you say," Justin replied.  "I like that."  He turned and walked away and out of the lounge, but stopped when he got the the doorframe.  "I think you and I are going to be the best of friends for as long as we're alive."  With that, he turned and walked out.  I couldn't help the feeling that he was right.

***JUSTIN POV***

    I had a feeling that Mike was going to be an extremely fascinating character, but I didn't think that he was going to be Mira's mate.  I could feel my wolf Wade rise to the surface when Mike said where his house was in recognition of his future Alpha, but I immediately had to push him back down.  I did not want to shift or have a problem right then and there at work.

    I felt my phone buzz.  It was Alpha James, responding to my text to him saying we needed to talk, and that Mira needed to be in the room when I called.

    "We're ready to go whenever you are, Justin.  We're in the conference room on the second floor of the guest house," he responded, referring to the conference room the pack used to conduct off-the-books meetings involving one or two of the members of the pack.  With Mike having an unknowing future as my Alpha, and my current pack Princess Royale as my future Luna, I figured that was a good place to chat about my new best friend.

    I got to my classroom, closed the door, and locked it.  I then looked at the clock and saw that I had exactly 36 minutes until my first class would be showing up to school, and with so many of my fellow warriors' children as my students, I wanted to make sure that everything I was going to say would remain confidential.  I called the conference room's speaker phone, and Alpha James answered on the first ring.

    "Hey Justin, what's up?"  he asked.

    "Well, I met someone extremely important to the pack's future," I stated, setting up the rest of the conversation.

    "Who might that be?"  Alpha James asked, clearly interested in where this was going.

    "I just met our next Alpha, and Mira's mate," I stated proudly on the phone, hearing Alpha James gasp and Mira squeak.

    "Wait one goddess-blessed minute, Justin.  Mira, you found your mate and didn't tell me?  Who is he, either of you?  What pack is he from?"

    "That's just the thing," Mira said before I could.  "I'm 95% sure he's human.  I don't think he has a pack or even knows of them."

    "Mira's correct, James," I confirmed.  "He's completely human, and from what I've gathered from him so far is that he has no clue about our kind."

    "f**k!"  James yelled in frustration.  "This would be my luck, having Mira mated to a human.  I'm obviously not upset that he's a human at all, but I was hoping that he wouldn't be."

    Alpha James had a point.  James was famous for not giving a damn about if someone was supernatural or not.  He had allies of all forms and across all supernatural domains.  In fact, the human governor of California was a friend of his.  To say James had influence in every corner of the state and possibly the entire country was putting it mildly.  To say this put a monkey wrench in James' plans to hopefully retire someday soon was extended at least a year, and he knew it.  Hopefully, after vetting him some, we could narrow that window a bit but that was wishful thinking to say the least.

    "Hope is not all lost, sir.  The Alpha-in-Waiting is actually a really good guy and has a good heart that you'd really admire.  I was just talking with him, and he sure seems like he has his head on straight," I stated.

    "Really?!"  Mira squealed excitedly.  "What is he like?  What's his name?"

    "His name is Michael Bartholomew, but I've quickly started calling him Mike.  He's about 6'1" or so, which means whenever Mira turns him, he's going to absolutely tower over all of us and his wolf will be massive.  He seems to be proud of his land and is excited to hang out with me.  In fact, I'm heading over there with Kristy after school today for drinks.  There is one thing that we can do now as we ease him into pack life.  I'd like us to extend our patrol boundary to include his property.  I was his house and property under surveillance in case any unwanted surprises show up, especially from rogues in and around the area.  They seem to be getting far more prevalent now."

    "I've noticed that, too," Alpha James responded.  "Yes, absolutely, we'll include the Alpha-in-Waiting's property as part of our boundaries.  I'm going to have to email the surrounding packs to make sure that that is okay, as well as tell Governor Frank about the change as well.  I thoroughly doubt he's going to give a s**t, but it would be smarter to be safe."

    "I agree completely," Mira chimed in.  "Consider me halfway to the patrol houses and tell the Deltas about the change."  Mira's main job, or at least the one that she did consistently, was to oversee the Deltas as they patrolled the property, and did a really good job of it.  As Kristy's best friend, I've gotten to see her grow from the spoiled pack Princess Royale to having the potential to be a damned good Luna-in-Waiting.

    "Are you going to be doing the first patrol around the property, Mira?"  I asked.  "I need to relay that to my old man."

    "Yep, and your dad is on the way to the patrol house I'm going to go to first, so you don't even have to worry about sending him a text," I hear Mira state as her voice got deeper, which clearly meant Spirit was listening intently to the conversation.

    "Cheers.  Okay, I have to go.  I've got class starting soon," I said to Alpha James after Mira left.

    "No problem, and thank you Beta.  You've done a great service to this pack.  I'm proud of you," Alpha James said.

    "My pleasure, Uncle Jim," I responded, calling him by his informal and familial name because official pack business was officially done for the time, and hung up the phone.  I walked over to the classroom door and opened it, just in time for the dismissal bell from the cafeteria cut all of the students loose to head to their first hour class.  This was shaping up to be the most interesting school year of my entire life.