Fighting For Her Love

Chapter 2 - Ace

I had been in an awful mood for the last few days. When my parents told me that it would be hard for me as an Alpha to attend a college so far away from my pack, I scoffed at them as though they had no idea what he was talking about. I thought that as I was taking my beta and a few of my friends with me, I would have enough pack members around me to keep me calm.

As it turns out, they were right. The lack of a real pack surrounding me was making me irritable and the only thing that could save me now was my mate. I would be turning twenty-one at midnight tonight and then my wolf would wake up and tell me who my mate was. I couldn’t wait.

“Why were you so mean to that woman earlier?” Palmer asked. As my future Beta, he was the only one who knew how much being away from my pack was affecting me, and I could see the concern in his eyes as he spoke to me.

“I don’t know, it just rubbed me up the wrong way that she was listening in to our conversation and I lashed out.”

That had been happening to me a lot more over the last few weeks as my wolf’s presence was getting stronger and I was starting to feel his strong influence driving me towards something. Maybe if I could figure out what he wanted then I would be able to keep myself under control, but every time I tried to understand his influence I failed, drastically. I could now see how werewolves ended up going feral. Of course, the process was a lot faster for me as an alpha but it could happen to any werewolf who was isolated from a pack for too long.

The way I had spoken about the woman was unforgivable though. My parents had brought me up to be a gentleman and always treat women with respect. It shouldn’t have mattered that she was listening in to our conversation, I should have just brought my beta’s attention to it to make sure that we didn’t discuss anything sensitive. That was what I had always done in the past, the situation was nothing new but my reaction certainly was and I didn’t like it.

“You really need to find your mate man, otherwise we will have to leave in the next couple of weeks.” “I know.”

I had come here following my gut, assuming that it meant that my mate would be here somewhere. I just had to hope that I was right about that, but so far it didn’t seem likely. I had slept with most of the female werewolves on campus and I hadn’t felt any kind of connection to any of them. Of course that wasn’t conclusive until my wolf woke up fully but as an Alpha I should have felt some kind of connection before now.

“What do you think your mate will think when she realises how many women you slept with?”

“I hope that she will understand why I did it. It’s not as though I had much of a choice.”

But even as I said the words I knew there was a chance that my mate would take exception to my history and make me pay for it. I wouldn’t mind that so much as long as she didn’t reject me, losing her was the one thing I wouldn’t be able to cope with.

For the rest of the day, I tried my best to stay out of trouble and not think about what would happen if my mate didn’t want me. Avoiding my issues probably wasn’t very healthy but at least it allowed me to concentrate in my classes and helped me to avoid another outburst.

It was only once I was back in my room that the worry started to eat away at me once again. I sat on my bed and scrolled through social media on my phone for a few hours until I couldn’t take it any more, and then I lay on my bed feeling sorry for myself.

The problem was that most of my friends on social media were from my pack. So that meant that my whole news feed was filled with people that I missed, many of them finding their mates. Including the woman that I dated for most of the last two years of high school.

Those photos sparked a tinge of jealousy within me. It wasn’t as though I still felt anything for my ex, I just wanted to find my own mate and be happy. I didn’t think that was too much to ask for.

My phone vibrated by my side indicating that I had a message from my beta, telling me that I had to come downstairs urgently. My mind instantly went to the worst possible situation, there had been talk around campus of some rogues in the surrounding area and I was worried that they had decided to encroach onto campus. I threw the phone onto my bedside table, knocking almost everything on there to the floor in the process. Rather than wasting the time to tidy them up, I left them where they were and ran out of the room.

“What’s wrong, did someone get hurt?” I shouted as I ran down the stairs. It wasn’t until I reached the bottom step that I realised that this was all some kind of elaborate ruse.

Werewolves from all different packs were standing around with drinks in their hands. There were also a good number of humans who were in attendance at the little party, but for the most part, they were grouped together in the smaller rooms away from the main hallway.

“Everything is fine, I just thought a party in honour of your birthday would be much better than you sitting in your room for the next few hours, sulking.”

I didn’t feel much like partying but at least there was one benefit to Palmer’s idea. If my mate was here then I would know about it as soon as the clock struck midnight.

“This is really thoughtful of you.”

“Yes, I hope she’s here. Now cheer up or you might end up scaring her away.”

“Don’t worry about me, there isn’t a woman on this campus I couldn’t seduce,” I replied before winking at him and walking away.

I didn’t want to admit it but he was probably right, if I stood in the middle of the room sulking all evening then there was a good chance that my mate would run away from me. With that in mind, I picked up a beer from the kitchen before finding myself a quiet corner to hide in while watching the party unfold around me. As was usually the case with parties, everything started rather subdued. However, the closer it got to midnight, the more drunk everyone around me got and the more uncomfortable I felt.

Those feelings weren’t only related to the drunken mayhem going on around me, it felt as though I was in the wrong place and I had somewhere else that I urgently needed to be. Eventually, those feelings became so intense that I had no other option than to follow them. Something in the back of my mind told me that this was probably my wolf trying to draw me towards something important to him, and I was hoping he was leading me straight into my mate’s arms.

The sensation led me to one of the other nearby dormitories but once I was inside I was at a loss. The whole place was packed with humans partying and all of their artificial perfumes were enough to confuse my senses, preventing me from following my instincts to reach my mate. For a while, I wandered aimlessly around the party hoping that I would feel drawn to one of the humans but it didn’t seem to be working. Just as I was about to give up, a voice that wasn’t my own spoke within my mind.

‘She is nearby, just close your eyes and let your heart guide you.’

It sounded ridiculous but I was desperate and I would try anything to find her. I did as he said and started walking, I moved slowly at first but the closer I got to my mate, the stronger the feeling in my chest grew.

Before long I didn’t need to worry about blocking out those around me any longer. The feeling of being drawn towards her was strong enough that there was no mistaking it. I followed the sensation through the building till I reached the back entrance to the building.

My mate was sitting on a small wall just outside the door with her back to me as she spoke to a man. I knew that I had no right to be jealous of her for talking to someone else but I couldn’t help it. She was mine and I didn’t like the way this male was leaning in as he spoke to her. He clearly wanted her even though my mate seemed completely unaware of it.

“It’s getting a little late and I have class tomorrow.” She said, looking down into her lap.

“Just let me get my coat and I will walk you home.”

The male jumped to his feet eagerly. There was no way he was planning to just take her home and leave her at the door, and there was no way I was letting him get anywhere near my mate.

“You need to step away from my girlfriend right the f**k now,” I growled.