Noticed By The Alpha Prince

eight: MATE

Isabelle POV

It had been two days since I last saw Jayden, since I told him I had a mate. Up till this very moment I still couldn't understand why I told him that. I just blurted it without thinking of what I was saying. He just wouldn't quit asking me out to coffee in the middle of the hallway with everyone watching. I got pressured and... snap, I told him I had a mate. Was that really the best I could come up with? To make things worse, the sad look his face made when I told him that, was still haunting me. All I wanted was for him to leave me be and it worked. Maybe a little too well. I hadn't seen him in school since that day and I was starting to get worried. I started to wonder if he was okay because it was unusual for him not to be in school. I contemplated on calling him last night but stopped myself when I remembered what I said to him. I told him to stay away from me but that was only because I couldn't deal with the drama of being in the spotlight. Argh!

I heard Lexi scoff.

'I thought you said that cause you didn't want our mate to get upset?'

I rolled my eyes knowing that she was just trying to make me feel much worse.

As much as I wanted him to stop trying to pursuing me, I couldn't deny that I had a strange feeling of emptiness now that I haven't seen him for two days, today making it three. I started to wonder if I was the reason why he didn't come to school. I did

What if he was mad at me? What if he never wants to talk to me again?

Why did I even care? This was exactly what I wanted after all.

Sooner or later he was going to forget about me and move on. My heart felt heavy at the thought, but I knew nothing good was going to come out of me and Jayden being together. Not when he was going to be alpha in the future and especially when he had Alexandria running after him.

"Isabelle!" Emily called out, snapping me out of my train of thoughts.

"What?"

"I've been calling your name but you didn't respond. Are you alright?"

"Sorry, just got a lot on mind right now." I answered honestly.

"A lot on your mind about Jayden?" she wiggled her brows up and down in a teasing manner. I rolled my eyes, not ready to talk about anything that had to do with him. Seriously, can't I ever get a break?

"Please Emmy, if you don't mind, I'd really appreciate it if you would just drop the Jayden topic already." I said, using my fork to pick at an asparagus on my food tray.

"Fine, then we'll talk about what you're going to wear tomorrow."

"Why? It's not like I'm going anywhere."

Emmy immediately gasped dramatically, placing her hand on her chest like she took offense to what I said.

"Isabelle Judith Johnson, if you think I'm going to allow you celebrate your eighteenth birthday, which is the most special of all birthdays for werewolves, in rags then you're sorely mistaken."

Right, my eighteenth birthday was tomorrow. If I said I didn't forget about it then I'd be lying. It totally slipped my mind but it wasn't something too important for me so there was no need to panic. Emmy on the other hand was going make it a big deal like she always does and now that I was about to turn eighteen, I'm sure she had lots planned for the occasion.

"You don't need to be so dramatic Emmy. I'm fine wearing what I've got. There's absolutely no need to shop for clothes."

"No need to shop for clothes? Tomorrow's the big day, you only turn eighteenth once in your life you know. You have to look awesome."

"Why though? It's just gonna be me, you, Mom, Dad and Katie. What's the big deal? It's not like there's gonna be anyone else."

"Yeah but Dave's coming and…" Emmy bit down on her lower lip and made the 'I did something that's gonna piss you off' look.

"And?"

I raised a brow.

"And I might have planned an after-party at my house."

"Seriously Emmy? Don't you ever think about anything besides parties?"

"Come on Isabelle, it's just a small gathering. I'm just gonna invite my friends and some of Dave's friends."

"You know what I think about parties Emmy."

"Yeah but…"

"No buts, I won't go. I want to celebrate my birthday with people who actually know that I exist and besides I'm not in the mood for any more parties so call off anything you have planned that has to do with parties."

"But..."

"I'm serious Emmy." I said sternly.

"Fine." Emily slumped down her shoulders in defeat and continued eating in silence.

Just then, the queen bee walked into the cafeteria with her two leaches standing behind her. Her eyes scanned the cafeteria, looking for someone but I guess that person wasn't there cause she slumped her shoulders down looking disappointed. She was most probably looking for Jayden but he wasn't in school just like the previous two days. Her eyes suddenly landed on mine and my eyes widened at that moment. She scowled and glared at me in disgust, looking like she wanted to claw my face off. I quickly looked away, awkwardly staring down at my tray. I guess not everyone has forgotten about what happened. From the corner of my eyes, I saw her storm out of the cafeteria with her minions following her. Phew, at least she wasn't going to cause trouble now.

I just needed to be patient enough cause graduation was just around the corner and I was this close to leaving this pack for good. I couldn't imagine what would happen if Jayden picked her to be his future Luna. From what I knew about Alexandria, I knew that I wasn't going to last long with her as the Luna and neither was the pack.

***

Fast amongst the tree, I ran as fast as I could. I ran scared. My vision was getting blurrier but I refused to stop.

The violent night wind whisked my long pale black hair, causing it to fly behind me every which way as I ran through the forest.

I quickly ran between the trees, looking back behind me every now and then to check if what was chasing me was still following me. To my utter dismay, it was hot on my heels.

I dashed left, leaped over logs and trampled on dead dried up twigs. I ran in random directions, not knowing where I was going, but I knew I had to outrun it.

Once again, out of impulse, I looked back. Not looking where I was going, I tripped over a rock and fell down.

I rolled over on my back and craned my neck to see my chaser running towards me. My heart hammered in my chest, my breathing rate increased to gasps and heavy sighs. I was going to be caught. With every step it took, I was drawn closer to my death.

Instinctively I shakily raised up my hand up in air.

"Please," I begged with tears pouring out of my eyes. "PLEASE!"

I abruptly woke up from my sleep, realising that I was just dreaming. I had never felt so relieved as I was at that moment, glad that it was just a bad dream. The dream felt so real to me though, that I couldn't tell it apart from reality. I was still having goosebumps from what I saw. I turned to check the time on my clock and saw that it was 3 in the morning, the sun wasn't yet out. I sighed laying back down. Happy birthday to me I guess. I knew I was supposed to be all excited that I just turned eighteen but like my other birthdays, it was just another day for me. The only difference was that I was adding more years. My birthdays held nothing special for me, even though my family and Emmy celebrated it like it was their birthday. Even though I knew my eighteenth birthday was suppose to be much more important and exciting for me since it was the day I was supposed to find my mate, I just couldn't bring myself to be happy about it. I admit, there were times when I fantasized about my mate, but I couldn't ignore the possibility of me never finding my mate or maybe simply not having one. How was I even sure that he was in this pack?

I closed my eyes, wanting nothing more than to get some sleep cause there was no use staying up and that was when it hit me like a sudden wave. I started to feel hot and uncomfortable for some reason. I tossed and turned from side to side but the uneasy feeling only increased as the second passed. Two minutes later, I sat up on my bed, breathing the air in large quantities because I felt like I was out of breath. What was happening to me?

My phone suddenly started to ring on the nightstand next to my bed.

"Hello?" I picked up without checking the id.

I received silence from the other end.

"Hello?" I called out again but still got silence. I would have thought the call got cut off but I could hear someone breathing from the other line. The breathing was so heavy to ignore and it was creeping the hell out of me.

"What the hell? Who ever this is, know that this isn't funny. Speak now or I'm ending this call." I said, slightly angry. If this was a prank call, I was ready to scream profanities at this person. Then, I caught a scent I've never smelt before. The kind of scent that intoxicated my mind. Before I could comprehend what I was doing, I started to walk toward the window and I stared out. There he was, standing in front of my house, also holding a phone close to his ear but his piercing gaze was still on me. I had never seen anyone's eyes glow like that before but that was the last thing I needed to worry about at that moment cause realization dawned on me. He was my…

"MATE." I heard him growl from the phone that I was still holding to my ear. This just can't be happening.