~Jasper pov~
"Are you listening to me, Jasper?"
My father’s voice broke the silence in his office, he stepped away from his working table to lean in front of it.
"Yes, Dad. I understand everything," I muttered, keeping my eyes locked on tall huge body.
"Good. Because let me be clear with you," he paused.
"I don’t care if it’s a passing grade, Jasper. A D is not good enough for a Beckham." He added in a serious voice.
My stomach turned.
I was going to be late for my first class if he kept holding me up. He had been going on and on about how I needed to keep my grades up, threatening to pull me from the captain position on the hockey team so I could focus squarely on school.
It was infuriating. I had already skipped a year of senior school when he insisted I go away for intense Alpha training when I turned eighteen last year. Now, I had to finish my senior year and graduate because my time would be gone once I took over the pack.
My grades were actually good I have straight As
Just one single subject kept dragging me down, which is why he had called me into his office so early this morning.
My Literature scores were tanking, and he was giving me a brutal ultimatum to fix it. I was a logical thinker; practical sciences were easy for me, but having to analyze poems and overthink hidden meanings was just hard. I flopped at Literature….
Now, I had to cut out time from practice just to study. I really couldn't afford to mess up this year.
A lot was at stake.
There had been quarrels between us and our border pack, Bloodstone, over the mining lines. The Council of Elders had just set a strict new rule: the winner of this year's hockey championship would get the legal right to control the disputed border for a whole decade. That was serious.
The Moonlake Pack owned Moonstone Mining Company, a business my great-grandparents had toiled for in sweat and blood. Now my father was the chairman. The company funded our entire pack, and the borders were a dangerous, sensitive issue…especially now that Bloodstone wolves were actively trespassing onto our mining land.
If we won this season's game, we could set the contract on our own terms.
My father and Beta Roman, who was also our head coach, had stressed it over and over.
We couldn't afford to lose!
Especially not to Bloodstone.
Especially not to Tyler Remington.
"About the human girl in the Academy under the scholarship, I need not remind you why she is here, Jasper," my father said, his voice dragging me sharply out of my thoughts. "I want you to keep an eye on her. No one is to get romantically attached to her until her stay is over in a year. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Dad. I will keep an eye on her."
"Great. I know I can count on you, son," he said, stepping forward to tap my shoulder.
I nodded.
My dad was my biggest role model. He was strong, reasonable, and kind…a good Alpha.
Both the company and the pack had done so well under his leadership. He could be mean and serious when he was in Alpha mode, but he was a caring dad and a doting husband to my mom.
My mom was his fated mate. I loved the deep connection between them, and honestly, I can't wait to meet my own mate.
I hadn't found her since I turned eighteen last year, which was why I had started dating Camila...
She was beautiful, and she was there when I needed a good release, which I seemed to need a lot these days thanks to Dax, my wolf, who was always grumpy and restless.
‘Like you are not horny yourself,’Dax snorted loudly in my mind. He was the one who was never satisfied.
‘I had a normal s*x life before you came, remember?’ I huffed back at him.
‘If only we can find our mate. Mate can satisfy us,’ he countered. There he goes again…
‘Well, too bad, Dax, we still haven't found her.
We went all the way to Alpha training and we didn't find her. She isn't in this pack either, or I would have come across her,’I told him, rushing out of my father’s office to go prepare for school.
I knew I was going to be terribly late thanks to that morning meeting.
I rushed over to my room to take a quick bath, then headed to the kitchen to grab breakfast. Most of the pack members who lived in the mansion were already eating. By the time I finally drove over to school, I was almost thirty minutes late.
I stepped out of the car, breathing in the fresh morning air, telling myself to just survive this last session of high school.
The hallways were quiet. But as I started moving toward my first class, Dax suddenly started growling in my mind, thrashing and clawing for me to walk faster.
I got to my locker to rip out my books, the hairs on the back of my neck rose straight up.
"f**k, Dax," I whispered under my breath. "Not now!"
I forced my legs to walk down the hall toward Literature class, the closer I got, the more I could smell something amazing. I couldn't even pinpoint what it was. It was sweet and completely intoxicating.
‘It’s mate!’Dax roared in my head, his voice feral. ‘Mate is in the class!’
What? In my Literature class? How? My mate was not in Wolfebrooke Crest! I was absolutely sure of that.
I pushed the classroom door open with way too much force.
The second I stepped inside, the thick smell hit me hard. It was overwhelming…the scent of sweet cherries and warm vanilla. I looked around the now silent room, my eyes locking on the owner of the smell.
The girl had long, frizzy curls.
‘MATE!’ Dax screamed.
What the hell? I glared at her, my heart beating fast. It was the new human girl.
Adeline. I recognized her from her picture…her file was currently sitting right on my father’s desk in his office.
Fuck!
How could she be my mate?
How could an Alpha wolf be mated to a human?
It wasn't unheard of, but it was rare, Aside from that, she was the one person my father had just strictly forbidden me or anyone from getting involved with…
"Mr. Beckham, you're late," Mrs. Bert’s voice snapped, pulling me out of my head.
I moved down the aisle, glaring intensely at the human girl, the closer I got to her seat, the more that smell clouded my brain. I clenched my fists tight, fighting a wild urge to just pull her into me and sink my teeth into her neck to mark her right there.
I sat down behind her, my mind focused on her. She was pretty…no, she was beautiful!
Her small button nose was cute, as I watched the side of her face, her wild hair spilled down her back, my chest tightened.
Shit. How was I supposed to stay away from her now?
She suddenly turned around and caught me glaring at her. Instead of looking scared, she just c****d her brow in total curiosity. I forced myself to drag my eyes away from her.
This was so f****d up!...