Mate I never wanted

Mother knows best

Vivian

The sound of one of the professors' voices filled the empty field and I could no longer hear the two girls that were talking. I did not hear more then just the simple fact that Lucien was here.

My brain was running a hundred miles an hour trying to come up with the reason why he was here. There is no reason for someone of his caliber to be here. I'm sure that there is hundreds of more important things that Prince Ninth should be doing other than visiting the opening of military training for the second years.

A small part of me thought... no maybe hoped that he was here for me, but that was stupid. For all I know he has probably signed the divorce papers and completely forgotten about me, erasing the whole almost mating me thing to a heat-influenced stupid choice. I'm sure that every hybrid has a list of things they did during a heat that they are embarrassed about and would rather forget.

I don't have those, because my heats were never intense and I was always under the supervision of the Cliffwinds and their staff, making sure that I did not hurt myself or emberess the family.

There was a time when I may have tried to run away to find one of my classmates that I had a tiny crush on, but luckily John caught me before I could make it out the door. He spent the next two days by my door, making sure that I did not try to sneak out again.

We never talked about it, partly because I was very embarrassed about it.

My thoughts were disturbed by the instructor in charge, who started the opening ceremony.

"Second years, I welcome you to your military training. In the next month, your lives will change. You will no longer be just children, but full soldiers of the emperor's army."

I could hear what he was talking about, but I could not concentrate on it. All my thoughts were centered on the silver-haired fox. My hands ached to reach into my pocket to pull out my phone, just to check if there was a message from Lucien... if he gave me any sort of an answer to the overly official and polite message I sent him before leaving. I know that there was very little chance that he had done, but I still had to know... the only problem is that I do not have my phone with me. Phones or any other devices were prohibited at the training, not that they would work here in the first place. But the instructors did not want us to have the temptation of checking on them instead of doing what we are here for.

If you bring it here, then you will be in really big trouble. The most severe punishment would be that you would be sent home and kicked out of the academy, for violation of the academy rules.

So my phone and tablet were back in my dorm room, waiting for me to return.

***

Lucien

"Mother... I don't know what you want me to say to you."

She just chuckled at the confused look on my face. Only now did I realize that it had been a while since I last saw her smile like this.

"Why don't you start by telling me if you like her?"

There were little sparks of something deeper in her eyes, behind the shield of humor she had put on, probably for my sake.

"I guess I do, but I still don't want to mate her."

"I'm not asking you about that now... just tell me what you think of her."

A small reassuring smile on her face made me want to tell her everything, the crazy effect she had on me does not seem to amaze me even after all these years.

"Hmmm... she is quite beautiful... very stubborn... very powerful for a commoner and smart. We did not spend enough time together for me to fully understand the extent her knowledge has, but there she is not just some flimsy push over."

My mind turned to the snarky comments about the ape and her notes in class. She was the brightest one in that classroom, it was clear. Not to mention how well she did in the physical training class, she was chosen to show the moves for the class, which was a clear indicator that she had the respect from the professor of that class.

My mind turned to how she looked on the stage... how effortlessly graceful she was when she took down her teacher. I could not help but smile at how proud I felt inside of my mate.

Wait... wait...

She is not my mate.

She requested an annulment. It is clear that she had no wish to be mated with me.

"Lucien?"

My eyes shot up from the cup of tea that I was holding in my hand.

"Sorry?"

Laughter filled the air around us as mother busted out to most un Queen like laughter.

"I guess I have my answer then..."

She said as her laughter died down and she smiled at me with a soft, knowing smile.

"Answer to what?"

Completely confused about what she was talking about.

"You like her and the fact that you have not annulled your mating match, it's clear that you are still considering it. There is also the small fact that you smile when you talk about her..."

"Mother, I have no idea what you are talking about. I just have not had time to do it yet. I just woke up an hour ago and came straight here."

She looked at me with a look on her face that told me that she was not buying my lame attempt to deny it. The truth is that I... I had not come to the conclusion of whether I could consider mating her or not. Everything was too fresh... too raw to make any sort of decision.

I know that I could not lie to her, she knew me too well.

"Mother, I don't know what to tell you. Before the day I received the message about the mating match, I had not really thought about mating. Sure, I was aware that it would happen at some point, my position demanded it... but it felt somewhere far in the future."

A guilty look flashed on her face as she averted her gaze from mine.

"I know that you did not do it out of anything other than love, but please try to keep yourself from interfering. I am an adult."

"My darling son, please do not make any rash decisions. I... I just want you to be happy. You have been so lonely these last few years... I wanted you to have someone that you could trust by your side."

I could not help but to smile at her. As pissed as I was at her for pushing me into this situation, I know that it came from the right place.

"Please just give yourself some time and think about it."

Her beautiful smile, stroked parts of my heart that made me agree, just to see her smile again.

"Fine, but I make no promises. Now I have to go. There is a lot that I have to do, now that my heat is over. It has set me back a lot and I have a lot to catch up with."

I rose to my feet and gave her a little respectful bow after giving her a kiss on her cheek.

"I will call you soon mother."

"May the gods be with you, my son."

Walking back to the spacecraft, I tried calling Vivian, but her phone was off.

Was she really ignoring me now?

"Where to, sir?"

Richard asked me, standing by the door of the ship.

"To the royal academy, I need to talk with a certain wolf hybrid."