The Alchemist

The revelation

- Daniel -

I didn't sleep well at all last night. I was still processing my encounter with my mate... I can't believe I found her. But she is way too distracting. I need to really focus on my mission for the pack. I was itching to shift and let my wolf roam and process the meeting with mate too... she's human so she won't have any wolf counterpart and although I can feel he's thrilled, I'm worried he will miss out.

I went down for breakfast and was hounded by George Ward again. He tried his best to extract information from me, but I wouldn't expect anything less from that man. He embodied exactly everything that makes me despise humans: greed, fake pretense, sickly sweet when you need something, and backstabbing. He did mention something useful though, that the mysterious french doctor was in attendance at the party last night. I kicked myself mentally to have missed this opportunity and reprimanded myself for being distracted by my beautiful mate. My wolf disagreed and while he understood the need to hunt the Frenchman, he was more interested in hunting our mate, which was nowhere to be seen at the breakfast setup.

The conference was about to start when a tall blond woman approached me in the lobby just next to the conference room.

"_ Hi Mr Anderson, I'm Julia Stein, working for the Stein tech group in Basel, Switzerland and I recognised you from the Forbes article. My group would be very interested in collaborating with yours, would you be free at break time, or lunch or... maybe dinner in a quaint little restaurant I found yesterday?

_ Hi Mrs Stein, I've heard of your company, I'll have to see with my assistant as my schedule is very busy, especially during this conference.

_ It is Miss, Mr Anderson "

She said winking at me and touching my arm. I didn't have time to react before I smelt and spotted my mate, staring right at me across the lobby, by the conference room entrance door. As I smiled at her, she rolled her eyes and disappeared inside. My wolf was annoyed that mate saw another female touching what was hers. I didn't like random women's touch either, and I was wary of women who were overly flirty with me since Samantha... I already didn't have a great start with my mate, and now this... Urgh, nothing would be easy when it comes to this woman. But the focus would be the enigmatic French scientist that I was just about to meet.

"_ Thank you Miss Stein, my assistant Sharon, will be in touch, I must go.

_ You can call me Julia, no need for such formalities, Dan."

I hated when people, especially humans were overly familiar with me. My alpha wolf rank commanded formalities and respect. And the nickname Dan was something I loathed. I tolerated Danny from my mother, but she was the only person in my close circle who called me that.

As I entered the conference room, I searched for the woman who would become both my world and the bane of my existence, but she was nowhere to be seen. I sat in the middle of the row on the right side to be able to escape as soon as I could put a face on the prestigious name and then avoid being confined in a close room full of humans for too long. The annoying George Ward was sat in the left row at the front. As I was surveying the room in search of my mate, that clingy woman Stein sat right next to me. This was bound to be a long meeting...

The session started and the organising committee spoke in turns for what seemed ages. Julia would make every attempt to engage in a conversation or get physical contact with me through arm touch or leg brushing. I felt suffocated and trapped but for the greater good of my pack, I had to endure until I discovered who was Cam Pesquet.

The fifth and last member of the organising committee was finally about to finish their brown nosing act of thanking every participant, every guest, the venue, the funding bodies who allowed them to put this conference together and so on and so forth. The man then announced the keynote speaker, and proceeded to make a lengthy introduction of the palmarès of the esteemed Dr Cam Pesquet. I must admit, this was far more information I heard about that guy than in any of my research. The guy had two PhD, one in organic chemistry, one in formulation and stabilisation of solution. He published numerous journal articles and helped and mentored students all over the world. That had my eyebrows raising, since the guy was basically a hermit, or a ghost. The presenter joked about the first reaction most people get when they finally meet with the legend, and I was already rolling my eyes at that. I pictured an overconfident, eccentric French man with a moustache a la Dali and a Napoleon complex but with an Einstein brain to then walk on the stage with loads of claps from the audience for having been graced by the presence of the man himself... What a pompous asshole. In my head I was already thinking leverage and ammunition to get that big fish to work for me, and it would definitely be flattery...

I was certainly not prepared for the person who next walked on stage and took the microphone from the presenter.

The presenter announced the great Dr Camille Pesquet and it was her. My mate. What on earth is going on? Cam? Camille? I thought it stood for Cameron, but Camille being a unisex name in France , it could have been a man.

Never in a million years I thought it would be a woman. And I was ashamed of realising that it never crossed my mind that the esteemed french genius could actually be a woman.

I replayed our conversation last night, her smile was in fact a smirk, she must be so used to being taken for a man. And even I, her mate, made the same mistake everyone did. And with the misunderstanding with that annoying Julia Stein pressed right next to me, she must have thought I was a ladies man... I was in deep trouble... The eccentric doc and my mate the same person and so far, I've done a s**t job at impressing her...

She started her speech with an ice breaker, very witty, joking about the fact everyone expected an older man, with a belly about the importance of gender equality and how even if our society was evolving around those topics, science especially was still heavily dominated by men in a very patriarchal system. She then joked about people who couldn't see a beautiful woman past her beauty and couldn't comprehend that she could have brains too. She looked straight at me when she said that and my heart plummeted. She thought I was a douche. Gosh I told her yesterday I thought he was eccentric and disfigured... I was such a jerk. She then asked the audience to keep the mystery around her to carry on the experiment and gender bias in science.

She then proceeded to deliver her speech on mentoring, nurturing new talents as advocate that science and especially chemistry, should have no boundaries.

she spoke with the confidence of an alpha, she was eloquent, she paused for effect. And I realised that a woman has it all, the brains, the beauty but she has suffered from prejudice her whole life. If I wanted to woo her, I really needed to step up my game, and show her that I could understand her, respect her and encourage her in her own mission. It was in this precise moment that I fall. and I fall hard. The strength this woman was displaying took my breath away and was a true inspiration. I no longer had any doubts about her weak human state, or weak offspring. I sent a silent thank you to the moon Goddess for pairing me with such an amazing spitfire, and begged her to guide me right in seducing her.

Looks like I no longer have a choice in killing two birds with the same stone, my mate is the key to the future of my species and mine.