The Teacher's Mate

Part 20

Drake watched her as she left the party with her father. Most of the remaining wolves were getting quite drunk but he was drunk on a different substance. The scent of her would not leave his nose and it took everything within him to not follow her to her room and do goddess knows what afterwards. It had been hard enough in the greenhouse, he couldn't believe she actually let him hold her without so much as flinching. He still had chickened out when it came time to finally tell her. That damn clock system. It was great when you needed to know the time and you didn't have your phone on hand but still.

His Uncle walked towards him with two glasses of whiskey in his hands. He offered him one of the glasses which Drake gratefully took.

"Be careful, its got something a little extra in it." His Uncle warned. "It'll help keep the wolf at bay." Drake took a long pull.

"Its an admirable thing you are trying to do Drake, but its eating you up from the inside."

Drake didn't reply, just took another swallow. It burned, a good burn.

"A wolf needs his mate to be strong, and this pack needs strong wolves. We are small, and although we may have the support of our mother pack, we need to stand up by ourselves and that means all of us need to be strong and ready for anything. Don't forget, there are other packs who want to tear us down for including humans and halfbloods because they think that makes us weak, we need to show them their wrong." He took a sip of his own drink. "Who knows, mating you might help her relax and make assimilation into this new pack smoother for her."

"Yes Uncle. I just don't want to push her." Drake took another long drink, the glass was over halfway gone and his head started to feel fuzzy.

"You might want to sip that instead of downing in so quickly." The Beta chuckled, "We still have the Christmas morning run to do." Drake grimaced. A pack-wide run wasn't necessarily what he wanted to be doing early Christmas morning. What he wanted to do was off the table anyways. The beta continued, "I only say something because I'm worried about you, Drake. I've seen your training stats and I know you aren't getting nearly enough sleep if your eyes are any indication. Luna Evelyn even says you aren't eating enough. If Linda was still here she would be telling you off for waiting this long to where it affects your health. As it is Sophia is about worried enough to give you one of her own."

Drake chuckled at the memory of his Aunt Linda, "I miss her." She was a spitfire, his dad's sister, blazing red hair and a temper to match. An accomplished fighter and a wonderful woman. His uncle was right, they would need every able-bodied fighter and being separated from his mate was not aiding that one bit.

The Beta's eyes softened at the mention of his dead mate. "Sophia and I love each other deeply, but I miss her too and I know she misses Damon." They had both lost their mates in the war against another pack. Bloddhaven found out that the then-beta, now-Alpha, had mated a halfblood and attacked, perceiving Evelyn as a weakness. They had been wrong but that didn't reverse the bloodshed.

As if her name had summoned her, the dark-skinned beauty sauntered up to her husband, a glass of champagne in hand, "You two look like someone gave you a lemon and you believed them when they told you it was a sweet."

Beta Charles wrapped his arm around her and planted a kiss on her temple. "Sorry to keep you waiting love."

Sophia looked pointedly at the glass in Drake's hand and then quirked an eyebrow at her husband. "If he drank that as fast as it looks you may as well excuse him from the run and get him to his room before he passes out on the floor."

"Yes love, I was just about to send him on his way." His Uncle looked back at him, "you heard the woman, better polish that off and get to bed, I'll inform the Alpha that I excused you."

"I'll send John to wake you up for the pack breakfast. You'll need it."

"Thank you Aunt," Drake thanked her and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. He couldn't help but notice her faded mating mark, still on proud display. She could have chosen to cover it with makeup but she never did. His uncle's just barely peaked out from under his collar, he never hid his either. He hoped to not have to go through what this poor couple did. It was rare for wolves to get together after their mates died and when they did, they often moved to a different pack and tried to hide the fact that they weren't fated mates, but a faded mark was always a telltale sign. His aunt and uncle both wore theirs proudly in rememberance of their lost mates right along side the rings they both wore for each other on chains around their necks for easy shifting. He had great respect for his Aunt and Uncle, they had decided to marry as humans would instead of trying to force a mating of their wolves, and where some may not agree, he thought it a good choice. Their wolves would always yearn for their mates, but that didn't mean the human side could never love again. Their son, John, was proof of that.

Drake downed the rest of the glass on his way out the door and hurried to his apartment. He had no clue what had been mixed in but with how his body was starting to shut down, he had better hurry to his room.