Chapter 1

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University has always been a place I liked going to. What I never realised is that a lot of that had to do with the fact that I could shift and go there. Now that I live in a place where shifting in public isn't really acceptable anymore, it suddenly seems like a far better idea to just stay at home.

Of course I don't do that. I do like uni. I like that for once, I'm actually being taught things I want to know. I also like children, which is why my placements are the weeks I look forward to most. I won't have any for the first few months here, but that doesn't throw me much.

As expected, when I walk into the posh looking university building and enter my first lecture, most students decide to openly gape at me. I'm a big guy, tall and with decent muscles, so together with the fact that I'm new and none of them have seen me before, I suppose I would be quite a spectacle. I don't really react and just sit down, minding my own business. I don't get talked to, which I'm actually quite pleased by. The only thing that bothers me is that I can't tell for sure how many of these people are werewolves. I can tell there are a few but their scents are all muddled because of the close proximity to humans. Still, there's not enough of them. I'm used to rooms almost entirely filled with werewolves, not this overwhelming mass of humans.

After three lectures, all of them two to three hours long, I'm honestly just tired. I want to go home, have dinner with my mom and sleep. Even if it doesn't bother me much, not having any social contact and actually paying attention to tutors is exhausting.

I slowly walk down the hall towards the exit of the building, wanting nothing more than to shift, when I pick up this scent. My reaction is immediate.

My head whips up from where it was hanging, straight towards the door, and when I can't see anything, I run.

I run toward what can only be my mate. I push students aside, ignoring their complaints as I make my way to the outside as quickly as possible.

When I pass the door, frantically whipping my head from one side to the other to try and spot my mate, I finally find her looking straight at me.

I don't even register anything as I walk towards her, not running anymore as I know I now have her attention, but at a brisk pace anyway because that first contact with our mate is one of the strongest cravings we feel in our lives.

She takes a few tentative steps towards me, but before she can even walk to me properly, I'm already there, gripping her arm to pull her towards me, to hug her and smell her neck.

None of that I actually get to do, because the moment I feel the connection between the two of us when my hand touches her arm, I get ripped away.

Instinctively I growl, turning around and facing whoever got in our way.

I'm barely able to hold myself back from strangling him when I realise how he smells. It's enticing. And it's also my mate's scent.

Immediately I lunge myself at him. How dare he's close enough to my mate to have her scent all over him!

I size him up. He has about the same built as me, if he isn't a bit taller, if only be maybe half an inch but anyway. It's hard to tell with both of us half crouching.

We're attracting attention now, but neither of us really seems to notice long enough. His scent is confusing me still, but riling me up even more. It's just the two of us, trying to determine who is dominant in this situation.

I faintly realise that I'm moving to the right, while he is mirroring my steps to the left. We are, effectively, circling each other, gauging who would move first. My eyes never leave his dark grey ones and his never leave mine. We're close, only maybe an arm's length apart from the other's face and if either of us would not react quick enough to the other's attack, that person could be fatally wounded.

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