Finding My Mate

KATHERINE.

'Life goes on.'

Those were the words on my mind as the car I was in the passenger seat of moved down the road that led to the university.

They were the same words that had been on my mind as my pack's council began to prep me to take over the pack the day my parents' bodies were placed in the ground. They didn't seem to care about the fact that I had gone from 'precious daughter' to orphan overnight. All they were worried about was the pack.

And their worries were what had now separated me from Kit, my little brother… Well, their worries and the pack's seer's words.

My chest ached at the fact that I wouldn’t be seeing Kit for a while and that he was going to be devastated that I had left seeing as we just lost our parents a couple of months ago. I swallowed hard, trying to keep tears from burning my eyes, before turning my face to the right so my aunt in the driver’s seat wouldn’t be able to read the emotions on it, and I paused when I saw my reflection in the side mirror.

I looked like shit.

Eye bags were prominent under my eyes from tossing and turning every night throughout the week, trying to figure out how to make the council change their decision to send me to Blackwood University. My dirty blonde hair was messy, my silver eyes were dull and almost lifeless, and my lips were a bit chapped.

'Damn.' I began to run my fingers through my hair, slightly regretting my decision to not properly prepare myself before leaving home. Yes, I hated the fact that I had to leave but the first semester at Blackwood started two weeks ago, meaning eyes were going to be on the newcomer, and I would be having my picture taken for my student ID. I couldn’t show up there looking like this.

“You’re going to be fine, Kath,” Aunt Vivian said just before I fished my concealer and lip balm out of my bag to fix my eye bags and lips and I hemmed in response, not wanting to engage in conversation.

Minutes later, I heaved a sigh when I was done and glanced at the side mirror once more. I didn’t look amazing but I looked presentable and that was good enough.

There was nothing I could do about the lifeless look in my eyes though. They had been that way ever since my parents died.

“We’re here,” Aunt Vivian said and I returned my attention to the road to see the black gates of Blackwood University up ahead. My breath caught.

I was actually going to do this.

The giant BU letters on the gates seemed to mock me when we finally got to it and my aunt brought the car to a stop, waiting for the towering gates to open. Part of me wished it wouldn’t. That whoever was watching the gates with the cameras perched on walls would take one look at us and dismiss us as wandering humans but of course, that didn’t happen.

I swallowed as the gates opened easily and the car began to move again.

I’d be lying if I said the campus didn’t look good, it practically oozed beauty, and as we moved down the light-colored stone pathway, I couldn’t help but take in my surroundings.

Imposing buildings, some of which looked like castles, stood on the campus and each of them was connected to the pathway we were on. There were even towers and stone gargoyles and beyond all the buildings was an impenetrable forest.

Students walked around, moving from one building to another, and as I had expected, most of them were staring at the 'newcomer'. I moved away from the window, shrinking into my seat while clearing my throat, just before my aunt pulled up in front of an austere gray-colored building that had high, stained-glass windows.

“Okay. Do–”

I got out of the car and shut the door behind me before heading up the stairs that led to the building’s double doors. I didn’t know if this building was where the registration office was and I would feel pretty dumb if it wasn’t but I just didn’t want to talk to my aunt right now. Not after the way she backed the council up when they said I wasn’t mature enough to take over the pack and when they decided I would enroll in this university to find my mate.

Yes, my mate. Blackwood University wasn’t a run-of-the-mill university, it was strictly for werewolves and it was where the pack’s seer said I would meet my mate. Without my mate, I wouldn’t be able to take over my pack so here I was.

I just needed to meet him and that should be easy enough to do, right? Well wrong.

I wouldn’t be able to feel the mate bond till I turned eighteen and that was months away but I could not wait till then so all I needed to do, according to the pack’s seer, was to find the 'one whom my heart aligns with'.

'Ugh.'

The sound of the car door shutting behind me reached my ears followed by my aunt jogging up the stairs after me as I pushed one of the building’s doors open. My eyes immediately zoomed in on the woman standing in the station that spanned the left side of the room and when she turned to face me, she flashed me a smile.

“You’re new here,” she said and I nodded before she waved me over. I pulled out the folder that contained my admission letter and everything else I was required to bring as I walked over to the station. “Your admission letter?”

I handed it to her and while she typed something on the paper into her computer, my aunt joined us.

“Kath,” she whispered behind me but I kept my attention fixed on the woman in front of me and after she returned the admission letter to me, she handed me a printed slip and directed me to the registration office. Aunt Vivian wasn’t allowed to follow me there and I was grateful for that.

Half an hour later, I was back in the lobby with a packet that contained my student ID, class schedule, campus map, dorm assignment and other things I’d need, and according to the dorm assignment, I was in room 305 in Stavenger Hall and it was a two-man room. The woman who had led me to the registration office, whose name I learned was Heather, offered to call a student to escort us to my dorm but I turned it down because I didn’t want to inconvenience anyone and followed my aunt back to her car.

With the help of the campus map, we easily found my hall and we both got down from the car to get my bags out of the trunk.

“I know you’re upset with me and you have every right to be,” my aunt started when we were done and I gave her a blank stare. “But this is for the best, okay?”

I hemmed in response and her shoulders sagged when she realized I wouldn't actually say anything to her. She then pulled me into a hug.

"I love you, Kath. Take care of yourself," she muttered before pulling away and tucking a lock of my hair behind my ear. "...I hope you find 'him' soon."

And with that, she got into her car and drove off, leaving me at the steps of Stavenger Hall.

KATHERINE.

It took me three trips to get all of my bags from the steps of my hall to my room’s door and it had ‘not’ been a breeze.

I had dismissed the signboard before the first flight of stairs in the stairwell that said ‘NO SUPER SPEED IN THE STAIRWELL’ and proceeded to go up the stairs at super speed during my first trip. I ended up running into a wolf statue that had been placed on the second landing and it had felt ‘awful’.

If you thought that would have been enough for me to learn my lesson, it wasn’t. While going downstairs during my second trip, I decided to use super speed again because I felt I understood the layout well enough then. I ended up stopping too soon and too fast on the first flight of stairs and fell down the remaining steps like a fool.

Thankfully, no one had witnessed both incidents but I still felt quite sore from them.

I heaved a sigh as I placed the final bag next to the rest beside my door before pulling my student ID out of my packet. Since my room was a two-man room, I had a roommate, and I couldn’t help but wonder what they were like as I pressed my ID to the card reader on the door.

The light on the reader flashed from blue to green while making a clicking sound and I returned my ID to my pocket before opening the door.

The first thing I registered was the scent of vanilla, jasmine and bergamot before seeing the room’s interior and it was… Wow.

The floor was marble while the walls were a cream color with gold-leaf leaves climbing up and down, and the things on opposite sides of the ‘huge’ room were identical. Two luxurious king-size beds on a raised platform, two makeup vanities, two ornate desks with matching swivel chairs, two bookshelves and two wardrobes with shoe racks attached to them. There were even chaise lounges and coffee tables.

The only single thing in the room was a dark gray grandfather clock which was between two large windows with fabric curtains that were pulled open to show the forest outside.

Surrounded by all this finery, I couldn’t help but wonder what the university’s tuition was.

I then realized that I had skipped over the girl who was sitting at the vanity on the left side of the room and she was currently watching me through the mirror with slightly furrowed brows.

“Hi?” she said.

“Uh, hi,” I replied, plastering a smile on my face. “Hi, I’m Katherine.” I mentally smacked myself for saying ‘hi’ twice while she tipped her head to the side before turning in her seat to face me.

She had a regal bearing. High, delicate cheekbones, golden brown skin, brown eyes that brought hearth-sipped hot cocoa to memory, and curly black hair.

“Lenore…” She still looked confused and my brain finally processed why she was.

“I’m your roommate.”

“Oh.” The confusion slipped off her face before a warm smile took over. “Welcome,” she said and I returned her smile.

“Thank you.”

“Sorry about that. I wasn’t expecting you. I didn’t think I was going to have a roommate,” she added and I couldn’t blame her for thinking that seeing as I was showing up two weeks after the semester started.

“Oh, that’s fine.” I began to carry my bags into the room.

“Do you need help?”

“Ah.” The bags weren’t much but I didn’t want to turn down the only person I knew here so far. “Yes.”

She immediately headed for the door and we both brought the rest of the bags in. After shutting the front door, I took in the room again and it was clear that the left side of the room belonged to Lenore.

The bed on the right side wasn’t made and as I opened my mouth to ask her where the bedding was, I realized that she was carrying two of my bags over to a door on the right side which I just noticed. Actually, there were two doors on the right side and each was on the far end of the right side.

She dropped the bags next to the wardrobe before opening the door and gesturing inside while I walked over to her. The room had a small wardrobe, a full-length mirror, an armchair and a door at the left end.

“Here’s your dressing room. That door leads to the bathroom – we share a bathroom. You can lock my door from the inside when you’re in it. Your bedding is in the wardrobe and uh… that’s about it.” She turned to face me. “If you have any questions, you can ask me. I’ll leave you to settle in.”

“Thanks.” The smile I gave her this time was genuine and she nodded before returning to her side of the room.

I then spent the next couple of minutes arranging my clothes in the wardrobe while Lenore read a book on her bed. When I was done with my clothes and about to start with the shoes, she broke the silence.

“Have you had lunch?”

My stomach rumbled at that, as if awoken by the word ‘lunch’, and heat rushed to my face while she shot me a smile. “No.”

I hadn’t eaten anything today. I had been pissed that I was coming to Blackwood when I woke up this morning and refused to eat the breakfast Aunt Vivian made.

“I’m going to get something from the cafeteria. Do you wanna come with me or should I bring something for you?”

“The latter. please,” I replied because I didn’t want to leave what I was doing halfway and she nodded.

She got off her bed and put on a pair of shoes before walking over to the door. “What do you want?”

“Uh, a sandwich?”

“Sure.” She walked out of the room and the moment the door shut behind her, I heaved a sigh, basking in finally being alone. Nothing against Lenore, she was quite nice, but I sort of needed this moment.

My younger brother, Kit, came to mind and my heart squeezed in my chest because I hadn’t seen him before I left home in the morning. Aunt Vivian’s husband had thought it would be a good idea to take him for an outing because he knew Kit would scream and cry when he found out that I was leaving.

I had done the screaming and crying in his stead when the asshole said they wouldn’t be coming back to the pack till evening.

I grabbed my phone and sent Aunt Vivian a curt message, telling her I wanted to speak to my brother this night, before I resumed arranging my things. When I was finally done, I took a long hot shower in the luxurious bathroom and like the bedroom, Lenore and I had our sides but we shared the shower and bathtub.

Lenore was back in the room when I walked into it and there were two brown paper bags on her coffee table. “Katherine,” she said when she looked up from her phone, her eyes twinkling, and I raised my brows. “Do you want to go to the bonfire tonight?”

“Bonfire?”

“The student body is throwing a new semester party next to Clearberry Lake around ten. Everyone’s going to be there.”

It was clear that she would be attending it and after everything I’d been through, it would be nice to have a distraction. It would also be nice to make friends since I was probably going to be in Blackwood for a while and if I was lucky, just maybe... I'd meet my mate there.

“Sure.”