"You are not my mate."

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- Mani, are you ok?

- Have I done something wrong?

- Do you know my roommate or not?

Mani kept on re reading the messages. He knew he should at least say something. None of this was Jojo's fault, but what would he say?

Sorry, it's just that you seem to be sharing a room with my fatemate, it might make things a little awkward.

Oh, by the way, I'm a wolfsblood omega, and you share a room with the person I'm supposed to be with, not you.

Nothing Mani wrote would make sense to human ears. Maybe it would be easier to just keep his distance for now, until he figured out a solution. That was why he was taking chemistry after all, to find remedy to this, to learn how to manipulate his own dna.

Jojo would forever be smelling of his mate and that mate would always smell him on Jojo. The poor guy would be torn to shreds by the pair of them.

He is about to put the phone with the unanswered messages on his desk, when yet again, another message comes through...

- My roommate just turned into a wolf and is now running wild. Mani, what is going on?

Mani almost drops his phone as he reads the text again and again. This was bad. Not only because Jojo had discovered a secret he should know nothing about, but if his mate had shifted involuntarily in front of another. It meant he was stressed. Mani knew all too well what it felt like to be a stressed out wolf….and maybe for the first time, he felt some compassion for his mate.

It seemed his instincts were far too strong this time around as the urge to find and protect his mate, a man he had never met, overpowered him. He shouldn't care. He didn't even know him, but those stupid instincts he was born with, were harder to ignore than he realised.

Mani heads for the door and dashes down the corridor, down the two flights of stairs and out of his apartment block. If his mate had done his research like Mani had done before getting here, he would have only one place to go in his wolf state…. The westwoods.

He knew he was on the right trail as he ran further and further out of the campus space, the area surrounding him, getting greener and more secluded, as a canopy of leaves began to darken his path.

The scent was now getting stronger, as Mani diverts from the well trodden muddy track and makes his way to the thick array of woodland, with the sheer abundance of trees, making it feel like night time.

It's then in the distance, he thinks he sees him. Mani flares his nostrils, heightening the scent to make sure, before his run slows down to a more cautious walk. Mani momentarily stands next to a tree, looking around it at the image of a man...not a wolf. He was laid in the grass on his side, curled up in a fetal position, he was without clothes, his skin muddied from his journey.

The woeful visual itself was hard enough for Mani to take in, especially with the knowledge that he had been partly responsible for his mate's current state, but what struck his heart the most like a bullet in the chest, were the howling tears coming from him.

He couldn't take it any more. Mani couldn't tear himself away, the pull was far too strong. His urge to make this all better, momentarily superseded any desire to seek his need to forge his own path.

The cautious walk soon turns into a run as Mani soon approaches Teddy, still curled up on the woodland floor. He crashes onto his knees next to him, reaching out and pulling on his shoulder. "Hey, I'm here." He utters softly as he again tries to pull Teddy onto his back, but the alpha shrugs the hand away.

"You are not my mate. Are you here to trick me like the others?" Teddy's voice is deep and had that thread of anger weaving through it, making Mani instantly retract his hand.

"I promise it's me. Don't tell me you cannot feel it." Mani insists as he dares to reach forwards once again, but the hand doesn't quite make it as Teddy sits up a little.

This is the moment their eyes meet for the first time. Mani sees Teddy's eyes, so big and blue, like sapphires as he becomes transfixed with them, with Teddy taking in Mani's deep brown orbs.

Teddy reaches up a hand to cup Mani's cheek. With Mani finding his eyes closing at the touch. It felt so right, it all felt like it was meant to happen. It felt like fate and Mani knew he should flee. He shouldn't have come here. This was going against the reasons why he had come to live in the human world.

But when Teddy leans forwards and buries his nose in the crook of Mani's neck, it makes him weak. Mani found himself doing the same as his senses lead him to Teddy's exposed neck. "My mate" he mumbles against the alpha's skin.

The confirmation from Mani's lips causes Teddy to growl against Mani's sensitive flesh. Finally, they had found each other and whether he liked it or not, Mani knew he would find this connection hard to resist.