"Who is my mate exactly?

☆

They lean in on each other, their foreheads pressed together, Teddy leans forwards, kissing Mani on the lips, with him returning the gesture, but as Mani feels himself giving in to fate, Teddy prematurely pulls away. "I can taste him." He says with an uneasy growl. "Are you a traitor already?"

Mani now pulls right back from Teddy's face. "I..I…" He doesn't even have time to explain before Teddy takes a hand to Mani's throat, pushing him down in the process. The air is already beginning to feel resistive in the stronghold. "Who is my mate exactly? Have I been matched with some slutty omega?" He snarls through gritted teeth. He eventually lets go, pushing Mani back in the process.

Mani grasps at his throat as he backs away on his other hand and knees. "You…you have no right to tell me what to do." Mani utters under a fearful breath, but continues to back away further from the alpha. He would shift into wolf form if he had to make a quick escape.

He knew his words were dangerous, especially to an alpha and even more so his alpha mate, but Teddy in the blink of an eye had just proven Mani right. How was this destined to be fate if they had no common ground to begin with?

Sure enough, Mani's response did indeed provoke a reaction. Of course it would. Teddy was the typical alpha male, the one thing Mani detested. "You dare to talk back to me, omega?" He gets to standing, his naked but strong body towering over Mani.

"I have a name...It's Mani." Mani looks up at Teddy, trying his best to be strong, but is conflicted inside. His omega instincts were crying out for him to cower, to accept whatever his alpha wanted to dish out, but his free mind was fighting back.

Teddy snarls at Mani laying beneath him on the ground, he can see Teddy bearing his teeth, he knew Teddy was once again on the cusp of change.

"Hey you!... Hey, naked guy… what are you doing?"

Both Mani and Teddy look to see Mani's chemistry teacher in the distance. Teddy realises once again the situation he is in and flees the scene.

Mani watches Teddy disappear through the trees. Where would he go now? He couldn't possibly return back to the dorm and he hoped he wouldn't cross paths with Jojo again, for Jojo's sake. He hated the conflict of feelings bubbling inside of him. It hurt to see Teddy leave him, but he was also relieved of it.

"Hey, are you ok? Who was that? Did you know him?" The bombardment of questioning overwhelms him as Mani gets to his feet.

"I… I guess I kind of know him, but not?" Mani looks to his teacher as if he had the answer.

"Ok, well are you hurt?" His teacher now asks, looking Mani up and down for any physical signs of injury.

Mani was hurt. His heart hurt real bad, like someone was trying to pull it out of him. He knew he wouldn't really be able to explain that to the professor. "I'm fine. I just want to go back to my room." Mani forces a smile, but causes his teacher to frown.

"Don't you want to report this? He looked like he was going to…"

"I said no!" Mani doesn't mean to shout in his teacher's face, but everything that just happened, needed to be forgotten, not dragged out, investigated and made public.

"Ok ok." The teacher holds his hands up in defence. "But I at least need to report the fact that a naked man is prowling around the edge of the school campus."

Mani begins to panic. He grabs at his teacher's jacket. "Ok, I know him. He's my boyfriend... we...we...um…" Mani looks away, trying to think of a reason which his teacher might buy.

"You... what?" The man now stands with his arms folded, looking a little unimpressed.

"We like fooling around... in the woods." Mani even dares to smile at the tale leaving his lips. "No one was supposed to see. Please. Don't report it." Mani now is on the cusp of getting on his knees to beg.

"I could still report you, you know, with it being on college grounds." His teacher says, raising an eyebrow.

"But we weren't, you just said it was around the edge, so technically not." Mani now grins as his teacher.

"But, still, exposure..." The teacher begins.

"Why are you out here?" Mani suddenly says, turning the tables. "This place is far away from your teacher's laboratory."

"I...well that is none of your business." His teacher now looks away, avoiding eye contact.

Mani smiles. "So let's just say neither of us were here then and nothing has happened. Ok professor…"

"Kelly, Professor Rowan Kelly." The man says before adding, "I know you're one of my students. You should know my name. Were you even listening in the lecture hall earlier today?"

"Yes." Mani says, trying to sound convincing. He heard what he needed to hear. About chemical reactions and their effects. He didn't need to know people's names.

"Well, I'm going that way." Professor Kelly says as he gestures in the direction of a canopy of trees.

"Goodbye Professor and Thankyou." Mani says as he heads back to the campus. His steps quicken as they get further away from his teacher. His priority now was finding Jojo and figuring out yet another tale to tell him.

The professor watches him go. There was something about this student which felt vaguely familiar, but not at the same time. He is then distracted by his phone receiving an incoming call. He puts the phone to his ear. "Hey James, Yes I'm on my way, give me five…"