Allison

The plane ride was uneventful and honestly a bit sad. I was moping the whole time thinking about Tate. I truly missed him and wanted to run back to him, forgiving him for everything. But even more than that I was upset with myself. I was always independent and now I felt like I was relying on someone else for my happiness and it made me angry at myself.

McKenna had even taken to not talking to me. She hated when I was like this, because there was nothing she could do to help pull me out of them. There was nothing anyone could do. It was something I needed to do myself, and I would, eventually. Until then she would treat me with kid gloves, which in many ways I resented because I was neither fragile nor breakable, but all the same I appreciated it because she did it out of her love and friendship for me. McKenna was an amazing friend, but more than that she was my sister, not by blood but by heart.

As the plane taxied off the runway for us to exit the plane, the pilot's voice over the speaker drew my attention away from my thoughts of Tate. "Good Evening Passengers! I hope you all enjoyed your flight! Another ten minutes and we will be ready for you to disembark. You can all fasten your seatbelts and start gathering your carryon luggage. "

With the final words of the pilot the entire plane seemed to come to life. Everyone started getting up and stretching, reaching for their bags in the over head compartments. I reached down and picked up my purse, checking to make sure that anything I had taken from it for the flight was safely tucked back into it. I also scoped McKenna's area to ensure she had everything of hers, she was known for forgetting things. Tapping her shoulder, she looked at me, I simply pointed to the floor where her headphones were sitting.

"Oh, thank you! I would be lost without those. " She smiled at me. I returned a slight laugh and shook my head at here. How this one survives I don't know, Goddess help her mate when they find each other. He sure is going to have his hands full.

"Mate" Lily whined in the recesses of my mind.

I snapped at Lily, "ENOUGH! He made his choice and it wasn't us."

She growled at me, letting me know she didn't like being scolded. Sighing I said, "Sorry Lily. I know you miss him, I do too. I love him too. But he wants something different."

Lily then huffed at me, "If we ever see that Kimber again, I will rip her eyes out!" I could hear the sass and attitude coming from Lily. Although it was funny how she was huffing about I knew that the threat was real, that until we were both able to move on from Tate that she could be a very real threat.

Shaking my head, I cleared my mind. I was not going to think about this. I was starting over, starting fresh. This was my new adventure. I was determined that I was going to move on, maybe it would take me a little bit, but I would do it! I was going to find where I belonged in the world, without my mate.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Stepping off the plane was like setting foot into a whole new world. It wasn't a whole lot different than our home, however there were more humans. Our town and the surrounding areas were more wolf than human, so that might take a bit to get used to. We would have to censor ourselves a bit more here.

I grabbed McKenna's hand and looked at her, "Ready to start our new life?" She shook her head ridiculously fast, it looked more like she was head banging than saying yes. I looked at her like she was crazy and as soon as she caught the look on my face, we both laughed.

Straightening ourselves out McKenna pulled me toward the baggage claim, "There is someone that is supposed to be meeting us from the local pack, Haven Woods I think it is called?" She questioned more than asked.

"Yes, Haven Woods Pack." I said confirming her thought. "We are going to be honorary members while we are out here attending school." I continued, "You know since they think that young wolves attending school are going to go rogue and all." We both laughed again, it was silly that they felt we could not be loyal to pack life if we didn't always have an Alpha that we were answering to.

We finally were able to get all our bags from the baggage claim, loading them onto the carts that were provided and made our way out to the waiting area to find our ride. As soon as we came out of the security area, there was a guy about our age, maybe a year or two older with dark brown hair and brown eyes, his hair cut short. He was a bit more on the rugged side, standing just over 6' holding a sign that said Haven Woods.

I elbowed McKenna and discreetly pointed to our chauffer. However, she had already seen him and was ogling him. It was amusing to watch her, I swear she was drooling, so I reached up with my finger pressing it under her jaw to help her close her mouth and giggled as I said, "You have a bit of drool right there."

"I do not!" She squealed at me, quickly bringing her hand to her mouth and checking only to come away with saliva on her hand, "Oh, gross. I did!" McKenna's face instantly blushed. "Thank god he wasn't paying attention. That would be so embarrassing."

"What would be embarrassing?" A husky voice said as we neared him, now instead of his bored look he was wearing an amused expression.

"Nothing." McKenna snapped quickly. She reached her hand out, "I am McKenna, and this is..."

Before she could get my name out the mystery man cut her off and looked at me, "Allison." Reaching out he shook my hand.

"Yeah." I said skeptically looking at McKenna hoping that I am not the only one that found this interaction odd.

"Oh, sorry. My name is Tim. Tim Andrews, my brother is Alpha Andrews. I am here to bring you both to your dorms and help you get settled. Then tomorrow I will be taking you to meet my brother and your temporary pack."

McKenna and I just nodded our heads and followed Tim out to where his car was parked. As we approached it, he hit the key unlocking the door to the white Escalade. Under my breath I made the remark, "Fancy." To McKenna, not thinking that Tim would be able to hear me. However, he did, much to his amusement.

"Oh, this old thing." He said with a smirk, "This is nothing, it belongs to the pack. I would have brought my car, but there is no way your bags would have fit into it."

"What do you have for a car?" I asked.

"1970 Challenger T/A." He said.

"You know, I don't know why I asked." I shook my head. "I really don't know much about cars. Is that a good car?"

Tim placed his hand on his heart and gasped like I had just slapped him across the face. "I will pretend you did not just ask that, so we can still be friends." McKenna and I looked at each other and laughed.

We all climbed into the car, Tim in the driver seat and McKenna and I in the back seat, with me sitting behind Tim. As we pulled out of the airport and onto the interstate, we all grew quiet, lost in our own thoughts. That is why when McKenna mind linked me, I about jumped out of my skin.

**I think someone has a crush on you!** I looked at McKenna with a scowl on my face to see her lifting her eye brows up and down like a maniac.

**No.** Was all I said, in a tone saying I was not ready for her to be saying and/or thinking like that.

**Aww... come on he is hot! I'd do him.** She said.

**Now, stop lying. You would not.** I scolded her. **You know you are waiting for your mate.** Saying that pulled me back into thinking about Tate and how I felt when he touched me, the sparks. I involuntarily shuddered.

**You know I have been told the best way to get over someone is to get under someone new.**

I blanched, unable to believe what McKenna had just said! There was no way that I was any where near ready to 'get under someone new' as she put it. Her of all people should know that. Feeling rather annoyed I spoke out, "Drop it McKenna! I mean it."

"You know I am right. It is gonna happen. Mark my words." She replied, fighting to not give me the last word.

"What are we marking words for?" Tim questioned curiously.

"Oh nothing." McKenna said whimsically as she turned to look out the window.

I muttered under my breath, "You are so lucky I love you girl." To which McKenna just smiled at me. She is just a shit!

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

What felt like hours later, but in reality, was no more than 45-minutes, we were pulling into the university. As we made our first turn onto the property it took my breath away. There was plush greenery all around the old brick buildings. You could just feel the history of the school and all those that came before. I was in complete awe! My dream of going away to school was finally here, finally coming true and in that very moment I could not have been happier.

Tim easily navigated the campus, pulling us up to what I suspect was going to be our dorm building. Putting the Escalade in park he turned to us and said, "So because you are wolves and part of the pack housing for us is a bit different."

"Ok. What do you mean by different?" McKenna questioned.

"For starters, you will only have other wolves in the building. There are no humans allowed in our dorms."

"Why not?" Again, McKenna asked.

"Alpha Andrews wants to prevent any accidental discoveries. We had an issue with it my freshman year, so since then no humans. Unless of course they are your mate, but they must have been told and have accepted you. They also have to be marked."

I nodded my head in understanding. "Anything else we should know?"

"You will get the rest of it at orientation." He said shaking his head no. We all climbed out of the truck and Tim opened the back hatch allowing us to start pulling our bags out. "So, I will let you know that you are on the top floor, you can go up and choose your room."

I looked at him confused, "We don't have a room assignment?"

"Oh, you do, but see perks of getting here so early and being friends with me, means I can change them." He winked at me. A feeling of dread settled in my stomach, I guess McKenna was right, he does like me. I kind of felt bad that I was going to be able to use that to my advantage, but you should never look a gift horse in the mouth, right?

"How can you change them?" McKenna asked nonchalantly, like she had not just noticed Tim winking at me.

"Umm... well I am in my senior year here and once I graduate, I am actually going to be working here at the University, eventually taking over the program of Wolf Studies. Managing the dorms is part of that." He explained.

"Oh, that is cool." I said. "Thank you."

"You are welcome!" He replied with a megawatt smile that warmed my heart. Thinking to myself I wondered if Tim would be okay with being just friends? At this point in time I think that is all I could handle. "Follow me, I will show you the floor and where my room is, you can choose yours."

Tim took us up the stairs and McKenna and I looked around, the hallways were simple, plain. Tim showed us a few rooms, all of them nice nothing exciting they all looked the same. Same wooden desks, same empty beige walls, same beds. Then he showed us his room, which was a quad. He had a couch and TV in the shared room, and two desks, were the other rooms had one for each person.

"Why are you sharing with 3 other people?" I questioned him, "Don't you want more privacy than this?" As I sat down on the worn brown leather couch.

"Actually, no. I like being around people. It is nice, you build great friendships here."

"Okay, how about we take this room then. We can quad with you?" McKenna said, shrugging her shoulders and dropping her bag on the empty bed in the unoccupied room. "That is, if it isn't against the rules?"

"Ahh... not really, there are no rules saying that guys and girls can't bunk like this in a quad, but it might cause issues with mates, so we tend to avoid it." He explained.

"Well, that is good then." I said. "There will be no mate trouble on my part. And McKenna hasn't found her mate yet. So, this is where we choose to bunk."

Tim looked at me questioning gaze. I shook my head, "That is a story for another time my dear friend."

Nodding his head, he said, "I will hold you to that, friend." Stressing the friend part with a wink. I had a feeling that sharing a dorm with Tim would either be a very good idea or a very bad idea. Either way I was going to live a little, take chances and make mistakes. "Since this your room now too, here are your lanyards to the building and the keys to the common area. There is also a key that will lock your bedroom, but it is up to you if you are going to use that or not." He handed everything to McKenna and I.

"Thanks." We said in unison.

"You are going to have a couple extra days here before the other students begin to arrive, so you can scope everything out and get the lay of the land first hand. Tomorrow, we will go to the pack lands and you will meet my brother." He explained to us, we both shook our heads in understanding and went about getting our bags from the truck.

Once all our bags were in the room, I turned to Tim, "Hey, we mailed out boxes. Do you know if they came in yet?"

"Um... If they had come in, they would have been put in the mail room. Follow me." He replied walking out of our room. Getting to the mail room was easy, locating our boxes was another story. There must have been at least 50 packages of varying sizes strewn across the room. Finally, after searching all the boxes we were able to locate our and drag them back to our room.

That night after settling in and getting our bedroom setup, I took a shower and put on my favorite, Finding Nemo jammie pants. It is not like I could walk around in just one of my dad's old t-shirts here. I would actually need to cover up more, just to prevent any unnecessary issues. Walking out of the bathroom I had my hair wrapped in a towel, Tim was sitting on the couch in the common room.

"Finding Nemo?" He said with a cute smirk on my face.

"Yeah, I love Finding Nemo." I replied, walking into my room depositing my dirty clothes into the hamper.

McKenna was on the top bunk, she had requested it, which was fine by me I didn't feel like having to climb into bed every night. I preferred having the bottom bunk, it was cozier, my own little den. "I am starving" whined McKenna.

Just then there was a knock on our bedroom door, "Dinner is served." Tim hollered through it.

"Well, I guess Tim read your mind Kenz! Let's go eat." I said as my stomach grumbled. I hadn't eaten since before we boarded the plane that morning.

In the common room Tim had a pizza and soda waiting for us on the small coffee table. "Thanks!" I said, "But you know you really didn't need to get us dinner."

"Now Nemo, what kind of roomie would I be if I didn't get my two new friends' food?" He said, "Besides, I like taking care of people." Almost like he was trying to tell me something without coming out right and saying it. But I let it go, we were friends, that is it. That is all I have the space for in my life right now. Friends.

"Don't call me that!" I scolded him and McKenna laughed.

"Nemo, I like that one." She snorted.

"Nope, you are Nemo now and forever." He laughed. I scowled at him knowing that the more I pushed the longer he was going to stick with that ridiculous nick name.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever, we will see about that" I commented, grabbing a slice of the meat lover's pizza and a coke. As I sat down on the couch next to Kenz I looked at the TV, "You have got to be kidding me?" I said, less than impressed.

"I do not kid about my cartoons, Nemo." Tim replied with a smile.

"Oh, this is one of my favorites!" McKenna said, curling up into a ball with her plate of pizza resting on her knees.

I just rolled my eyes, great just great. Not only has he dubbed me Nemo, he is now making me watch the movie. Usually I would not complain because I find it adorable, but it irked me because I knew he only put the movie on because of the new moniker that he had given me. As I too settled in to watch the movie with my food, I rolled my eyes and the idiot that was grinning next to me.

Once the movie was over, I was exhausted and ready for bed. It had been a long day and I wanted to sleep. I was thankful that the day had been so busy, and thankful that we had met Tim. He really was a nice guy, hopefully having one friend here would make the transition that much easier. Climbing into bed I snuggled into my new pillow and blanket, not quite home yet, but I was hoping soon it would feel like it was.

As the lights went out, I was hoping that my exhaustion would pull me into oblivion, however I was not that lucky. I laid there with my eyes closed, images of Tate and our summer flashing like a movie, my eyelids the screen. At some point I must have started crying, because the next thing I knew McKenna climbed off her bed and came to me, "Oh Jolly! It is gonna be alright." And she crawled into my small bed next to me. Trying to help take the pain away, wiping the tears from my face.

"Thank you Kenz!" I said to her, "I don't know what I would do with out you."

"Always and forever, that is how long I will be your friend." She whispered, the promise that we both made to each other when we were five, on the playground at school. With McKenna by my side I was eventually able to fall asleep, the first good rest I had been able to get since that unfortunate call with Kimber.