Chapter 1

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*Corey*

"We're going directly to Inferno after school. You coming, man?" I heard Sean behind me as I walked towards my locker. It was our last day of school with about only two hours left. After twelve years, I would finally be able to breathe again... for a couple of months, I guess, before college starts. Even a small break was good enough.

"Nah, I'm good," I said opening my locker once reaching it. The last thing I wanted was to ruin my day by going to Inferno.

"Corey, you can't keep avoiding him. We haven't visited since starting our exams. We all need to hang out together, come on." Izabella, who was one of my best friends since childhood, leaned against my back as I rampaged through my locker. Where was that flash drive?! I was sure I shoved it in there about three weeks ago.

"Wait, who's he avoiding?" Jason asked. I glanced at him to find him looking just as confused as the guys around him before turning back at my locker in dismay.

I should never have let it get so messy, I would need a box to throw everything in and then sort through it out at home. Hopefully, find the flash drive while I'm at it.

"Yeah, we're all sleeping over there for a week. I know you miss Alexis, Tyler and Trent. Corey, we haven't seen them in three months." Hayley completely ignored Jason's question, which I was quite happy about. We could thank school for keeping us that busy. I wasn't complaining about the lack of free time though; the further I was from Inferno, the better.

I looked at Hayley giving her a smile. When we were younger, I only had her and Izabella, and then Izabella found out she was mated to Sean, the prodigy Alpha or our pack – meaning one day, he will lead our pack of wolves, and I being the Beta, would be his right-hand man and the person that handles everything and takes care of the pack when he's not around or if anything should happen to him. We were born with the titles. In our pack, marks – or tattoos – that appeared at birth showed the main positions in the pack, and because of that we were naturally gifted in strength and were forced to work hard to improve every single day.

"I'm fine, really." I said.

"Fine, go home then. Just know that you're going to be alone with Alpha Ian and Beta Cole. Lots of training for you, Junior." I froze at Matt's words.

With there only being two years left before Sean would take over as Alpha and Beta, the current leaders were definitely going to kill me with training as much as they could – they already had been doing so. All through our exams when we were not studying, Sean and I were training, fighting or working with the current leaders.

"Fine, I'll come," I said quickly. Anything – even visiting the Inferno pack – would be better than going home right now.

"Yay!" Izabella hugged me from behind making me laugh.

"Why aren't you kids in classes?" Mr Taylor's voice came from behind us.

"It's our final day, Kevin –" I turned to see Mr Taylor glare at Jason and chuckled, "Mr Taylor," Jason rolled his eyes as he corrected himself, "Not even our biggest nerd is in class." He nudged Eric who frowned but didn't say anything because it was true.

"Fine, I'll let this slide only because I'll never have to deal with you again." Mr Taylor said frowning at Jason. I laughed as Jason kissed his teeth.

"He wasn't that bad," I said.

"If I recall correctly, you both decided to throw a string of firecrackers into my class last year." Mr Taylor glared at me. Okay, that's my cue. I began to edge away from the group while shaking my head feigning ignorance.

"I... don't seem to remember that... I should get going. Have to see my girl." I smiled turning to leave but stopped and grit my teeth as Hayley spoke up.

"Your girl? But you have a mate."

"Nah, I don't recall that either." I immediately began walking again hoping to prevent anyone else from following up on Hayley's question.

"Wait, why haven't we met our female Beta? Who is she?" Sean called out after me.

"Because there is no she. I have no mate." I replied without looking back.

Mate. Stupid word. It was how we referred to the fact that every werewolf had a single soulmate, someone they were connected to unlike anyone else. When we found them – in our pack, usually after the age of 16 – we just knew, we felt it immediately and both people would be so in tune that they could feel each other's emotions, pain, practically hear each other's thoughts. As a wolf, you could always tell where your mate was or sniff them out in a place filled with thousands of people. Once you knew your mate there was something that just drew you to them no matter how far away they were. There was a desperate need to always be close to them, to protect them and be with them.

Hayley was right. I had found my mate. An Amarelo type werewolf that was part of the Inferno pack, the only problem was that 'she' was a fucking 'he'.

I didn't understand why. I wasn't gay and now even the thought sickened me. According to our friend Kaden, Jayden (my 'mate') was gay and I hated him for it because this pairing was obviously his fault. I never wanted to see that fag again in my life. I hated him so much and yet had never once spoken to him. We both knew when we first saw each other, felt it instantly and I left immediately after realising what had happened. Why did my mate have to be a fucking guy? I had not been to Inferno since that day.

"Hey," I smiled spotting the pretty human girl I had been with for the past three weeks at her locker.

"Baby!" I tried not to inhale too much of her scent instead holding my breath as we hugged. Finding my 'mate' had really messed up my sense of smell. His scent was the only one that wasn't dull and did not have something wrong with it. Kristy always smelt way too sweet.

My wolf definitely didn't seem to have a problem with my avoiding our 'mate'. He was just as pissed off as I was. It just didn't make sense to either of us.

"Corey," A hand waved in front of my face, "You there?" Kristy giggled. I smiled down at the beautiful blonde girl and tried to ignore the part of me pulling towards Jayden.

"Yeah, what were you saying?" I asked brushing strands of her hair from her face.

"My parents are having some friends over later, maybe you could come by? We would love to have you." I stepped back suddenly happy about going to Inferno.

Meet her parents? We had not even been together for a month and, seeing as I never actually asked her out or anything, we weren't even together technically. Why would I want to meet her parents?! It's not like I planned for this relationship to last long anyway. It really was not that serious.

"Actually, I'm going to go see some friends. I won't be back for a few weeks; their houses are pretty very far so I can't visit." Inferno was within ten minutes running distance if you were a werewolf, about a two-and-a-half-hour sprint if you were a human.

"Aw, really? When will you be back?"

"Probably won't... I got accepted to a university there." That was me breaking up with her. Her mouth dropped open a little.

"So... you-you're just gonna leave?" She asked, shocked.

"Pretty much. It was nice getting to know you. I'll miss you, Kristy." I pouted before giving her a quick goodbye kiss and then turned to leave.

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"Izzy! Hayley!" I chuckled as Alexis literally speared both of them to the floor. If that wasn't enough, our friend Trent joined the pile and then Izabella's little cousin Clara did as well.

"I missed you so much!" I zoned out on their yelling as I greeted Izabella's cousin Tyler with a hug before my eyes fell on the Inferno prodigy Alpha, Kaden.

I greeted him with a grin but then my nose caught hold of the one scent that made my heart skip and yet at the same time made me want to vomit. My eyes flicked by Kaden to see the reason I had dreaded returning to Inferno territory.

Jayden.

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