It's been 2 weeks and I can't take it. My wolf is itching on the inside, clawing at me, wanting me to go home to our mate. My mood has become extremely negative that I keep snapping at everything and everyone including Jake. I cannot help it, the beta in me is furious that we are separated from our mate. I want Sam in my arms every day, it's been hell, I can't even sleep. I try not to tell this to her whenever she calls or when we skype, I don't need her worried or upset and to apologize again and again.

She started homeschooling with mum and a friend and she updates me on how her homework and stuff are and complains about algebra. I can only smile and laugh seeing her all worked up, and god I could listen to her talk all day long. Her voice soothes me. Mum has told me that Sam goes to sleep on my bed every night because she hates sleeping alone now and it made me all fuzzy imagining her all wrapped up and cuddling my pillows and sheet. I asked Sam about this and she flamed and stuttered answering me, thinking no one has noticed that she creeps into my room every night. She was so embarrassed but I manage to make her confess that she likes the smell of my sheets, she says it smells like my perfume. And goddess, how satiated my wolf was hearing those words from our mate.

"You gonna sleep, love?" I asked, my phone still pressed into my ear. I hear Sam hum from the other side.

"Yeah," she mumbles, God she's so adorable. I could imagine her sleepy eyes.

"Alright, go to bed, night baby, text me when you get up in the morning."

"Okay night Avery, miss you," she whispers almost shy. I grin.

"I miss you too, night." I waited for her to cut the line and then put my phone away and walk back to the dorms. I was staying with 2 other betas, Sylvia and Jason from our neighbouring pack.

"Well well well, isn't it the sexiest female beta around?" I froze in surprise and turned behind. No fucking way. Nikolai.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I squealed and ran over to him, hugging him tightly. He chuckled and carried me, spinning me around.

"Came to see you." He says and I pulled away laughing.

"Yeah right, like I believe that Casanova. I can't believe you're here. It's been years." I say and he nods, I see the happiness in his orange eyes, God I've missed him.

"I know, I found my mate Avery, I found him."

"Him?" I asked my eyebrows raised. He's gay?! What?!

"Shadow." He nods, turning to the back and then I saw followed his eyes and there he was, a shy little boy, who was looking at me with jealousy in his eyes. Oh.

"Sorry," I say and stepped away slightly from Nikolai but a huge smile on my face as I walked up to him.

"Baby, this is Avery, my only best friend in the whole damn world besides Eug and the only other werewolf I can stand, besides you," Nikolai said his arms wrapping around his mates shoulders, making him blush but he moved closer to Nikolai.

"Aww, you guys are too cute. Hi, nice to meet you Shadow, sorry about that just now." He shook my hand.

"It's okay, I'm just, my wolf's not used to it yet," he says embarrassed, and I nod. I know how that feels.

"It's fine, but we should catch up and I can show you and tell you all about Nikolai here in his bachelor days. When did you guys meet? How? How old are you?" I fired questions, my eyes following Nikolai as he was trained on Shadow. I can see the love in them.

"You're so whipped Nik." I blurt out and he froze.

"'M not, you little dog." Shadow and I laughed because we both know it was true. I took Shadow's hand in mine and pulled him with me.

"Come on, let's talk, tell about you too. Am I invited to the wedding? How long are we talking here?" Shadow blushed furiously and coughed when I mentioned "wedding" and Nikolai trailed behind us, huffing.

"Dammit woman, stop stealing him away from me," he groans and walks beside Shadow now, easily talking his other hand. We sit down in the common room and immediately I looked at them waiting for their stories.

"We just met a few months ago.." Shadow trailed off.

"It's been a year baby, well in another 16 days." Nikolai scoffed, hurt underlying his tone. I chuckled.

"He's counting? Damn never thought I'd live to see this day Nik." I chuckled looking at my friend, he just shrugged, pink tinting at his cheek as Shadow leaned over to kiss his cheek.

"You guys are mated aren't you?" I say grinning and they blush again, and Nikolai nodded slightly to me making me squeal again.

"Oh God, so spill, Shadow where you from?"

We sat there for another 2 hours talking and God they were so happy and so in love. I yearned for that. Mates do that to each other and to see it with Nikolai, someone I'm so close to made me so happy. He met Shadow when he was hunting one day, last year during spring in Rome. That explains Shadow's accent and Shadow is a future beta too and Nikolai was here because well they're mates even though he was a vampire. It bummed me a little that this was how it was supposed to be with Sam. She was supposed to be here with me.

"So you haven't found a mate yet? Or you hiding him from us?" Nikolai smirked.

"No, haven't found my mate yet." I lied and quickly changed the subject.

"Nikolai?" we all turned to Jake who stood there his mouth agape. Yep, me too.

"Peterson!" Nikolai stood up and gave Jake those man hug things and introduced Shadow and sat down again with Jake beside me.

"So tell me, you found a lucky lady yet Peterson?" Nikolai asked his hand around Shadow's shoulder. I couldn't move my eyes from them. They were they moved, like magnets, it's beautiful. Was I like that with Sam? Do I look at her the way Nikolai looks at Shadow? Like he's the centre of his universe.

"Nah mate, not yet. Hoping to find her here maybe." Jake said softly and I turned to him, squeezing his arm.

"We'll find her yeah, on the last day during the ball? We'll hunt every room if we have to." Jake gives me a small smile and nods gratefully.

We said our goodbyes and plan to meet the next day, happy that we already made new friends, well besides Nikolai. I head to my room and Jake to his and took a shower before heading to bed, already waiting for this month to be over just to be home again. I've never liked being away from home and from my parents and now I've got another reason to stay there, Sam.

---------------------------------------

I peered through the curtains of this hall, my eyes glancing around, finding something, someone. Avery.

My heart clenched in pain and my lips quivered as I see her arms wrapped around Jake's neck, his hands on her waist, and suddenly they were kissing. I gasped and pulled back, my heart hammering loudly, no. No.

No!

Please no.

I could feel a ringing through my ears and then I could hear them, getting closer, they were in front of me.

We were no longer in the ballroom, we were in Avery's bedroom.

Jake was taking her clothes off. I couldn't turn away, my face in complete horror and pain, Avery kissing him, his jaw, his neck, whispering his name.

"Mine," he whispered to her.

No!

She's not yours. No.

"I'm yours," she replies, smirking up at him.

I jolted up awake, breathing loudly. Fuck. I took in my surroundings, trying to calm myself down, fuck.

Okay, it was just a dream.

Just a dream.

That's not going to happen.

Avery and I are together. I'm her mate. She's mine. Not Jake's. She doesn't like Jake. She likes me.

Right?

But Jake likes her.

And they're together now. For months.

I whimpered clutching Avery's sheets to my chest. No, she promised that it was us. No one else. She wanted me. She doesn't want anyone else. I repeated those words in my head over and over again.

I got up off the bed and went to wash my face and clear my thoughts. I stood by her window and glanced out at the night sky.

I miss you, Avery, so much, I don't think I should miss you this much. I thought as I placed my hand on the window and see it fog up. I leaned against it and closed my eyes. I'm finally getting a new life. I've got parents. A girlfriend. I blushed just thinking of that, a girlfriend? Me? Who would have thought, the girl who had nothing had everything she could ever wish for.

I trotted back to bed and lay there for a bit before reaching for my phone, seeing that there was a text from Avery saying goodnight just half an hour ago. I sent her a heart emoji back and curled up, holding my pillow and closing my eyes.

Then my phone rang. It was Avery, my heart skipped a beat.

"Hello?" I whisper into the phone. I hear shuffling before her voice.

"Why aren't you sleeping?" she asks, I could hear the concern in her voice.

"Bad dream, you? Isn't it late?" I say back.

"You wanna talk about it?" she offered.

"No, I'm okay," I say not wanting to, it's dumb and I'm just irrational, and I hear her hum.

"You sure? You know you can tell me anything."

"I'm sure Avery," I say. And we were silent for a bit.

"I wish you were here," she whispered and my heart tugged and I snuggled more into her pillows.

"Me too," I mumble. My heart clenched again. She misses me too.

"Tell me about your time at the orphanage. Did you have many friends?" she asks suddenly switching topics.

"No, not really. There was this one kid, Milo, the other kids made fun of him cuz he had curly hair but I loved it. And I told him that one day and we became best friends. It was just us, no one wanted to befriend us because apparently, we aren't cool enough." I say with a chuckle, not feeling bad about it and I feel her smile.

"Then I got adopted, I couldn't even say goodbye to him because he was at the doctor. I left him a note, but, I don't know if he ever got it." I always thought about Milo, when I first got adopted especially. I wondered if he ever got a home. If he was happy and if they were treating him right.

"Would you want to go back there? Maybe he's still there," she offers.

"What if he doesn't want to see me?" I ask afraid. What if he hates me for leaving and getting adopted?

"I'm sure he misses you. If he's not there we could find the home where he went to," she says her voice hopeful and I couldn't help but smile.

"Really?"

"Yeah, we could. When I'm back? Or you could ask mum to take you?" she asks me and I hear some shuffling again and whispering.

"I wanna go with you," I mutter.

"Okay, we'll go when I'm back." I nod even though I know she can't see me.

"It's late Sam, you should sleep." I sighed, not wanting to. But I know she would want to sleep too. It's already 5 am here.

"Yeah okay. Could you..uhm..stay?" I whisper, gripping onto the phone. I don't want her to go yet.

"Sure baby girl. I'll be here. Goodnight."

"Night Avery," I say and closed my eyes, hearing her breathing on the other side and soon falling asleep.

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N/A:

Just a filler chapter before skipping forward again. Added that little comic strip thingy at the beginning which reminded me of long-distance relationships.