"That's it." Micajah put the last of my boxes down carefully—the boxes that he and Seneca had packed because I had decided to be shamelessly childish about it and had refused to help with all things 'college'. He looked up at me, grinning in triumph. "You're all set. We didn't know what you wanted and what you didn't, so we packed everything you had in your bedroom. Except for the furniture, of course. But don't worry, we ordered a new cot and your favorite foam mattress because we figured that the single cot won't be—" He palmed the back of his neck as color rose to his cheeks, shaking his head slightly, "—er, comfortable?"

I ignored his sudden shyness. The dude was so hesitant to talk about sex that you'd think he was still a virgin. The X-rated sounds that filtered past multiple layers of walls and reached me every night, on the other hand, said a completely different thing. "Wait, you bought a king, right? Don't tell me it's queen-sized. You know I don't always bring only one person back. I need a king so everyone can fit—"

"TMI, bro, TMI!" Micajah covered his ears, squeezing his eyes shut for a second as his cheeks turned an even darker red. Just then, Seneca strode into my dorm room—which was thankfully a single—smiling dopily once she caught sight of her blushing mate. "Aw, babe." She pinched both his cheeks, squishing them playfully, "It's been so long since you blushed like that! I forgot you still had it in you." She giggled. "You're just too cute for your own good."

"Gah!" I mimed barfing, rolling my eyes at the couple like I thought they were disgusting. Secretly, I had to use every ounce of my self-control to stop myself from going 'aw' at the two of them.

Yeah, I was a romantic at heart. Sue me.

"We'll be the ones doing the barfing soon." Seneca rolled her eyes.

It surprised me every time she did that because if someone had told me a year ago that my stoic, robot-like Alpha would even crack a smile, I'd have laughed at them and sent them in the direction of the nearest mental asylum. The amount of change her mate had brought about in her was astounding.

That made me wonder what being mated would do to me. Make me more serious? More playful? It was impossible for me to comprehend how I would ever be happy changing myself like that. But Seneca certainly didn't seem unhappy, so it must be a 'mate' thing.

"You just wait and watch." Micajah agreed, giving Seneca's cheek a quick kiss.

"Oh, I wish." I exhaled, turning around and flopping face-down into the bare bed. Big mistake, because the mattress was harder than I had anticipated, and now my nose was throbbing like crazy. I rolled over, rubbing the injured skin with a grimace. "Ow. What do they make these beds out of? Rock?"

Seneca and Micajah exchanged a knowing look instead of answering me. I backtracked and tried to think of what I had just said, and realized I had inadvertently given away more than I had wanted to with the "I wish", I had just uttered.

Great. Now they were going to mess with me till the end of time.

"Guys?" I called again, making them both jerk out of what looked like a telelink conversation. Ugh, I hated it when they mind-linked each other with me right there. "Um, bed. Right. Yeah." Seneca nodded rapidly, confirming my suspicions. They'd been definitely talking about me. "Thankfully," She pulled out the rolling chair from beside the desk and sat down, while Micajah coughed and took a seat by the edge of my bed, "our shipment will be here soon. Tomorrow, actually. We just have to put up with this bed for a day."

I decided to let their secret conversation slide for now.

"Why couldn't they send it in today?" I propped my head up on my hand, pulling one of my pillows under my elbow, "I'm sure you ordered it early? You've been packing for two months for Goddess' sakes."

"Yes, I did. They were supposed to ship it in today. But when Cage called, they said there was a slight delay due to technical reasons?" She looked at her mate, who nodded and continued for her, "Yeah, something about a sudden increase in the number of orders." Micajah, or "Cage" as Seneca had nicknamed him, shrugged, "I have a feeling it was mostly our kind."

"Wait, seriously?" This was news to me. I had been under the impression that I would make no new friends here as we would be the only supernatural beings present. "You think we'll meet other wolves here? I thought only humans went to college."

"Oh, no." My brother laughed, "Lots of wolves go to college. Maybe the percentage of normal pack members is slightly less than us with the responsibilities? Like you said, they all have their own small businesses and don't see the point of going. But most high-ranked wolves go to college because they need to learn to take care of not just their packs, but also the companies they own. Since Hillbridge is basically the best of the best, we might run into several of our acquaintances here."

"Yes." Seneca bounced in her seat excitedly, "There are a lot of Alpha heirs around our age. I'm pretty sure we'd be running into a lot of . . ." She glanced at me pointedly, her grin widening, "unmated Alphas?"

My stomach dropped at her implication.

No, no, no!

"You've gotta be shitting me! No fucking way, okay? My mate is not an Alpha. She is the either the second in line of one, or the younger sister of a Beta. Yep, that's it." I shook my head rapidly, to convince myself or them, I didn't know, "I am not leaving this pack. You can't get rid of me that easily, Seneca. You absolutely can't."

The smile on Seneca's face faded. It looked like realization had struck her only then. "As much as it pains me to say this, Ezra, and you know it pains me a lot," She swallowed, forcing a smile. "you have to be prepared for anything. I can name three unmated female Alphas right now. And those are just the ones off the top of my head. I'm only saying this because of the blood you have in you."

Now, I was confused. "What do you mean?"

"Well," Micajah looked at Seneca before turning back to meet my gaze. "Training wise, you know that I've been performing . . . remarkably well."

"Yeah, you can read minds." I shrugged, waiting for him to get to the point.

"I can't read minds, Ezra." He chuckled, "It's not that simple. I can just tap into the pack link very easily. It's your fault that you guys are not guarding your minds well."

Oh, yeah. There was that. He couldn't read the minds of people who weren't from our pack. That was because werewolves didn't have superpowers. It was either super-strength or super-mind, both of which were results of being a level above normal wolves. It was the same as humans being gifted with extraordinary talents.

"Your point being?" A furrow formed in between my eyebrows as I appraised his nervous expression.

"I believe that our biological mother, Victoria, must've come from a long line of powerful wolves. That's why it's so easy for me to adapt to the role of a leader." He smiled at his mate, reaching forward to take her hand in his to give it a squeeze before letting go, "So, you must also have a part of an Alpha gene in you. Explains how you can take down just about anyone."

"Hey!" I was offended that he would even suggest that, "That's because of my supreme talent and hard-ass training routine, okay? I've been training since I was 8. Not to mention with Seneca. So obviously, I'm as strong as an Alpha."

"That might be the reason," Micajah hedged, "were it not for the fact that no one in my biological father's side had had any notable strength. All the Parker line had was Alphas that were okay at best. There's no way I could've gotten my genetics from their line."

Micajah's Dad was his previous pack's Alpha, Hugh Parker. He had had a love child with a woman who wasn't his mate, Victoria Rye, and that baby was Micajah. The twist in that story was, my Dad, the ex-Beta of my pack, Xavier Harland, was Victoria's real mate. I was the child who was born when they had led a secret life together in the Parker pack. But due to war between our packs and my Dad's extreme cowardice, he had rejected Victoria and had left with me back to his own pack, marrying another widowed woman, with whom he had had my sister, Olivia.

Complicated and stupid, I know.

But that was my biological background in a nutshell.

Imagine my shock when I had found all this out after Micajah had moved to our pack to stay with Seneca.

Yeah, those were hard times.

"So," I swallowed, looking up, "by the unwritten laws of Alphas mating with Alphas, you're saying that I might be mated to one."

"Yes, but that's not a necessity." Seneca hurried to add, leaving her chair to kneel on the floor closer to me, "You're the best Beta anyone could ask for, Ezra. Ever." She took my hand, smiling ruefully. Okay, I did not sign up for these emotional speeches. "But you gotta do what you gotta do, ya know? We just want you to be mentally prepared is all."

"No."

Seneca let go of my hand in surprise. If they knew me at all, they should know that stuff like this never worked on me. "I'm saying, N-O. No. I was meant to be the Beta, okay? Always was. Alphas and their Betas are supposed to have a connection. Why else would the Goddess make me, of all people, your friend? I firmly believe in destiny, and I don't think I'm ever leaving this pack."

I pushed myself up, making Micajah and Seneca step back as I stood, "So, let's not talk about this again."

They looked at each other hesitantly, sighing. Micajah nodded reluctantly, "Okay, we will not mention it again. For what it's worth, we hope it doesn't come to having you leave, either."

I wondered idly how it would feel to start using 'we' instead of 'I' all the time.

"Ooookay." I dragged out the word as I grabbed my coat, trying to lighten the mood. "I'm starving. Who else wants a Big Belly burger?"

~

"Whoa," Seneca exclaimed beside me, shocked. "What's going on, here?" Micajah breathed from Seneca's left, sounding awed. You could say that I was feeling the same, as well. Actually, no. I was feeling something much, much potent. It had been so long since something had affected me this badly that I had been completely blindsided—stuck somewhere in between 'breath taken away' and 'seriously turned on', to be precise.

We had locked up our rooms and had been on our way to Big Belly Burger, which was just a couple of minutes walk away from the campus. Suddenly, a black Nissan GT-R had swerved outside and had come to a halt a couple of meters from the gates of the college, piquing my interest due to two reasons—one, the way the driver had pulled the car to a skilful stop that had been seriously badass, and two, I owned the same model of the Nissan GT-R, so that could only mean that the person had excellent taste.

What had made my throat go dry was the way a pissed-looking girl had exited the shiny black vehicle and had punched the guy she had pulled out from her car's passenger seat, without missing a beat.

Okay, she was seriously badass.

Too bad I couldn't see her face as she had her back to me. But those long, chocolatey brown locks and shapely legs that went on for miles weren't any less sexy than her actions, so I didn't complain.

"What the fuck is your problem with her?" Mystery-brunette's voice sent motherfucking shivers down my spine as she swept her foot under the guy's legs, making him fall on his back onto the asphalt with a sickening thud.

Ouch, was this her bullying him or her teaching a bad guy a lesson?

More people gathered 'round, but no one took a step forward to stop what was happening. My gut told me not to intervene, either, so I stayed put. "Why do you care whom she loves? Huh?" Mystery-brunette pressed her foot down on the guy's midriff, and the way her soprano-like voice resounded clearly with an air of authority confirmed my doubts. She was definitely a wolf. Must be one of those female Alphas Seneca mentioned. "Are you secretly in love with her, you sick homophobe? Is that it?" She demanded in a dark voice. My dick suddenly twitched in my pants, taking me off guard.

What. The. Hell. Ezra. She's about to kill a man. The least you could is FOCUS.

"Should we try to break it up?" Seneca whispered, making Micajah shush her quickly, "No, babe. I think this is some serious pack business. She must be an Alpha, don't you think?"

Yep. I wanted to answer out loud, but I was too entranced by the woman in front of me to make my vocal cords cooperate. My eyes were prisoners to her enthralling power, and I couldn't pull them away even if I wanted to.

There was a pause. "Yeah." Seneca mumbled, "Yeah, I'd be pissed if some other Alpha tried to poke their nose in my business."

They continued speaking in hushed tones among themselves and I tuned them out.

The badass Alpha pressed her foot down harder when the dumb dude didn't reply, bending down to grab his face in a rough grip between her slender fingers. The way the guy's eyes widened in fear told me she must've either flashed him her fangs or glowing wolf eyes.

What I wouldn't give to see that sight.

"Is. That. It?" She repeated, her voice hard as steel.

"No! NO! Please, let go!" The guy on the floor cried out like a pansy. Although, considering the murderous wrath she seemed to be raining upon him, I guessed anybody would be scared for their life. Mystery-brunette slowly eased her shoe off his stomach, and just as I thought she was about to let him go, she slowly trailed her foot down to his groin area—uh oh—hovering it above and not pressing down yet, "You should've thought of that before trying to rape a girl."

What!? A rapist!? I say he deserved to be castrated then.

Slowly and painfully.

Alarm and panic flitted across the guy's eyes as Mystery-brunette slowly pushed her foot down, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please, please!"

The Alpha stomped down harder with the flat heel of her shoe on the rapist's genitals, wisely not showing him mercy. Guys like him should rot in hell. "I'm only letting you go now because the girl escaped before you scarred her for life. That's not an actual reason to let a lowlife like you live because it wasn't you who came to your senses and let her go, but—" She released her foot and took a step back; a step that brought her closer to me "—murder in the middle of a college, with people watching, is not my style."

She spun, making the side of her profile visible to me now. Yet, the face I longed to see was hidden behind a curtain of thick, dark-brown hair. Dammit. She stopped near the driver's side, turning away from me to look down at the groaning guy on the floor one more time. "Just remember the pain and humiliation you felt now the next time you try to take someone against their will. Because if you so much as lay a finger on anyone without their consent, mark my words, you will be dead. And if you even think about going to the cops or the dean about an assault or whatever the hell your nut-sized brain can come up with to pin on me, you'll be the one counting bars for the next ten years of your life for sexual assault."

She gave another swift kick to the side of his thigh and strolled back to her car. Before I could realize what I was doing, I started clapping, making everyone join in with me and start clapping and whooping as well. The Alpha looked up in surprise, her honey eyes the color of the setting sun, roaming over my side of the circle where the clapping had originated, unwittingly landing on me for a quick second as they passed, before widening and coming back to me.

And in that quick second, my world tilted on its axis. It was a profound feeling I had never experienced before, a visceral change inside me that tied me to the woman standing there forever. My stomach dropped as my heart did a roundhouse kick against my ribs, my eyes widening in shock as my wolf came forward, pushing that one word out of my mouth before I could understand the reality of what was happening.

"Mine."

"Mine."

Okay, that was wrong. I was pretty sure only I was supposed to say that. Despite the scrambled state my brain was in—holy shit, that's a female Alpha right there who's my freaking soulmate!—I was also pretty sure I had heard another voice to my right say it, a voice that had had just as strong a reaction in me as the commanding voice of the angelic Alpha in front of me.

I twisted to my side in surprise, meeting a pair of jade green eyes that were also wide with disbelief, and before I knew it, my wolf was roaring forward to the surface as my heart literally came to a stop in my chest.

"Mine." We growled at the same time, and as if it had just been jump-started, my heart came alive with a vicious thump against my ribs which I was pretty certain the person in front of me could hear.

I was fucked.

Because it looked like I had not just one, but two mates.

And the fucking funny icing on the cake?

One of them was a sexy as fuck, hotter-than-the-sun level hot guy.