They said to be careful what you wished for.

That saying had never been truer than it was now. It was no secret that I had hoped coming to Hillbridge would squash the endless monotony in my life. I had hoped to start feeling once again. I had hoped to look at people and things and not feel absolutely nothing. I had thought that the change of environment would do me good, and that I would get rid of the boring predictability of everything by exploring the newness of it all. I had even hoped that my sex life would be more exciting, considering the plenty of girls and a place where no one knew who Theon Berkeley was, but I had certainly not foreseen this kind of a surprise.

I mean, yes, I had considered spicing things up with something new.

'You got plenty of new things. Why you whinin'?' Wasn't it rip-your-own-hair-out annoying when your inner wolf talked like a wannabe gangster?

'By new things,' I took a deep breath, resisting the urge to punch myself just so I could inflict pain on my wolf. 'I meant bondage or role play or something kinky like that. Not adding a guy to the mix!'

'Oh, I bet our mates would love that,' My wolf purred, drifting into a world of his own. 'They'd be such fiery subs. They would never submit without a fight.'

'Please, they may be Alpha and Beta but they have sub written all over them. Within minutes, they'll be begging—' I froze. 'You tricked me—!'

"Hey! Hold the elevator!" A familiar voice yelled, jarring me out of my thoughts. The shiver of unwelcome awareness that raced down my spine and the way the hair on the back of my neck stood up confirmed who it was before I even looked up. To no one's surprise, Ezra holier-than-thou Harland was racing down the hallway, and before I could stop myself from doing it, I reached out and pressed the button to stop the doors from sliding shut.

Ugh, damn you, instincts. I had wanted to let it slam shut in his face.

"Stalking creep," I muttered under my breath when he got in, taking my finger off the button to let the doors close. Thankfully, the first day of college was on a Thursday, so I just had to endure two whole mornings of his presence before I got a nice break this weekend.

'We won't be seeing our mates for two days,' My wolf moaned desolately, and while the idea of missing Nyah was an unpleasant one, I tried to focus on the brighter side.

No stupid fights with asshole, yay.

After that non-date at the diner/cafè last evening, we had all gone separate ways because the tension had been too much to handle. Nyah had been understandably pissed at us for the decision we had made, and since neither I nor he was ready to budge from the 'No homo' pact, we had let her go. If Nyah wasn't around, there was no reason for the two of us to hang out, so we had left too.

I had had a relatively uneventful evening after that, except for the part when my wolf had decided to crave Nyah and he-who-shall-be-called-the-cocky-asshole so bad that the animal had ruined my sleep. From the way Asshole's eyes were all red and brown hair—a few shades lighter than Nyah's—all mussed up like he hadn't had time to brush it in his hurry to leave, it looked like his wolf must've kept him up last night, too.

Stupid mate bond and its cravings.

"Excuse me?" He clenched his jaw, turning blazing aquamarine eyes my way.

Why the fuck were the assholes always the pretty ones?

'Stop calling our mate that! When was he ever an asshole to you?'

Leave it to my wolf to act as my own personal villain inside my head.

'Were you not there?' I snarled back in disbelief. 'When wasn't he an ass?'

'He's only being that way because you started it!'

I ignored him and focused on said ass. I meant the guy. Not his ass. Why would I be talking about his ass? It wasn't like I had taken a look at it when he had left yesterday. Besides, a guy's ass did nothing for me. Didn't matter even if it was tight enough to bounce quarters off of it. In no way did it compare to the curve of a woman's; my glorious mate, Nyah's.

Stop. Thinking. About. Asses.

"We are supposed to share Nyah, remember?" I exited the elevator once we reached level one, walking ahead of him down the corridor of my—looked like it was his, too—dorm building. "Why are you on my floor? Wanted me so badly that you're following me to my room now?"

'Look who's talking,' My wolf snorted. I pushed him out of my mind without remorse.

"Please. By all means, dial the narcissism up a little more." His voice was hard and full of snark, unlike our last encounter where his tone had been relatively less mean. "It'll only make it easier for Nyah to realize that she can reject you after all."

I hadn't realized that rejection was still on the table. It made me pause because I had to compose myself before I gave away my surprise. If you want to play it that way . . . "Sure. Anything for the Beta."

"What the hell?" He snapped, and I glanced at his face to see that he was pissed. Good. "What's your problem with my title? It's hardly my fault my father was a Beta. I don't see you complaining about Nyah's rank. Logically, it should bother a fake-macho guy like you that your female mate ranks higher than you. Why do you care?"

'Exactly. See how badly you've hurt our mate.' My wolf whined, probably hurt on his mate's behalf. 'Why do you care, Theon?'

Someday soon, I was going to look into wolf-suppression serums.

"I don't care that you're the Beta." I shoved my backpack higher up my shoulder as I walked faster. Why the fuck was he walking with me, anyway? "I care that you act like you own the world because of it."

I should've just stayed silent.

There was a moment of silence as the apparently slow in the head guy considered my words. So the skull underneath that model-like, $200 haircut was empty, after all. "You know what?" He said finally, making me meet his eyes curiously. "I'm not even gonna try with you. Clearly, you're seeing things. We hung out for all of thirty minutes yesterday, and you've already formed some pretty heavy judgments. I might not have gotten a 4.9 GPA or whatever it is you consider smart, but who's the one acting all high and mighty, like he knows everything here?"

With that, he looked me up and down like I was two inches tall, shaking his head and walking away.

See? This was why I never spoke to people.

~

"You've got to be kidding me." I came to a stop at the threshold of the orientation room, my eyes instantly latching onto my two mates out of the hundred or so people seated. The impatient pacing of my wolf in the back of my mind calmed down instantly, and I was thankful for that. It was a welcome surprise to meet my stunning Alpha here, considering there were hundreds of freshmen and various halls that we were allocated to. It was pure luck we had ended up together, but why did the universe have to put him in the same class too?

I scanned the seats around them and realised that my two-minute delay was going to cost me big time. Ezra and Nyah were already laughing about something, their heads thrown back and eyes crinkling in happiness—stop beating so hard, you dumb heart—and there were no available seats nearby to give me an in on the "fun".

All because of dickwad. If he hadn't gotten on that elevator and stricken up a conversation, I would have been the one beside my mate.

I sighed and resigned myself to sitting on the closest available seat a couple of rows in front of them near some really nerdy looking girls—no offense intended as I was kind of one of them. If Ezra was going to spend the next hour near my mate, I was going to have to up my game and find some time today to compensate. With the full force of his stupidly pretty smile and seemingly always mischievous-looking, blue eyes focused on a dazedly smiling Nyah, I did not like my chances.

Why couldn't the Goddess have made him an average Joe? Hell, at least someone who didn't have the body of a warrior and the face of a happy-as-a-unicorn Abercrombie model.

Did he eat rainbows for breakfast or something?

While I wouldn't consider myself average, years of self-inflicted isolation and an uncaring attitude towards everything had hardened my features noticeably. I didn't have that aura of brightness and magnetic energy around me that the jackass seemed to possess, the very spirit that added sparkle to his baby blues and a curve to his grinning lips, making every eye in the vicinity linger on Ezra Harland for a second longer before looking away.

I'd have felt marginally better if he had been a little less good-looking than I was. But of-freaking-course, the hottest guy to walk into any room on the planet had to be my competition. Okay, the hottest girl, hands down, was also mine, half-mine at least, so the Goddess should've just given me a second mate who wasn't equally scorching.

Wasn't there a rule about it or something? If there wasn't, there should be. If all the good-looking, powerful people were with each other, what about the rest of us?

Don't even get me started on the charm he turned up every time he spoke to Nyah, apologizing and smiling at every turn. Me, on the other hand? I couldn't come up with a witty remark if my life depended on it. Times like this made me regret my choice to seclude myself from the world all these years. Some social interaction would've made me better at wooing my mate.

'And he says he didn't even look at Ezra . . .' My wolf hummed in an annoyingly self-satisfied manner, making me realize what I had just done.

How in the hell had I managed to notice so much in so little time?

"Hey," A voice called, just as I was about to ask the person on the aisle seat to move so I could take the seat in the middle. "Theon Berkeley, wasn't it?"

I looked up, meeting blue eyes eerily similar to asshole's hidden behind black-rimmed glasses. The guy had a friendly smile on, and before I could wonder how to fake remembering him, his shock of platinum blond hair jolted my memory, quickly reminding me of who he was.

Asshole's friend.

Explained why he was sitting next to him.

"Hey." I nodded at the four of them, meeting Nyah's vibrant hazel eyes a moment longer, unable to return blond guy's smile. I was so accustomed to ignoring people that I couldn't do it. He was asshole's friend—why the heck did his friend have the same eyes as him, anyway?—and his connection to asshole should naturally make me want to hate him, but his expression was just so damn friendly.

Being rude to such a nice guy would be like kicking a puppy.

Suddenly, I became aware of the fact that he was an Alpha. Better not compare him to puppies then.

"Nice to meet you." The good-looking redhead beside him grinned, equally friendly, but her features weren't as open and innocent-looking as her mate's. They weren't exactly threatening, but the natural Alpha-ness radiating off of them and their contrasting friendliness was messing with me. I couldn't decide what type of people they were.

"Same." I extended my hand to each of the Mordecai Alphas for a shake. "It's almost time. I think I'll go to my seat." I nodded to Nyah and swiveled around, but the redhead, Seneca's voice stopped me, "Wait."

I twisted around, eyebrows raised slightly.

"There are two seats over there." She pointed to the row in which I had chosen a seat. "Me and Cage can go, right, babe? You sit with your mates."

"No, that's unnecessary—" I started, baffled that they would be so nice to a complete stranger like myself. But they paid no mind to me, already grabbing their books and bags and standing up to move. "Thank you." I looked at them, hoping my expression wasn't stuck on its 'resting bitch face' mode and conveyed some real niceness.

Once I settled into my seat, next to Ezra, unfortunately, I turned to Nyah, ignoring the guy in between. She looked as effortlessly put together as yesterday in a dark grey sleeveless tee and faded jeans, the brown waterfall of her hair caressing her full breasts as they cascaded down to her elbows. Seriously, the Goddess had outdone herself while creating this woman. "How was your night?"

"Oh, it was okay." She smiled slightly, glancing between Ezra and me in a way that said our lack of acknowledgment hadn't gone unnoticed. My wolf yipped, and I had to force him down. He really needed to stop getting worked up every time her lips moved. "But my wolf's? Not very much. How was yours?"

"Right." I nodded, my face a mask of nonchalance, "Mine was the same."

She opened her mouth to say something, but I would never know what it was because a senior chose that exact moment to tap the mic and gain everyone's attention. We turned to the front, and I was careful not to let my arm anywhere near the shared armrest in between me and nut-brain. The senior started talking in a sickeningly sweet tone, welcoming everyone and going over the basics like the uni's history and stuff like that.

I tuned the speech about the wonders of Hillbridge out, because clearly, no professors were going to be talking yet. As far as I was concerned, all I needed to do was maintain a solid 4.0 GPA to continue my scholarship. Engaging in social stuff or being nice was never part of the plan.

'Not even to our mates?' My wolf again.

'I didn't say that,' I conceded, because I had never wanted to be that guy who didn't value his soulmates. The Goddess gave them to you for a reason. 'I'll treat Nyah like a princess.'

'Ezra is our mate, too.'

'Sure.' I wanted to roll my eyes. 'If I were an Australian, I'm sure I'd be calling him "mate".'

'But—' He stopped mid-sentence, groaning in pleasure at the sudden onslaught of mate-bond tingles that spread across my arm at the accidental brush of skin while jackass shifted in his seat. We glared at each other and moved our arms away, but the sinking feeling in my gut after that, wouldn't leave me alone.

I couldn't wait for my body to get used to this stupid chemical reaction every time I touched him. It was bound to get old sometime, right?

Yeah, everything got old sooner or later. Even if it was "The mate-bond".

I turned a deaf ear to my wolf cackling like some evil villain in my head. I hoped like hell I was right, because it hadn't even been a day, and this was already screwing with my head.

It will, I assured myself.

It had to. Everything eventually bored you.

hope you liked this look into Theon's head. If you did, please show your support and