The continuous buzzing of my phone sounded from my bedside table as I blinked away the sleep. I was the type of person who was alert from the moment they were awake, but I enjoyed knowing that I probably woke the teenage pack-member in the room next to me a little early each day with my obnoxiously loud alarm. He tended to keep me up late with his incessant drum and base music. It was even worse when his girlfriend stopped by.

I shut off the alarm and swung my legs out of bed, stretching and cracking my limbs out of their tired, rested state. I did a few pushups to satisfy Icarus and sipped from my water-bottle, noticing my phone had too many notifications. Mila and N.J had been blowing up our group chat lately with their excitement around moving into the pack house, despite knowing I hate texting. We usually spent all of our time at their place since the both of them lived there, so I'm sure my nice, neat bedroom will be ruined in no time by the chaos that is N.J. I grabbed my towel and shower caddy, stepping out of my room and walking down to the communal shower rooms.

As soon as I entered, the line of people waiting dissipated; the people made themselves scarce, heading back to their rooms as quick as they could until the bathroom was completely empty. I shook my head, letting myself into a shower stall. It was like this every day. My wolf enjoyed the privacy and I suppose it was one of the only perks about being avoided like I am; no line for the bathroom.

I let the cold water flow over my head, cascading down my face before the droplets split and take their individual courses down the rest of my body. I soaped up my body and hair, standing with my face against the cold tile until the water eventually ran clear, all evidence of soap suds long gone down the drain. Mila had once called me a freak for liking cold showers, but I found them refreshing. It was the best way to start a day.

Once the water had stopped, I wrapped myself in my towel and headed to the sinks to brush my teeth in the still-baron bathroom. Nobody would dare enter until I was long gone. As I walked back to my bedroom I towel dried my hair, hearing people hesitating leaving their rooms until they'd heard me walk past and enter my own room. I suppose the people who lived on my corridor in the pack house got the short end of the stick, having to live on eggshells.

If I was N.J, I'd be oblivious to it. I'd prance around always wondering why the rooms I entered always happened to be empty. If I was Mila, I would recognise it, but simply not care. Both of them talk to the pack members anyway, ignoring the fact that it makes them uncomfortable to be spoken to.

I'm not them, though.

I changed quickly into some black jeans, a grey t shirt and a black corduroy button-down, not bothering to button it up. I grabbed a hoodie and my backpack, heading down the stairs to the dining hall. According to the history books that Xavier had made us read a thousand times, the dining hall was once a ballroom. The sheer size of it when it was empty made it seem impossibly large, but at feeding times it seemed too small to handle the growing numbers of pack members.

I grabbed toast, a chocolatey cereal bar, a melon pot, and a grapefruit, eating the toast on my way to my car. I chucked my bag onto the passenger seat and slid into the drivers seat, wiping away any crumbs before I climbed in. The drive to the Alpha's house took mere minutes but they were never ready to leave on time. I beeped the horn to let them know that I was outside and settled into my seat to eat my grapefruit, peeling it with the music humming out softly.

The taste was sour but I liked it, the smell lingering in the car even now that I was done.

The front door finally crept open and N.J came bounding down the pathway, yawning and scratching his head tiredly. Gracie came running out after him to give him his lunch that he had forgotten, which she had to do most days. N.J wasn't much of a morning person and usually looked like he had just rolled out of bed at all times of the day.

"Morning, sunshine," I greeted him as he pulled open the backseat door, "Aren't you gonna miss Mummy making your lunch?"

"Don't tease. Too early." N.J shook his head, collapsing across the backseats and presumably falling asleep.

Rain began to fall from the sky and I sighed, reaching behind my seat to grab an umbrella. I pushed open my car door and jogged up the path to Xavier's house, blocking the fat raindrops with my brolly. Soon enough, the front door swung open a third time and out came the princess herself, mortified by the rain.

"Oh thank god, you have an umbrella! This rain would ruin my hair." Mila beamed at me, taking ahold of my arm as I walked her to the passenger side and opened her car door.

After she had slid in I jogged to my side and we were finally ready to head off. I chucked the cereal bar into the back seat and received an incoherent 'thank you' grumbled in response. Mila took her melon and crunched happily as I drove, humming along to the music and doing her makeup in the mirror.

"See, this will be easier when we live together! You wont have to drive all the way to ours to pick us up first." Mila beamed.

"Easier for who? I'll be having to kick N.J out of bed like Gracie has to everyday." I quirked an eyebrow, "And making sure he showers."

"Mummy Xan." Mila giggled, packing her makeup away into my glovebox now that she was done.

I parked in my usual space in the school carpark, applying the handbrake and grabbing my keys from the engine. I had parked in this spot on my first day of getting my license because it was empty, and now nobody else dared park here. I didn't expect a personal car space, but I suppose that's what happens when you drive around the Alpha and Beta. Now, my wolf was territorial about it.

"N.J, wake up!" Mila cried, aggressively shaking the sleeping N.J.

I let her get on with it, staring out of the fogging windscreen window absentmindedly. A group of guys in my year group were kicking a ball around on the grass, despite the rain, and laughing about something. One guy in particular was soaked to the bone. He was human, but he had abandoned his coat and bag to be used as makeshift goal posts, sacrificing his simple white shirt to get soaked through to the skin. His hair was drooping into his eyes, dark in colour from its own wetness and dripping down the nape of his neck.

I watched him move through the group of boys with the ball, dribbling it past even wolves in the group. I was impressed, but I was also concerned that he would get unwell being that soaked so early in the day. Wouldn't he get ill from being cold all day? That happens to humans, right? He must be crazy to prance around in the rain like that.

A couple of the wolves in the group had seen me staring and had shifted away from the football, heads bowed and turned away from me. I rolled my eyes at them, annoyed that I couldn't even people watch in peace. The soaking wet boy noticed everyone had stopped playing now, even the other humans, and was looking around confused. Humans tended to mimic other pack members behaviour to fit in, but he was trying to rope them all back into playing, his grin still on his face.

He eventually caught my eye, furrowing his eyebrows at me. I raised an eyebrow at him, surprised he wasn't aware that he was supposed to ignore our very existence. Everyone in Sixth Form knew to some extent that we were to be left alone, as instructed by the pack wolves. He held my gaze before lifting his arms in a shrugging motion and mouthing 'what?'. Bemused, I shook my head and mouthed back 'nothing' and he just scrunched his face up before going back to kicking the ball. The rest of the group he was with was mortified by his interaction with me, however, and they quickly rushed inside, leaving him alone.

"That was odd." Mila laughed, "I think he's in my maths class."

"You're telling me." I agreed.

My wolf was stirred by the interaction, and was now restless. I presume it's because his authority was essentially challenged, but it was only a human. I tried reminding him of that fact, but he didn't settle even still.

Inside, the school bell rang out, indicating it was the beginning of morning period. N.J groaned loudly before dragging himself out of the car, jogging across the carpark towards his classroom to not be late. The soaking wet boy grabbed his stuff, heading inside as well, and my eyes followed him the entire way. People had been treating us differently since we were toddlers, so it was rare to be spoken to so openly like that, even if it was just through mime.

Mila and I didn't have anything our first period of the day, so we headed to the common room. As we entered, all conversations came to an end and the room fell into silence. I sighed, but Mila paid no attention, heading to the kettle to make herself a cup of rose tea. Across the common room a pack member had hung a 'happy birthday' banner and somebody was wearing a big badge with the number eighteen in big pink letters. Clearly they were celebrating her birthday, but had gone silent the second we walked in. There was even a mini cake with a singular candle that somebody was trying to light with their lighter.

Mila poured me a black coffee and carried both of our drinks with us as we headed to the fire escape out the back of the common room, climbing down the old metal steps cautiously until we were outside. The sound of the rain battering against the metal roof of the stairs and against the concrete was pleasant as Mila stirred her tea, allowing it to brew. We sat on the stairs, under shelter from the rain, and sipped our drinks quietly. Kids sat in the classrooms across from the stairs kept staring out the window at us, but would advert their eyes as soon as I looked up at them.

"You're so aware of everyone." Mila noted.

"Hard not to be." I grumbled.

"Hard, but not impossible."

Mila didn't say anything more on the matter, allowing us to fall into a comfortable silence as we admired the sound of the rain and the fresh scent of rainfall. Her words played on my mind as I silently thought about what she was trying to say. We finished our drinks and walked inside ready to wash up the mugs, but there was some kind of commotion going on in the common room.

The humans in the room all seemed confused, whispering about how the man embracing the birthday girl had a girlfriend already, appalled by his sudden show of affection for a different woman. Every wolf in the room turned their head towards the floor as we entered, sensing our presence despite the chaos. The three people in question, however, were too involved in their own situation to pay any attention.

Three wolves stood in the centre of the common room. The birthday girl was being held by a boy in our year, and they had clearly just discovered they were mates. It wasn't rare that this would happen as eighteenth birthdays happened, but the girl the boy was dating was clearly quite upset about the situation. She was a wolf too, and was crying, blubbering that she thought they would have been mates.

I remember how on edge I was for my own eighteenth birthday.

"You told me you could feel it with me! It can't be her." She cried, accusing the boy.

He frowned, but cradled his mate from the abuse, focusing on only her now.

It was fascinating seeing how in an instant everything had changed for him. Before today, he had probably believed that his girlfriend was his everything; that he would do anything for her. Now, he was trying to drown her words out for his mate.

Mila's face was concerned and I nodded for her to get involved. The upset girlfriend seemed to be seconds away from yelling about mates in front of all of these humans. As Mila stepped closer, pack mates stepped out of the way and the group in conflict finally noticed her. The newly mated couple hung their heads but the scorned girl continued to cry, although she ceased her abuse yelling.

"You were aware of the dangers of entering committed relationships while still pre-mate age before engaging in one, I presume?" Mila kept her voice low enough that the humans couldn't hear, using her Alpha tone.

"Yes, Alpha." The girl sniffled, "But I thought it was him."

"But it isn't." Mila didn't miss a beat, "I'm sorry. Your mate will be elsewhere, but it isn't him. I suggest you head home for the day and recuperate."

The girl simply nodded and left, a few of her friends following behind to offer their comfort. The crowds of people who had gathered to witness what was going on shamelessly were still hanging around, their heads bowed, waiting to see what was going on.

"Move along." Mila barked to the crowd before turning to the couple, "And you two, I suggest you sort this out privately. But, erm, congratulations."

I laughed at that and she shot me a glare before gesturing for me to come back outside with her. My wolf was disapproving of the public spectacle those wolves had made, but respected Mila for handling it. She took a seat back down on the steps and I followed suit, dropping down with my still-empty, unwashed mug in hand.

"I hate acting like that." Mila sulked, "Telling people what to do and whatnot."

"And I hate being the runt of the pack."

"You know that's not what the Omega is, we've been over this. It's literally the opposite of that; why do you think everyone is scared of you?"

"Because of the big bad Alpha I hang out with." I teased, nudging her ribs to lighten the mood.

She smiled softly before letting it fall back off her face. She looked out towards the tree line, barely visible in the distance, just past the school gates. She seemed to be deep in thought, so I wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her to me gently, comforting her through whatever she was going through.

"Do you think I'll meet my mate?" Mila mused, playing with the string on her jumper.

"Are you worried about it?" I frowned.

"I mean, a little." Mila sighed, "I kind of expected them just to appear on my eighteenth birthday, like it did to that girl today. You become an adult and they just, I don't know, appear. Like they're just waiting until the moment they can meet you."

"Hey, think about it this way. That guy would have turned eighteen and didn't meet his mate straight away. It didn't mean anything was wrong, she just wasn't eighteen yet. He had to wait and it wasn't the end of the world. And hey, they got there eventually, right? It'll happen, Mila. I'm sure there's a reason for everything the moon goddess does."

"That's probably the most I've heard you speak, like, ever." Mila burst out laughing.

"I was only trying to comfort you." I huffed, pushing her away as she laughed.

"Never knew you had a sappy side. I thought you hate mates." Mila giggled.

"I do. I don't like that you don't get a choice when it comes down to it. I don't like that you're expected to commit and stay committed to a person you may or may never meet. People's feelings get hurt by it, like that girl today. Look at Aunty Ava and Uncle Oscar, they almost never got married because of the possibility Ava could have a mate out there somewhere. It's too reliant on trusting a possibility that exists in the subjunctive; it may, or may not, happen."

"I must admit, her and Oscar are perfect for each other, but maybe it was chosen that Ava's mate would pass or something so that they could stay together?"

"Then why not just make Oscar her mate." I shook my head, "I just don't get it. It's not for me."

"You'll feel different when you meet your mate." Mila shrugged, "It could be any day now."

My wolf didn't like her saying that and became restless again. Icarus didn't want to meet our mate just as much as I didn't want to; he just wanted to focus on our pack role. He liked the power and often saw those with mates as innately weaker, which I suppose I disagree with, but I can sympathise with not wanting to meet our mate.

"Same to you." I reminded her, "So don't threat it."

I hugged Mila goodbye after a while as she headed off to her Maths class. N.J and I often had Art together despite being in separate years since everyone just works on their own projects anyway, so I went to meet him there. N.J was more into photography, while I focused on sketches, but we still liked to work side by side in the studio.

"I had religious studies first thing," N.J chatted away, "I got a lollipop for my enthusiasm during the debate section. Teach' says I can blabber about any topic... I think that's a compliment, right?"

I shook my head, smiling slightly.

"Mila had to split up an altercation in the common room." I kept my voice low, but I knew people would overhear, "Some girls boyfriend found her mate and it wasn't her."

"Oh shit!" N.J exclaimed, "See, that's why I wont date before I meet my mate. Less messy that way."

"C'est la Vie." I shrugged, "Shit happens."

"God help your mate when you find them." N.J laughed, "You're noncommittal."

I shrugged it off and let my pencil hit the paper, mindlessly sketching lines until they formed whatever my brain was focusing on. I chatted occasionally to N.J about what he was doing with his photography project and listened to music with him, sharing earphones; one earbud in each of our ears. I was probably inspired by the weather because I ended up drawing a puddle in the grass, rain creating ripples in the puddle as they dropped down.

I love the rain.