Graduation came sooner than I was prepared for. Not that this meant work for this nearly 4-month-pregnant chick. (I'm definitely over the halfway mark, and bigger than most 5-monthers my size.) No, the last week of school was mostly practicing trying not to trip on stage, and a few bits of extra credit for those who were close to passing, so no one would be left behind if they could help it.

The craziest thing I caught was one of the girls I've been told not to fight sticking her tongue down Nathan's throat.

Now, in the normal course of things, I'd be pissed, and rightly so.

But you have to time shit right—and it has to look the part.

I was away from Nathaniel to go to the bathroom because I pee all day. He doesn't let me go alone but doesn't walk inside, normally. Well, that means I walk out to this chick snogging my mate...and I didn't feel a damn thing until I was opening the door. So that means it was timed literally for my benefit.

Even funnier, Nathaniel's arms were still crossed between them. He hadn't even had time to prove what he would do with his hands by the time I stepped out. Wolves are fast, but I guess he was inattentive, as usual. He's not the one he's worried about being assaulted in hallways. He's gonna learn today.

Yeah, his hands came up, and he pushed her away. Of course, he didn't carefully place his hands, so he copped a feel while he tossed her on her ass. He didn't even look at me, trying to gulp in enough oxygen to settle himself down.

Nate pointed at her, wagging his finger like he was a grandfather and not a very stressed and horny 18-year-old. "If I were a...a...girl, everyone would push me into charging your ass with sexual assault, Freya. Stay the fuck away from me. Oh, hey, babe."

Now Nathan isn't much on endearments, and he knows it irritates me to be called babe...but it is a cue of sorts. I reached up and patted his head, and puckered my lips to respond, "She got you all riled up, didn't she?"

Of course, this is when the bitch starts trying to insinuate crap that couldn't have possibly happened. I held up 1 finger, shushed her, and turned to my mate. "Well?"

"Not all...I can walk but..."

I put down my hand because I needed to dig in my purse, and miss bitch starts sputtering like a badly tuned lawnmower. I'm still ignoring her, as I rummaged through for my traveling toothbrush and toothpaste. "Nathan, go get that Diesely Tinge out your mouth. I don't want to share spit with this girl."

He took what I offered, nodded his head, and went into the nearest men's room.

That's when I rounded on my would-be rival. "You know that he has refused to let me beat your ass, right?"

That got a smirk out of the girl like she won something.

I just shook my head, "Look, all you idiots do is increase the number of times that I'm obliged to have sex at school. Do you like pushing him to fuck me all damn day?"

Obliged, my ass. I encourage this shit.

"So, he thinks of me while doing it. That's pathetic.'

First, if true, the only person that this is pathetic for is Nathaniel, not me. He's capable of doing as he pleases. And he pleases in not stressing his baby mama out. Perhaps if we didn't have a child on the way, he'd stray more. I don't get to test that for another 3 months—probably even further out. But I doubt it's true. I'm the one who gets to see him freak out because of what he's done to himself.

But these girls really don't want to get that grown boys can be terrified of them enough to go against their natural attractions. An erection is no more consent than your clothing was asking for it. Now, most of the time in a relationship, couples do give overall consent because it's damned annoying to ask "Can I do this? What about this? This?" for hours on end. Totally not a turn-on.

What doesn't help is that when guys are single, some want the attention enough to where they don't press charges. Or they at least don't care enough to go beyond using the threat of cops for dumb arguments. Oh. This chick's going to give me head? Whatever.

Nathaniel had been that asshole who didn't give a damn.

That isn't Nate midset, now. He was genuinely upset, but wanted people out of his business. A few girls weren't reading his change in behavior as being done with games, but as if he wanted his attraction. So, that's got this chick here thinking she has some worth to Nathan because he's distressed.

Jeez lady, lay off whatever magazine you're reading that's pushing you to be insane.

How many mates admit to attraction to others? I mean, we don't talk about mine as much because there are things that must be left unsaid right now, but him? He turned to me with unwanted desires from the beginning. I would love for it to be a hell of a lot less frequently the source, but it is what it is. I honestly expected far worse behavior, with the shit I'd been told over the years.

Or maybe this is all me.

I just shook my head and went back to ignoring the girl, which caused her to start further shit.

Of course, Nathaniel had called in the cavalry. Chuy stepped into my frame of reference...or more accurately into hers. He was practically breathing down her neck.

She shivered midst-rant. Oh, it's been a while since the boys have had a chase, what with most of them being mated. But Chuy was free. For a brief second, he had a look of unholy glee—they've missed this. He dropped his voice and practically purred. "Freya, there are plenty of available men who could rock your world as long as you like. Leave that old boring couple alone."

She blushed hard—I think she even sagged a hair, knees buckling on her. Not that her voice showed it. "What are you offering to make it worth my time?"

"I can keep you on the edge of climax for a solid hour, at least."

Her voice was hoarse. "When?"

"Be good the rest of the day, and I'll try for 2."

I thought she was going to pass out when he moved away. And that fucker winked at me—taking one for the team, or reveling in the excuse...or hell, an attempt to mess with me through an inconsequential girl?

I can't keep track of these guys. No, not a single one of them would cross their Alpha, but these creatures were made for sex—nearly as much as I am.

She waited for him to clear the hall before she sank down on a nearby bench, muttering to herself, "What just happened?"

Thankfully Nathaniel showed up around that point, cutting off my need to tell her "good luck". He kissed my temple, then led me further away from the still-muttering girl. "So, what did I miss?"

"Hay-zeuss just kree-stowed her little mind, offering her one prolonged and epic orgasm to leave us the hell alone."

"Ugh, why did he wait this late in the year to make that deal with her?"

Now, he said that as he dragged me into an abandoned classroom/storage room for a session that took most of lunch to sort out.

Go teamwork.

~~~

The rest of the week was...interesting. They did a Senior Slideshow—pictures of what the past 4 years of our lives looked like, from the viewpoint of the Yearbook class. I wasn't in a single one.

Which didn't bother me. Honestly, it didn't.

But the amount of pictures of the Senior boys was staggering: each a picture of Nathan, Stephen, Richard, and Barlen....and they didn't stop there. It was a chronological capsule of their conquests over the years interspersed with everyday school events...up until me.

There isn't a picture of me at all from the point where I change these guy's life. There are several shots of Richard and Amancia, once they became a couple.

See, it wasn't the fact that I was left out, it was everything else surrounding that fact.

I got up—calmly, this was not a public tantrum—and left the auditorium to sit on a bench in the hallway. Of course, where I go, Nathan goes. Even when I don't wish it. But ever since I was attacked just because he left campus for a day, he couldn't give me that space I desperately needed. I wasn't often moody during pregnancy, but I wanted a mood at this moment.

And he's in my head. So, he leaned up against this hall's lockers, watching me have my own quiet little pity party because someone out there didn't understand that I was important to the pack.

That's it. "Nate?"

"Yes, my love?"

"How often does my mood affect the pack?"

"Before the ceremony? They have to be around you to see your attitude. But you are the very heart of us. If you find yourself disliking someone's child, the parents may turn on it for the sake of the pack. Lunas can make or break us in that way. And a terrified leader will test his mate, to make sure that she brings out the best in them by doing the dumbest things."

I brushed that aside—I think I've seen enough of his dumb-ass behaviors to get that they could be wielded with intent, although he was far from that conniving. "What about now?"

"You've always been alone, honestly a bit terrified of all this, right?"

"Yeah..."

"I've never seen you lonely in a crowd, longing for your pack, yet feeling cut off like this. You're missing the connection you're supposed to have by now. No outsider could touch you if you had the pack's bond, not even taunting you, as that slideshow appeared to do. It's another piece of why we can't hold this off forever."

With that, he sat down next to me and took my face in his hands. I guess he was tired of me not looking at him. "You are a tough woman. Too tough for your own good. Allow yourself to be weak, ok? It gives me something to work for."

I nodded against his palms. "I need you." Normally it was Nathan who said this, as anxiety mounts over his past coming home to roost, like Freya earlier this week. But this was different. "Not in a trip to a closet kind of way. I want to be alone with you, not caught up in our positions."

"Then we'll ditch." Nathan smiled at that thought. Probably wanted to get out of the water balloon fight this afternoon, by the looks of him.

He made a call as we pulled off campus, booking us the same cabin we spent time in a bit before his birthday.

He reclaimed me—that is, bit me all over again as if I had never been marked before.

I managed to talk to him for a short while afterward. "Why did you do..."

He shrugged. "Our bond hasn't had some of the depth it's needed. You should be hearing my thoughts, and you shouldn't be feeling lonely. This is a psychic bond, after all..."

I fell into a dreamless slumber, thereafter.

~~~

Graduation was a good spring day, and yay, the slinky dress still fit me. Not that you could see it under a Nun's gown. They decided to hold the ceremony at about 4 in the afternoon, outdoors. Not a big deal.

Since Nate's a Hall and I'm a Fields, there are only 2 guys in between us in line, both of them Jacksons, possibly even twins, but I really didn't know them well. Couldn't get to know them with my mate right there.

It was going at a boring pace, but eventually, Nathan climbed onto the stage and shook the Principal's hand. Then he was off, and the next guy was up, and the next. Then I had to get up there. I was doing my handshake when something huge dive-bombed me. I looked up in time to see a Condor fighting to regain height after grabbing my cap right off my head.

Not even a moment later, the man whose hand I just shook was out cold. Whichever Jackson was in front of me went flailing backward, struggling with his own buzzard until he turned and tripped over me. Something sharp stabbed me in the ribs. I looked down as we both fell over, to see a blade sticking in my side.

It was more than I could take. I noped the heck out of that reality as I passed out.