The Alpha's Broken Witch

Crossing Fate

Human.

His mate was a human.

How was that even possible?

No one had heard of such a thing in the last several decades. There were rumors that long ago, some of the shifters had found mates among the humans, but no one had witnessed such a thing among any of the living generations. So how was it possible that he would find his own mate now, and that she was human besides?

It had to be a mistake. Surely, the Moon Goddess would not be so cruel as to pair him with a weak human when his pack needed a strong Luna with all they were currently facing.

At first, he had been annoyed that someone had been clumsy enough to run into him. He had turned around to snap at the person only to find a small, female form on the ground before him. It was not until he bent down to help her that her scent had hit him full force. It had been a light smattering of vanilla with hint of citrus that he could not place. That should have been his warning, but then when the girl had looked up the world had fallen away.

Kylen could have sworn he knew every single student here in the school, and yet he could not remember her. Those eyes, one hazel and the other almost violet were extremely unique and yet completely enthralling. For a moment, he had forgotten how to breathe.

She had stuttered out an apology, but that had been the least of his worries. He had known, no matter what happened in the future, whether he accepted or rejected her, he needed to know everything about her. When his hand had touched her arm, his fate was sealed, the raw surge of lightening that danced along his flesh and brought him equal parts of arousal and soothing calm had brought him to heel. Unable to help it, he'd used his alpha command to try and get her name...

Instead, she had run. There was the instinctive urge of his wolf to chase her. To barrel down the hall and yank her back against him to slake his need of her. Where had she been all this time? Who was she? Why had he not even known of her?

Curling his fingers into fists he fought the urge. In public, he could not afford to be seen by humans, which meant he had to control his baser urges. His eyes closed, a single breath dragging in before being released slowly. Allowing the moment to replay in his mind again and again. She had flinched away from him, had he hurt her unknowingly. The idea had his wolf howling in sorrow and beating at his mind to be free and go find his mate.

However, it also allowed him to notice the smaller details he had not noticed before. Why had her scent been so faint? He had just barely caught wind of it under the scents of others clinging to her skin. Who was it? Why did their scent seem to dominate her own? How difficult would it be to separate her from whomever was close enough to leave their mark?

A growl left his throat as he slowly moved to open his eyes. The blue color having given way to the dark, almost black color of his wolf, Coda. Lifting his head, he caught the faint trace of her scent once more and moved to follow it down the hall.

"Kylen, are you okay?" The voice of his beta, Erik resonated over the mind link. His best friend and comrade for years, they had a bond few would understand. More like brother's than alpha and subbordinate.

"I found her." The simple phrase was sent back as he came to a stop outside of one of the classrooms towards the back of the building. Shifting slowly, Ky quietly moved to take up residence on one side of the door, peering silently in through the window. Impatiently his eyes scanned the room, settling on the female he had stalked this way to find. What he saw, made him grimace in confusion.

"You found your mate? She's here, at school? Why didn't you sense her this morning at the packhouse?" Just like that, Erik launched into his line of questions. While such attention to detail would serve him well as Beta in the future, at the moment, it was more than a little annoying.

"She's human. Something's not right." He shot back just as quickly.

His gaze locked on the girl in the classroom. No one would notice unless they were actively looking at her, but the girl was sitting curled in her desk, with her knees brought up to her chest. Seated almost in the corner of the room, the lighting flickered as she rested in the darkest part of the room. Never once did her head lift, or her chin come up to peer at the front of the room, almost as if she did not exist to anyone in that room at all. Where other students leaned over and spoke, or whispered to one another, she remained a solitary figure that no one really seemed to notice. Her hand moved in front of her, showing her steadily pushing her pen across the paper to take notes, but no one even acknowledged her, not even the teacher at the front of the room.

The thought made him angry. How had she gone so long unnoticed by him and the rest of the school? Sure, his kind didn't necessarily make a habit of hanging out with humans, but they didn't disregard them completely. That was a sure fire way to get more attention than they wanted. Yet, this female seemed to blur, living just outside of anyone's notice, because Kylen could swear he had never seen her before.

"Maybe you're wrong and she's not your mate, but just someone close to her?" Erik tried to offer helpfully.

"No, it's her. I touched her and there was no denying the reaction of my body to hers." Kylen offered, his eyes fixated on the female as she shifted in her chair, wincing again.

Was she hurt? Had he done that damage unintentionally?

Her discomfort was eating at him as she watched her careful movements to try and readjust in her seat to ease the pain.

"Well, congratulations, I guess. What will you do now?"

"I don't know, Erik." Kylen answered honestly, his head tilting as he watched the female quietly. He became aware of the teacher staring out and seeing him. Noting that it was Mr. Niall, one of the wolves of his pack, he sent the man a nod and a silent command to proceed as if nothing were happening.

"Well, who is she?" Hearing the question from his Beta, Ky frowned. How did you answer something so complicated and yet so simple.

"That's just it, I don't know."