The change ( his mate)

Chapter 3: Getting to know her

Grayson

It had taken me forever to find the f.ucking class, I’d run up the stairs only to be told it was downstairs, then I’d searched every damn room and by the time I’d found it I was late and I’d learnt it was only down the hall from the entrance.

I’d cursed Leo mentally when I’d had to walk through the giggling females and the stares. I’d ignored them, but when the class ended and we left the two young blonde girls were waiting outside for me, they asked if I was single and I’d grunted a reply hoping they’d leave, they hadn’t, they asked for my number, which I said no to then they’d grown offended and said I was a player guy who was only interested in s.luts, their words not mine, I didn’t even know what the word meant until I’d goggled it after.

I’d stormed back to the small apartment that was a ten minute walk from the college and I’d only calmed down when I’d ordered myself a party bucket KFC, I wanted to hunt too, but it was too risky being so close to the city and the humans.

I was heading to class again today and hoped it would be better, this time I’d be early and avoid the crowd. I’d entered ten minutes early to be safe, but saw the girl from last night already sitting in the same place at the back.

She had been the only one who hadn’t looked up at me and stared or flirted, and today was the same, she ignored me and I gladly sat down at the other back table near her, she was quiet unlike the others and if I had to sit near someone then I preferred that it was her.

She was wearing makeup today, and didn’t last night and I wondered why today she was. When I was a teenager, Leo explained about makeup and girls when I’d come home from school confused about why the girl at school who’d asked me out had started crying when I asked what the flappy thing on her eyelashes was and pulled it off.

Apparently it was a fake eyelash, which made no sense to me, but whatever. I didn’t understand the makeup thing or looks, attractiveness meant nothing to me, I didn’t understand it, all I knew was old and young and I wanted a young and healthy mate like myself, looks didn’t matter and no amount of Leo trying to explain it to me could make me understand.

The only reason I paid any attention to the quiet girl was because I could, I didn’t need to worry about her batting her eyes at me or her noticing me looking over.

Her dark brown hair was in a low side plait that stopped just above her b.reasts. She had a very light olive skin tone and a small button nose with rose bud lips, I didn’t know why I was taking this all in and storing it away, I guess it was the first time I’d been able to examine a female without her thinking it meant more.

Maybe I’d been staring too long because she glanced over at me with almond shaped hazel eyes and quickly looked away again blushing. Maybe she was like me and didn’t like attention on her, if she could give me the decency of not staring then I could do the same for her so I stopped.

We did some written work for a while and then the teacher wanted us to pair up and make bread, f.ucking bread, why did we need to learn to make bread? The only thing useful for me to learn was to cook meat without burning it, I’d be a laughing stock if I went home and baked bread for everyone.

I grumbled and snarled to myself and scraped the chair back, I was surrounded by humans so nobody paid attention to the loud noise. I didn’t want a partner, but I saw a blonde female not much older than me heading my way with a seductive smile, f.uck that, I tried to join the man, but an older lady reached him before I could, blondie was gaining on me so I spun and quickly rushed over to the quiet girl, she was the next best bet at this point.

“I’ll work with you.” I didn’t mean it to sound so adamant, like she didn’t have a choice. Luckily she nodded with a smile and blondie left me alone.

We got to work with the bowls, scales and ingredients the teacher had provided. The whole thing felt stupid and like a waste of time when I could be tracking this mutt, we didn’t know who it was, but how the victims had been killed let us know it was a werewolf kill and packs didn’t kill humans, no one did even mutts knew that was a no no.

Whoever this was seemed to be targeting females and he wasn’t trying to kill them, their throats weren’t torn, they weren’t eaten, but every victim so far had the same distinct werewolf bite. He was trying to turn them.

Whoever it was, was an i.diot, he could have safely traveled to America or Australia to find himself a female werewolf to be mated to, instead he was too lazy and was trying to make himself one.

There weren’t any females here in England, or the United Kingdom at all. I knew when it became too much and I really craved a mate I’d have to travel to try and find her. I wasn’t ready for that yet.

“Flour.”

I pulled myself from my thoughts at the voice and looked down at the quiet girl annoyed she’d jolted me from my thoughts. I saw the flare of anger flash in her eyes in return to me glaring at her, I didn’t see just anger, it was rage and I understood that look as one survivor to another, something had happened to her to give her that rage.

Now I was curious about her, I wondered what she’d been through to get that look.

“We need to measure the flour,” she said.

Oh, that’s what she’d been trying to say. I passed her the flour and she poured it onto the scales until it was the right amount and then she made me tip it into the bowl. We added two tablespoons of salt, she did one and I did one, she was insistent we took turns so it was fair. When we finished adding all the ingredients she mixed it all and then passed it to me for my turn.

We cut the dough in half and she gave me my half to knead and s.hit. When it was ready I tried shaping it by rolling it into a ball and it rolled off the table. “F.uck!” I tried to grab it, but it thunked onto the floor. Quiet girl found it funny, and quickly picked it up for me. “Ten second rule,” she smiled.

“Isn’t it five second rule?”

“Not for me,” she grinned.

We put them in the oven and while we waited I asked her, “what’s your name?”

Blushing she didn’t make eye contact when she said, “Lara.”

I gave a nod and replied, “I’m Grayson.”

“Grayson, that’s a nice name, I’ve not heard of that before.”

I shrugged and asked, “how old are you?”

“Twenty-two, you?”

“Twenty-four. What will you do when you get home?” I didn’t know why I was asking all these stupid questions, I guess I wanted to know more about her, I wanted to know what had put that rage there, plus she was easy to talk to, she didn’t ruin it by throwing herself at me or flirting.

She blushed harder and said, “not much, probably just go to bed. You?”

I couldn’t help but smile, she was like me, I could tell she didn’t like small talk and was mirroring the answers back to me. “Same.”

When the bread was done we were supposed to eat it and try it, I wasn’t sure if it was appropriate to after I’d dropped it on the floor earlier, I didn’t care, but the humans might. Lara saw me struggling and leaning over she took a piece of my bread and ate it smiling. Smiling back I took a bite too, it was good.

The class ended and like me Lara waited until everyone else left before getting up to leave too. Grabbing my bag I slung it over my shoulder and rushed to catch up to her outside. “Where you parked?” I asked.

I saw a flash of something in her eyes when I asked that, so quick I didn’t have time to decipher it. “I don’t drive.”

“You walk alone in the dark?” I asked surprised.

“I get the bus, it’s not far to the bus stop.”

“Let me walk you there, you shouldn’t walk alone.”

She smiled shyly and said, “ok.”

Did I really care that much? Honestly no, my pack was all I cared about, the instinct to protect them and my alpha outweighed anything else, outsiders didn’t even cross my mind, I didn’t have that human reaction of seeing someone in an accident and running over to help, they weren’t pack.

I walked her to the bus stop because I knew there was a mutt going around biting females and we couldn’t risk exposure, humans knew nothing about the supernatural world and we didn’t want them knowing anytime soon.

We walked mostly in silence and when we reached the bus stop her bus was pulling up. “Thank you,” she smiled.

“Sure, see you tomorrow.” She nodded and got onto the bus.

When it pulled away I walked around for a while, I wasn’t being a weirdo just lurking around late at night, I was looking for any sign of the mutt. No one was around so I used my nose to scent the air, it was quiet but I didn’t want to risk getting down on all fours and sniffing the ground like a weirdo to others.

I couldn’t smell anything near the bus stop, I walked along slowly making my way home as I sniffed the air and looked around for tracks in dirt or anything that even remotely resembled a werewolf. There was nothing. When I got to my apartment I dropped down onto the gray sofa and called Leo. “Grayson,” he greeted after the third ring.

“Alpha, what’s up.”

“You’re the one who called me, so you tell me.”

“Right, not much, I’ve been looking around and sniffing out for any other werewolves, but there’s nothing, I don’t think I’m going to find anything, so can I come back?”

“It’s only the second day, the bodies have been found close by the college so stay patient and keep trying.”

I sighed and kicked the wheeled desk chair in front of me sending it wheeling into the wall.

“Grayson, try not to destroy anything or you’ll be paying for the damages.”

I rolled my eyes but muttered, “fine. I could really do with a run and some raw meat. I can feel myself getting restless.”

“It’s too risky, try to hold off for a few more days, do you have my shirt with you?”

I inwardly cringed when he asked that but mumbled, “yeah.”

“Good, if you get too restless use my scent to calm yourself.”

“How long am I supposed to wait until I change? My tempers only going to get worse if I don’t soon.”

“How long since your last change?”

I counted off in my head and said, “four days.”

He was silent down the line for a minute and then said, “ok, if it’s safe to do so change tomorrow night, but try not to go hunting anything bigger than a rabbit, the last thing we need is you hunting a deer and running it into a road and someone seeing you chase it.”

“Yeah, yeah, keep discreet, I know.”

Leo started talking about football after that and I made crackling nosies down the line and said, “s.hit, I’m losing you.” Then I hung up. Football bored me, I didn’t understand why people wanted to watch other people running around kicking a ball.

Ok, so I would change to wolf form tomorrow night and hunt a few rabbits. It would be easier for me to try and track this mutt in wolf form too, I’d be able to sniff the ground more easily.

We didn’t change under the full moon like the movies portrayed, but we were connected to the moon and its cycle, for example if we didn’t change at least three times a month then the change would force itself upon us on a full moon and tear its way through our body.

I enjoyed being a wolf more than anyone so I always changed almost every other day, the pack changed at least twice a week too to stay in control. Mutts were wolves who didn’t want to be in a pack or accept what they were so they would have the change forced upon them every full moon whether they liked it or not.

Maybe that was why a lot of them ended up in a life of crime, not changing regularly meant we’d start losing control over ourselves the longer we went without changing, the wolf wanting out, we’d become more irritable and temperamental, more hungry than usual and not for human food, but meat, raw meat, so it was a safe and wise idea to change as often as we could.