Chapter 1

18 months later

“Oh yes! Harder baby!” The screams coming from behind the door of the bathroom were hard not to hear, even over the loud music blasting throughout the house. If I didn’t have to pee so badly, I would not be standing here listening to this crap. I didn’t even want to be at this party, but Jen forced me to. She said I needed to get out of my funk that I have been in since the start of our senior year at the Academy for Exceptional Supernatural Beings. She was very adamant that I wasn’t going to spend the night before my birthday sitting in my dorm reading ahead in my classes and I was going to have fun instead.

Things have changed so much since we started the academy almost two years ago. Our first year was great if you don’t count how many times Aaron and I fought and Jen and I fought over Aaron and I fighting. It all came to a head the night of the end of summer bash before senior year. Aaron and I had gotten into a fight yet again about my virginity. It had become a constant fight between us because he felt left out that his buddies were all getting laid while he was stuck dating a prude. So here is what happened…

Flashback

“Aaron, stop.” I say between kisses. Aaron was trying to put his hand up my skirt. We had just made up a few days ago from our last fight about this. He said he was sorry and that he understood. I should have known it was a lie just like all the other times. When he didn’t show any signs of stopping I shove him in the chest pushing him away from me a few inches. I say, “Aaron, I said stop. You know I am not ready for that yet. Please don’t push me.”

“Come on baby. I wasn’t going to try to have s*x. There are other ways to give each other pleasure without you having to lose your virginity. Then you won’t feel bad if I don’t turn out to be your mate. See, baby, we both win.” Aaron purred as he kissed his way down my neck to my marking spot where he started to suck.

“Aaron, I said STOP!” I pushed him away again and this time he didn’t try to move back in. “Aaron, you know how I feel about this. We have been through this. I want to save all of those firsts for my mate. I can’t offer much of anything else, but that is the one thing I can offer my mate. Please don’t push it anymore, otherwise we are done.” I say shakily.

“You can’t be f*****g serious Ari. You are almost eighteen years old. No man cares about if his mate is a virgin or not anymore. No wolf can withstand the call of nature. It isn’t natural. We are a s****l species. Hell the Alpha of our pack encourages the youth of the packhouse to have a healthy s****l appetite before settling down with their mates. If the Alpha approves, why can’t you? Or are you really the frigid b***h all the guys say you are? I’m over this s**t right now . I need a drink!” Aaron says and then storms off out of the secluded corner we had found ourselves only to be swallowed up by the crowd of our dancing peers.

I felt the tingling in my nose and the sting of my eyes. Those traitorous tears are threatening to fall again. They have fallen one too many times because of that man. One day it will be the last straw. I take a deep breath and hold it for ten seconds and then let it out, feeling the urge to cry pass and allowing anger to make its way to the surface. How dare he treat me like that. He would blow his top like a damn volcano if I said to him what he said to me. This one sided s**t is about to be put to an end.

Now that the threat of tears is under control, I leave the corner and go in search of my bestie to make sure her night is going better than mine is. The last party we went to she drank so much she started to serenade her parents when she got home well past curfew earning her a month's grounding, but it was hilarious and we still laugh about it.

I found Jen exactly where I had left her. She was on the makeshift dance floor shaking what her mama gave her to the beat of the music. I don’t typically join her dancing because Aaron doesn’t like it when other guys stare at me, but what the hell. I want to have fun for once. I waited for the right pause in the music and jumped in and started to dance along with Jen.

After a couple of dances Jen and I make our way off the dance floor and head towards the kitchen where the drinks are. “Ugh, we have to go the other way. They have the beer pong tables blocking the main doorway to the kitchen.” Jen complains. So we turn around and go down the hallway that will curve around to the back entrance of the kitchen. As we were following the hallway a door up ahead opened up and we watched as a girl finished buttoning up her pants and straightening out the rest of her clothes.

I looked towards Jen to roll my eyes and make a comment when I saw the horror in Jen’s expression as she turned towards me. She tried to get me to turn the other way, but she didn’t succeed in time. It was too late. My heart was already shattered. Aaron walked out of the same door, and was very obviously putting his d**k back in his pants. Our eyes lock when he finally looks up. I don’t know what I was expecting to find in his expression. Guilt maybe? Remorse? Regret? I saw nothing except a smirk of pure satisfaction.

“Ari, babe. It’s good you see this now. I am a male and I have needs. If you can’t meet those I will continue to find someone who will. Now we can both be happy.” Aaron said, sounding like he found the solution to all of our problems and I should be praising him for it.

I couldn’t stop the tears from falling from my eyes this time. This was it. This was the last of this I could handle. He finally did it. He killed us. He went out and strangled the last bit of life that our relationship had left. There is no reviving this. There is no coming back from this moment. A loud smack broke me out of my thoughts. I looked up and saw Aaron holding his hand to his face and a furious Jen standing in front of him screaming, “You are pathetic!”

Aaron recovered from his shock and he pushed Jen away from him roughly saying, “I’m pathetic? No you dumb b***h. What is pathetic is that frigid b***h thinking that any man would be loyal when she doesn’t put out. Men have needs and they won’t stay with someone who won’t show them a good time.”

This time it was me who landed a hit to Aaron’s face, but unlike Jen my daddy trained me to be a fighter and Aaron found quickly that he was on the wrong end of my right hook. “Screw you! You are a pig! I should have seen this coming a long time ago. I had just hoped that you had more respect for me. I was obviously wrong about that. I hope that when you meet your mate that she takes one look at you and rejects you on the spot. She would deserve so much better than an entitled prick like you. We are done Aaron. Do you hear me? No more. I pray by the time you finally wake up from your delusions of male grandeur that your d**k hasn’t rotted off from rotten pussy.”

I turned around and dragged Jen with me right out of the door and to my car. We both got in and as soon as I was far enough away I pulled into a gas station parking lot, put my car in park and sobbed my heart out. Jen turned off my car and wrapped me in her arms letting me cry on her shoulder as she tried to soothe me with encouraging words. It took me about thirty minutes to slow down my tears. By the time I had calmed down enough to talk I didn’t even know what to say.

What does someone say when their boyfriend of two years is caught cheating, and then makes it seem like it was a good thing for them? Who even thinks that way? “Come on hun. Swap me seats. You are in no condition to drive. I will get us back to the dorms. We can crash in your room. Knowing you, you probably have your whole room unpacked and ready for Monday.” Jen tries to joke to cheer me up. She is the worst at telling jokes. Her jokes tend to be worse than dad jokes. Jen is your stereotypical blond. My dad teases that sometimes he wonders if Jen would suddenly fly away because of all the air in her head.

I crack a small broken smile and get out of the driver's seat and make my way around to the passenger side. Jen stopped me in the middle of our journey and grabbed me into a tight comforting hug. I whispered, “Thank you.”

End of flashback

The door finally opened, bringing me out of my memories, and due to my unpleasant luck just thinking about the devil and it conjured him up. Aaron walked out of the bathroom much like I had seen him six months ago. His partner of choice this time however was different. No surprise there. Ever since we broke it off six months ago Aaron had gone off the deep end. He was one of the biggest manwhores in school now. Which is saying something considering how a majority of Alphas are. I just rolled my eyes at him as he said, “Waiting your turn Ari? Too bad for you I don’t do pity f***s, and that is what you would be.”

I pushed my way past him and into the bathroom. Slamming the door behind me and feeling a smidge of satisfaction when I heard Aaron curse because I had gotten his fingers in the door jam in the process. By the time I was finished in the bathroom I was fuming. Aaron has turned into a right bastard. He is worse than the Alphas thinking that he is entitled to something. I walked out of the bathroom and made my way towards the makeshift bar and grabbed a glass. By the way the drink is affecting my senses I know that it has been laced with wolfsbane. Alcohol doesn’t affect shifters like it does humans. We need a ridiculously high amount to just feel tipsy let alone get drunk. So to counteract that problem some crazy wolf decided to experiment and discovered that while wolfsbane is deadly in large doses if you use just a tiny portion it will only dull your senses and block your wolf out for a few hours. The more administered the worse the effects would be and eventually death if too much is consumed. Adding just enough of it to the alcohol allows us to get drunk for a few hours.

I started to chug glass after glass. I lost track after the fifth one. I don’t normally drink. I am usually the responsible one. I have been known to pull Jen away from a party kicking and screaming when she has had too much. After I finished who knows how many glasses I decided that I had had enough and left the empty cup on the bar. I walked away from the bar, well more like I stumbled, and made my way towards the bathroom. I get to the bathroom with minimal trouble and do my business. I have my hand on the knob of the door about to leave the bathroom after washing my hands when I feel that same tingling sensation over my body I felt almost two years ago and a sharp pain in my head. The pain crescendoed until I felt a figurative snap in my mind. It felt as if something that was missing was finally returned to me.

The sensation faded and I shrugged it off and opened the door. The moment I stepped into the hall a faint smell caught my attention. I sniffed the air some more to try and see if I could catch where the smell was coming from. My feet started to move of their own accord and took me in the direction the smell was coming from. I didn’t know what it was, but one thing I did know, whatever that smell belongs to is mine! The smell of vanilla with the mix of a fresh spring rain filled my senses driving me crazy.

My feet carried me to an open door into a bedroom. I walked in the room looking around trying to find where the smell was coming from. I heard the door slam closed and heard the click of the lock setting in place. I looked towards the door and saw the most handsomest man my eyes have ever been blessed to look upon. He was very tall, maybe six foot seven or eight. His face was symmetrical and his nose was straight and narrow. His eyes are a gorgeous mix of blue and gold. His lips formed a perfect bow and were thick and begging for my lips to touch them. His jawline is covered in a five o’clock shadow making him look older and sexier if that were even possible. His body was sculpted by the gods. His large muscles were barely contained behind the shirt he was wearing. His pants snug around his thick thighs. My eyes landed on the very large bulge formed in the front of his pants.

My mouth watered as I raked my eyes along his body. My eyes finally land on his and I see lust in his eyes and something else that I can’t decipher at this moment. My eyes blinked closed against their will and I rushed to open them hoping that I didn’t just imagine that fine specimen of a man. I open my eyes and am pleasantly surprised that he is now standing in front of me. I see him lean towards me and I don’t know what came over me, but I jumped into his arms.

I felt a soft tingling sensation everywhere his skin touched mine. It was a very faint feeling, but it made my body feel incredible. The little shocks were being sent straight to my dripping core. I should have felt embarrassed that even I could smell my arousal but I wasn’t. His lips found mine in a desperate kiss, and all reason flew out the window. I forgot that I wanted to save all my firsts for my mate. I forgot where I was. I forgot who I was. Then the only thing I knew was the feel of his body pressed against mine. I have had several kisses before with Aaron and I had thought those were amazing, but they were nothing compared to this man. His kiss is magical as corny as that sounds.

I don’t know when or how, but I ended up laying naked on my back on the bed with a very naked man hovering over the top of me. He began to trail light kisses down my chest spending a few moments torturing my hard n*****s with gentle nips and suckles while his hand tweaked and twisted the other. His kisses trailed down my stomach and right to my dripping core. My face flamed red when I watched him close his eyes and inhale deeply. His groan of satisfaction cooled the flames of embarrassment a bit. The moment his tongue made contact with my clit those flames were cooled completely, but the flames of my desire were fanned into a fierce blazing inferno.

The sounds that left my mouth were unrecognizable. I felt him insert two fingers into my core and my stomach tightened into a tight coil ready to snap at any moment. The sensation was strange at first, but soon the pressure in my stomach built higher and higher until finally it snapped when he lightly bit my clit, sending me crashing over the edge into the pit of pleasure. I cried out my release as my body convulsed with shockwave after shockwave of my first ever orgasm.

My eyes were closed, lost in the waves of euphoria when they snapped open when he said, “Open your eyes gattina (kitten). I want you to look into the eyes of il tuo compagno (your mate) while he claims you.” I didn’t understand some of what he said, but my eyes locked with his, and in the next moment I felt him thrust to the hilt inside of me. I screamed out in pain and he stopped immediately.

That hurt like a b***h! I could feel my overstretched walls screaming out in protest. The burning pain was excruciating. I could feel my tears streaming down my face. I heard him curse and ask, “s**t! Gattina, are you a virgin?” I nodded my head and closed my eyes waiting for the pain to subside. “I’m sorry bambina (baby). I would have done that a lot differently had I known. Relax and you will feel good soon. I promise.” I felt him pepper kisses across my face kissing my tears away. After a few minutes I felt my body relax and wanted him to move. I started to wiggle my hips a little and was pleased that the pain was gone and instead pleasure remained. He must have figured that out too because he started to slowly thrust in and out of me.

The feel of his large member scraping against my inner walls sent waves of pleasure coursing through my body. “Fu.uck you are so tight. You feel so good to me bambina.” His words only sent my pleasure surging higher and higher. His thrusts became quicker and harder until he was pounding into me at a frantic pace. The only sounds that registered in my ears were of our moans and the smacking of flesh as our bodies came together.

He pulled out of me as my release was starting to build to the edge causing me to cry out in protest. How dare he take his co.ck away from me when I was so close! My thoughts were soon replaced with mind blowing pleasure as he flipped me onto my hands and knees. Placing me where he wanted me before he rubbed my sensitive clit with his fingers for a few seconds before plunging a finger in my pus.sy thrusting a few times before removing it. Before I knew what happened he thrust back into me and I felt his finger covered in my juices playing with my back hole. I was so lost in my own pleasure that it didn’t register at first that he was slowly inserting his finger into my as.s thrusting in time with his co.ck in my pus.sy.

I felt my release just at the tip of the precipice as his thrusts became erratic and I felt his member grow impossibly larger until he thrust one last time sending me over the edge and screaming out my release. He growled out a mighty roar as I felt spurt after spurt of his seed coating my insides. I started to squirm when I felt him still growing larger inside me and then I screamed out again as another orgasm rips through my body in time to the throbs of his c**k that was knotted inside of me. He also roared out with another release. His claws come out placing on both of my hips four slashes each. With each new spurt of c*m I felt his member grow smaller until finally he grew flaccid within me. I felt him place a light kiss on my neck at my marking spot sending another jolt adding to the aftershocks of my orgasm as he said, “Presto, mia compagna, ti segnerò e ti farò mia regina. Ti amo gattina.” (Soon my mate, I will mark you and make you my queen. I love you kitten.)

He pulled himself from my body and collapsed beside me on the bed. We were both trying to catch our breath and I was fighting a losing battle trying to keep my eyes open. As I felt him wrap his arms around me and pull me close. “Sleep kitten. You will need your rest.” If I would have been in my right mind I would have realized what had happened. I would have recognized what his knotting inside of me signified. Instead I was lost in a cloud of bliss as I lost the fight with consciousness.