He Is Mine

It's Okay

*Listen to the song as you read*

"Hey," Keiran said when he pulled back and wiped the tears trailing down my face as he smiled brightly at me.

"It's okay to feel, Alek. It's okay not to be strong all the time. That's what makes us human. Our wolves carry our strength, but we carry our emotions. They have psychical strength while we have emotional strength. You can't be the best version of yourself if one half of you is struggling. We're the strongest when we let ourselves feel and cut the ties that bind us." He had his hands on either side of my neck as he never once looked away from my red-rimmed eyes as he spoke.

Just a few words from him and I can feel some weight has been lifted off my chest. I feel like I can finally breathe again as I look into his blue-grey eyes. They're coaxing me to take a breath, to breathe in deep, pulling the good towards me, and exhale the bad.

He's a gift, my gift.

We thought we lost the chance of having mates when we left our pack. We had our whole lives planned out. We would celebrate our fifteenth birthday by shifting, and then we would find our mates shortly after. We joked all the time about our raising kids together. They'd be best friends, just like me and Zia are.

But those dreams were shattered when we left.

Now we're a few months away from turning 18 and we had given up on finding our mates. How could you find a mate when you were on the run? When you were still being hunted. So, when we decided to stay here, and we found our mates, our whole lives were turned upside down.

Now we had a future we didn't think we'd get.

"You're so beautiful." I couldn't help but say. He blushed as I grabbed his face gently.

"Not just your appearance, but your soul, Keiran. It's beautiful and pure." I want to kiss him so bad, but this isn't the place.

I want our first kiss to be somewhere away from prying eyes. I want to have my mate all to myself.

I lean forward and rest my forehead against his. I can feel our connection already. Our souls are fighting to bound themselves together. He is my soulmate, the only one I'll ever have. I want this moment to continue but I can hear the faint ticking of the bell on the wall above us ready to ring for lunch.

"Will you sit with me?" He asks just as the bell rings.

I look around the hallway at the students emerging, but I don't see Zia. I nod to Keiran and follow him as we head to the cafeteria. I told Zia to meet me here anyway so I'll see her soon.

We arrived at the table just as three others did. Sitting at the round table, I take a seat next to Keiran. The seer and her mate sit beside Keiran and the other guy sits on the other side of the table with a spare chair beside him.

"I'm sorry we never really got to introduce ourselves." The seer said embarrassed.

"I'm Kitty, this is my mate Caleb, and that idiot is Zack."

"Hey! I've done nothing wrong to be called an idiot." He says feigning hurt. He's a joker.

"Yet, Zack. Yet." Kitty replies and her quiet mate laughs. Of all the times I've seen him he's never spoken much if at all.

And Zack, well he's always been very observant. Like he's reading between the lines.

"Nice to meet you all. I'm-" I say but I stop when I see Zia enter the cafeteria.

I link her where we are just as she spots me. I can feel her apprehension as she walks towards the table. And I get it. One, we haven't had friends in years or been around other people for this long. And two, her mate is in this group, and those two are still kinda on the outs with each other.

She stops at the table and breathes out nervously before she walks to the empty seat next to Zack and sits down. As she does, everyone at the table goes rigid.

Strange.

"Just letting you know, that's Cairo's spot. And the spare chairs are broken." Zack says awkwardly. Like he's afraid of hurting Zia's feelings but also interested in what would happen if she stayed in Cairo's spot.

But I know she won't. I can see the defiance in her eyes and she stands up and walks over to me.

"Move over," But I can't.

I ain't no small man, I'm 6 foot something while she's in the small five feet range. We haven't really had the time to measure ourselves since we left home. So our growth spurts have gone by unmeasured.

I look at her like she's crazy if she thinks I'm going to sit with one ass cheek hanging off the chair just so her little ass could squeeze onto my chair. A cheeky grin spreads across her face before she plants herself right in my lap.

"I like the way you think." Kitty whispered over to her while Keiran laughed at my expense.

"So..h..heavy.." I wheeze out. Everyone laughs as Zia slaps my arm as her face reddens in embarrassment.

But all good things must come to an end when Zack greets Cairo. The table goes silent as we all stare at him. Well everyone except Zia. She's looking everywhere but him. Still not giving him the satisfaction, I see.

"Great! Now that everyone's here, we can learn more about you two." Zack says happily while the alpha next to him looks like he couldn't care less.

An awkward silence falls over the table as no one says anything. Zia's looking elsewhere, Kitty and her mate are looking back and forth between all of us, Zack looks amused and Cairo's looking at me again.

This guy doesn't know when to quit. We're locked into another heated battle. He won't back down and neither will I. When he breaks contact, his nostrils slightly flare when he sees Zia sitting on my lap.

Wow, someone's already getting jealous.

"Okay, well how about your names?" Zack says as he breaks the silence.

"I'm Alek."

"Zia.

"Ah, beautiful name for a beautiful girl," Zack says as he flirts with her.

All of a sudden Cairo slams his hands down on the table, causing a loud bang to silence the cafeteria as it rings through the room. We all jump at the sound, the humans are slightly afraid, so are the wolves sitting at other tables. Kitty and Caleb are quiet and nervous while Zack again looks amused.

"Something wrong, Cairo?"