Leo's p.o.v
Everything was going well until it wasn't time passed as if he forgot he was counting. He was certain about his future with the man he loves but a sense of emptiness hung between them like a fog. Leo can't explain it, but being with his mate felt… incomplete? Not because he didn't love him, he does. Deeply. But there were moments when that love feels like a trap. He would lie awake thinking; Maybe I should run. Maybe if I leave, this hollow ache will disappear. But then the truth would hit him, he'd made the choice to be bond to his mate. There was no running from that. And that truth? It made him want to cry. He wasn't unhappy with Jayden. But some days, the weight of it all of being bound, of being known felt unbearable. So instead of talking it out, he turned inward, scratching at his skin until it was raw, hoping the physical pain would distract him from the emotional one. And as usual, Alex noticed.
She and Noah had come to visit, and Leo, restless and anxious, he pulled her aside for a walk. The air outside helped, but not enough. Still, the silence gave him space to breathe, to think. They made their way to an empty baseball field. When Alex playfully punched him, it broke the tension just enough for him to crumble a little.
"Congratulations on being the first in our friend group to be mated," she teased.
"Bite me,"
Leo muttered, his voice sharp with bitterness. His hand anxiously creeped to his wrist and his nails slowly rake. It does not hurt, it gave him a new obsession to focus. Alex froze, she grabbed his wrist before he can protest the sudden movement. She looks at the scars some were healed, some were in the process of healing and he aggravated the wound until there were tiny spots of blood.
"Okay. No more jokes. Come here, man. What's going on?"
He hesitated, then looked at her. This was Alex his best friend. She was, gently offering him a space to fall apart. He hopes it's not irony… he took time to make sure that it is what he wanted, he wanted someone to be his and the second he achieved that he can't handle it.
"Alex… I think I made a mistake," he confessed. "I love Jayden. I do. I can't imagine life without him, but…" He exhaled shakily. "Part of me wants to run. And I hate myself for it."
Her eyes softened. She moved closer and took his hands. The same hands that were trembling.
"Look at me," she said. "Fate bond requires destiny for it to be official, what are the odd your fated who be an alpha? Maybe fate is trying to tell you guys something?"
She steadied her voice he eyes flash a strange red, when he looked down his self inflicted injuries are healed.
"I used to hate all of this, remember? The whole fated mates, alpha-omega universe because to me it meant trouble. I built walls around myself because I was scared of being hurt, of being controlled, of being loved. But I was wrong. Not about being careful, but about believing fate was out to get me. It's not. It's just... complicated."
She smiled through the emotion tightening her chest.
"Sometimes fate drags you through hell just to show you someone who'll walk through it with you. Don't let fear convince you to throw away something good before it's even had the chance to grow."
Leo blinked, trying to process her words. She… Alex is the one reminding him not to give up. That alone made his throat tighten.
"You'll be miserable either way," she said gently. "You just have to choose what kind of miserable you can live with the one where you fight for your mate, or the one where you walk away and wonder what if for the rest of your life."
Then, her smile turned playful again.
"Besides, I'll be here either way. You're stuck with me."
Leo choked out a laugh and pulled her into a bear hug. That was when Toby appeared, waving his phone and grinning like he'd just won a prize.
"Lucas finally bored of you?" Alex called out, her tone teasing.
Toby grinned. "Nah, just helping a friend with apartment hunting."
"Perfect timing," Alex said. "I'm moving in with Noah. You can take over my place."
Seriously? What are the odds?
Leo smirked. "Fate again?"
They laughed thinking about the ridiculousness of it all.
Toby shrugged. "Guess so."
And just like that, the heaviness started to lift not entirely, but enough. Alex's words echoed in Leo's head, grounding him. Maybe time was all they needed. Maybe fate wasn't a trap. Maybe it was the beginning of something real.
.
.
.
Gab's p.o.v
Hi. Her name should not be Important. She's at best just an art student; with a degree aspiration her parents negatively spit 'it is bound to leave her nowhere'.
In fact, it went like this: "You are throwing your life away for such a useless degree, your father is architect. You are so intelligent, yet you fail to use him as a role model."
Or there are cases whereby she is expected her mother to use herself as a role model. Because she is an omega wolf, she should also be a stellar stay at home wife/mother with a neck of judging, criticising her child's every move.
Unfortunately. One night one of the rival packs ended her entire pack and life as she knew it. Leaving the people who were not there for the massacre responsible for their own safety. Her pack members including herself are being hunted and killed to avoid retaliation, so she made it to the city. Her parents left her with nothing, and she had to work two jobs just to survive.
Okay fine. She started off with a lie, she is a Rouge though, disregarded and raised amongst humans. That would be a perfect story to go with than, her parents did abandon her as a child. She was found raised with children that were not wanted.
Okay fine, she's probably lying again. She is not lying about the two jobs; she does stock taking and he got another job by the Coffee Cafe as a waiter. She was in the system until the age of fifteen when her dad reached out to her.
She has had to work for all the scholarships she received in her lifetime. For an artist this studio apartment as dark as if her creativity has been killed. This small, cold morgue that killed her drive for arts creation and now she has to move. She has enough, money saved up for an apartment that did not let her regret her entire life choices. Although in retrospect she was barely given a choice. She got moved, pushed and confused around the system almost her entire life.
High school was when she met Toby and Noah, they kept in contact because to be quite honest they were her only friends that understood her. They spoke to her, Noah protected her, and they became her solace that when they left to go to Moon she felt alone. They are the only ones that did not judge, critic or bully her and her bad life decisions. Although she has an advantage against humans, she never used it. What can she say? She's a lover not a fighter.
She called Toby, excitement bubbling in her chest. She hoped to surprise Noah by showing up unannounced and see that rare, caught-off-guard smile of his. The plan wasn't anything dramatic, just a visit, a moment. But to her, it meant something. Toby, ever the big-brother energy despite only being a year older, picked up almost immediately. Noah always treated the two of them like his little siblings, doting on them in that overprotective way that was equal parts comforting and annoying. It didn't matter that Noah was only about a year and nine months older than Alex, or just a few months senior to Toby, he carried himself like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders, and everyone under his wing.
But Gab had managed just fine on her own. Now, at eighteen, she stood on her own two feet literally and figuratively. It had taken her three full years and relentless determination to get into Moon Academy, and she did it on a scholarship. Not through some family name or privilege, but through sheer effort.
Yeah, she skipped a grade or two. Big deal. If she had money, people would be clapping for her. Instead, she got silence or worse, assumptions. Still, she didn't care. On the other hand, she took gap years or dropped out fucking up that advantage, but She knew what she'd been through, what she had to overcome. She'd seen more of the world than most of her peers. She'd been exposed to life, to hardship, to disappointment and triumph.
And now? Now, she was chasing something real. In this world of fate and alphas and the weird chaos of being young and different, education was still her golden road. Her plan B, plan A, and plan always. If love failed, if pack ties broke, if the supernatural proved too much she'd still have her mind, her ambitions, and her goals.
.
One month later…
Gab is majoring in English and literature. Her favourite things to do at her free time is creative writing that's why she's delighted that is also one of her modules. Wait until you read stories of what she assumes her parents went through. Imagine the beliefs or reasons crossed their minds to abandon their own flesh their creation or maybe she's projecting her inequities. It couldn't have been her the same way Zoe is not at fault, from what she gathered her mom abandoned her before she could even walk. It's funny how the apple did not fall far from the tree but that's a story for another day, not this day.
The moment her mom left, her mother who in her eyes was her everything just because her absence held the what if's. Her leaving left her to grow up in this forsaken place but she cannot judge her brutally cause her life decisions were definitely a rabbit hole she trapped herself in. She grew up using plurals to speak of her and embedded habits die hard. They at least left her with no memories.
Toby's friend, Alex really keeps a neat apartment. Goodness, she loves the kitchen since she loves cooking. In the orphanage where she kinda stayed for a while she was not able to cook but here, she could learn from cookbooks Alex gave her and enjoy herself.
No claim... In fact, she desires to remain single and focused on the direction of building her future, alone. she deserves that especially after the unjust, rebellious, regret tainted past she's been exposed to for as long as she could remember. That goal would be at a process of completion if it was not for those stupid bullies who made her chase them around the campus. You would think, once people leave high school they would grow up mentally. But no, these bozos show up still immature and bored with their lives. These idiots invest their time to make everyone around them miserable for their pathetic boredom. The privilege they have, they do not to actually need to work to obtain good marks to retain their scholarships. Too bad she does not have daddy to bail her out, she only has herself... Always have and forever will.
She would have not chased but her rent money was in that bag and at about 5:30 today is her deadline to pay. She ran until she could not anymore but thankfully someone stopped the bullies retrieving what was hers. The guys literally ran away as if a storm was at foot. Then she saw it, lights, a rainbow and doves. Wait why doves? Besides they are a view, a handsome one to boot, probably in a relationship of sort. She just stood watching them dumbly. She is certain they were making their own judgment of her based on their hungry eyes, it could mean nothing. Shit her glasses are in her bag so she has to confirm her sudden judgment by her senses and basic view of standard handsomeness.
Checking the time she inwardly groaned, the ass hats shaved fifteen minutes of her time. Shit! She has about ten minutes to get there. Walking up to what she smells are werewolf shifters: one alpha, the other a beta (she nods, certain with her findings previously). She reached to take the bag from the alphas grip and when nothing happened, she bowed her gratitude.
"Thank you for assisting me today. I have to get going. If I may have the bag, please. Thank you again. Bye."
She ran as if her life depended on it, she did not want to find out what would happen if she paid her rent late. She's not ready to be homeless again, she has worked far too hard to obtain the money. When she got there the woman was thankfully tending to her kids, she barely got the time to check the time and for that she is extremely grateful. She was definitely seven minutes late; the woman looks up and smiles... She hands her the money. She smiles and wishes her a great day. She slid into her apartment room and shut the door mind still frazzled, her breaths more even.