Ivan glanced around him. The old wooden cabin was covered from floor to ceiling with questionably sturdy shelves that were overpacked with jars filled to the brim with various body parts and animals swimming in alcohol and formaldehyde.

  After so many years, the wall of shelves had become alarmingly familiar to him, and he could describe the entire shelf almost completely by memory. Yet, he was still discovering strange things on the wall whenever he came to visit. Today, he had noticed a large eyeball floating in a murky green liquid that had taken a particular interest in him.

  He squinted at the shelves and rubbed the side of his head. He had woken up with a terrible headache that morning and the dull pulse hadn't wavered since. Even turning his head too quickly hurt too much.

  He heard a distant voice reverberating through the small room and turned his head to face Elder Augustine who — he realised— had been talking to him for the last few minutes. She was sitting at her desk chair, staring at him expectantly, her slightly wrinkled hands resting patiently on the messy table. The sole window in the room beside her was casting a warm glow onto her brown skin.

  “Sorry — what were you saying again?” Ivan asked the woman sitting in front of him.

  She sighed and rested her forearms on the large wooden table between them. “I’m saying that you never visit me unless you want something.” She clasped her hands together and leaned in closer to him. “So what is it today?”

  Ivan shrugged. “I just came to talk.” He glanced back at the wall of jars surrounding them, but recoiled when the eye in the jar gave him a slow wink. “I assume you have nothing better to do.” He said with a small smirk.

  Elder Augustine gave him a deadpanned look. “And neither do you, clearly. Shouldn't you be at school today?”

  Ivan glanced at the watch on his wrist, wincing when the dull ache in his head grew more intense, the pain now having migrated from behind his eyes to his entire head. He still had 10 more minutes to talk if he wanted to make it to school on time.

  “ Uh, did you notice anything weird going on in the pack lately?” Ivan questioned.

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “Like what?”

  Ivan thought about this for a second. He wasn't sure if his dad had told the rest of the pack leaders about the rabbits yet, and if he revealed more than he should, it would seem too suspicious; he had to be careful. And Elder Augustine was smart, she would know something was going on.

  When he opened his mouth to speak, he suddenly fell into a coughing fit, the crunch of phlegm in his throat filling the silence of the room. He lifted his arm and continued to cough into the inside of his elbow. Elder Augustine grabbed the tissue box on her side of the desk and slid it towards him, giving him a look that he couldn't decipher. “Feeling sick?”

  Ivan shrugged. “Don't know. I mean this doesn't feel exactly like the flu.”

  He had started feeling sick a few days ago, long before the headache. Werewolves didn't get sick easily, but it wasn't impossible, and because of his magic, his immune system tended to be weaker than that of other werewolves.

  Elder Augustine examined him. Her intense brown eyes narrowed at him and her face suddenly took on a more serious expression. “And when did this start?”

  “Are you a doctor now?” He threw the scrunched tissue in his hands into the garage bin at his feet and when he looked up, Elder Augustine was giving him her usual no-nonsense look.

  Ivan sighed, his throat feeling scratchy. “Two days ago.”

  “Anything happen before that?”

  He thought back to Leo — the mate revelation had happened over a week ago. Then he thought back to that day in the woods with his dad — that had happened a few days ago. Then his mind drifted to 2 weeks ago — in the forest. So much had happened, but nothing he could tell her about.

  He met Elder Augustine's expectant gaze. “Nope. Nothing.”

  She looked at him one last time, her gaze filled with genuine concern. “Are you sure?” Ivan nodded. He hated lying to her, but what choice did he have?

  She removed her hands from the table and rolled her shoulders, leaning back into her chair before crossing her arms over her chest. “Now back to this pack thing. What were you asking me?”

  He shook his head. There was nothing he could say that wouldn’t reveal that he knew more than he was letting on. “Never mind, it’s probably nothing.”

  He grabbed his backpack from the door and slung it over his shoulder. He pulled the door open, squinting when the bright light seeped into his eyes. The harsh burst of sunlight made his previously dimming headache pulse, like someone was hammering at his brain.

  “Before you go, " he heard Elder Augustine say, and turned around. “If you do notice something, tell me. It’s kind of my job to know this shit.”

  “I will.” He lied. He closed the door and began his walk to school.

  — — —

  “Why are you so late? Did something happen?” Cal immediately asked, watching Ivan slump into the seat beside him. Their math teacher had been late that morning and the classroom’s previously mellow noise had escalated into a muddled mess of voices, rendering Cal’s voice barely audible over the loud chatter surrounding them.

  Ivan shrugged and grabbed his backpack, placing his books onto the table. “Lost track of time.”

  “With elder Augustine again? Isn't she like seventy?” Cal frowned at him, a look of genuine concern made its way onto his face before it was quickly replaced with a joking smile. His default.

  “I don't know what's worse, the fact that you’re friends with a seventy-year-old or that she’s friends with a seventeen-year-old.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  “Would you stop being rude?” Rohan chimed from the seat behind Ivan, giving Cal a pointed look. “You’re supposed to respect your Elders. She isn't even as bad as you think she is.”

  Cal stared at him skeptically as if the idea of respect was a foreign concept to him. “Yeah—fucking— right. You’re only saying that because you feel obligated.”

  Cal turned to Ivan, looking at him for agreement. “Right?”

  Ivan shrugged, remaining silent. Cal was mostly joking, but he wasn’t wrong. Rohan was the son of the Alpha of the Night Crawlers—- Ivan’s pack—and he was in line to inherit the title in a few years. His parents were strict, especially about what he said and did at any given moment, because anything he did reflected their own actions. So when it came to talking about the pack, Rohan tended to remain diplomatic, and they all knew it.

  “I—-” Rohan frowned and glanced away in thought before he abruptly turned back to Cal, “No. It's because I respect authority figures. Unlike you.”

  “I respect my right to freedom of speech.” Cal said, then turned to Ivan, “And it is definitely weirder that you’re best friends with a seventy-year-old.”

  Ivan found his eyes drifting almost instinctively to Leo. The other boy was across the room, surrounded by his usual group of popular friends, his arms loosely wrapped around the waist of a girl Ivan had briefly seen around the school.

  One of his friends was talking animatedly, while some boys on the football team shoved each other roughly and laughed along. Some of the cheerleaders were listening in with mild interest, while others just rolled their eyes. Leo was standing by the desk —- his arm loosely wrapped around the waist of a girl Ivan had seen around the school a few times —- nodding along to the chaos. The picture would have looked normal. Then Ivan noticed a subtle grimace plastered on the other boy’s face. When one of his friends glanced at him, his lips morphed into a half-hearted smile, masking the look and replacing it with his typical grin. Ivan couldn’t tell what the expression meant.

  It had been a few days since they last saw or talked to each other, and almost nothing had changed between them. They had settled back into the same push-and-pull rhythm as before and it was like the whole mate thing had been nothing but a shared dream. Leo was still as irritating and annoying as ever.

  When Ivan’s gaze drifted back to Leo, he found the other boy staring at him with an unfamiliar intensity, a half smile still on his lips from the conversation.

  Their gazes met and Ivan swallowed. The room seemed to grow quieter around them.

  Leo’s jaw shifted as he clenched his teeth; the half smile dropped and was replaced by a mix of emotions that Ivan couldn’t decipher. Leo coughed and shifted his body. The movement broke Ivan’s trance, his eyes darting down to where Leo’s arm was still wrapped around the girl’s waist and Leo followed his gaze, before looking back up at him.

  Ivan turned away before their eyes could meet for a second time.

  “I have no fucking idea how he's supposed to lead other human beings. That's like his third girlfriend this month.” Cal suddenly said, crossing his arms and glaring at a spot in the classroom with unaccountable contempt.

  When Ivan realised he was talking about Leo, he reluctantly shifted his gaze back to the other boy. The hand that he had previously wrapped around the girl, was now at his side.

  “What, are you keeping track or something?” Rohan questioned curiously.

  Ivan only caught the start of Cal’'s reply before his voice faded into the background. A debilitating wave of heat flashed over his body, before suddenly transforming into a cold chill. He shivered, gripping his hoodie tighter around his body.

  “—Van. Ivan, Are you okay?” Cal’s voice suddenly cleared among the ringing. Ivan nodded.

  “Guys please, it’s too early for so much noise so early in the morning.” He heard their teacher, Mrs Phillips, exclaim.

  When the bell finally rang at the end of the lesson, Ivan hurriedly packed up his stuff and pushed through the sea of bodies towards the exit. Cal was always the last one packed, and being inside the stuffy classroom was somehow making his headache worse. He would just text them that he had to leave. When he made it outside the classroom, he walked down the hall and rested his back against a wall overlayed with posters on the dangers of vaping. He pulled out his phone from his pocket, but before he could click on their shared group chat, a message popped up from the notification bar.

  Unknown: You were right, Sherlock, your number is in the student records. Meet me in the storage closet opposite the big chem lab.

  Now

  Leo. Ivan’s brow furrowed. That was weird. Why did Leo want to meet?

  — — —

  When Ivan entered the storeroom, a jolt of familiarity washed over him. He couldn’t understand why until the memories rolled in his mind like a muddled film. A phantom of that stupefying chill he had experienced drifted past him. This was the same room where Leo had told him that they were mates. It felt like it had happened months ago, but it had only been a little over a week.

  Leo was standing in a corner of the small room. He was digging the palms of his hands into his temples, and his eyebrows were furrowed, twisting his usually gleeful face into a tortured wince of pain. When he heard Ivan enter, he glanced up, his features settling into a more lulled calm, and he gestured to the door. There were bags under his eyes, matching the red tint surrounding his dark brown irises, and his skin was pale.

  Ivan shut the door behind him and crossed his arms over his chest. “You look like shit.”

  Leo gave him a pained smile that quickly disappeared. “Have you looked in a mirror lately?”

  Ivan shrugged dismissively. He didn’t need a mirror to know that he also looked terrible.

  “This is the mate bond.” Leo suddenly said, and Ivan’s eyes shot to him in surprise. He didn’t know whether the serious tone in Leo’s voice had shocked him more or his sudden hypothesis. Where had he come up with that?

  “Yeah? And how do you know that?” Ivan questioned.

  Leo’s features suddenly softened, and his voice lowered to something between a whisper and his normal tone. “Because I feel better.” He crossed his arms and gestured impatiently to Ivan, like he was upset at the reality of his own words. “As soon as you walked in. I felt better.”

  Ivan looked for the familiar dull ache that had been pulsing in his head and realised that it was now completely gone. He placed a hand on his chest. The wave of heat he had experienced was gone too, and the urge to cough had vanished. Could this be just a coincidence? What if it was something else entirely? A bug that just happened to be going around.

  And if Leo was right, how had their being mates made them so sick? They hadn’t even interacted with one another in a couple of days. If this were some mate virus, how could they have given it to each other?

  Ivan rubbed at his temple. He needed to think.

  He walked around the small room, then paused and looked at Leo, who was watching him pace in silence, when the idea came to him. “Okay, look. I need to check something out about all of this, and then we’ll figure it out. I’ll meet you back here in two days. 7:30.”

  Leo let out a humourless laugh. “You’re insane if you think I’m going to get here half an hour before I actually have to.”

  Ivan glared at him. “Yeah well that’s before school starts. So if you don’t want to get caught, figure it out.”

  Leo groaned. “Jeez, you are so fucking uptight.’

  “As opposed to what? Lazy? Immature? Unambitious?”

  Leo’s jaw clenched, and he grabbed the backpack he had dropped close to his feet. “Two days, right?”

  Ivan nodded.

  Leo swung the backpack over his shoulder and rushed past Ivan, bumping his shoulder in the process. The door swung open, banging loudly into the adjacent wall, and he left the room. Ivan glanced at the open door. He needed to see Elder Augustine.