When he lifted his hand to knock, the wooden door swung open, and Elder Augustine stood there, staring at him impatiently. It was late in the afternoon, and her features were illuminated by the orange glow of the sun. He had gone to school but hadn’t seen Leo the entire day. They shared a few classes, but the previous year Leo would often just skip those classes and only go to ones he actually liked. He had stopped doing that this year, but Ivan had no way to check if he had returned to old habits or hadn’t come at all.

  Elder Augustine ushered him inside the cabin and promptly closed the door. “Come on, it’s cold! Where’s your jacket?”

  Ivan was immediately met with warmth from the two heaters she had on in the cabin. There were also two standing lamps that emitted a yellow glow, which added to the warm ambience. Ivan glanced down at the hoodie he was wearing and gestured to it.

  The older woman glanced at it disapprovingly. “You need a proper, thick coat. Winter is coming soon.” She took a seat behind her desk, and Ivan did the same, kicking off his shoes and bringing his feet up on the large chair. He had been doing that for years and was surprised every single time when she never told him to stop.

  “I knew you'd be back.”

  Ivan smiled at her. “Liar.”

  She grabbed a newspaper lying on her desk and threw it in his direction. The newspaper hit his chest and then fell into his lap. “Disrespectful.”

  She clasped her hands in front of her and gestured for him to start speaking.

  Ivan drummed a finger on the edge of the desk. “Something’s wrong with me.”

  “The flu?”

  “No. At least I don't think it is.” His headache had dulled after meeting with Leo, but the next day the aching had re-emerged. The coughing and fever were also now completely gone, but he still occasionally got flashes of heat throughout his body.

  “Anything significant happen recently? Anything werewolf-related?”

  Ivan bit his lip. There was no use lying if he actually wanted to find out what was wrong. He could reveal that he had found his mate without mentioning Leo.

  “I, um—I found my mate…maybe.” The words felt wrong coming from his lips, like he was giving in to the terrifying possibility that all of this was really happening and that he wasn't just going to notice the birds looked funny one day and wake up.

  “Did you complete the mating bond?”

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Ivan drifted back to their conversation and felt the unfamiliar warmth of blood spreading up his neck and ears and glanced away from the old woman. “I— No. No, we just found out.”

  She shrugged. “Kids these days, you never know. When was the last time you saw her? I mean close up, not just from a distance.”

  Her. Ivan paused. An instinctual urge to correct her took hold of him, but he pushed it away. He couldn't. He didn't think she was homophobic, but he couldn't risk his parents finding out.

  “Two days ago.” His mind drifted back to that day in the storage room. To the way Leo had rushed out of the room.

  Elder Augustine paused for a few seconds, then leaned back in her chair, the chair squeaking in response.

  “And there's your problem.” The old woman smacked her teeth in disapproval. “They don't teach you anything these days ... well, I suppose they wouldn't about this. But anyways.” She waved a hand dismissively in the air, then turned back to Ivan, who was staring at her in confusion.

  Ivan blinked. “What's my problem?”

  Elder Augustine frowned like he was a child who had asked why grass was green and not orange, then grabbed a book from beside her. “New mates — especially yours — need to be in close physical contact with one another.”

  She opened the book, pulled out a loose page and laid it out onto the table between them. “Look at this.”

  In the middle of the age-stained paper, there was an anatomical sketch of a man-wolf hybrid. The man had four pairs of each limb, and his four arms and legs (human) were spread out on his side. His head (wolf) was pointed upwards, neck strained as if howling in pain. There were neatly scribbled annotations around the rest of the page, but Ivan didn't recognise the language.

  “According to Plato, humans used to be whole, with four arms and legs, but Zeus, fearing their power, split them up. He doomed the two souls, forcing them to roam the Earth in search of their other half," she said. "But werewolves came up with our own theory.”

  She turned the paper closer and pointed to the wolf’s head. ”Three souls. Two soulmates and the wolf. Instead of being doomed to find our other halves, our wolves find them for us. And once they do find each other, that bond needs to be maintained by close physical contact and distance until the two werewolves complete the mate bond and the wolves join to become one.”

  Ivan cringed at the idea of what “join to become one” implied. He glanced up at her. “So you're saying our wolves need to be together, until we… You know.”

  She nodded. “And I would get going if I were you. The sooner this is fixed, the better.”

  She grabbed the paper and folded it in half, holding it out to him. Ivan took the paper wearily and stood up, putting his shoes back on. When she closed the book and put it onto the shelf, Ivan caught a brief glint of the intricate gold symbol on the front of the book.

  As he was about to open the door, he paused and then turned back to her. “Wait. How long do we need to be together for?”

  She shrugged. “My husband and I were attached at the hip almost instantly, so we never had any side effects. I'm sure you'll figure it out.” Her eyes grew soft. A rare glint of happiness flooding her eyes that only ever seemed to appear when she talked about him.

  Ivan nodded, stuffing the drawing into his pocket. He started walking home and pulled out his phone to check his messages.

  There were seven of them. Two of them were from Rohan, asking where he had disappeared to, and five of them were from Cal, pleading for him to send a picture of his homework.