(John above)

John

I woke up to my little sister Marie jumping on my bed.

"Come on big brother it's time to wake up!" She shouted in her adorable five-year-old lisp. I groaned and rolled over, burying my head under the pillow.

"I will get daddy." She stated smugly, knowing that I would get out of bed now.

I groaned, "Fine, but get out you little pest I need to get dressed." She giggled and raced out the door. I groaned again and rolled out of bed to get ready; my wolf, Xavier, had kept me up basically all night chattering about how we would be finding our mate today. Honestly at this point in time all I'm excited about is getting a cup of coffee.

I trudged into the kitchen only to be met with a beaming mother and smirking father. As soon as I plopped down into my seat my mom started bustling around the kitchen, fixing me breakfast, and talking the whole time, "So I heard you're gonna find your mate today, are you excited? Are you happy? Is that what you're wearing? Are you scared? Do you think she'll be pretty?"

I rolled my eyes, used to my mother's antics, and answered her questions in between bites of food and sips of coffee, "Yes I am finding my mate today, at least according to Xavier, and yes I am excited, yes, what's wrong with what I'm wearing, somewhat, and her beauty doesn't matter, her character does."

She opened her mouth, probably to bombard me with more questions, but my dad interrupted her, "Come on Dulcie, give the poor kid a break he's probably super nervous, I know I was."

"Yes and what did you do because of it?"

"I thought you promised not to bring that up!"

"You're the one who brought it up, I'm just making a point."

I cut into their conversation and said, barely containing my laughter, "While this is highly entertaining, my car's still in the shop can one of you please drive me?"

My mom gave me the infamous mom look, "Why don't you just walk."

"Are you serious, it's like two miles away!"

"You run that far every day in pack training."

"Yeah and I'm a sweaty mess at the end, I know this may seem weird but most people don't want to meet their mate like that."

My mom rolled her eyes at my sarcasm and was about to give her rebuttal but my dad cut in, "While this is highly amusing," he said, throwing my own words back at me, "if we don't leave soon John is going to be late."

I was putting my stuff into my locker, speculating about what my mate would be like when I heard a small voice say one word behind me.

"Mate." The angelic voice whispered and I whirled around, my nose filled with the sweet scent of mint and roses, an odd combination but one I immediately fell in love with because it belonged to her. I smiled brightly at her but it quickly turned into a frown when I sensed how weak her bonds with her wolf and pack were. The most important bonds in the werewolf world are those with your family, pack, wolf, and mate and two of these were practically non-existent in her. I immediately linked to Xavier.

'Do you see this bud?'

'Yeah she's gorgeous.'

'She is, but I'm talking about her pack and wolf bonds.'

'They're really weak.'

'Yeah, you know what that means.'

'Don't you dare reject her! Don't you love her?'

'You know I do but I also have my pack to think about.'

'But-'

I cut off the mind-link knowing what I had to do. I plastered on a fake smile and my mate smiled back and I saw a hint of relief in her eyes, which otherwise seemed to show no emotion.

"What's your name gorgeous?" I asked, knowing I needed it to break the bond.

"Asus." She answered, her angelic voice louder than before but still just as sweet.

"Last name?"

"Haven't used it since I was five." She stated with a hint of anger in her voice. She looked lost in thought so I quickly connected to Xavier, 'Do I need it?'

'No.' He responded shortly, still upset with me.

I took a deep breath, knowing I had to do this no matter how much I didn't want to, "Well then, I, John Salvator, future alpha of the Starlight Pack, reject Asus as my mate and future luna of the Starlight Pack." I said, my heart breaking the whole time.

Suddenly the pain hit, it felt like someone had kicked me as hard as they could in the chest, and it made me want to double over and start coughing up blood but I stood tall. I remembered what the old writings said about rejection, how the person who was rejected would feel a pain worse than you could imagine, and immediately felt bad. I never meant to hurt her; in fact, if I was anything but the future alpha I would have accepted her right away, but I was the future alpha and I had my pack to think about too. She seemed not to care about the sacred bonds and that could spell disaster for my pack if I were to accept her as my luna.

I was snapped out of my thoughts by my mate saying something, I didn't hear what she said but what she said next shocked me, "You have no idea who I am or the hells I've walked through. How dare you judge me from one encounter, one conversation! Am I not pretty enough for you? Well guess what, I don't give a flying monkey poop!" At this point she was yelling at me, and I could sense that a crowd had gathered around us, "I've fulfilled my promise to my wolf, I've found my mate, and I can finally leave my horrible pack." I was confused, what could possibly be so bad about her pack that she wanted to leave? She turned to one of the people in the crowd with platinum blonde hair and icy blue eyes and started speaking, "I, Asus Proditor," She winced a little when she said her last name, and I was a bit confused of why she used it as Xavier said it wasn't needed and she'd said she didn't like to use it. She continued with her sentence, "reject the Black Moon Pack as my own, renounce Henry Arpaktiko as my alpha, and willingly release myself from its bonds."

To say I was confused would be the understatement of the year. I turned to the man that Asus had been looking at and spoke, "Would someone please explain what exactly is going on here?!"

He looked at me with pain-filled eyes, "Yes I'll tell you everything, but first we need to find her and apologize."

"Apologize?" A redhead with brown eyes cut in, "What do we have to apologize for Brian?"

The newly named Brian turned to the man, who I now realized was the future alpha, with fury clear in his face, "Are you kidding me Braydon?! Think of everything we've done to her, and I dare you to tell me she deserved any of it! I know this hurts your pride but you have to accept the fact that we're in the wrong here. Now I don't know about you but I'm gonna find her and apologize." He ran off, leaving the pack with looks of sadness on their faces before they jogged after him. I took a look at the abandoned building before following.

Some first day of school.