Chapter 2 - Caleb

Two days later…

            I stand in line with the other graduates from the college of Health and Human Development at Arcadia University.  My gown feels like a furnace trapping the heat inside and I almost wish that I had taken Finnegan and Ethan’s dare to just go buck ass naked underneath.  I could change into my wolf and run home to change before my father would ever see me.

            Of course, he’d still know.

            He always knows somehow.  I think it has to do with some of the gifts that he gleaned from his mating with my mother and from being an oracle himself.

            Mom…I wish she was here.  Sometimes I can see her when I astral project onto Hecate’s plane, but I wish that she could see me graduate from the career that she encouraged me to do.  Her death during the fight with Fenrir outside the gates of Valhalla nearly destroyed our father.

            When a wolf loses his mate, a piece of his soul dies.  Some less powerful wolves will die with their mates, their soul fractured so irreparably that there is nothing left to sustain them.  It didn’t do that to my father, but it did change him.  He is quieter, no longer joking around and finding laughter everywhere that he goes.  It saddens me and my sister, Mikela, to see him like this.  It is all that we can hope that he recovers some of that zest for life that he used to have so that our pups get to know our father they way we knew him.

            Not that either of us are close to find our mates.  I’m 23 now without a hint of my mate.  Mikela is 19 and still has two more years until it’s possible for her to find her mate.  There are no pups on the horizon for either of us.

            Well…unless I mark Fatima.

            I look at her in the crowd sitting next to my father and sister, along with Hakeem and Meredith.  Gael is the one that is handing out our diplomas, so he’s on the stage.  But my eyes are on the beautiful woman now blowing me a kiss and winking at me.   

            She’s fucking gorgeous.

            Her skin tone takes more after Hakeem than JoJo’s does, making her darker than her twin with a coppery undertone to it.  But her long black hair is a combination of Hakeem’s and Meredith’s, meaning that it is slightly kinky, but shiny and smooth.  Her hair, which she always wears up and out of her face, actually falls down below her ass and curtains her beauty the few times that I’ve seen it.  Even with how long we’ve been together, she has only allowed me to see her hair in all its full glory when we’ve showered together. 

            Today, she has her hair in a high ponytail with curls cascading down her back.  I can’t wait to smell it as I move inside of her later.

Fatima and I have been in a relationship for over a year now, having gotten together because the two of us had unknowingly been attracted to each other for years, but hadn’t done anything about it.

            It’s not uncommon for wolves to have relationships prior to finding their mates.  But the way that I’ve always felt for Fatima was beyond what our typical relationships would allow for.  I’ve been in love with her for years.

            What I hadn’t known was that she felt the same way about me.

            When we found out that we weren’t each other’s mates, Fatima had been so upset.  Her sister had three mates, finding out on their 21^st birthday that she was mated to Jacob and having him reject her before she tied her soul to the GOD Hermes when she healed him.  In the meantime, Jacob had found their other mate, Alexander who was also his stepbrother.  Their relationship was never easy, but it worked out and now they have beautiful triplets.

            However, knowing that her sister was mated in a quadruple mating hurt Fatima beyond anything that she could handle.  She thought that there was something wrong with her. 

            But I knew better.  She is an amazing she-wolf.  Too special for one of us to be mated to.  Whoever her mate is, he’s important.

            Still, she didn’t see that.  And with how upset she was and how much I loved her; I just went for it.  I kissed her with all the need and love for her and we elected to make a go of it.  We would be together until either of us found our mate.

            That was about 18 months ago and neither of us had found our mate.  And we were still together.  It’s not like we hadn’t looked for our mates.  We had each been sent on missions throughout the country and, as a luna, Fatima even went to Europe for a bit.  But neither of us have found our mates.

            I’m thinking so hard about my love that I almost miss my words being called by Fatima’s father, Gael.

            “Caleb Michael Thorne,” Gael says, beaming at me as I start to climb the stairs to the stage.

            Fatima and my sister stand and scream, shouting their pride for me.  There are others that are whooping and cheering.  Friends from the pack and members of our coven.  There are echoes of my name and laughter as people see how Mikela and Fatima are screaming and cheering for me.

            I wave at them and blow a kiss back to Fatima before I turn to her father.   He smiles at me, and I know that he’s used his goddess gifts to know the depth of my feelings for Fatima.  He knows how happy she makes me, how much I need her, how all encompassing my love for her is.

            We might not be mates, but she is it for me.  I’m just going to have to convince her that we are end game and that we shouldn’t wait for our mates.  They had their chance and they are too late.

            “Congratulations, Caleb,” Gael says to me, pulling me into a hug.  “I’m so proud of you.”

            “Thanks, Gael,” I whisper back.

            He claps me on the back and I turn around, raising my diploma over my head to the continued sounds of cheering.  Perks of being the son and then the brother of the High Priestess of the Mother Coven.

            I make it back to my seat and then have to sit through the rest of the alphabet and some closing remarks before we all throw our caps in the air and my collegiate career is officially over.

            In the sea of everyone, it’s hard to find anyone.

            Through the mindlink, I ask Fatima, Where are you guys?

            There’s a huge elm tree to the left of the front door at the edge of the yard.  We’re right there. She links back.  And just like every time she talks to me mind to mind, I feel the love that we share.  It’s something that I’ve come to rely on.  Something that helps me make it through the day.

            Something that I need.

            I can’t help but smile.  On my way.

            It only takes a few minutes for me get through the throng of people and then to orient myself so that I can find the tree and my family.

            I see Mikela first, her white blonde hair shining in the sun.  She sees me at the same time and starts screaming out for me.  “CALEB!” her voice echoes across the lawn, people turning in her direction and then back to look at me.

            I can’t help but smile.  You would think that someone that is going to be the High Priestess of the coven would have a little more decorum, but ever since my mother’s death, my sister has decided that she wasn’t going to waste her time making other people feel comfortable.  She was going to be who she was no matter what and fuck everyone else’s opinions.

            It’s something that I aspire to.

            I grin widely and jog over to them.  My sister, the thrill seeker that she is, runs to me and jumps into my arms.  “I’m so proud of you, big bro!” she cries out as I sweep her in my arms and spin her around.

            As I set her down, I smile down at her.  “Thanks, little sis.  I’m glad that I can meet your expectations.”

            “Well, sir, you far exceed them,” she says, giving me a curtsey.

            I curtsey back with my gown in my hands, making her laugh.  “Then you’ll just have to raise your expectations for me.”

            “Sky’s the limit, big bro,” she says and hooks her arm in mine.  I walk with Mikela over to my family and see Fatima there waiting for me, her smile so wide it looks like it will split her face in half.

            I bend down and kiss her, happier than I’ve ever been.