My Barely Legal Mate

Elias

“Fuck!”

I snatched my computer monitor off my desk, ripping the cords from the wall. I was about to dispose of it properly when my plans were thwarted.

“Do NOT throw that monitor out of the window. You could hurt someone!” Augustus exclaimed.

I closed my eyes and swallowed roughly before abandoning the monitor. It fell to the floor with a loud clang, and I finally slumped into my office chair.

My chest heaved up and down as sweat trickled down my forehead. My mind was scrambled—fighting with my biological urges and common sense and reasoning.

My wolf…don’t even get me started. Holding him back was a fucking nightmare. They’d lock us away and throw away the fucking key if they knew the thoughts running through his head. Tracking down, marking, and breeding our barely legal mate were the only thoughts that consumed him.

“Relax, Elias. It’s not the end of the world,” Augustus said, trying to soothe me.

I gritted my teeth and kicked the paper shredder across the room. It crashed into the wall, exploding into a shower of plastic and metal bits.

“That’s easy for you to fucking say when your mate isn’t an 18-year-old freshman!”

“Say it louder, why don’t you,” he hissed. I dropped my head onto the desk and loudly groaned. “Do you think she felt it, too?”

I nodded against the desk before lifting my head.

“You should’ve seen her when the pieces started to click. She wanted to approach me, but I escaped. No one can know about this.”

“Why not?” Augustus challenged with a cruel smile. He knew the mayhem that would ensue if word had gotten out that my mate was not only ten years my junior but in not one but two of my classes.

“She is a child, Augustus!” I growled.

He tilted his hand back and forth as if he were balancing a scale.

“She’s of age.”

“She is not of the age of my preference.”

He snorted.

“Your preference? Where has your preference been for the past several years? You haven’t had a girlfriend in what—three years?”

“Four,” I corrected.

“I wouldn’t have admitted that,” he said, chuckling as he scrolled through his tablet. “Delilah Hunt—age 18. She recently celebrated a birthday on July 25th. Look at that—she’s a Leo, and you’re a Gemini—perfect match.” I rolled my eyes but remained silent, wanting to know more about my mate despite the disinterest I portrayed. “Her mother, Shannon Hunt, is an alumnus not on the annual donor list. And from the household income claimed, I can see why. Shannon and her husband, Kayson Hunt, bring in a combined household income of $73,000 annually. Her mother is a teacher, and her father is a mechanic. Oh…this is interesting. Her father is a rogue or former rogue until he was formally accepted into the Nightshadow Pack.”

“Of course, she’s a half-breed,” I replied with a sigh, wondering how things could get any worse. “Why was the father a rogue?”

“According to this statement, Mr. Hunt was abandoned as a child and was found starving in the woods by a pack of nomad wolves. They took him in and raised him as their own. When he came of age, he left in search of a legitimate pack.”

“No loyalty there, huh?”

“Loyalty and rogues in the same sentence is laughable,” Augustus drawled. “Delilah has two younger siblings…she scored a perfect score on our entrance exam.”

“No one has scored a perfect score since—”

“Since you, my dear friend. She maintained a perfect GPA throughout high school and was involved in several extracurriculars. She excels at field hockey and was captain of her high school’s team her junior and senior years—the only two years the school has won championships. She should try out for the team.”

I drummed my thumbs against my desk as my childhood friend rattled off my mate’s background. We couldn’t be more different. The Grey family was considered royalty. We had unimaginable wealth and power; wolves practically bowed at our feet whenever we were in their presence. The Grey family was the progenitor of the Elder Council. I was under immense pressure to retire my father from the council and step up and become Dean of Nocturne Academy—both titles I didn’t want, but as the only eligible heir, I’d have no choice but to accept.

Even if I somehow overcame my aversion to my mate’s age, society wouldn’t accept us.

My father wouldn’t accept us….

“Would you like to hear her entrance essay?” Augustus offered.

“No…that’s enough.”

“Well, then. What is your plan? You can’t ignore the poor girl forever.”

“I can have her dropped from my courses.”

“You could, except you will need to clear that with Dean Grey, and I’m 100% certain you don’t want to have that conversation with him. Add to that, you’re the only professor who teaches Pack Dynamics and Leadership and Alchemy and Herbal Remedies—two courses she’d have to complete to graduate.”

“That doesn’t matter. I’ll probably be dean by then. She can take the courses as a senior.”

“You are a selfish son of a bitch, you know that?”

I narrowed my eyes at him in contempt.

“Say what you will, but you’ll never understand unless you’re in my situation.”

Augustus waved his hands in surrender.

“One last piece of advice—reject her—the sooner, the better.”

A pang of discomfort rippled through my chest. Most wolves wanted their one true mate—including myself. While necessary, the thought of rejecting my mate and bonding with another made me feel violently ill.

“I know what you’re thinking, but it’s only fair, Elias. She has her whole life ahead of her, and you can’t have your cake and eat it, too. From what I’ve heard through the student body grapevine, Julian Lancaster has already taken a shine to her.”

My fingers clenched until the nails pierced the skin of my palms.

I’d sent Julian to intervene and protect Delilah because I would’ve ended the entire Ashford bloodline if Anastasia had struck her. I had not intended for him to flirt with her and act as her personal tour guide.

The sound of the tip of a cane striking the floor made me perk up in my seat.

“I should take my leave,” Augustus said, hurrying out of my office. “Excuse me, Dean Grey,” he mumbled, skirting my father.

I don’t have the luxury of avoiding Caspian Grey…lucky bastard.

My father’s cold eyes of steel touched every surface of my destroyed office. I could only imagine the disapproving thoughts mounting in his head.

“The first day hasn’t commenced yet, and already the students stress you,” he said, trying to lighten the mood before he pissed me off with one of his demands.

“It’s not like that,” I insisted, picking up the computer monitor. I winced at the cracked screen and positioned it where my father couldn’t see it.

I’ll have to place an order with procurement to replace it and several other pieces of equipment.

“You have not responded to the Castille's dinner invitation.”

“I did respond.”

My father chuckled and whacked a blue stress ball away with his cane as if he were playing putt-putt golf.

“Let me rephrase…you did not respond favorably. You are attending that dinner.”

“I am not,” I responded defiantly, gritting my teeth.

My father’s stern eyes set on me, and I swore the room became 20 degrees colder.

“Elias…the days of your defiance are coming to an end, my boy,” he warned lowly. “You hold onto this childish belief that you’ll wait for your true mate until you’re thirty. Well, I am here to tell you that time is of the essence, and the world doesn’t revolve around you and your desires.”

“No, the world only revolves around you and your desires,” I spat. He frowned and lifted the silver tip of his cane in my direction.

“The Grey and Castille lineage will align whether you approve or not.”

I stood from my seat and straightened my jacket and tie.

“I’m sorry to inform you, father, but it’s not the olden days when you can auction your offspring off like cows. I must take my leave. I have a welcome speech to give to the incoming freshmen. See yourself out.”

I nearly passed him when he stuck out his cane and blocked me from exiting the office.

“You are your mother’s child,” he whispered with a sigh.

My eyes stung as I remembered the last time I saw my mother’s smiling face. The old man was so twisted that he used my known trigger against me.

“Fuck off and die,” I responded.

“Gladly, as soon as you step up and become a man.”