School the next day is just another needle in a haystack hunt for the elusive new student that again fails to appear for any of his lessons.
‘Are you sure he hasn’t just decided not to come to our school after all?’ Garrett grumbled as he jogged to keep up with his Alpha’s long strides, Hudson scouring the large playing field for an unfamiliar face, frustration rolling off him.
‘No’ he growled back in annoyance, ‘the principal would have told my father if he had changed his mind about coming here.’
The Beta shrugged, sighing quietly as they started toward their third circuit of the school building since they’d arrived that morning.
Making their way inside, Hudson stormed down the corridor, glancing into each open classroom as he passed, stopping at the small glass windows of the rooms that were occupied.
Suddenly, a prickling feeling ran up the back of his neck making the short hairs on his head stand on end. Someone was watching him.
Spinning around quickly, he was just in time to see the ends of a head of red hair disappear around the corner at the end of the hallway. Frowning, he instinctively went to take a step toward whoever it was, wanting to know who had been there staring at him.
Garrett grabbed at his arm, snapping his attention back to what they were doing, the Beta looking at him wide eyed. ‘The courts’ he said loudly. ‘We haven’t checked the basketball courts, maybe he’s hanging out there.’
Hudson gave his friend a side glance, ‘what, he’s just not going to classes?’ he retorted, ‘he’s enrolled in a school to sit under the bleachers all day?’
The Beta scowled, ‘just because his pack wants him to attend this school doesn’t mean he wants to be here or that he's even interested in studying’ he muttered.
‘Fine’ Hudson huffed, ‘we’ll check the courts, even if he isn’t there, we can bunk classes without detection.’
Laughing, Garrett slapped his hand in a high five, ‘that is one of your better ideas, no wonder you are the Alpha’ he teased.
‘Too right’ Hudson replied, puffing out his chest, ‘brains, brawn, and handsome face, I’m the complete package.’
‘Just need to find our Luna’ the Beta added with a smile, ‘the ultimate power couple.’
The young Alpha’s chest tightened at the mention of his mate, his wolf letting out a low growl in his head. Hudson’s wolf hadn’t really spoken to him since the rejection, but he wasn’t worried, he’d get over it when they found their real mate.
Entering the courts, they checked under the bleachers that were vacant before settling themselves out of sight, leaning back against the underside talking.
‘What do you think she’s like?’ Garrett asked conversationally as he pulled out his phone and started to play a game.
‘Who?’ Hudson asked, looking up from his own phone where he had been reading a message from the Gamma’s daughter.
‘Your mate’ the Beta replied, frowning slightly as his fingers flew over the screen, ‘what do you imagine she looks like?’
Hudson scowled, ‘I don’t know’ he replied more sharply than he meant too, ‘I’ll find out when I meet her.’
His best friend frowned, ‘I always imagined my mate would have long brown hair, the deepest chocolate eyes and have a bit of a sassiness to her’ he confided.
‘You think about what she’ll look like? What if you are completely wrong?’ Hudson asked, dropping his phone and concentrating on his friend.
Garrett flicked his gaze up for a fraction of a second, ‘then I’ll be wrong’ he replied easily. ‘I’ll still love her and want her no matter what she looks like, but I like to think my wolf and I would be able to have a rough idea of the other half of our soul.’
The pair settle back into silence until the bell rang to signal the end of the day.
The next day was another round of disappointment regarding the new student, as he once again marched the hallways, Hudson suddenly stumbled as a body slammed into his, two legs wrapping around his waist as a head of blonde hair blocked his vision.
Steadying himself, Hudson’s hands instinctively went to the soft mounds of his attackers ass to support their weight.
‘Hudson, you didn’t reply to my text’ Penelope whined as the face of his father’s Gamma’s daughter came into view.
‘Uhh, I was busy’ he replied wondering why the hell she was hanging off him like a monkey.
Penelope pouted, her arms tightening around his neck, ‘but I wanted to know if you were going to the party over at Clover pack this weekend? Daddy was happy to let me as long as I was going with someone who could protect me.’
Hudson tried not to roll his eyes, another dumb she wolf trying to get him to be her date, why wouldn’t they get it that he didn’t want to b their boyfriend, they were not going to be Luna.
His thoughts immediately went to the red head, Quinn, and he fleetingly wondered how she would feel clinging on to him instead.
‘Pack it in’ he growled to himself, ‘you rejected her, she was too weak, stop thinking about her, you need to concentrate on finding the new kid and finding your real Luna.’
‘Yeah, look . . ‘ he started slowly, trying to get her to let him go.
Penelope squealed excitedly, drawing attention, ‘really? You’ll take me? Oh daddy will be so happy to hear that!’ Before he could stop her, the blonde pressed her lips to his in a heated kiss.
Standing rigidly for a few seconds, his brain kicked back into gear and he pulled away, his eyes sweeping the crowded hall around them and finding a pair of pain filled green eyes staring at him.
Quinn swallowed thickly, her hand on her heart as if she was in pain before she turned on her heel and stormed away, pushing through the crowd who were wolf whistling at the Alpha who grinned weakly.
Stamping down on his own pangs of guilt, Hudson dropped Penelope to the ground where she reluctantly let him go, ‘look Pen’ he started again, ‘I wasn’t . . ‘
‘It’s OK, you don’t have to pick me up’ Penelope rushed out, ‘I’ll meet you at the pack house. I’ll see you at seven on Saturday night. I’ll be wearing a blue dress so don’t clash with me.’
Not waiting for his reply, she tossed her hair over her shoulder and hurried away toward her giggling friends who were eyeing Hudson excitedly.
A pat on his shoulder drew his attention as he groaned in frustration, ‘well, looks like you have a date tomorrow’ Garrett chuckled.
‘I don’t want a date’ the young Alpha growled angrily, ‘I want them to understand I’m not going to make them fucking Luna just because they are happy to spread their legs for me and any other high ranking wolf.’
‘Yes, Yes’ the Beta soothed, ‘we know, Alpha Hudson will only have his one true love as his Luna, no other she wolf will ever be able to take this mystery woman’s place.’
Hudson’s chest lurched again as the image of Quinn’s broken expression slammed into him, he needed to get her out of his head.
Heading off to his next class, the future Alpha pushed thoughts of his ex mate from his mind, he couldn’t afford to wallow over her, he’d rejected her, it was over.