Cassie hadn't left the pack house all weekend. Her phone had been receiving texts from a multitude of Unknown numbers since Saturday and she had blocked all of them; but with cheap phones and SIM cards available to everyone, it seemed that Brandon wasn't going to have much trouble reaching her. She needed a new number, but for that she would have to talk to her mum and she couldn't bear to tell her what was going on. She had spent most of her time with Sam, helping him do his chores and watching old sitcom DVDs, trying to ignore the acidic taste in her mouth and burning in the pit of her stomach. Markus hadn't mentioned anything to her or anyone else and Cassie was actually starting to think he might be awkwardly avoiding her.

On Monday, she faked sick and stayed home with her mum, covering her bruised thighs with long PJ bottoms. They read trashy magazines, sipped lucozade and watched reality TV - her mum's full-proof distraction from being ill. She kept telling herself that it was only for a day.

On Tuesday, she pulled the same routine. Just one more day, she thought. She still hadn't turned her phone on since taking the battery out on Sunday night. Sam had brought her homework home with him, he didn't say anything about her fake illness and she appreciated it immensely.

On Wednesday, her mum had become suspicious. She tried to encourage her a bit more that day to go in, citing her friends as examples of reasons to go back, and Cassie knew that she was right, she missed Sam.

~

And Sam missed her. He slipped from lesson to lesson silently, drawing as little attention to himself as possible. He barely spoke a word, even to their friends. He knew that Cassie was faking it and why, but he didn't blame her. He would do the same if it were the other way round.

As Wednesday dragged by, he was beginning to worry that she didn't plan to ever come back. He made his way to third period, wandering along absorbed in his own thoughts, to another lonely maths lesson when a hand gripped his arm and pulled him out of the crowd and into an empty classroom. He swung round, ready to tell Markus that he really needed to get to maths - and stress the point that he needed to go on behalf of Cassie as well as himself - When he realised that it wasn't Markus holding onto his arm.

"Where's Cassie?" Asked Karliah. She towered over him in a plain grey top and black cargo trousers, her hair was dirty and tied in a single French plait.

"Um..." Sam shrugged, not meeting her eyes, they were fearsome without needing to scowl...

"I know you're friends with her" Karliah added, trying to speak softly and push her voice to a higher pitch, although she already had trouble maintaining the feminine voice that she faked day to day. "And I know that you must know where she is."

"She's off today." Sam offered, feebly. Tilting his head away.

"I know, but why?" Karliah stressed, "I don't mean her any harm, I just want to know that she's okay." She knelt down to his level and grabbed his chin between her fingers, forcing him to face her.

"She's sick." Sam felt more sick than Cassie probably did just then, he was lying to an Alpha, even if they weren't his it still made him queasy. Karliah continued to try and make eye contact with him but he kept darting his eyes back and forth to avoid her.

"Why are you lying to me?" She murmured, her steel eyes were sharp with lashes that all grew facing outwards, making her outer corners look even more pointed. Sam sniffed and his eyes began to water.

"I-I can't..." He tried again "I-I-I-" his bottom lip trembled and a few stray tears got out. His wolf was squirming inside of him uncomfortably.

"Hey, it's okay" Karliah wiped his cheeks clean with her thumbs, his translucent skin made her nervous and she kept her touch feather-light so as not to bruise or break his thin skin. "Just relax, you're not in trouble" She picked him up by the arm pits and sat him on a desk. "Is Cassie okay, though?" Sam nodded, drawing his hands up to cover his face, although his shoulders shivering gave away that he was still trying to hold back tears.

"She's faking sick" He mumbled.

"Why?"

"That's... Not my secret to tell" Sam winced beneath his hands, if he said that to Markus he'd probably beat him.

"Okay... I can respect that" Karliah gave him a small smile. "Do you know when she will be back?"

"I don't know" His bottom lip poked out, "but I hope it's soon" He wiped his eyes on the sleeves of his sweatshirt.

"Me too" She sighed, picking off a stray eyelash from his cheek and blowing it away, "Are you okay though? Want me to walk you to your next class?" She put her hand out to help him off the table and picked up their bags.

"I'm okay" He hopped down, "Thanks for the offer though" He took his bag back and tried to smile but his lips were still trembling.

"Here's my number, make sure you text me if anything happens with Cassie, okay?" She wrote out the digits on a piece of scrap paper and tore it off to hand to Sam. He nodded, slipping it into his back pocket.

"I will..." He wondered if he really would... Something felt off but he couldn't place what it was... He wouldn't get in trouble for texting the alpha of another pack would he?

"Come on then, we're gonna be late" she opened the door, ushered him through and began to jog leisurely to her classroom. Sam watched her back for a few moments before scurrying away to his own lesson.

~

P.E was always a painful class for Markus, not because he was bad at it, quite the contrary, in fact he was incredibly fit and did well at all the sports they played, often carrying his team to victory. No, it wasn't his physical abilities, it was the tiny shorts fault.

For P.E they would separate the Doms and the subs into opposite sides of the field or hall they were in for two reasons: A) It wouldn't be fair to make them compete against each other with the difference in size and strength and 2) Doms get very jealous with their mates being around other Doms, and if another Dom were to say, pick a sub up if they fell or touch their hand when they handed them a ball or bat, it could all kick off. Markus could still see though, very clearly with his enhanced vision, the tiny black shorts his mate wore. When he stretched, when he ran, when he batted a ball or when he jumped. All the submissives seemed to wear their shorts much shorter than the dominants. The alpha of Lunar Warriors even wears full tracksuit bottoms to class, he thought. But the shorts his omega wore, they absolutely mesmerised him.

There had been times where balls had flown past him and he hadn't noticed or he had been tagged by someone and ignored it, and even his running had been affected at times due to excessive staring. He was lucky no one had noticed, or at least hadn't mentioned anything if they had. He couldn't help it! It was at its worst when the omega bent over or spread his legs, then Markus would often come to a stone halt and drool.

Today, the submissives were doing yoga and the dominants had gymnastics (The sports changed every two weeks, by the end of the year they had all done a few lessons of everything). As an Alpha, Markus naturally had a lot of willpower, but also as an alpha, his need to take his mate was much stronger than the average wolf's, his internal battle was fierce as he tried to concentrate on holding the legs of his upside-down partner for the lesson. Luckily, said partner was his friend Damien, a chill guy that didn't talk much - which Markus really appreciated sometimes, but especially when his mate was doing downward dog with his perky arse pointing right at him. He kept his cool, continuing to hold Damien's handstand steady until the coach counted down to 0 and it was his turn.

He threw himself forward onto his hands and let Damien grab his legs to hold him still, his t-shirt was bunched around his neck and right then he didn't know if he wanted it to fall and cover his face so he wouldn't see the subs anymore or if he wanted it held round his chin so he could watch the sensual stretching. Although his partner was a bit smaller than him (in height and stature) he was able to give him good support as he struggled to keep himself steady when the submissives slowly pushed themselves from child's pose to the cat pose, their backs arching high and then dipping low. Markus had to use every scrap of willpower inside of him not to let all of his blood rush to his dick as he imagined himself fucking Sam in that position, running his hands along that pale curved back...