Cassie stood stone still.

"I beg your pardon?" Her voice was barely a squeak, her round eyes managed to seem even larger with the look of shock plastered onto her face.

"I know," Sam winced, wringing his hands nervously, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you when I first found out - I was so scared!"

"So-So that dirty stuff - You did with Markus?!"

"That's what you're focusing on?" He groaned, "Cassie! I'm kind-of having a hard time here!" His hands ran through his scraggly hair.

"A hard time? You're going to be alpha female!" She couldn't believe Sam's luck, being the mate of an Alpha got you pretty much anything you wanted - Plus you had one of the strongest mates to protect you! "What's hard about that? You'll be the most powerful bitch in the pack - Literally!" Cassie's voice kept getting louder as she rambled and as the sound rose so did Sam's blood pressure.

"Ssssh!" He tried to cover her mouth with his fingers. "No one can know about this!" He cried.

"Why not?!" Her outcry was muffled slightly by the attempts of two bony hands to hold down her lips.

"Because..." Sam dropped his hands and folded them across his chest defensively, "He's basically..." He shrugged again, his usual defence mechanism, "He's just... Kind of..." Cassie's eyebrows pulled together,

"What's wrong, babe?"

"He's pretty much rejected me..." Sam dropped his head in shame. Being rejected by your mate was rare, and was usually only for a damn good reason, like abuse or adultery. It's a very big deal and only around 80 years ago you weren't allowed to reject your own mate, they could take you to trial in front of a group of elders. Cassie blinked back tears, who did this stupid man think he was - rejecting someone as precious and perfect as her best friend? She sniffed, trying to hold it together in the face of big blue watery eyes - She knew if she caved and cried, there'd be no stopping Sam from bawling right there in the street. She held his hands and pressed their foreheads together. "I mean, he hasn't officially said the words... But I know that he's... Ashamed of me." Sam's voice cracked on the word ashamed and Cassie's heart cracked with it.

"Well, excuse my blasphemy, but he's a fucking idiot." Her voice was surprisingly hard given how close she was to tears. "He will realise he can't live without you, and he'll regret this so much - I promise" She hugged him to her tightly.

"Thanks Cass" He mumbled against her cheek.

"But, I do have one thing I'm curious about..." She smiled cheekily.

"Just one?" He cocked an eyebrow and stepped back, folding his arms across his chest.

"How come you guys have managed to do some... Sexy things if you think he doesn't want you?" Cassie grinned but Sam sighed.

"That's all he's interested in." Sam whined, "He never even talks to me unless it's for sex - And even then it's all about him!" Sam pouted now, "But I can't say no because he's my alpha... And my wolf always goes nuts when he comes near or touches me so even if I was allowed to say no, I couldn't!"

"He's not forcing himself on you, is he?" Cassie grabbed his arms tightly with both hands, her eyes searching his.

"Not really, the moment he touches me my wolf submits and obeys him" He saw Cassie about to butt in with 'Just because your wolf submits, doesn't mean it's consent' and added, "I enjoy the stuff we do in the moment..." He shrugged, "It's just afterwards that I feel... Dirty... And embarrassed about what I've done."

"He's your mate," Cassie reasoned, "You shouldn't feel embarrassed about doing stuff with them!" She winked and Sam became sheepish, awkwardly adding,

"Okay, you've used up your one question - So now I'm not answering if you ask what stuff we've done!" His face was flushed but he still had a small smile stuck on, and it made Cassie happy to see that he was still able to keep that. She laughed,

"You didn't say I could only have one question, I said I only had one question!"

"Same thing!" He whined, "Anyway, we're going to be late for school if we don't hurry up!" He pulled on the straps of his backpack to hike it up on his back and took off running down the street in a blur of red-faced adorableness.

~

Cassie was happy to be back, her lessons were going smoothly despite what she'd missed (Although she had done her homework, they don't give much of it at the academy so she had to take a lot of notes) and soon it was time for their first break where, although Cassie's return was the first topic of conversation, their gossiping had quickly turned to mates at Hanmi's appearance. She had walked into the classroom they hung out in and announced she had 'finally had it' with her mate. Sam looked uncomfortable, Jasper, Cassie and Aminali were depressed they hadn't found theirs and Hanmi was complaining (For the first time blatantly openly) about Damien not paying her any attention. The group listened with rapt attention as the pale girl whined about how he barely even glanced in her direction, let alone gave her the attention she craved from him. He didn't seem to even notice she existed and when their eyes met and she felt her wolf writhing around inside of her happily, he would turn back and look elsewhere as if he couldn't feel it.

"You need to do something more drastic... I guess..." Cassie offered.

"I would say ignore him and find someone else... But he's your mate... Your only one..." Aminali put her chin in her hands as she spoke, they all looked just as helpless. Except Jasper, who grinned cheekily,

"But... You could always fake it." The subs glanced back and forth at each other in confusion.

"You mean like a fake relationship?" Cassie raised an eyebrow and folded her arms, "That's a recipe for hurt feeling and tears." She added. And it was, it was never a good idea to make a wolf jealous, but Damien was a beta wolf and therefore, it was an even worse idea to wind him up (Especially since he had a chance to be picked as Karliah's beta).

"But he would get so jealous... It might just kick him into gear." Jasper reasoned. He stretched himself out across the desk languidly, he just wanted to cause some mischief really.

"That- I- wouldn't that mean I would have to do stuff with someone else?" Hanmi asked. She looked from face to face to gauge the general consensus on how stupid of an idea this was, adding, "I don't know if I could do that..."

"Plus, who else would risk their relationship with their mate to join you in this ridiculous plan?" Aminali pointed out, although, like Jasper, she enjoyed a bit of chaos, this was her friend that was thinking about making a stupid decision.

The group sat in silence for a few moments.

"I would." Sam announced, his expression blank and his voice cold. Cassie watched him carefully, she couldn't help but worry about him,

"S-Sam..." She whinged. He ignored her and continued,

"I have my own mate that doesn't pay attention to me." The rest of the group all looked stunned, they had never heard him talk about his mate, they had never heard him even mention finding his mate. The only person in the room who didn't have an almost comical shocked expression painted on was Cassie, although she reckoned her face had looked very similar when she had found out only that very morning. "I don't... Want to talk about it too much" They all nodded kindly, Cassie stared down at the ground awkwardly. "But he's basically embarrassed of me," He managed to hold back tears of shame as he released to the world the truth: that his own mate didn't want him. "so if he doesn't want me, I would love to help you get your mate to give you the attention you deserve."

"Are you guys sure about this?" Cassie looked back and forth at them but neither met her eyes. They stared at each other for a few moments before nodding seriously, like they had just accepted a mission from MI5.

"Thank you." Hanmi whispered. They all seemed to be holding their breaths anxiously until Aminali announced,

"You guys are crazy. This is crazy. And I'm crazy excited to see this mess get even messier." She grinned evilly and Cassie put her head in her hands.

Sam and Hanmi began conspiring - with occasional help from Jasper and Aminali or a word of discouragement from Cassie. The break soon ended and it was time for their next lesson.

~

She's sitting in his lap... He has his head on her shoulder... Markus felt the suspicion fill him like a cloud of gas, choking him and making his eyes burn. He wanted to storm over and interrogate his mate and whoever this girl thought she was sitting in his lap. He tried to concentrate on his work as they were all in the library doing free study. But it didn't look like the omega and that girl were reading any books. She was around the same height as him but not as thin and her hair was darker and slightly longer, it sat pristine and shiny on her small head while his was permanently bedraggled. But Markus didn't like prissy perfect hair anyway - He wanted something he could tug on. Sam wrapped his arms around the girls waist loosely, holding her to him gently and listening to Cassie and the one with the braids chattering. Markus watched childishly from behind a book he hadn't read a single word of. Every minuscule movement had him enthralled.

"You know that we don't take advanced Swahili, right?" Came Damien's voice from behind him. Markus jolted and scanned a few random lines from the book he was holding,

"I know that..." He snapped, "This is just one of my... Hobbies" He finished lamely. Damien smirked at him and he grinned back. "Anyway, since when do you have free study right now? Shouldn't you be in maths?" He raised an eyebrow in mock seriousness.

"I came to get some test papers copied for Mrs Gomez." He waved a purple binder in his friend's face.

"So you're the teachers pet now?" His friend didn't talk often in class, hardly ever gave answers or put his hand up and never offered to run errands for a teacher.

"Nah, just like getting out of class for as long as I can." Damien put down the binder and leant back against the table, clearly planning to stretch out his absence as long as possible.

"I don't believe that - I bet you're fucking her and that's why you're suddenly so helpful" Markus teased.

"That's so gross, dude" Damien shook his head, "She's more than twice my age!"

"Well, apart from the spirit of the holy Christ entering your body, that's the only reason I could think of that you would do anything for anyone." Markus shrugged like this was common knowledge and batted his eyelashes, trying to look innocent but coming across more along the lines of creepy.

"So, either Christ is entering me or I'm entering Mrs Gomez?" Damien chuckled, picking the binder back up and making his way to the librarian's counter to make a request for copies. Deciding not to wait for Markus' reply - even class was better than being accused of being some teacher's you boy.

Markus shook his head and watched the back of his friend leave, but all too soon his attention was quickly drawn back to the omega and the girl in his lap. What he didn't realise though, was that there were two others who were also watching the pair like a hawk from across the room.