Leo boredly stared down at the notebook on his desk. He had eventually decided that he could give Ivan a letter, explain everything in the letter, and then they could meet up later to talk about everything.

  Then he had sat down to actually write the letter, and had realised very quickly that explaining to someone that you—their longtime enemy and dearest headache— was your mate, required a lot more thought than he had expected.

  He wanted to explain everything, but everything about the letter made it seem like a joke. And he wasn't sure that Ivan wouldn't just throw the letter away if he thought it was a joke, that's what he usually did.

  After being at his desk for two hours, all he had to show for it was a total of two lines written down, but they had been messily scratched out in black ink. So basically nothing.

  Leo closed the notebook, pushed it to the side of his desk and grabbed his journal from his desk drawer. He skipped past a few pages that were mostly scribbles of black pen — an embarrassing phase when he had been into poetry a month ago — and opened a new blank page.

  Then he began to write. He wrote about Ivan, about his life, about school… about everything. A fountain of words flowed out of him, reaching the very edges of the fountain so closely that it seemed like the thin streams of sentences would never tip over, then falling delicately onto the pages.

  After a while, he finished and ripped out one of the pages where he had eventually written the letter to Ivan. He folded it and placed it neatly on the desk table.

  — — —

  Leo watched his future Beta and best friend let out a long, frustrated sigh before slumping her head despairingly onto her desk, black curly hair spilling over her arms and filling the empty space around her. Leo glanced at her from his place on her bed.

  “You know that’s only due in, like, 2 weeks right?” Leo asked.

  They had been given the assignment a few days ago and while Amirah had always been the type of person to start a project as early as possible, Leo couldn't be bothered. He'd rather do it closer to the actual due date and if that happened to be the day before, so what, he was a busy person.

  Amirah slowly lifted her head off the desk, turning abruptly to stare back at him. “And you're gonna do it when?” She started, smirking at him “In 2 weeks?”

  He gave her a deadpanned look. “Funny.” He crossed his arms over his chest “Watch, I'll get it done early this time”.

  Of course this was a lie, he was going to do it the day before, and she knew him too damn well. Better than anyone, he liked to think.

  “Mhm okay.”

  He grabbed a bright purple pillow lying limp next to him and threw it in her direction.

  “Mhm, okay, " he mocked, smiling when the pillow landed right at the back of her head.

  She stood up, desk chair rolling to the other corner of the room, and grabbed the pillow from the floor behind her before walking up to him and hitting him in the head. “If you're gonna be in here, you're not allowed to annoy or distract me.” She said, neatly placing the pillow back in its original spot.

  Fair enough. He had spent the better part of an hour lying on her bed, eating an old chocolate bar she had found in her drawer and playing games on his phone instead of doing the mountain of assignments they already had. He would do them later.

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  “Yeah well your loud-as-fuck sighing isn't calming rain music either.” He replied. He saw her about to respond but she paused when a loud buzz filled the room.

  Leo could feel his phone vibrating in his back pocket. He grabbed the phone, sighing as the words ‘Papa’ popped up on the screen.

  He answered the call and pressed the phone to his ear, preparing himself for another round of 'What did Leo do wrong this time’

  “Where are you?” His dad questioned in Spanish. You could really count on him to never start a call with a simple hello.

  “I'm with Amirah.” He replied back in Spanish, now keenly aware of the other girl who was currently watching the phone in curiosity.

  ‘Who is it?’ She mouthed after hearing her name. He ignored her, turning his focus back onto the call. She threw her hands up in mild frustration and turned away from him abruptly. Nosy.

  “There's a pack meeting at the packhouse. I want you here in 5 minutes. Don't. Be. Late.” His dad stated, firmly. He could hear a trace of slight irritation in his voice, but when was he ever not irritated?

  Leo opened his mouth to reply, but his father ended the call, not waiting for a response. He stared at the phone in confusion for a few seconds then flung the phone beside him on the bed.

  He let out a deep breath, lowered himself down onto his back and ran a hand over his face. He hated pack meetings. They were long and boring and seemingly pointless.

  And he knew that, realistically, if he was going to be Alpha of the pack one day, those meetings came with the responsibility’. But couldn't it have at least been responsibilities that didn't make him want to rip his eyes out just for the fun of it?

  He knew that someone like Ivan probably loved those meetings. They talked endlessly about maintaining the pack and responsibilities and land and history and strategy and other boring shit he didn't care about. The only thing he figured he needed to do to learn to be a good Alpha was to learn from experience, learn from his father's actions. Granted, his father wasn't exactly model citizen number twenty-one, but the pack admired him. Respected him. And one day, they would admire Leo too.

  “It was my dad, apparently there's some pack meeting happening in 5 minutes, “ He told Amirah, now speaking English.

  Her eyebrows pinched in confusion. “What? Why?”

  Leo shrugged “No clue.”

  Amirah turned around and stared back at the pile of papers on her desk. Leo glanced around her room, then his eyes landed back on Amirah, who looked deep in conversation. He probably shouldn't disturb her.

  “Uh. Do you ever think about, like, your mate?” Leo suddenly asked, breaking the silence. His hand subconsciously drifted down to the letter that was neatly folded in his pocket and he fiddled with the sharp corners.

  Amirah turned to him, the end of the pen cap still tightly grasped between her teeth. She dropped the pen cap into her open palm.

  “Sometimes. I mean especially now, we should be thinking about that stuff, right?”

  “Sure … yeah.”

  Amriah remained quiet for a few moments then perked up. “Why do you ask? Did you meet your mate?” She gave him a look of mock sadness “She disappointed yet?”

  “I didn't. But if I did, she'd be too busy being awed by my charm and sheer handsomeness to be disappointed”

  Amirah rolled her eyes at him, but her fa?ade of annoyance was betrayed by the poorly hidden smile that was creeping onto her face. “Handsomeness isn't a word idiot.”

  “Yes it is.” Leo raised a hand up to her when she started to say something. “And don't try to argue.”

  “I don't believe you.”

  “Fine.” Leo shrugged, “Then stay uneducated.”

  Within seconds, Amirah got up from her desk and the desk chair rolled into the desk with a loud bang. She stormed up to him, grabbed a small Winnie the Pooh teddy bear that Leo (his mom) had gotten her for her 7th birthday, and she hit him with it, the impact not hurting but almost giving him whiplash from the force.

  “Ow, what is your problem!” Leo whined, dodging more hits to his shoulder and the top of his head between laughs.

  “You're so annoying. Don't you have a meeting to get to?”