Chapter 1

Hardin

I am Hardin, the only son of the Great Alpha King, King Aragon. I am a student at Hopkins Citadel.

To avoid attention and favoritism, my identity was hidden. Yes, that was what my father claimed but I have always thought there was more to it.

Hopinks Citadel is an unusual school in the woods. The school is sealed away from the outside world by spells. Students and staff of the school are supernatural beings.

At the Citadel, humans are called 'normins' and they are treated as outcasts.

It was the beginning of a new term and it's Friday. We just rounded off the last class for the day. It was a Mathematics class and the topic was 'Bearings'. I sucked at it and I knew it.

All I did during the class was to envisage the sporting activities that would take place after the class. Only Fridays are available for sporting activities. Saturdays and Sundays are all fixed up.

I think I love track events because students from The Faculty of Big Cats always won. The Faculty of Big Cats are the werewolves. The speed and agility provided by our wolves were unmatched by students of other faculties.

When the principal; Mrs. Hopkins noticed this, she threatened to do a rejig.

"Wolves from the Faculty of Big Cats do win all track events. In the bid to promote the spirit of competition and sportsmanship, there will be a rejig. Our sporting activities will take a different shape. We won't hold inter-faculty competitions anymore. Rather, we would come up with different groups formed by a handful of students from each faculty." This was Mrs. Hopkins' official declaration during the last interfaculty sports festivals. It was about a year ago but nothing has changed.

There were no track events today and I was pissed off. It was just a light sporting activity and I decided not to participate.

The field bubbled with students as we all gathered for the day's events. It was one of the rules; at Hopkins, every student must participate in every activity. You could be a spectator or you could be the star of the day but no one was allowed to sit back doing nothing.

I fell into the background and watched from my spot. I was captivated by the activities going down when I saw Mrs. Hopkins walking towards me.

I rose to make salutations but a sudden shout of victory from the field distracted me.

I joined in the celebration and returned to my seat but when I looked around, Mrs Hopkins was gone. I frowned and scanned the premises. I saw her on the walkway and I knew she was coming for me. She couldn't have disappeared within such a short time.

Strangely, my sight fell on my friend Jayden; he was from the Faculty of the Prophets, they are wizards.

He smiled widely as he approached me and instantly, I knew he wasn't Jayden. Jayden hardly smiles.

"Mrs Hopkins!" I yelled in my head as Jayden approached me.

Mrs Hopkins was a shapeshifter and I wondered why she decided to approach me looking like my friend.

Students from the faculty of prophets do brag that no shapeshifter can take up their forms. "It's all a joke," I muttered as Jayden approached me.

"Hi Pal," I gave him a high five and played along.

He sat beside me and he went straight to business, typical of Mrs Hopkins.

"I need to talk to you," he said.

"C'mon! Dude, you are making me freak out. Let it out!" I yelled uneasily.

"It's about your mate,"

"Common Mrs Hopkins! Are you kidding me!?" I yelled in my head but I asked as calmly as I could, "What about it?"

"You will surely meet your mate before the new session runs out. It's a prophecy. Do not take it lightly," he said.

What the fuck!? Mrs. Hopkins took on the shape of my friend just because she wanted me to believe her bullshit. I looked at her angrily as she rose to her feet.

"I know you don't believe in prophecies but I went out of my way to bring this to you. You must hold tightly onto it. When you see her, son, you must recognize her. It's your destiny, you have been chosen to be the sake keeper of your generation," he said as he towered over me. He patted my shoulder and I felt cold inside.

"Have a nice view," he said and walked away.

What the heck was that? Why would Mrs. Hopkins do this when she is not even one of the prophets? She is just a shapeshifter like me. The only difference is that I am a wolf while she is only capable of taking on different human forms.

Has she found out about my identity? Is she doing this intentionally? It wouldn't be absurd if she has ulterior motives. Many have done that in the past. They tried to form an alley with me and through me, they got to my father.

I became restless. All that Mrs Hopkins said rang in my head and for the first time, I considered the validity of her words.

I hate prophecies, my father's conjurers have said many prophecies that made me creepy but I do not believe any of them. Prophecies are just lists of hypotheses and speculations to me but this feels different, possibly because it came from Mrs Hopkins.

Did she do it to make me believe her? I am sure she knew that I suspected her act. She even called me 'son', Jayden will never say that to me and she knew it.

She said something about destiny and she said I must make sure I identify my mate. Isn't it natural for wolves to identify their mates? I thought and my wolf grunted.

"Relax," I said to Stan and chuckled.

I wolfed out at eighteen and now, I am 21, I still haven't found my mate. It has been a tough journey for Stan and I. I have always thought I couldn't find my mate because I was rotting away in this goddamn hell hole.

Another shout of victory rocked the field and I shot up from my seat. I yelled with other students and hailed the winning side.

"Common, Hada! I can't believe you. Are you happy that we lost to the blackbirds?" Evelyn said from behind. I knew she was the one because she was the only one that called me 'Hada'. I turned around and smiled in relief, if it was one of my buddies, they would have punched me hard.

"You mean…" I stuttered.

"Yes! We lost!" Evelyn yelled.Oh… I see..," I muttered and we both burst into laughter.