Chapter 2 : A Little Jolt

Missael’s POV

What was that?

The moment had been all too brief but for some reason the impact lingered, like the light scent of lilac she wore still hanging in the air around me.

I’d rounded the corner, trying to head back to our apartment after orientation, when her delicate frame collided into me and threatened to topple backward.

Her vibrant eyes took me by surprise as I caught her trembling torso in my palm. It wasn’t like I was going to let her fall to the ground, even though she ran into me, but the reaction to having her in my hold… hadn’t been the reaction I’d expected.

On either of our parts.

She trembled as soon as we collided but when our eyes met, she looked like a bird caught on a wire. I felt her sudden desperation to be free of my hold but was too stunned to speak or even move as she pulled back.

She turned her mesmerizing eyes away, breaking whatever spell had stunned me in time to see the swish of her hair as it flowed around in the air behind her.

I reached out after her, my wolf snapping in protest at her retreat but I stopped short, noticing that she ran as if she couldn’t get away fast enough. I looked at my hand curiously, the skin still buzzing from the touch. The moment my palm landed on her back there’d been a jolt… or maybe a tingle… more like static than anything else.

It was unexpected, strange.

Odd. That was… odd.

That girl was human so why did I feel…

“Hey, Missy! You’re so late. Orientation finished forever ago… What took you so long?”

I scowled, turning to Gael as he cooed and made faces.

“Why are you insisting on making yourself look like a buffoon?”

“Ooooh~, big words, Missy. Gotta use that future literature degree for something, am I right?”

“One of us will have to when you’ll be charged for a third degree in stupidity.”

Before Gael could continue to egg me on, a hand slapped the back of his head, making him yelp.

“Cut it out, he’s wound up enough,” Gabriel scolded him before looking at me and scowling, missing Gael sticking his tongue out at him from behind his back. “Missael—fix your eyes already.”

What—oh.

I blinked before taking a breath, calming myself down and letting the tension fade from my body, and felt my eyes going back to brown. I didn’t realize I had been stressed enough for them to change.

They shouldn’t have, I had better control than that. Our father trained us to have better control than that, and it was embarrassing how much my control had slipped.

Had she seen it?

That girl hadn’t been a threat—when I touched her, all her emotions had been in disarray making it hard to get a clear read on her, but she hadn’t been a threat. She’d been way more afraid of me, not even hesitating to escape the first chance she got, so why was it bothering me?

…Why did my eyes change over nothing?

“Hey, man, are you okay? You know I’m just teasing, right?” Gael asked and I sighed, shaking my head, trying to put what happened out of my mind. I didn’t know why I was lingering on it, there were other things to worry about than some stranger.

“Yeah, I am, and yeah, I KNOW.”

Gael laughed sheepishly at my tone, and I just rolled my eyes.

“Is it because of that girl?” Gabriel asked, not dropping the topic, and he narrowed his eyes suspiciously in the direction she had run off in. Straight towards the dorms. Huh, it seemed that she was also a freshman.

“It’s fine, it’s nothing,” I tried to wave it off, but Gabriel wasn’t just going to let it go. He could get ‘overprotective’. Perks and consequences of being the oldest. Someone had to be responsible for the stupid sh*t, even if they had a hand in said stupid sh*t.

“She was just—strange,” I finally admitted.

“Strange how—oh—are you in love~?” Teased Gael and I shoved him hard enough to almost take him to the ground. “Dude! Not cool!”

“Shut up—and no. There was… static, I don’t really know how else to explain it.” I grimaced.

“Wait—you don’t mean ‘the jolt’ do you?” Gael quickly turned serious, but I quickly shook my head.

“No—no. Definitely not strong enough for that—but—there was something.”

‘The jolt’ or ‘the moment’ as most werewolves called it, was less of a jolt and more of a connection to the matebond when you met and felt your fated mate for the first time. People described it like a blow sometimes, an unmistakable connection snapping into place or ‘a jolt’.

That wasn’t what I felt though, but it certainly didn’t align with anything else. No clash of instincts or a bid at intimidation—definitely not a bid at intimidation with her reaction.

“Look, can we just drop it? It was probably my powers wigging out again. I’d like to focus on getting ready for the semester.”

Both gave me worried looks while I glared right back. I knew what they were thinking, they were wondering if I needed to go back and rest some more and not be overwhelmed but I didn’t need them to worry about me.

We were here to enjoy our college days and live a little before the responsibilities of being the future alpha, and said alpha’s brothers kicked in and we had to start getting serious about taking over for the sake of the pack.

My powers hadn’t really come with a guidebook, powers never did. They were unique gifts, given by the Goddess of the Moon. Blessings, but I found it fascinating how in the same turn, curses were unique gifts too.

The learning curve had been… steep, and there were still things I had to learn, but I wasn’t going to accidentally get a face full of emotions just from looking at someone, even if they were easier to read.

Besides, Gabriel and Gael wore their expressions on their faces like hearts on sleeves that I didn’t even have to do anything. I probably shouldn’t have used my powers as an excuse but still.

“I promise I’m fine, now come on, we’ve got things to do.” I insisted.

“…Fine. But make sure to tell us if anything changes.” Gabriel finally gave in, and I sighed in relief, watching as he went ahead of us. A few people were already staring at him, and I could feel a few eyes on Gael and I as well.

First day of university and somehow THAT was the normal thing about it all. The Sined genes were hard at work, but our father worked harder.

Sined wasn’t a well-known name here, very little influence beyond werewolves who were already in the know and they wouldn’t snitch, giving us the most normal college experience we could probably get, what with being supernatural entities around a bunch of humans and what not.

Despite what I told Gabriel and Gael, my eyes couldn’t help but look for the ‘what not’ that turned that normal into something else.

It would have been easy to spot her on campus, this school did not shrink on the school spirit, but she had been wearing a lightweight pink sweater that complimented her dark hair and was sure to stand out in a sea of green and gold attire.

But I didn’t see her at any of the after orientation activities.

…This was going to bother me for a while, wasn’t it?

The organized informationals were simplistic in setup, but overall, a good experience. Gael fit in perfectly with everyone we met, energetic and upbeat it was easy for him to make friends with anyone.

Gabriel himself was a bit more standoffish but not cold, so him striking up a conversation with some people who were going into business was par for the course with him.

I managed to find a few people to talk to about the future courses we’d be taking. We’d all been assigned a mandatory preceptorial course for the semester, but I’d gotten the rather interesting course ‘Creating Monsters’.

The irony of it wasn’t lost on me but I kept my amusement mostly to myself. With the supernatural still being hidden, I was curious as to just what the course was going to be about.

There was just one thing we’d have to keep in mind while we were here. Most of the people we were chatting with were human.

“There’s a party this Friday and guess who got us all invited?” Gael’s exuberance was a little contagious, his grin wide. Gabriel and I knew he’d been looking forward to university the most.

“You mean ‘tomorrow’? Gabriel corrected, his tone dry.

“Yeah, but if a welcoming party’s not your pace I’ve got a frat party on Sunday, a Beta Phi Beta party next week, and you didn’t hear it from me, but some of the Greek life on campus is having an all you can drink for twenty, and someone’s supposed to be able to make a mean margarita.”

“I’d like to settle in and not be hungover from the campus tour, thanks,” I said.

“And Dad will know if you get drunk.”

“I’m not gonna get drunk, I have our ‘supernatural constitution’.”

“Don’t come crying to me when he finds out about your underage drinking,” Gabriel replied.

“Should we get dinner at the caf?”

“No, we have food at our apartment,” Gabriel waved off, ignoring Gael’s badgering, but we still went back.

We were still on campus in one of their buildings but unlike the dorms, these were set up more like apartments with kitchens and small living rooms.

It was an easy decision for us to decide to live together while on campus. Some people wouldn’t understand it, but we were… well… we were brothers.

Triplets, fraternal triplets specifically. It was different from just being siblings or being twins, especially when you grew up as the alpha’s sons in the Crescent Moon Pack and social bonds could be everything to you.

For us, it was simple though. Simple in the way that when Gabriel was named the next alpha, Gael and I just silently picked up being his second and third in command. Easy in the way we chose the one university Gael had managed to get into without our dad pulling any strings.

Simple in the way we were in an apartment, away from the people who’d be too loud and would feel too much and make it hard for me.

“Missy, help me convince Gabby that we should totally go out for burgers tonight and celebrate our college life!”

“Just for that… no.”

“Betrayal!”

“I believe there’s some pasta we can cook…” Gabriel cut in.

“You can’t cook for sh*t, Gabby!”

“You can starve then.”

“I’ll cook,” I huffed, rolling my eyes and walking ahead of them.

“That’s not much better,” Gael sighed.

“Then starve.”

“Hey—wait!”

Despite our conversation, Gael was grinning widely, and Gabriel looked like he was laughing, the corners of his eyes crinkled. They both felt happy and content and I hoped they’d stay like that for as long as possible.