CHAPTER 1

It happened again. Emily and her gang members had decided to toy with me and had taken my lunch and fed it to Mark. The only terrifying dog in the pack. I could not help but groan. I stared at the sky and wondered why Alpha Elijah decided to put both humans, the ones who knew of their existence and werewolves together in a territory. I cannot even fathom what the old slag was thinking about.

I groaned again as I eyed Mark, who kept barking and twitching his stupid eyes at me like he knew he had been fed my lunch. How those girls managed to get into my house was far away from what could be in my idea.

My name is Cody. Popularly known as the weak human in the pack. My mother was eighteen when she had me. She stubbornly refused to listen to her parents and came down here to the Crescent pack to marry my dad. Unfortunately for her, she had been too weak to bore me as everyone thought I was going to end up being a werewolf like my father. My mother, Helen, died few minutes after giving birth to me and I was left with my dad, Paul.

He is the head of the security in crescent packs and I am only sure that is the only reason why Emily and her skanks haven't been able to touch me since. I sighed again. Poor me. Left alone in this fading world to deal with young losers who couldn't deal with the fact that a human could be prettier than them. Yes, I had the ego of a peacock and it was sure because of what I knew.

I wondered if I would also find a mate one day, or I will end up going out to the human world completely to find my soulmate. Left to me, I was uninterested in any of the males in the pack. They all just turned me off in a way and I never looked at any of them twice. Well, except Jimmy, my best friend and the only one who cared about how I felt in the whole or this pack.

I briefly put a hold on my inner thoughts as I approached the big gates of our very own college. I finished high school a year ago and I must say I could not also wait to finish college and finally be free of my fathers' shackles. That man was a handful sometimes and I just could not wait to get free of him.

My next class was to start by 10am but as the good student that I am, I was already in school by 9:30 am. It didn't have to do with the fact that I was going to have more than enough time to spend with jimmy. Nuh-Uh.

"Yo, pretty brunette." I heard Jimmy before  I saw him. As usual, he was in a wine shirt and black jeans. I mean, that was his custom-made color. He was always in wine and black. Most of the time anyways.

"Hey you. What's up?" I asked as we both settled to sit on a small bench in a secluded area. It was our spot. We always met here every single day, just talking, holding hands, and staring into the other's eye.

"I'm okay. By the way, I heard prince Adam is going to be attending our college for a year." He said, a little bit excited but confused.

My mouth formed an O shape. "You mean the Prince Adam? The kings' only son? Or there's another prince?" I was also excited at this stage too. Only the royal family and a few prestigious families were special breeds of Lycan in the whole of the werewolf world.

Lycans are special. The better version of werewolves. They were faster, bigger in their form, they were also beautiful and never aged. Their only downfall was that in the whole of their lifetime, only few can find their mate. It could be anyone. It could be human, a werewolf, or a fellow Lycan. Due to this reason, only fifty percent out of a hundred managed to find their mate each time. The remaining ones just paired up with fellow Lycans to produce powerful offspring.

The good part is that anyone who ends up being their mate will automatically become a Lycan once they mate. So it was big news that a Lycan and not even an ordinary Lycan. But a whole Lycan prince, was gracing his presence in their school.

"Wow, that must be good news to the board directors of the school. No wonder everywhere felt neater than usual today. Tsk tsk, those ass kissers." I added and both I and Jimmy burst into a fit of laughter.

"Anyways, I can't wait to see the pretty prince. I heard he was so beautiful you'll feel like poop if you stand next to him. And he's coming with his friends! You know the popular gang right?" Jimmy asked and I nodded negatively.

"Oh my gosh? You do not know them? I cannot believe we have been best friends since a year ago and you do not manage to put your head in the gist that's always going around? How are we best friends? I mean you are pretty and all but girl, you've got to know all these juicy details." Jimmy rolled his eyes.

Sometimes, I tried to convince myself that Jimmy wasn't gay and that he would end up reciprocating my love for him one day. But I do not think today or soon was the day. I watched him as he went ahead to describe the butt cheeks of the prince. I managed to catch feelings and it was for someone who swung the other way. Yay, lucky me.

"Calm down Jimmy, you are clearly overreacting and being dramatic." I hit his chest and he laughed.

He cleared his throat and pointed a finger to me, "Now listen carefully. They are five in number, including the prince. Of course, you know their leader, prince Adam. Well, there's the blonde lady, the one with the blue eyes that won the swimming Olympics in the human world earlier this year, her name is Remy. She's best friends with prince Adam, and her mate is also part of the gang, his name is Martin. The Prince's cousin. So now you know he's also a prince. Lastly, there's Edward and Ella. Yes, they are couples. Cliche right? She could have just had a B in front of her name, making it Bella and they'd be like the Lycan form of twilight." He rolled his eyes.

"Anyways, no one really knows their history buts rumors have it that they once saved the prince for a rogue park years ago. Before you were born. And me also." He finished, pretending to file his nails and feeling accomplished of himself."

"Wow. They must be all hell of tight then." I replied.

"You have no idea. Anyways, we've got class in fifteen. Let's head up." Jimmy pulled me up and we both play walked to our lecture room.

Mr. Bennett was still teaching when a ruckus suddenly began in the hallway. The more he wanted to speak, the more he became interrupted. With his nose scrunched up, Mr. Bennet walked to the door of the lecture hall, not being able to use his loud voice to regulate the lecture room.

I turned to Jimmy, "what's up? Could it be that the prince is here already?"

Jimmy jumped dance on the seat, "yes, I think so. I can't wait."

Throughout the rest of the class, Jimmy kept checking the time. At this rate, one would think he was the one personally welcoming the Prince and his friends. Soon enough, the class ended and it seemed like everyone was personally going out to see the Prince. On our way to hunt down Prince Adam, although I was more of dragged down by Jimmy. I wanted to see the prince of course, but I wasn't as eager as Jimmy and I could wait a little bit till I come across him at an appropriate time.

"All students should please report to the common hall please. We have an important announcement to make to everyone” a micro-phoned voice interrupted the hallway. It was like everyone already knew the purpose of the meeting. The excited giggles of most girls filled the air as they all hurried to the common hall. I groaned as body moved past mine, some of them a bit sweaty, Jimmy pulled me out of the way as we watched the girls running, when the crowd wasn't too much, I relaxed and turned to Jimmy.

"Let's go!" He said. "We don't want to be at the last row." Holding my hands, he began walking to the common hall. "We need to get good seats, so when the Prince is called to the podium, we get a good look at him and hopefully." He winked at me. "He gets a good look of us."

"Yeah sure," I muttered. It sucked seeing my crush go on and on about another man. It seemed like the goddess was punishing me with all these—that's if there really is a goddess-like they claimed. First, she decided I wasn't worthy enough to become a werewolf, now the only person I have ever liked is not interested in girls.

When we arrived, nearly half the students were already present to the disappointment of Jimmy. "Sorry," I told him. "At least we aren't going to be at the last seat. Come," I dragged his hand now, "I've spot somewhere we could still get a better view." He followed without a word.

"Welcome students," the principal greeted. This was about thirty minutes after we had all settled. "I believe we all know what we're here for?" In response, the students went up in excited chants and whistles. "Today, we will welcome our very own Prince to this great school-" Applause filled the air, interrupting the principal. After it went on for way longer than expected, he finally had to raise his hands up, to signify that they stopped. "Everyone, welcome Prince Adam as he walks to the stage."

Prince Adam was a god. We all knew he looked good in reality but almost all the girls in the hall burst into a gasp of surprise as he walked to the stage, Jimmy included. He reeked of expensive arrogance, Prince Adam looked like a god. His hair was tousled to rest above his head like a mini crown, I’m sure he just tousled it with some gel. He was cladded in black all through and was he beautiful. Suddenly, there was a strange feeling in me. It felt almost exciting and scratchy at the same time.

There was a strange buzz in the air, I wasn't just hearing it, I felt it also. My skin tingled, I looked down at my hands to see the hairs on my skin had all risen. I didn't know what to make of this, I looked up, choosing to ignore it, this time our eyes met. The Prince's and I. I frowned, turning to look behind to see if he might have been trying to reach out to the person behind me, but the seat was empty, there was no one there. I turned back, nervous and afraid to look back at him, so I kept my eyes on the principal and tried to listen to his speech. "No one is to give the Prince any trouble or disturb him with unnecessary questions. If he hasn't spoken to you, don't speak to him."

I decided to check if he was still looking at me, but I was afraid he would see me and think I was checking him out. As I suspected, his eyes were still on me. "Weirdo," I whispered and he frowned the moment I said that. I looked to Jimmy, but he was paying attention to the Principal's speech. I wondered if he might have heard me, I wasn't a werewolf and sometimes I still forgot how powerful their hearing was.

Soon, it was time for us to head out, the Prince followed the Principal and they walked out of the hall together, before we the students began trooping out. "Did you see that?" Jimmy whispered in my ears as we walked out. "I know my eyes were not deceiving me."

I frowned, looking down at my fingers. "What are you talking about?"

I heard him sigh. "Don't play dumb. You and the prince, you two shared a moment in there, I know what I saw. He was looking straight at you for about five seconds and you stared back." I didn't say anything so Jimmy continued, "I think he likes you."

I scoffed. "I find that hard to believe, there is no way the prince would like me. I probably look like someone he knows, you know, people say I have one of those faces."

"Nobody says that." I could feel his eyes on me, but I ignored him. "Fine, maybe he did think you are someone he knows." He looked at his watch. "Oh shit," I heard him cuss.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I have to go, Cody, there is something my mum wants me to pick up. See you tomorrow?" I nodded, he gave my hair a little ruffle, then leaned over to give me a quick peck on the cheek. "I'll text you when I get home," he said before he hurried away.

"Yeah, sure." I hated walking home alone. It was always nice to have someone to talk to. By 'someone' I meant Jimmy because he was the only one who talked with me.

Dark clouds were gathering and I was afraid it was going to rain soon. I hugged my backpack even tighter, with my head bent low, I hurried home. I stopped when I heard the skid of tires against the ground, as a black Mercedes stopped before me. I had to pause and admire, I had never seen one so expensive-looking before. At that moment I now had the car on my crush list, right below Jimmy.

I didn't know if I should keep on walking, pretending I never saw or noticed that the person in the car might be trying to get my attention or wait for them to roll down the windows so I could see who it was. I chose the former and began to walk away when I heard a voice say, "Wait!" My heart did a little butterfly jump, it wasn't easy forgetting that voice. Ever since we made eye contact at the common hall, the whole scene keeps flashing across my mind, while his voice remained in my head, tormenting me—In a good way...sort of.

I looked over my shoulder as I had suspected, he was the one. Quickly, I began to walk fast, I wasn't ready to do this now. My mind was just playing tricks with me, probably for being single for such a long time. If I had a boyfriend in my life, I'm sure I wouldn't even have noticed him on a normal day...only if he didn't look the way he did. "Hey!" He called again. Immediately I broke out in a small run, but it wasn't up to two seconds that he caught me, holding me by the arm and pulling me to a stop.

"Let go!" I yelled and tried to pull my hands back, but it was hopeless, he didn't even budge. "Please leave me alone," I told him calmly, deciding that if we didn't raise my voice, I would be considered.

"You do realize you're talking to the Prince right?" He said.

"I'm not your mate, Prince Adam."

"I didn't even say you were my mate, but you just confirmed it." He let go of my arm, and even though I wanted to use this chance and run, I couldn't. I just knew it was hopeless, he would surely catch me. He wasn't just a Lycan, he was a prince and I was the human living amongst them. "You're human."

"I know what I am," I told him. "Hey, what's that?" I pointed behind him, the moment he turned to look I took off. I expected him to show up and stop me again, but this time he let me go. I didn't stop to look back, it was better I just took my chance and left.