Autumn.  The time when all the leaves change colour and are shed from the trees, who prepare to fall into slumber as the weather begins to get cooler.  The beginning of a new term at school, college and university.  The anticipation beginning for Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night.  When fashions change from the bright and pastel colours of spring and summer to the subdued dark blacks and browns with a splash of something vivid and deep.

The countdown to my best friend's birthday and this year the countdown to my potential heartbreak. 

I didn't mean to fall in love with him.  I mean it was a completely stupid thing to do given that he was a heterosexual, alpha male and a werewolf to boot and I am human, also male and quietly homosexual.  I wasn't loud and proud and comfortable in my own body, which is lanky and tall and easily able to view my crush in his deep, brown eyes.  I could claim that I was only gay for him, but that was not strictly true either.  I was only interested in him, I simply didn't see anyone else.  Not that he was aware, I was a consummate actor, having descended from the brilliant performer that was my maternal grandmama. 

I still missed that silver haired woman, she was so beautiful, even with new lines developing on her face year after year.  It was she that had put me to bed when I was small most nights as my parents worked long and late in their jobs within the medical profession.  But don't get me wrong, they never neglected me and made sure that we had a family holiday every year and got together to celebrate festivals even if it wasn't on the exact day.  I don't think we ever managed to celebrate Christmas on the 25th of December in all seventeen years!  So I still had good parents and I also had Grandmama. 

After tucking me in bed, she would tell me stories about the Moon Goddess and her chosen people; the shifters, the fey and the vampires and the Sun God and his; the dwarves, the elves and of course, humans.  Unlike the distant Sun God, a live and let live sort of guy, the Moon Goddess was very close to her people and like an overprotective parent, gifted them and guided them and even paired them with the person she thought would be perfect for them.  Not everyone took kindly to her nurturing, but I knew best friend's pack felt close to her.  Which was why he would never reject the one she chose for him, which was why I knew when I first felt the flutters in my chest when I saw him in a new light, I would be most likely heading for heartbreak.

As I watched the golden him, a mass of beautiful and refine muscle climb out of the shared jeep that several pack members took to school, the flutters began again and for a moment, I was a statue basking in his light.  I grinned widely as he waved in greeting and the mask slipped firmly upon my face.

"Hey Marcus!" I yelled out, disturbing the rough housing that had began between the guys as they fought over some trivial matter.  It was a dominance play, nothing serious or Marcus would have the whole group stretching out their necks in submission.  Hell, he would have me following suit, which would look weird, so I usually wore myself out fighting the sudden need that always overcame me when he growled in warning at his pack mates.  I figured I reacted this way due to wishful thinking more than anything.  What I wouldn't give for him to dominate me!

"Alright there, Alex," Marcus returned the grin and threw one huge arm over my narrow shoulders.  I internally whimpered as his unique scent floated into my nasal cavity and teased my senses.  "Final year, can you believe it?"

"You said that two years ago, when we began year eleven," I said, dryly.

"Yeah, why did we come back to this school for two more years again?" He wondered aloud and some of his friends snickered.

"Because state college wouldn't have you," David smirked. David was another chiselled specimen, but with more body hair than his future Alpha. I heard he is one of the candidates likely to become a Beta of the pack. All ranks were fluid within the pack, although it was still most likely that bloodlines won out. Pride rankings were more complex as half the time, the cats were too lazy to bother figuring it out unless their personal territories were involved... or so I have heard.

We all attended a private school, it was a good school, but it was owned by the pack so it tended to cater more for their needs. Honestly, as a human, I probably would have been better off taking my A-Levels in a different school or college. But...

"What lesson do you have first?" Marcus asked me, snapping me out of my musing.

"General biology," I replied. As usual, they all looked at me as if I had grown two heads or something. They were all such a bunch of meat heads! They were only attending school now as it was a legal requirement until we were eighteen. However, they had all opted for more pack related subjects, such as Pack Law and Supernatural History. Marcus was taking accountancy and business management due to his future status. But I was taking general biology, supernatural biology and chemistry. I wanted to be a doctor, just like my parents, however I also had a personal interest in supernatural physiology for obvious reasons.

"Meet up at lunch?" Marcus asked as his friends broke out into another round of rough housing. I nodded and quickly made my way into the school. The last time I was caught into one of their wrestling matches, I broke my arm in two places. Not something that I wished to experience again.

Honestly, how did I come to have a wolf as a best friend? Coincidence, really. The human town in which I lived happens to be next to and partially part of pack territory, just like the school, which caters for all children from 4 years to 18 years of age. I met Marcus when his mother went into labour with her second child, a much longed for little girl. Ordinarily this would not have caused our meeting. Pack babies are usually born on pack territory and the pack had a well equipped mini-hospital for these things. Like all shifters, they don't tend to get sick and injuries tend to heal reasonably fast, although they still need casts for broken bones, they are usually only in them a week or two.

Rebecca was in transit, though, having just visited her birth pack and parents before little Lydia decided to make her way into the world a couple of weeks early. The hospital where my mum works was the nearest and I, the four year old me, with my huge plastic specs for curing a lazy eye and a plaster on my elbow the size of a pirate eyepatch was sitting in a plastic chair outside my mum's office due to an emergency, when Marcus' mum was wheeled past to the maternity ward, his dad and him in pursuit. He had tripped over and hurt his leg and his dad grabbed him from where he fell and ran after the nurses. I had waved at him and he was surprised, but waved back, that stupid grin of his filling his cute face.

Whatever mum had, had to do was taking longer than expected and the nurses came over to check on me from time to time as did Marcus, who had wandered out of the ward, when his father got distracted for a moment and decided to visit me. I remember him sniffing me, which had made me giggle and we started talking about the latest pokemon series... I think, that bit is a little vague. It seemed like for hours, but it was probably only a few minutes, until his dad came to find him. They were met by his uncle, who would take him back to the pack and so we said goodbye as if we would see each other again the next day, which obviously was unlikely.

As it happened, we met just a couple of weeks later as we were both enrolled into the private school. The other wolf pups distrusted me, I was an outsider, a human. I was not the only human, elf or nonpack member to experience this, but I was the only one who was taken under the future Alpha's wing and treated a bit like an honorary pack member. Honestly, I still think that the pack youths would have rather excluded me, but they have a lot of respect for Marcus so eventually accepted me and still did to some degree.

How I came to love him? Even I have no clue. Puberty is a trying time without trying to dissect it into its biological, psychology and emotional parts.

We met up for lunch, it was steak on the menu... it was almost always red meat on the menu with a side of chicken. When I couldn't take it anymore, I brought in a salad and sandwiches or pasta. However, it was the first day, so I picked a somewhat smaller steak with chips and tucked in with the rest of them. They howled as a group of popular girls walked past, all legs and boobs on display as the warmer weather was still lingering and they felt no reason to cover up.

"Animals," I heard one of the elven girls declare, as she flicked her long, platinum blond hair over her shoulder and walked away, head held high.

"Don't you know it baby!" David called after her. I rolled my eyes heavenward as the wolves chuckled. "Ah, I hope my mate will look at me that way," he mused.

"What with disgust?" The raven-haired, deeply black beauty, Charles joked as he stole one of my chips. I ignored him, I already knew too well that if you ate too slowly at this table, your food would become fair game for the others. I always ordered more chips than I needed because of their bad habits.

"What are you saying?" David demanded. "She was gagging for me!"

"Exactly," Marcus said, slapping Charles' roving hand, before stealing chips himself. "She could barely hold her vomit down."

"I hope your mate rejects you," he snorted, with a pout on his face. He almost managed to look cute, even if him pouting with his chiselled face and designer stubble was weird to view.

"Doubtful," I mentioned as I pushed my plate into the centre of the table and watched it attacked as they scrambled to claim the few chips remaining. "She'll be your Luna after all, won't she? And she gets a whole hunk of Alpha to boot."

"Damn, your so gay," David said, causing me to choke.

"What?" I had to ask. "How does me stating the truth make me gay?"

"You're human," David pointed out. "It's not like you can't go get yourself a chick without worrying that you might piss off your future mate with baggage. Or have to do the whole breakup scene and hope they don't cling to your arse and hope you let them stay. So why haven't you?"

This is where my bloodline for acting comes in so handy. "Let me remind you," I told him, without my eyes wandering to the man I really wanted to view right now. How was he reacting to this accusation? Was he disturbed? Did I stand a chance? "Half of the girls here are wolves themselves and there are also a few other shifter girls in the mix, all likely waiting for their mates. The rest think I suck up to you guys too much, like I want to be one of you or something so avoid me like a pariah. Otherwise, what with school and my part time job, where the only girls are over eighty, I don't have time for dating, whether they be girls, boys or unspecified."

"Ignore him," Marcus told me. "He's just pissy. His crush, Tamara, found her mate over the holidays. She moved to their pack three days ago."

"Did he need to know that?" David bitched. "He did not need to know that!" He stormed off, furious and clearly upset. I could not help but feel glad, though, no matter how sorry I felt for him. He was too close to being right about me in more than one way.