She was no exception. In fact, she made him even more nervous than most girls. Except for this time, it almost felt like a good kind of nervous.

"Mate."

The eyes I stared at behind a pair of rimless glasses were gorgeous. His light blue orbs swirled with emotions, and I had a hard time ripping my look away from them to look at the rest of his face. 

A dark red colour covered his cheeks, as if he was embarrassed or ashamed of himself. He quickly cast his eyes away from me as I took my time eye-raping him. He looked incredibly nervous in my presence. While the blush on his cheeks slowly found its way to his neck to reach underneath his shirt, he scratched the back of his head shyly.

I continued my stare session by shamelessly checking out the rest of his body. 

Physically he looked well. Slightly pale, not very muscular, but very lean and agile. His clothing, however, was cringeworthy. It might have looked great if he was a little shorter, and lived twenty years ago, but now, this was awful. He wore a green-black striped sweater made of wool with a white shirt underneath, and a beige pair of cotton pants that were too short and too wide.

I must admit, the sweater looked kind of cute on him, and overall I thought he was adorable, but he did need some fashion advice for in public.

Only then I realised the silence between us was quite awkward, and I noticed how uncomfortable it made my mate.

I slowly walked up to him with my hand stretched out in front of me as not to scare him. He seemed to understand I was aiming to shake his hand, which he let me do. 

His handshake was firm but very clammy, another sign of his apparent nervousness. Although the soft sparks that appeared between our touching hands caught me slightly off guard, I tried not to show it as much as my mate did. 

He gasped in surprise, after which he sighed in content at the feeling.

"Livia Devoe, nice to meet you," I introduced myself gently.

"Vir Cervantes," he answered me quietly, his hand going back up to scratch his neck again. I let go of his hand and turned my back to him to walk to the two seats and the sofa. 

I decided to sit down on one of the seats. This way Vir didn't have to debate where it was best to sit. Besides, I would be extremely sad if he decided to just sit in a seat if I chose the sofa where he could sit next to me. Where I'd maybe brush his knee or shoulder.

Like a puppy, he trailed behind me and sat down on the luxury seat right in front of me. 

It seemed as he wanted to say something, but he kept his mouth shut anyway. So we sat in complete silence for a while, just listening to each other breathing and if we focussed really hard, we would be able to hear the loud beating of our hearts. Perks of werewolf hearing, I guess.

But soon, the silence became too much, too uncomfortable, we both didn't know where to look anymore. 

I had felt his secret stare on me like burning lasers poking everywhere he let his eyes fall on.

"Had I been any other winner, what would you have asked me?"

He hesitated a little. "Actually, until now, all winners bend my ear off telling me about their research, or asking questions about mine."

I winked at him. "Well, I'm not really like other winners, am I."

He blushed a light pink again. "No, you are definitely not."

I cocked my head a little. "But you are the Alpha of Intelligence, you must have had a plan B or even C?"

He nodded and swallowed before speaking again. "Well, if someone was not talking non-stop as I had expected, I would ask them if they could tell me anything about themselves." Again his hand went to the back of his head after pushing his glasses further up his nose.

I smiled at his antics. "What would you like to know?"

He started stuttering slightly. "I-I don't k-know."

"I thought the Alpha of the Sapientiae pack always knew the answer to every question asked?" I teased him lightly with a smile on my face, but Vir only seemed to get more embarrassed than he already was.

Seeing how he really didn't know what to do with himself, I decided to end his constant suffering by introducing who I was. "Well, so as I've said, my name is Livia Devoe," I paused shortly when I heard him repeating my name in a whispering voice that sent shivers down my spine. When he said it, even when in a whisper, it sounded so good.

"I'm 19 years old, going on 20 in a few months," I continued, feeling flustered. "I live with my mum in the Fortis pack, where I won the Intelligence competition together with my best friend Allison."

He interrupted me directly. "Wait how exactly did you do that?"

Shit. I didn't mean to say that.

Smiling innocently at him, I tried to cover it up. "She helped me so much, with studying I mean, that I would like to think that we did it together."

He didn't look convinced, but let it go either way.

"I ehm, enjoy rollerskating and dying my hair, as you can probably see," I let out a laugh. "But well, that's it about me. I would like to know some things about my mate now?"

He seemed content listening to my voice, but as soon as I directed our one-sided conversation to him, he grew nervous all over again.

I felt pity when looking at him, he actually seemed scared of talking to me.

"You don't have to tell me anything too personal if you don't want to," I gently said, my voice soft. "I just want to know more about you. How old are you? Have you always lived in Sapientiae? What is your favourite field of research? Tell me what you would tell someone in an interview."

He hesitated for a minute before he sighed in determination. I waited patiently until he was ready to say something. 

"I'm 22. Originally I'm from the Commutatio pack, but I came here as an interpack wolf, and now I live here." He stopped speaking, and I almost wanted to ask more questions so I could keep listening to his sexy voice, but he talked on by himself. "The research fields I find most interesting are mathematical problems such as the Riemann Hypothesis, or theoretical physics, specifically the big bang, and chemistry and medicinal technology. Secretly I also think we can still learn a lot from research on ancient tribes, Egyptians, Incas, the Mayan people, the Aztecs."

As he babbled on about all the things he found interesting, I noticed the change in his demeanour. When he could talk about science, he seemed so happy, and all of his nervous antics stopped. He was just engrossed in talking about research, blooming up like a flower in spring. 

I had to admit that I didn't hear everything he said, but his voice was like a lullaby, and I was more than content just listening him talk.

Unfortunately, the time flew by, and before I knew it, a woman I didn't know knocked and entered the room.

"Alpha?" Her light voice sounded through the sitting room.

"Yes?" He answered professionally. His nervous ticks had stopped completely by now, so he stood up and walked over to here full of self-assurance.

"You have been talking for over an hour now, the next representative is waiting for you."

Vir coughed in disbelief. "Really? Oh, I didn't see the time fly by. I'll be there in a minute. Allow me to let miss Devoe out please." 

She nodded and walked out the door immediately, but not before eyeing me suspiciously.  It stung that he had called me nothing more than miss Devoe.

He turned around, an apologetic look on his face. "I'm sorry, I don't want everyone to know... you know." There he went with the neck scratching again, accompanied with a light pink blush.

I stood up elegantly and walked towards him. "It's okay, I understand." I didn't, not completely. I wanted to shout from the rooftops I had met my mate, but I would respect his wishes and not tell too many people.

I stopped when I stood right in front of him.

"Promise me I get to see you tomorrow, alright?"

"I'm quite bus-"

"Make some time. Please?" I pleaded.

He sighed and smiled a tiny smile. "Okay."

I smiled at him widely and stood on my tippy toes. His eyes grew very big - he looked adorable again - as I give him a peck on his cheek.

"I'll see you tomorrow then. Goodnight Vir."

I went back to my room, leaving my mate flustered, confused and nervous all over again.

***

Hoihoi!
I updated this at the crack of dawn, because I had to get up way too early for a normal person in order to catch my flight to Copenhagen. (Seriously, how do people get up at five am and still be able to function?)

By the way: Yay Vir and Livia are mates! Don't you guys think that Vir is adorable? (I think he is). I hope you enjoyed this chapter, please vote or leave a comment if you did!

See you next week! Maybe then he will be a bit less awkward...

Liefs,

Sanne