Mark walked into town in his human form, dressed in a sweater and jeans and a hat that was tugged down to cover his eyes.

Every now and then the pack would make trips into the more busy parts of town and mingle with the humans. They wouldn't make a big show of it, but it was good for them to assimilate with humans so that they could make sure that people recognized them just enough so that they'd have a good impression.

It was also a good way to make sure that the pack still knew how to act around humans. It was to brush up their interactions and to make sure they were capable to control their inner wolves. It was like a test but Mark found it fun.

For the most part, the humans that he met on his little trips were friendly, he knew enough to stray away from the places with the more annoying ones so his interactions were rather pleasant.

And as the oldest, he was allowed to go into town more often than the others since his self control was better.  He used to try to drag Jackson along, but the prince was so stubborn that he hated being around humans for that long.

Mark bowed to some of the older store owners that recognized him before he entered his favourite shop.

It was a little old bookstore at the corner of the street. He always liked reading, but there was something about the smell of old books that reminded him of his parents back with the rest of Alison and James' pack.

His parents' house always had shelves and shelves of books and so that store was the only one that helped get rid of his homesickness.

A little bell tinkled, signalling his entrance. He paused when he saw a young girl occupying the front desk instead of the old woman who owned the place. He blinked at her as she looked up.

She bowed politely when she looked up from her book behind the counter. He returned the gesture before walking down the aisles,  scanning for a title to jump out at him.

In all honesty, a huge reason that he came out that evening was because Jackson was rotating between sulking around the house as if the world came crashing down on him and telling everyone that they owed him an apology since the he actually did kiss his mate and not some random human.

It was getting too much.

He neared the end of the aisle when he found an interesting book. He pulled it out of its spot and scanned the back before flipping it open.

He skimmed the pages when he heard a couple of girls whispering loudly on the bench at the end of the row.

He sighed quietly. He normally disagreed on Jackson's views on humans, but there were times when he could feel himself getting irritated by them.

"I totally knew it! She's such a . I can't believe she had the nerve to act like all the rumours were fake."

Mark suppressed the urge to roll his eyes.

He never understood how humans could put down their own kind so relentlessly. He had heard that females were often treated poorly in the human race and it always surprised him to see women tearing down other women for no reason.

He figured it was because he was raised with a pack so he knew that family was everything.

But still. Why do people need to be mean?

He tuned the conversation out and continued flipping through the pages of the novel when parts of their conversation started bleeding through to him.

Very interesting parts.

"She thinks that just because she was dressed as Little Red Riding Hood she could hide her face and no one would notice."

Mark blinked. He distinctly remembered Jackson saying that the girl he made out with, his mate, was Little Red Riding Hood, but it was popular fairytale and there was a chance that more than one girl went as her.

He tried to focus, but their conversation had his attention and he found himself inching closer to the girls.

"It's a Halloween party, who goes as a children fairytale character?"

"I can't believe she can just sit behind the counter and act like nothing happened. Every knows why she wore that scarf today."

Mark's head perked up and he leaned his head out of the aisle to see who they were talking about. Apparently Red Riding Hood was there.

He raised his brows when he noticed that the only person there was that girl from earlier and just like the girls said, she was wearinga scarf. He squinted and tried to place her but she didn't seem familiar. That being said, he didn't really get a good look at Jackson's mate at the party.

She was pretty. He wasn't exactly blown away but that was probably because she wasn't his mate, but he could still see why other humans might find her attractive.

He could most definitely tell why the group of middle school boys kept glancing over at her.

But he couldn't be sure that she was the same girl.

If only he had more incriminating pro--

"Did you see the guy though? He was so freaking hot. I have no idea how she landed a guy like him."

"You saw him?! Ugh, I totally missed it. What did he go as?"

"I don't think he really went as anything. He dressed normally but he had these purple contacts in that made him look so y especially with that tan skin."

The rest of her words dulled down when realization hit him.

That was her.

The girl behind the counter was Jackson's mate.

He found her.

-----

It was worse than the full moon.

Jackson couldn't sit still for the life of him. Besides the fact that he kept thinking about his stupid, human mate, he couldn't do anything else.

He wasn't even thinking about her in a romantic way.

Nope.

He was thinking about how he was supposed to track her down and impregnate her. Jackson made a face.

Ugh, I sound like a .

But honestly, that was all she was to him. The carrier of the future heir. It made his skin crawl when he thought about getting intimate with a human.

It was as if the spirits collected every bad thing he had ever done and gave him his punishment in the form of a human mate.

"HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO COURT HER!?" Jackson yelled as he rolled around his bed.

"Maybe you can start by shutting up!" Youngjae yelled back from the living room.

"No one understands me." Jackson whined pathetically.

It just didn't seem fair. He was the goddamn prince! He shouldn't have to go after her himself. She was his mate which meant that she should be the one chasing after him.

How was he even expected to 'court' her? The pressure everyone was putting on him was too much. He didn't know anything about her except her scent and her small flashes of her faces.

He paced around his room until he collapsed on the floor. His mind started trying to piece her face back together but all he could remember what the way she felt under his fingers. It felt like everything else just slipped his mind.

His eyes flashed an excited purple while he his lips. He had to give credit to the humans though. They could kiss pretty well considering that the one he kissed was drunk too. His body twitched when he could still feel her hands through his hair.

Jackson shook his head and even slapped his forehead a few times.

"Stop it…you're just thinking like that because it was the full moon. Just wait until you have to face her. She’ll be leeching off of you like some bloodsucker." Jackson mumbled to himself.

He hated that just a brief encounter with her was already messing with his biological chemistry. It's all her fault, if she didn't go to that party, then he wouldn't have seen her and the spirits wouldn't have told Mason that he met his mate.

He'd seen some werewolves with their mates. Even if their other half was a wolf it was still painful to watch. Their mates would follow them around like a whipped little pup and cling onto their males like they were the only thing keeping them alive. They would worship each other and fall at their feet. Both the wolves always seemed thrilled that their mate was glued to their side but Jackson could never see the appeal.

Jackson was independent. Other than his pack, he didn't like being bothered by anyone else. He knew how to act around the White Fang as their prince, he knew how to be respectful, but these wolf mates were too much.

So he could only imagine how a human mate would be.

She wouldn't leave him alone, calling him Oppa, in a s