"Holy Crap!" Those were the first words to come out of my mouth when I first laid eyes on my mate. I never expected this first meeting with my mate to be like this.

I got a tight hold on my friend Bella's arm and began pulling her backwards. "What the hell Rain?" She said, but I just ignored her. I needed to get out of this cafeteria. Immediately.

Have you ever had the feeling you shouldn't be looking at something, but you just can't tear your eyes away from it? That's exactly what it was like. I knew I should have turned on my heels and ran like a puma was chasing me, but I didn't and because of that he saw me.

My eyes remained wide as I stood there watching him laugh and joke with the other jocks and cheerleaders at his table. I watched as his hand ran up the girl's thigh who was sitting on his lap. I watched as she leaned her face into the crook of his neck to kiss it. My stomach turned and twisted at the thought of her touching my mate. I could feel the anger build up inside of me. A part of me wanted to march over there, rip her arms off and slap her with them, but I refused to give in to my wolf. I continued to pull on the arm of Bella, ignoring her questions and strange looks. I could explain everything to her later. Right now I had to get out of this place that felt as if it was suffocating me.

My already racing heart stopped and dropped right out of me when I noticed his face had paled. No longer was there a smug smirk on his face, or the gleam of lust in his eyes when he looked at the girl on his lap. His expression probably resembled mine in a lot of ways.

Pure shock.

He stood from his chair effectively pushing the girl to one side, and scanned the cafeteria. I knew he had caught the scent of his mate and know he was looking for her. "No, no, no. Please God don't see me." I quietly begged.

Too late!

His stone expression changed into one of love, but it didn't last long. His eyes which widened briefly, probably with surprise, showed an emotion that warmed my whole body before narrowing and turning black. The perfect smile he flashed me just a second before was gone and replaced with a scowl. The expression he wore now was none other than that of pure hate and disgust.

I could feel the tears prick my eyes and before I knew it they were streaming down my cheeks. Not caring who was looking at me, I dropped Bella's arm and ran away from my mate without a glance back.

Walking into school the next day my heart was in my throat. Bella wrapped her arm around my shoulder and pulled me a little tighter towards her. I had explained everything to her last night and, apart from the hour long questioning I was subject to, she cheered me up and made me feel a little better about what happened.

That's what I loved about her, she always supported me. Even when we were eleven and I thought it was a good idea to melt a chocolate bar in the microwave. What I didn't do was take the wrapper off and ended up blowing it up and setting fire to a small part of the kitchen.

"Just remember what I said," Bella placed her hands on my shoulders and turned me to face her. "It's a scary thing to find your mate and even more so when it's a person you would never suspect." She's got that right.

Running her hand through her blond hair to move it away from her eyes, she continued. "He probably just didn't know what to do or say. He's had last night to think it over, you both have, and now he'll be used to the idea. You'll see." She said confidently.

Maybe things will be different, I told myself as I walked to first period. When I was younger my mother used to always tell me a bed time story of the two mates. How they were designed for each other by the ancestors and how much they loved and cherished one another. Ever since I was six years old I had always imagined what my first meeting with my mate would be like. Yesterday was definitely not how it was supposed to be.

No, I told myself. Bella is right, we're mates and nothing is as strong as that bond. Or so I thought.

* * *

The lunch bell rang and I couldn't have been happier. I had already decided not to say anything to him until after, when we were heading back to class. The last thing I needed was for his stupid friends to be there. Me and the popular kids just didn't get on. I was the quiet nerd with a few close friends and no intention of changing. They were, well... different. Bella waved me over to our usual table.

"So I hear you're Jock's mate?" Ray said with a playful smile. He along with the rest of my friends hated the popular kids. There was no real reason; we were just at opposite ends of the high school food chain.

"That's right." I admitted. Opening the wrapper of my burger I looked up to find all eyes on me. "What?" I asked them.

No one spoke, but they each gave me a look I couldn't read. "Maybe you should be careful Rainie." Nicky, another one of my guy's friends said. "You know what he's like and we don't want you getting hurt."

'What he's like' was code for 'he's a player who only breaks hearts'. "Guys don't worry about me. I'll be okay." I said. "We're mates, of course everything will be fine." After saying that, I somehow became less confident.