Manifesting a Mate (Valleywood Romance Season Four)

CHAPTER 1

“Where the hell is my husband?”

Everett

“Okay, explain this manifesting thing to me again?” My roommate Jack asks.

I look up at him through my mirror, there’s no judgement on his face like there is with most people when I explain my little morning ritual.

Jack looks mainly confused with a touch of skepticism, which is expected.

Not everybody believes in the power of manifesting.

“It’s simple. Watch,” I tell him before taking a deep breath, rounding my shoulders and facing my own reflection.

“You need to set clear intentions, express them confidently, and talk like they are already your reality because you believe fully that they will be.” I explain without taking my eyes off my mop of unruly red curls, hazel eyes, and pale skin smothered with freckles.

I wasn’t the guy that got noticed in a crowd for outstanding beauty, more likely to be called carrot top than sexy, but I know I’m cute and I know my mate will love every inch of me, freckles and all.

Not that there was a whole lot of me to love, at only five foot three, I was probably the shortest guy on campus, even within my family I was the shortest. The runt of the litter if you will.

My brothers weren’t much taller, but they at least reached the height restriction for roller coasters.

I can’t even get on a carousel without a chaperone.

Both my dads are squirrel shifters, so naturally my siblings and I all look alike, are on the shorter side with typical twink vibes, and have a propensity for hoarding nuts.

It’s walnuts for me. I don’t eat them. Well, sometimes I eat them, but I prefer to play with them.

There is something soothing about rolling nuts in my hands.

My brothers prefer Brazil nuts, but they don’t make the satisfying clinking sound a walnut makes.

Did you know that if you consistently roll high-quality walnuts by hand, they will get super shiny, making amazing decorations?

Who wouldn’t want to have shiny balls on display? I know I do.

“So, you what, lie to yourself?” Jack asks, perching on the end of his bed, watching me.

Jack is a rabbit shifter and an Omega like me.

Most prey animals, like us, are omegas, and are housed together on campus.

With alphas generally being predator shifters, it leads to a lot of mixed-species mated pairs.

While Jack still has far too many siblings because his Omega dad is a rabbit and well, breeding like rabbits is real.

He also has an inordinate amount of fox siblings that take after his alpha dad.

Which I guess gives him trust issues. Understandable, so I won’t hold his snark against him.

“My mate loves me, he is a caring and compassionate alpha who is looking forward to meeting me as much as I am to meeting him. He is going to be big and strong and fuck me into the mattress multiple times a day until I am round with his baby.” I repeat my daily mantra in the mirror before looking back at Jack.

“No lies detected my friend. I can feel it in my bones, my alpha is looking for me, and he will be everything I’ve dreamt of.

Do you ever imagine what kind of alpha the Fates will bless you with? ”

Every supernatural being in this world and all the others dream of meeting their fated mate.

We are taught from a young age that it can happen at any time.

Well, any time once we are of age. Which is kinda crazy when you think about it.

You could be living next door to your fated mate your whole childhood, then boom, one day they are your soulmate. The Fates can be funny like that.

There was this kid I knew growing up, total shithead, minotaur who bullied pretty much everybody.

Equal opportunity asshole if you will. Well, karma got him when his mate presented, turned out to be the head of the chess club, mathletics champion, and a mouse shifter.

Nice guy, painfully shy. The whole school held a collective breath the day it happened.

We all expected Bruce - because of course he was called Bruce- to reject Leonard on the spot.

Push him into his locker and flush his head down the toilet or something.

Instead, he dropped to his knees and begged his mate for forgiveness, making a pledge to never hurt another soul again.

It was the craziest shit I had ever seen, and probably the point I decided I wasn’t going to wait for the fates to intervene when they believed the time is right or the stars have aligned.

Nope, not me. No sir. I plan to manifest the shit out of my perfect mate.

I've spent too many hours over the years dreaming what the perfect mate would be for me. Not so much his physical appearance, although I am fond of the lumberjack aesthetic. There is something about a big, bearded man ripping apart a fallen tree with his bare hands. And yes, I know my mate will be a man, the fates would not do me so dirty as to pair me with a female. As fun as boobs look, I much prefer the hard plains of a man. I digress. Anyway, it’s his morals and values I care most about.

It’s important to me that he isn’t some douchey asshole.

I want him to be caring and loving, to be able to have fun without worrying what others might think of him.

I want to dance in the rain and eat ice cream in bed with my mate.

I may be only twenty years old, still in college, and my ducks are certainly not in a row, in fact one's probably a goose, but that's okay. I’m still ready to find my alpha.

Not all omegas feel like this of course, some strive for careers or have a fear of commitment, not me.

I have my Mate Mood Board pinned above my bed and I go to sleep each night thinking I am one day closer to finding him.

“Eh, not really, but if you find your mate this year, I’ll give this manifesting shit a go for sure. I’m not convinced this isn't a bunch of baloney, but I admire your confidence, man.” He smiles, offering me a reassuring pat on the shoulder as he grabs his backpack to leave for class.

I like Jack, he's a great roommate, much better then the owl shifter I had last year. That guy was up all night and wouldn’t allow me to close the window so he could come and go, not to mention the feathers that got stuck to all of my clothes.

I can’t prove it, but I’m convinced he was stealing my nuts.

“You just wait, my mate is right around the corner, I know it!” I grin, sliding my bag onto my back, snatching up my walnuts to fondle on the walk.

Leaving our dorm, I head for my first class of my second year at Valleywood University.

While it is far and wide from an Ivy League college, Valleywood University has its merits.

As one of the only integrated shifter campuses, it attracts shifters from all over the country, or maybe it’s Valleywood itself that attracts the shifters here. Either way, it's a great school

As a local who was born and bred in Valleywood, it was a no-brainer for me to apply here, but even if I wasn’t a local I think this is the school I would want to attend. They have no set classes for omegas and alphas. Each student is free to choose a course they are interested in.

I’m sure it would be unheard of in most places for an omega to be studying to become a lawyer, or with aspirations of starting a tech conglomerate. Not at VWU. Here it’s commonplace for alphas to be in design classes or nursing. It’s inclusive and that's what I love so much about it.

Not that I’m one of those business minded omegas, the thing that drives me everyday isn’t the need for a powerful career.

My life is destined for another path, a more traditional one, and guess what.

That’s perfectly okay. I’ve never been made to feel like I should be breaking the stereotype of omegas.

My friends and family support me, but more than that, the staff and students respect it also. What more could I ask for?

Having said that, finding my mate may be high on my list of priorities and having a family is my main goal, but I don’t want to feel like a burden to my mate. I want to bring something more than a slick hole and a womb to the relationship.

So, I got good grades and got into VWU’s culinary program. I’m on my way to mastering not only restaurant worthy dishes, but mouth watering pastries and deserts, too. My mate is going to be one happy son of a bitch. When I find him, that is.

“Hey Ev, have you seen this? Looks like somebody is hosting a speed dating event at that new bar The Howling Grizzly facing campus this weekend.” My best friend Chris plops into the seat beside me, late for class as usual and waving a bright yellow flyer in my face.

“You know you have to pass the theory portion of the course and not just the practical right?” I ask, ignoring the page in his hand for now.

Chris is like a legacy chef, if such a thing exists.

His family owns one of the most popular restaurants in Hera city.

He has been whipping up five star entrees since he could hold a knife.

Unfortunately, his passions lay elsewhere.

Unable to admit to his parents that becoming a chef or owning his own restaurant isn’t his dream, he’s stuck at culinary school for the next two years until he graduates.

It’s probably why he couldn't care less about these lectures. Choosing to spend more time in the art building. Suppose it’s lucky he attends at all.

“Pft, never mind that, look, we should go, maybe you will find your mate!” He insists, adding a wiggle to his eyebrows for emphasis.

Which is wholly unnecessary, he knows full well I can’t resist an opportunity like that.

Shoving the flyer into my hands, he beams triumphantly, making me roll my eyes at him.

Giving in, I look down at the bright yellow paper and read.

Calling all singletons!

Sick of waiting for fate to throw you a bone? Been manifesting your mate in the mirror each morning to no avail? Well, have no fear. Mate Masters are here.

Join us for our first singles' night, right here by the campus. Simply show up, fresh and fragrance-free, ready to meet your mate.

My eyes widen and I look around to see if I'm being punk’d. How the hell did they know? I feel both violated and validated at the same time.

“Where did you even find this?” I ask, keeping my voice to a whisper as I look around the lecture hall, expecting to see somebody watching us ominously. I try to think if I saw anybody holding these yellow flyers today, they are kind of hard to miss, so I don’t think I did.

“Some kid was handing them out on the quad.” Chris shrugs, not bothering to look up from his phone to pay attention to me or to the professor.

I notice his fingers are adorned with rings and bracelets on both wrists.

None of them I recognise. This must be the reason he was late, probably up most of the night making his jewellery pieces.

I make a mental note to get a closer look at the details on the metal after class.

Turning my attention back to the flyer, I read it again.

Hmm okay, if this is legit, it’s a great idea and with only a five dollar charge at the door, really I have nothing to lose.

Unless this is some Omega trafficking thing and walking in there is walking into the end of my life as I know it.

I should probably take some time to verify this is all above board before I agree to anything.

“Let's do it.” I announce, my mouth moving without my brain's permission. Guess it’s been decided. The risk of being trafficked is worth the reward to find my mate.