Chapter 3
Supernatural creatures for dummies, 3rd edition
extract from Chapter 6: Werewolves: fact and fiction
6.3 Mates: do you have a chance with a werewolf?
'Werewolves are unfortunately incapable of fully controlling themselves left to their own devices. Once a werewolf hits puberty, he or she starts shifting regularly and can become very violent during those times. On their own, werewolves also cannot control their emotions very well, and are prone to shifting and attacking others when angry or scared. Having a pack helps a lot to control these problems, but it is ultimately essential that the wolf has a strong connection to another sentient being, a so-called mate.
Most of the time mates are also were-creatures, but an occasional human or witch in this role is not that unusual. Contrary to popular belief (that ends in many a broken heart), mates are not chosen by the werewolf in question, but are rather selected in a seemingly random pattern by a so-far unidentified agent. When the shifts start happening, a location spell is performed by a local magic practitioner to find out who that person is. Luckily, the location spell always works if performed correctly, there are no recorded instances of failure. Nobody yet understands the rules by which mates are selected. The age difference between the mated pair is usually no more than 7 years, and the distance between them at the time of the spell execution is usually no more than 50 miles, though there are exceptions even to these rules. Everything else is completely unpredictable, including gender, personality, appearance or socioeconomic status. Not that something like this matters, because werewolves unavoidably feel a bond with their mates, and aggressively pursue them as romantic partners. Most of the time they succeed in attracting their mate, though there are quite a few tragic stories of unrequited love (which is especially sad because werewolves are incapable of having romantic interest in anyone other than their mate). Anchoring does not require a relationship or even geographic proximity. As long as one's mate is alive, the werewolf is grounded and can control their shift and aggression.
So, boys and girls, a bit of practical advice: no matter how hot that werewolf in your class is (and as we all know, they are unfortunately always hot!), they will never love you unless you are lucky enough to be their mate. Chances of that, though, are very-very low, so don't waste your time, and give that cute vampire in your class a chance!'
Derek was 18 years old. And he still hadn't found his bond mate. Seems like he was the first werewolf in recorded history with this problem, and there he was, in SMSC, because that was the only place in California that could contain an unmated 18-year-old werewolf of Derek's size under some semblance of control. What this meant for Derek is drinking specially prepared potions to calm his wolf, wearing a collar and handcuffs covered in runes and being chained down in the school's dungeon for several days every full moon cycle. In other words, it sucked. Derek had almost no friends, because everybody was too scared of him. The guy got angry rather easily, and when he did, he wolfed out and became super dangerous.
'How is it even possible, that Derek can't locate his mate? Maybe she is dead?' - Stiles asked Scott. They were sitting outside, skipping 'History of Magic and Supernatural Creatures during the Cold War' lecture. That class was boooring.
'I don't know, it must be something really bad. Probably really powerful blood magic or something. Werewolf mate-locating spells are some of the strongest in existence' - Scott sounded rather proud of this fact, like he was personally involved in creating them -'And his mate can't be dead, Derek would also be dead by now if that were true. Maybe it is a dark witch or something, a really powerful one.' That's all he learned from Scott so far, and it only made Stiles more curious. It was purely academic interest, and had nothing to do with the fact that the werewolf was hot. Damn werewolves.
Next time he saw Derek in one of his elective classes, Stiles tried to act as nonchalant as possible and sat next to him. Derek was sitting on his own, as always.
'Hey, my name's Stiles. What's yours?' - Stiles decided to pretend he was not a creeper and didn't know anything about the other student.
'It's Derek'
The silence that followed was oppressing.
'Soooo, why are you taking Shapeshifting studies?'
'I am a werewolf. You? You don't feel like a shapeshifter'
'Well, my best friend here is a werewolf too. And there are no classes for me, since my special skill is pretty much doing nothing. I am a spark. Please, don't run away,'
Derek just shrugged in response,
'At least you can channel magic from other people'
'You would think so, right? Aaaand you'd be wrong. I keep practicing with Dr Deaton, I tried and tried, and I just can't do it! I feel so useless! Everyone else can do something, all I can do, apparently, is see the skinwalker's real face! Which is not pretty, by the way.' - it was, somehow, easy to talk to Derek about this. It felt like he wouldn't judge or be mean about it.
'Maybe you should work for the law enforcement?' - Derek now kind of looked like he might be smiling. Maybe. - 'What if that skinwalker commits a crime and needs to be identified in his true form, or an angel goes rogue, and no one can find him, except you.'
'Yeah, what are the chances of an angel going rogue? They are all goody-two-shoes, every single one of them. Didn't our history professor say they haven't had any problems with the law-enforcement for the past 25 centuries, since Lucifer? And all he did was run away from Heaven and start a stupid anarchist organization.'
By the end of the lecture, Stiles felt like he might have made a new friend.
Through Derek, Stiles met Erica and Boyd, who were pretty cool, if intimidating on first sight. In his Theoretical Spellwork class he was introduced to the awesomeness that was Lydia Martin. She was a genius witch, appreciated Stiles' suggestions on spell design, and didn't make (too much) fun of him for his inability to actually perform magic.
Overall, things were looking up. Until they didn't.