Mythical Mate for an Alpha

Chapter 3

The day was moving relatively smoothly. I had already finished my Math class and Biology was wrapping up. I had hopes of making a few friends by now, but the other students weren’t too keen on talking to me. Instead, they did nothing more than stare and whisper among themselves. 

I had prepared for this. I knew that humans were generally opposed to change. Me, a new girl, was still a change they weren’t ready for. Most already had their circle of friends. They didn’t want a new person showing up and messing with the dynamic. I guess it will just take some time. 

Third period was literature. I was rather excited for this. Reading had always been a hobby of mine. So many great works had come to life over the decades. 

Walking into the classroom, I was again greeted with stares and whispers. I looked around for an empty seat. The second row in from the door and 4 seats back was an empty desk. I looked to the left to see a raven haired girl digging through her purse. Her midnight black hair was long and straight, falling past her shoulders

“Um, excuse me. Are you saving this desk for anyone?” I posed the question to her. I have found out from my other two classes that this was a ‘thing’. The other students liked their friends to surround them. They didn’t want someone they didn’t know sitting close to them.

Realizing I was talking to her, the girl lifted her head to look at me. She had bright green eyes, sharp nose, and wide full mouth. I was a bit startled at how beautiful she was. My next inhale brought me back to my senses. I registered her scent. She was a werewolf. Of course she would be beautiful. I haven’t met a wolf yet that wasn’t stunning. Their Moon Goddess was definitely generous in the looks department. 

She looked me up and down not once but twice. Finally, she smiled and responded. “Nope. Not saved. Help yourself.”

She went back to digging through her purse as I plopped down in the seat next to her. We still had about 4 more minutes before the class started. I continued to watch her dig, pulling out different items from her bag and placing them on her desk.

“Do you need any help?” I asked.

Not looking up, she responded, “No. Just trying to find my damn pen.”

“You mean the one that is hooked to the front of your shirt?” I pointed to the black pen in question that was hanging delicately from the front of her emerald blouse.

She rolled her eyes, more to herself than at me. She looked over and smiled. “Thanks. I guess I should have paid more attention. I’m Trish. You must be new.”

“Sure am! I came to stay with my grandma. It’s my last year so I wanted to make sure I finished school.”

She watched me intently as I spoke. Her breathing was a bit deeper than normal. Her eyes ever so slightly darkened. I knew she was trying to register my scent.

Knowing I was going to be in school with wolves, I made sure to bring my body spray. It was a concoction I had made decades ago. It took some time to perfect, but in the end was worth it. I would smell just as human as the rest of the students around us. I liked a challenge, but leaving my scent unmasked for an entire school year was not part of it. I wanted to live, after all. 

“What’s your name?” Trish asked.

“Kitty.” I smiled back at her. 

The teacher made his way through the door. I turned to face the front, excited to begin. I could feel Trish’s eyes on me still, continuing to take in my appearance. I didn’t think too much over it. I hadn’t noticed too many other student’s with red hair, and certainly none with my color. 

“Good morning class. I’m Mr. Bell. For the first half of the semester, we will be focusing our attention on a classic, The Great Gatsby.” As he spoke, Mr. Bell passed out copies of the novel. 

I huffed out a small breath and frowned. Of all the books to pick, he chose this one. I wasn’t much of a fan of Frank. I had met him and his wife once in a bar in Minnesota. They loved their booze. To me, it showed in his writing. Humans thought it was deep and full of imagery. Honestly it was nothing more than a poor alcoholic trying to create a story, replacing creativity with whiskey.

The bell sounded 45 minutes later and I couldn’t be more happy. This was a class I was really looking forward, and ended up rather disappointed. I hoped next semester we would read something much better. 

I grabbed my books and made my way back to the stairs down to my locker. Pushing through the noisy hall, I didn’t hear my name being called. When I felt a hand at my elbow, I realized someone was trying to get my attention. I turned to see Trish hovering above me. 

This time her smile was a bit deeper. She followed me to my locker and waited for me to deposit my things inside before she spoke. “So, what do you have next? May I?” She held out her hand motioning to my schedule. 

So far no one had paid me much mind, so I happily turned it over to her. She perused the list and handed it back. 

“Looks like we have lunch together, foreign language, and phys ed. How about I show you where the cafeteria is? I’m sure you could find it on your own, but this makes things a little less awkward.”

I probably could have blinded her with the smile on my face. Maybe I found a friend after all. I suddenly realized the tingling had started again on my backside. I steadied myself a second and took a breath. It would certainly not have been good to have my tails ripping through my jeans in the middle of the hall. That had happened once in 1888 in a saloon in Idaho. I have never seen so many grown men squeal in all my years of living. 

“Sure! I would love that. Thanks for offering!”

She took another calculated glance up and down me and turned to head back up B Hall. I followed close behind her. I was so close to trish I could have passed for her shadow. I wasn’t scared. There was little in this school that was going to be able to ruffle my fur. Instead, it was much easier to glue myself to Trish to get through the crowd. It was almost as if the crowds parted to make way for her. 

I wasn’t sure if this had anything to do with her wolf or just her. It is well known that wolves carry a certain intimidating aura to them. The higher up in the wolf ranks they were, the more intimidating they would feel. Humans didn’t recognize the power the way other supernaturals would. Instead, it was varying levels of discomfort they felt being around a wolf. 

I could feel Trish’s aura, but it didn’t seem like much outside a normal she-wolf. She was relatively tall, though just about everyone was taller than me. 

Making mental notes of where we were walking, I saw the giant entryway to the cafeteria come into view and followed Trish inside.

  Rows of tables and chairs were setup across the massive expanse of room. Trish led me to one in the middle of the room. The table had 4 chairs on each side.

There were 4 people sitting at the table when we arrived. Two boys and two girls. One

boy and girl looked younger than the other two. They also looked strangely alike. Both had jet black hair like Trish, but unlike her green eyes, theirs were blue.  

All four stopped eating and stared at me like I had grown two heads. Actually, I was more afraid that my tails had popped out. Quickly I looked over my shoulder. Nope, no tails. Maybe it was my hair again?

“Close your mouth Eli,” Trish snapped at the black haired boy. He was watching me, mouth open, burger hanging from his fingers in front of his face. Instantly his mouth snapped shut and he looked at Trish.

“Kitty, I would like you to meet friends. Well, two are friends and the other two are sadly related.” She tossed the careless comment toward the boy and girl that shared the black hair. The boy narrowed his eyes at Trish while the girl flashed a wide smile. 

The black haired girl stood up and came around the table toward me. She pulled me into a tight hug, still holding my shoulders as she released me. “Welcome to Grammercy. I heard about you. You’re the new girl. Senior right? Where did you come from? We don’t get a lot of new people here. Most of the pack have-” Before she could finish, she was cut off by the other boy coughing loudly.

He was a muscular looking guy. His skin was two shades lighter than tan. He had on a plain navy t-shirt and jeans. HIs hair was a light brown. He had strong features, broad nose, and brown eyes. He was rather handsome. I could tell from the closeness here that they were all wolves. Another one of the Moon Goddess’s genetically blessed children. 

I could tell by all of their reactions that the younger black haired girl was on the verge of saying something she shouldn’t. I knew they were wolves. As far as they were concerned however, I was a human. Revealing themselves would have been a big no-no. 

I pretended not to notice the slip, and turned as Trish let out a sigh. “This annoying brat is my younger sister Ella. Over there,” pointing to the black haired boy, “is Ella’s twin, my brother Elias. We call him Eli.” 

Eli continued to watch me, chewing slowly on his hamburger. He gave a nod in my direction. I guess that was about as much welcome as I was going to get from him. I gave a small waive to be polite.

“Over there,” Trish went on, “is our friend Andre. Next to him is our other friend Orla.”

The girl named Orla was also striking. She has flowing blonde hair, blue eyes, pale skin, and a pouty model mouth. This group certainly belonged in a magazine, I thought to myself. 

“Andre and Orla are seniors, and my siblings over there are sophomores.” Trish stated. “I’m going to go grab something to eat. Can I get you something?”

“Whatever you are having please,” I said eagerly. I was so excited to be making friends. Pulling money from my pocket, I handed it to her. 

Trish giggled while the others made some form of choking sound. 

“That’s a bit too much Kitty,” she said, starting at the bills in my hands. “Please don’t let anyone see that you have that much money on you, ok? How about I just take care of this one. Sort of like a welcome lunch. You stay here and hang out with the crew.” 

I looked at my hands confused. I guess it was too much to carry in a high school. I never quite thought of money in the way that other creatures did, especially humans. All the more reason to be here and learn. 

I shrugged my shoulders and stuffed the bills back in my pocket. Trish wandered off to the food line and I helped myself to a chair in front of Orla. 

I looked over to Ella, “Sorry. That was rude of me. I didn’t answer your question. I’m originally from Oregon, but spent some time traveling through Indiana and Vermont while I was growing up. Yes, I’m a Senior. I came here to stay with my grandma for a bit, but didn’t want to miss my last year.”

Seemingly satisfied with the answer, the group went back to normal chit chat while we waited for Trish to come back. 

“So there were a few different options today. I decided to grab a bunch since I don’t really know what you like.” Trish said as she put two trays of food down on the table. One had a few slices of pizza and potato wedges. The other had a paper boat filled with loaded nachos and large salad. The salad was filled with berries, seeds, goat cheese and other fresh ingredients. It smelled amazing. There was some fruity purple dressing over the top and I couldn’t stop my mouth from watering. I instantly reached for the salad. 

Trish watched me pick up the salad and she grabbed the nachos. She continued to eye me for a minute, and I looked up at her. Feeling slightly embarrassed, I realized I should have asked her what she wanted. Maybe the salad was for her. 

“I’m so sorry. Was this yours?” I asked her, feeling bashful now. 

“No no. Just wanted to make sure that was going to be enough food for you. My brother and Andre already have their sights set on this pizza since their plates have even been clear for 2 minutes.” She looked at the two men with a scowl, just as Andre pulled his hand back and slipped it underneath the table, returning the glare. 

Lunch continued on without incident, and I was feeling even more excited. They were all getting to know me, and I felt like they were actually interested. This was way better than I had hoped. 

The bell rang as we finished up. Trish said she would meet me at the entrance to C Hall at the start of 6th period. For now, I had study hall and she had Economics. She dropped me at the entrance to the library, where study hall students usually went. Feeling a chance for a break, I found a quiet corner, pulled down a book, and let myself slide into my imagination.