The Three Alphas and Her Christmas Wish

CHAPTER 3

It was on the third day that I woke up at MoonStone University with a knot of dread in my stomach. The buzz about me following the incident at that dining hall refused to fizzle. In fact, from the first glimpse outside my dorm room door, I knew that would not happen.

Everywhere I went, I felt eyes on me: students whispering when I passed by, their curiosity sharp as their words. Some looked curious, others amused, and a few hostile. It was never something I wanted to be the center of attention, and it left me raw, like a nerve exposed to the open air.

I wrapped my arms around my books and headed out for my first lecture. Literature of the Pack was one of the classes that I had been looking forward another story of ancient werewolves and their battles, their bonds, and their betrayals. It should have been an escape, but the low hum of chatter faltered when I entered the lecture hall.

I froze. Sitting at the back, Blaise Zeyren was cutting across the room with dark eyes that met mine.

My pulse quickened. What is he doing here?

Blaise wasn't alone. Lucien lay reclining across one cushion next to him, his golden hair lighting upon his cheek as he leered to say something beneath his breath to Caelan. The three of them seemed impossibly at home like they owned the space, and in truth, they did. Kids shifted in their seats trying to angle closer or get a peek, but none dared approach them.

“Miss Belmont," called out the professor, and that spell was broken. "Sit down."

I nodded quickly, bowing my head as I moved to a desk at the front. My hands were shaking as I spread my notebook open and tried to listen to the professor's voice as he started lecturing.

But I couldn't get rid of the feeling of being followed.

It wasn't paranoia. I could sense the heaviness of Blaise's stare on my back, like a stormy cloud looming over me. I tried to keep dismissing it, but the minutes went on to become agony. I risked one sneaky glance over my shoulder; indeed, he was still staring.

Lucien caught my eye, smiling, and leaned over to whisper something to Blaise. Blaise's lips curled into the faintest smirk before he returned his attention to the front of the room. My face burned as I whipped back around, focusing on the professor's words with all the intensity I could muster.

Why me? I thought to myself with a simmer of frustration under the skin. Can't they just leave me alone?

I made a dash for my things after class, hoping to get out the door before the brothers cornered me. But as I reached for the doorknob, a firm hand closed around my wrist.

"Aria."

I froze. His voice was low and commanding-just a bit too near.

I turned, slowly standing up and turning toward him. He was several feet from me. Standing over me, with no expression showing, his face read like a wall. Behind him leaned Lucien casually against the wall. His arms were crossed across his chest, his smirk firmly entrenched. Caelan, of course, was out of the picture altogether, but Blaise and Lucien's presence made up for it.

“What do you want?” I asked, my voice sounded calmer than I felt.

He c****d his head to one side, surveying me from head to toe as if trying to fit the pieces together and failing. "You've been getting my attention," he said flatly, not unkindly. "I'm trying to understand why."

His words gave me a jolt of something sharp, and bitter. "Maybe because you're trying to make my life miserable," I shot back before I could stop myself.

Lucien grinned widely. "Feisty. I like that."

Blaise's eyes narrowed only fractionally, but his facial expression didn't shift in any way. "Geez, little wolf," he whispered, his voice becoming dangerously low. "Stepping into a game you wouldn't understand."

I glared up at him, fear giving way to frustration as I said, "Then perhaps you should stop playing it,”

Tension crackled between us, sharp and electric, until Lucien laughed, breaking the moment. "Come on, Blaise. Let's not scare her too much—yet." He winked at me, his tone teasing, but with an edge that sent a shiver down my spine.

Blaise held my gaze for a long moment before he stepped back. "We'll see you around, Aria," he said, his voice inflection-ed with a quiet promise.

They turned and left the room, leaving an almost suffocating area. It felt as if I had legs made of jelly, leaning against the wall to breathe.

****

The evening air was crisp as I stepped out of the dorm, two heavy designer bags weighing into my shoulders. Angelica and Rosy had summoned me the moment classes ended, their demands as sharp as ever. This time, the excuse? A club meeting they couldn't possibly attend without their essentials—essentials I now carried like a personal pack mule.

They were ahead of me, laughing in harmony. Angelica's platinum-blond curls bobbed with each step, and Rosy's sleek silhouette was so full of effortless grace. Wherever they walked, they turned heads and earned smiles and admiring glances from people everywhere.

Me? Behind them, a shadow, wrestling with their bags, hoping to God nobody noticed.

Aria! Rosy shouted over her shoulder, not turning to see. Be careful with those bags, now. You'll have to replace everything if you break them.

I gritted my teeth and cinched my straps so the weight dug into my muscles. "I won't let them drop," I muttered, though I doubted they'd heard me—or cared.

Hey! A voice pierced the fog in my brain, high-pitched and shocked. What's wrong with you?

I looked up to see Sienna running towards me with wide, darting green eyes between myself and my sisters. She eyed the bags on the shoulders of my outfit before her brow furrowed.

“Why are you carrying their bags?" she asked in heavy incredulity.

I froze, unsure of how to react. My instinct was to come up with an excuse and downplay the situation, but the words were stuck in my throat. Instead, I turned toward Angelica and Rosy, who were too far ahead to hear.

“They're my sisters," I said finally, my voice soft.

Sienna blinked, her expression changing from puzzled to utterly astounded. "Your sisters? You're kidding,”

I nodded, feeling the weight of her incredulity and the weight of those bags on my shoulders.

"Oh, Aria," she said, shaking her head. "So sorry, but. Do you know what people say about them on campus?"

I hesitated, suddenly dreading the answer. "No. What?”

“They call them the 'pretty bitches,” Sienna said, her voice dropping into a whisper as if afraid to say the nickname out loud might call them up. "I mean, don't get me wrong-they are gorgeous, but they are also. Well, they're not exactly nice. Not at all."

I let out a huge sigh, then, my shoulders sagging beneath the collective weight of the bags and words, "Yeah, that checks out.”

Sienna looked at me for a moment. Her head tilted slightly, as she spoke almost to herself: "But you are so different from them," she said. "I mean, you're lovely, Aria, but your hair and. everything. You just feel different."

Heat rose to my cheeks. No one ever said that I was beautiful like that before. "I know," I said softly. "My mom told me I got my looks from my grandfather. He died before I was born."

"Really?" she asked sincerely, engaged. "So they are older than you?"

“Yes, " I said, shifting the bags on my shoulders once again. "Although I am a bit confused about something."

What's that?

“I know that the Zeyren brothers are our classmates. But aren't they from the second year? My sisters told me that.”

Sienna's lips curled into a sly smile. "Oh, that. It's true they're second years, technically. But they failed one class, and apparently, it's the only subject they've ever struggled with."

“Really?” I asked, shocked. “What class?”

Literature of the Pack," Sienna laughed. "It's almost funny when you think about it. The great Zeyrens, flunking a class about their history."

“But why?” Why am I curious now?

“Don’t get it wrong, it's just they hate the professor there and he is the only professor who treats them like a normal student,” Sienna explained as she was breathing silently.

I keep thinking who is that professor and I remember it was Professor Eric. Well, to be honest, I understand clearly how he teaches. Maybe Zyren's brother is the problem anyway.