The Beta's Redemption.

2.

Ivy ~~

The party was in full swing by the time we arrived, the hall filled to capacity. Maria and I literally had to squeeze ourselves between some really sweaty Minotaurs as they danced with reckless abandon.

“I still don’t see how you wanted to miss this!” she yelled over the noise at me, and I snorted.

“I don’t see what’s to miss in a hall full of supernatural beings! We’re just lucky there are no leprechauns here!” I shouted back at her.

She wrinkled her nose at the thought, and I laughed. Leprechauns were the worst creatures. Always going on and on about their pots of gold, and bringing up the worst topics or suggestions in school gatherings.

None of the members of the Leprechaun group in my school for Paranormals were present at the party, and although a part of me pricked my subconscious for being glad about it, I couldn’t help but sigh inwardly in relief. Those guys had multiple ways of messing things up.

I bumped into a vampire hunk and sent a quick apology just as he bared his fangs at me before my wolf retaliated with an angry growl of her own.

As the next queen of the werewolf dynasty, m in y wolf was full of royal ego and had gotten me into fights with unsubmissive paranormals like vampires, gnomes and witches, so I tried as much as possible not to get in their way. Of course, many times those attempts didn’t work, and I usually got beaten up. Thank goodness Maria was always around during those times.

“We’re here!” I heard her announce, and when I heard cheers following that statement, I discovered that we were in front of our own group in school, composed of some werewolves, a necromancer, two witches, and a very annoying pixie named Garret. No, we didn’t ask him to be part of our group. He joined by himself.

“Yo, you look sleek, Marie,” Harry, a super hot vampire whistled as he passed, and she blushed before tossing her hair to her side and waving her hand like the black Cleopatra she was emulating.

“You should totally ask him out,” Fiona, who was one of the witches, giggled as she said.

“Who, Harry?” Maria blinked repeatedly in an attempt to conceal the embarrassment she was feeling. “I can’t do that.”

“Why can’t you?” Jackie, a werewolf said. “It’s obvious you like him; I can legit perceive your desire from here.”

Garret wrinkled his nose. “You didn’t have to add the last part, Jack.”

“You didn’t have to listen, Garret,” she snarled back, startling the pixie and turning his wings from pink to red, which showed alarm.

I rolled my eyes at him and focused on Maria. “We all know you like Harry, Maria. You make it super obvious in class.”

“I do nothing of the sort,” she weakly replied. “Right, Shayna?” she added, turning to the one necromancer in our group with bright hope in her eyes.

Shayna, who’d been sipping a glass of spirit wine, raised one of her hands and shook her head. “I will not be involved in this conversation, boo.”

All of us chuckled when we saw Maria’s deflated expression, and she huffed before walking away. I laughed once more and waved at the others before following her.

“Me, crushing on Harry? As if,” I heard her growl as she poured herself a glass of wine. I stifled my chuckle and sat beside her, watching her as she wrinkled her nose when she noticed me.

“And you didn’t even stand up for me, you evil she-wolf,” she accused, hitting me with a shock spell.

I bit my lip in a bid to shut the yell of pain that threatened to escape before letting out a cry. “Shoot, Maria!”

“You deserve that,” she replied haughtily, turning to her drink and sipping it without a second look at me.

“Aw come on, woman. We both know all we said back there was true,” I said.

“Yeah?” she replied, narrowing her eyes at me. “Prove it.”

“With pleasure,” I said, and began counting my points on my hand.

“Number one, you always seem to have hearts in your eyes when you’re looking at him; many times I’ve perceived desire whenever you do so, just like Jackie said.

Apart from that, as soon as classes are over, you’re often falling over your own feet to make sure you brush your arm against his as we walk out the door. And you -“

“That’s enough cap,” she growled.

I laughed at her. “So…yeah, there you have it. If you’ve been attempting to deceive yourself, I advise you to not bother any longer.”

She frowned and zapped me again, causing my wolf to snarl in pain. “I don’t like him, stupid. I have no idea what you all are seeing, but for real, I do not like him. Besides, he’s a vampire, and everyone knows that vampires and witches do not work out.”

“That’s one of the rules in your witchery book, isn’t it?” I replied, rolling my eyes.

“It is,” she answered, and as soon as she opened her mouth again, I knew she wanted to launch into one of her witchery lectures again.

“According to Module Seventeen of the Juniper Witches’ Academy Rule Book for Class Five, there are several paranormals witches are not supposed to be in cahoots with, like vampires, because the curses on vampires could affect the witches’ ability to -“

“Oh dear, not the lecture,” I groaned, shutting her up. “That’s enough sentences for a two hundred and fifty word essay!”

“I hadn’t even finished the first sentence,” she replied, shaking her head and turning to her drink.

“I had finished listening to the first sentence,” I said, chuckling lightly when she frowned again. “Now, about Harry -“

“Do not speak of that vampire again, Ivy!”

“Fine.” I laughed when I saw her expression before turning to order a wine.

“Whenever you say ‘Fine’ like that, it means you’re going to do the exact opposite, you sneaky wolf!” she yelled. “Don’t you dare do anything stupid or I’ll destroy you!”

“In the witch academy, I’m sure there are laws that don’t approve of that behavior, Marie,” I said before racing away from the bar and towards the group as soon as the glass landed in my hand so that I could avoid her shock spell.

“She accept that she likes him yet?” Shayna asked when she unlocked her mouth from that of a cute vampire.

“I wish,” I answered, sitting beside her and the guy while swirling the drink in front of me and staring at the purple mixture. “She’s dead set on not giving a hoot about him.”

“Foolish witch,” was all she said before resuming her earlier actions of sucking the vampire’s mouth. I was used to seeing that, so I just sipped out of my juice and scrolled through my i********: for a while, stopping short when I landed on a post from Darrel Woods, the only werewolf I knew who’d somehow managed to steal the heart I hadn’t thought I had.

I’d been staring at his most recent post, one of him in a car on his way to the party, when a fruity smell wafted into my nose, and my brain almost knocked up with ecstasy.

It was when my wolf whispered the f*******n word I realized what all that meant.

“Mate.”

However, that wasn’t what made me freak out. What made me freak out was the name I heard someone yell just as Gertie, my wolf, whimpered with pleasure.

“Darrel, hey!”