The Alpha's Hybrid Mate

Chapter 1

“Keep your head down, Vanessa, keep your head down and everything will be fine,” she was mumbling to herself, trying to hide even deeper into her black hoodie. She knew, it wouldn’t work. Even if she could manage to completely cover herself in the black fabric, the other students would still be able to identify her. After all, she was the only one here, who had been bullied relentlessly for the past four years. It was now her fifth and final year in this school, and after graduation she would finally be able to get far away from this place and study at university. One more year. Actually, more like about nine months, because the school year lasted from mid-September until mid-June only. Take away the weekends and the holidays, and she was basically already nearly done. And the first day of school this year was a Wednesday, so the week was halfway over and more bearable. “It’s really just a few weeks, you can do this,” she tried to comfort herself. Soon, she would turn a new page and forget about this horrible hellhole.

Vanessa went to a private school. It was the only school in South Tyrol that catered to supernatural beings, and it was hidden at the end of a small road close to the town of San Cassiano. Like all the other supernatural schools, it was protected by a spell, that made regular humans just turn around and walk away when they got too close to the school grounds. Some students were living close by and commute, while others stayed there all year long in the attached boarding school. Objectively speaking, this place was marvellous; being in the middle of the mountains in Northern Italy was definitely a treat. Surrounded by a deep forest, looking at high peaks and clear blue lakes, breathing the fresh air was kind of the best part of her life right now. Other than that, everything else was pretty much a disaster.

“Hey weirdo!” She sighed when she heard someone call from the other end of the corridor. Probably Alessio or one of his cronies. They were the ones who really tried hard to make her life a living hell. She tried walking faster to reach her classroom, but to now avail – he was already expecting her at the door. “Why don’t you look at me, freak? Are you trying to hide your hideous face?” She could hear laughter from Alessio’s friends, but she tried hard to bite her tongue. Talking back was never a good idea, she knew because she had tried. Unfortunately, her mouth was often not well connected to her brain and the words would just fall out before she realized that saying them was a mistake. Thankfully, the teacher was already there and class was just about to start, so she managed to squeeze into the room without any further incidents amongst the chuckles of her peers. She took her seat at the front of the class as usual. Vanessa preferred to sit there; she enjoyed learning new things and wanted to do well at school, so she could go on and study law afterwards. Sitting there also put her in the direct line of sight of the teacher, which meant she was at least somewhat protected from any further attacks from Alessio and his gang. She had three forty-five minutes lessons to relax in front of her, which made her smile a little and she took a deep breath. The day wouldn’t be too hard, because it was the first day of the school year, so teachers would mostly just introduce themselves or welcome them back and go over overall learning goals of the year. Some would also start talking about the finals, which was way too early in her opinion, but of course they just wanted to highlight how important this year would be and advise them to study hard. Nothing they hadn’t heard before. All in all, the day went by really quickly, and before she even knew it, the bell rang to dismiss them for their morning break. Vanessa tried to hide in the shadows in the corners of the yard, hoping that nobody would bother her and she could eat her sandwich in peace. She didn’t have any friends. Being a hybrid does that to you. Her mother was a vampire, who got pregnant after being r***d by a werewolf. The vampires shunned her, because her mother was thrown out of her coven for having a baby that wasn’t pure-blooded. The werewolves didn’t want anything to do with her, because she was half vampire and not part of any pack. The school was very clearly divided into wolves and vampires, they didn’t interact or particularly like each other, so of course none of them would like someone like her, a mixture of both. Actually, she was probably slightly more werewolf, as she was able to shift and had a wolf, who sometimes made herself known at the most inappropriate times. But you love me nonetheless. Vanessa chuckled. Of course she loved Chiara, her wolf. Not only because she was effectively part of herself, but also because she made her feel less lonely. At least there was someone to talk to. Plus shifting was great, especially here in these woods where a wolf could run for hours without seeing anyone. The only thing that gave her vampire side away were her blood red eyes. Other than that, she could easily be mistaken for just any other young girl. Clear skin, long, dark hair that was always put into a messy bun, so she could hide it under the hood of her oversized, black or dark grey hoodies.

After the break, Vanessa only had two classes left until the day was over. But although school was horrible, being at home was even worse. Her mother was absent at the best of times, and outright hateful when she was at home, mostly screaming at Vanessa that she had ruined her life. That’s why outside of school, she was either locked in her room studying, or she was outside, running in her wolf form. Still, school eventually finished for today and Vanessa slowly made her way back home. She lived in a small cottage about ten minutes away from school, nestled away inside the forest at the foot of the Dolomite peaks of Lavarela and Conturines. Nobody lived around them, but they were still close enough to get to the grocery store in town. Not that her mother needed that, she just went out to hunt at night. But Vanessa, being more wolf than vampire, needed food.

She could tell her mother wasn’t there as soon as she reached the cottage. At least she couldn’t smell her from outside. Her suspicions were confirmed once she unlocked the door. Vanessa dragged herself to the fridge, but found it empty. There was also no money left for her so she could go shopping. She sighed and ignored her hungry stomach for now, later she would go for a run and maybe catch some squirrels for dinner. But first, she needed to take a shower. She could still smell the other students on her, and that made her a little uneasy. Quickly discarding her clothes, she stepped into the small bathroom and turned on the water. She tried to be fast, so she could get out before her mother got back. After drying herself off, she didn’t even bother to get dressed again, but immediately got out the back door and shifted. Finally.

Chiara was being dramatic again. As if she didn’t get to run every day. But I had to sit still for the last few hours, it was torture! Vanessa just rolled her eyes at the drama queen, lifted her head to see if there was any wildlife nearby and started running towards the mountains. In 2010, wolves had returned to the region, and humans couldn’t tell the difference between a regular wolf and a werewolf when they were running scared, but still she had to try to avoid meeting any humans. Every now and again she would stop in her tracks and sniff around, but she couldn’t sense anything nearby and her hunt hadn’t really started yet. Chiara was still enjoying her run.

After a good hour, she couldn’t ignore her stomach anymore. Food, now! Chiara growled in the back of her head. Well, then go get some! She answered. And with that, her posture changed. Instead of running carelessly, she treaded lightly, so other animals wouldn’t hear her coming. She could smell that something was nearby. Something big, maybe a deer. The thought of catching a deer made her salivating, but she reminded herself to slow down and be careful, approaching against the direction of the wind, not making any sound. She could see it now, peacefully munching on some grass. She grinned as she was watching her next meal. When she was close enough, she jumped out from the trees and dashed for her prey. Before the deer even had time to react, she had already sunk her teeth into her neck and was holding on tight. After just a short struggle, her dinner lay in front of her. Not wasting any time, Vanessa dug in. She didn’t know when she would be able to have another meal, so she ate as much as she could. It was late already, the sun had started to set. She decided to sit down and enjoy the show, watching the sky turning orange, yellow and finally dark blue.

Just as Vanessa was getting up to go home, she could smell something unexpected. Cucumber? Why did it smell like cucumber and mint? She turned her head, trying to figure out where it came from, but all she could see was the dark woods surrounding her. She took some tentative steps towards her home and contemplated just ignoring the smell and go back. It was a school night, after all, and she had to wake up early again tomorrow morning. But somehow, she just couldn’t bring herself to leave just yet. Chiara was running around in the back of her head as well, wiggling her tail. What is it? I don’t know, but I want to find out! So she waited for a few seconds, not knowing what to do. The wonderful smell seemed to come closer though. Every second that passed, she felt more at ease and when another pair of eyes stared at her, she didn’t even flinch. Somehow, she knew deep down that whoever this was, he wasn’t going to do her any harm.

Slowly, a big, dark grey wolf approached her. His moss green eyes seemed to look into her soul, but she was sure that she didn’t know who he was, she had never seen him around here before and she certainly hadn’t smelled him before. When he came closer, he seemed to be equally attracted and unsure about her, and he stopped just before their snouts would touch. He seemed to get to know her smell better as well, his nostrils were moving even though the rest of his body didn’t. Vanessa stood completely still, afraid to even move a little bit and break the connection that seemed to form. After a while, he walked around her and pushed his snout into her side. That seemed to excite Chiara a lot, as she started wiggling her tail and jumping around. Mate! Mate! Mate! She screamed in Vanessa’s head. What? How was that possible? And who even was this guy?