The Alpha’s Guardian

Chapter 3

About an hour later I emerge from my room having put most of my belonging away and see Beth standing by the door with her purse slung around her body.

“You ready?” She asks.

I nod and grab my own bag from my room and follow her out.  As we emerge from the building, I see Beth glance down at her watch and mutter a curse under her breathe.

“Come on, we have to hurry. If we miss this shuttle the next one will be 30 minutes later.” She sets off in a slow jog and I follow her.

I am in good shape. I mean I run nearly every day and as a shifter I am genetically disposed to being in shape. But the thick air of Georgia is chocking me and it feels like I am breathing under water. It’s not that hot but my entire body is soaking wet by the time we reach the stop and I am heaving huge breathes of air.

Beth looks over me barely breaking a sweat, “It’s the humidity, it kicks everyone butt. Don’t worry about it, you will get used to it. Good news is that we made it.”

I look up at her and consider what would be the easiest way to kill her. She smiles and pulls a water battle from her bag and hands it to me. “It’ll help.”

I stare at her and then take the water bottle and down a couple of huge swallows before handing her the bottle back. As she recaps the bottle the shuttle arrives and we set off.

“How long does the shuttle run?” I ask.

“Oh,” Beth states and taps her finger against her lips. “Monday – Thursday it runs from 8 am to 8 pm. Friday it runs 8 am to midnight. Saturday noon to midnight and Sunday noon to 8 pm.” 

“What if you miss the shuttle?”

“That’s not a problem, there are a lot of Ubers here, so you just call one of them. I only use the shuttle because it is free.”

I don’t say anything. We do not have Uber in our tiny hamlet. I know my brother has some type of app on his phone that he uses to call a car. I scroll through the app looking for ‘Uber’. I find the app and download it. I will mess with it later to figure out how to work it.

The shopping area is a strip of shops with restaurants scattered here and there between the shops. We choose the pizza place; because ‘it is the best around.’ We are sitting on the shaded patio because every table in the pizza place is full. I am grateful that the fans are on and it is not half bad with the wind evaporating the moisture from our skin. 

Dinner is nice and me and Beth chat about our families and hometowns. The pizza is an ohy gooey masterpiece of garlicy cheese perfection. I have just downed 3 slices and I was considering on start on number four when I hear Beth groan. I look up from the pizza and turn my head to see what she is looking at. There is a tall beautiful portion dark hair man standing at the door to the patio with a group of other people about his same age. They are looking around the patio and stop to point at a large table on the other side.

As they pass our table I get hit with the smell of wolf, Alpha wolf at that.  I look up at Beth, “Who’s that?”

She scoffs, “Brad Something. He father is a trustee and he makes sure everyone in his class knows that. I had a couple of classes with him and he is a total jerk.”

I laugh, “How do you know who I was refereeing too?”

Beth starts to giggle as well, “Everyone want to know about Brad. He is very nice to look at but not that much going on other than his looks.” Beth pauses and whispers, “Guess who is checking you out?”

I can’t tell Beth that he is really not checking me out, he is scenting my wolf. We continue to eat and Beth finally states, “I am getting a box to take the rest of this home.” She stands and heads into the main building.

As I am waiting for her return, I hear someone clear their throat from behind me. It is a tall thin blond. One of the other wolves that came in with Brad.

“Hello,” I state and look up at the woman.

“You’re new here?”

“Yes, I start classes next week?”

“You are here for post-graduate classes? What are you studying, English?”

“Yes, I am here for post-graduate classes and I am studying Law.”

She hums to herself and then finally states, “There is a port-graduate party tomorrow at my place. You should defiantly attend.” She reaches over me and writes an address on a napkin. “It starts at 8. See you there.” She states and then turns and strolls back to the table.

“Who was that?” Beth asks as she comes back to our table with a box.

“I have no idea,” I tell her as I hand her the napkin with the address on it, “But we are invited to a party.”

“You’re invited,” she states and looks over the napkin. I feel my face fall and she smile at me, “but those party are open to everyone, want to check out a college party?”

I smile up at her, “You don’t mind going?”

She shakes her head and smiles, “No I don’t mind. It will be fun and look it’s in the fancy part of town.”

We box up our leftovers and head back to the dorm.

The next night I am staring at my closet looking at my clothes. I have no idea what to wear to real college party. I hear a light knock on my door and turn to see Beth standing there. “Thought you could use some help,” she tells me.

“Thank you, I have no idea what to wear.”

She hums and looks over the selection of clothes I have. She pulls out a skinny jean and crop top I bought last year when I visited my brother in Vancouver.  She then tells me, “High pony tail and light makeup. You don’t want to look like a hooker.”

I nod, “Alright anything else?”

She looks at my selections of shoes and pull out some plain black flats and hand them to me. A couple of minutes later there is a knock at the door. Beth answers it and there are 2 young ladies standing at the door. They come in and hug Beth. She hugs them back and turns to introduce them to me.

“Ana, this is Natalie and Melissa.” One of the girl sequels and jumps forwards to hug me. The other girl chuckles.

“Don’t mind her, she is a hugger.” Beth tells me. She then turns and starts to usher us all out the door, “Come on let’s go get something to eat first.”

I stop and ask Beth, “But that will make us late.”

The other girls start to laugh, the taller of the two turns and says, “These party never start on time.”

I nod and quietly follow them to a car. The hugger slides into the driver seat and Beth and I claim into the back seat. 

“Pizza or burgers?” the driver asks.

“Burgers,” Beth tells her. “I took Ana to Ingleside yesterday for pizza.”

“Oh, Ingleside has the best pizza.” She squeals again and takes off. We end up in front of a fast-food chain and all climb out of the car to go get dinner.

At dinner I finally figure out who is who. The taller woman is Melissa and she is a L2. Natalie, the hugger, is in her first year of medical school. All three women went here for undergraduate university. 

Natalie tells me, “They only became friends with me because I have a car.” She ends the statement with a wink. Both the other women groan, apparently this is a common joke between the three of them. 

A little while later I excuse myself to use the restroom. Thanks to my wolf hearing, I hear Melissa whisper to Beth, “I don’t know why you don’t just move into my apartment.”

“My scholarship pays for room and board.”

“In the dorms,” Natalie groans. “Why didn’t you get a single, like you planned?”

“None were available for first years. Anyway, Ana isn’t that bad. She seems nice. And, if I moved into an apartment, I would have to get a job to pay for rent. Not everyone has a rich mommy and daddy to pay for everything.”

I hear what I assume to be Melissa smack her. Beth giggles and says, “Am joking.”

I finish up in the bathroom and go back to the ladies. They all smile and we finish up eating and throw our trash away. I am not sure how I feel about what I overheard. They didn’t say anything bad about me, and Beth did say I was nice. But I still feel judged and lacking.

The party is not what I was expecting. It is crowded and loud. Almost all the lights are turned off and there is smoke filling a coupe of the rooms. I grab a drink in a red plastic cup and move to the side of the main room. I see Beth chatting to a couple of guys she appears to know. Natalie and Melissa are dancing or what I assume to be dancing it looks like s*x with their clothes still on. I am not a prude, or at least I don’t think I am. I have had s*x but I was in a serious relationship when I did. But nothing looks serious here.

I feel someone stop next to me and murmur lowly, “hey.”

I freeze and turn to see Brad standing next to me. He looks me up and down and smiles.

“You’re not from around here.” He states.

“No, I am from Canada.”

He hums low in his throat. “First college party?”

“No,” I tell him. “First US college party.”

He laughs. “I am Brad by the way.” He holds his hand out. I stare at it for a few seconds before I tentatively reach over and shake it. 

“I am Ana.”

“So, Ana, I am assuming you are going to school here.”

“Yes, I am here to study Law.”

He nods, “Me too. First year?”

“Yes.”

“It’s my third.”

I am not sure what to say to him so I just nod and tell him, “Good for you.”

He laughs again. “I like you.” He looks around the room and catches the eye of the tall blond woman from earlier. He lifts his chin in acknowledgment and pushes off the wall. “See you around, Ana.” With that he walks into the crowd.

A couple of hours later I am done. The loud music, flashing lights, and constant smoke is giving me a headache. I extract myself from a conversation I am having with a couple of guys and move out the front door. I am considering calling for a car. I open up the app and I am fumbling with it trying to figure out how to sign up for service. I feel Beth next to me before I hear her. It is odd how silently she moves.

“It is rather loud in there.” She tells me. I just nod. “You’re ready to head out? I know that I am.”

I breathe a deep sigh. “You don’t have too; I just need some help working this app and then I can go back on my own.”

She looks over at my app and laughs, “Never used this app before, have you?”

“No, we don’t have Uber in my hamlet.”

She just shakes her head and pulls out her phone and orders a car. “It must be a small town. Remind me tomorrow to give you an Uber 101 lesson. Just let me text the gals about us leaving and then we can head out.”

She types a quick message and by the time she puts her phone away the car arrives.