Lessons with The Alpha

CHAPTER1

Diana Kane bit down hard on her fingernail and began to aggressively gnaw on it. For the tenth time in the last fifteen minutes, she considered just calling it quits and going back to sleep. She glanced at her bed. It was looking particularly comfortable at the moment: soft mattress, fluffy pillow, cuddly teddy, fresh bedspread. What more could a girl want?Before she could think too much about wiping her make-up off and crawling back into bed, she was jostled out of her thoughts by her best friend snapping her fingers in front of her face.“Stop it, Diana. I can almost hear you thinking about going back to bed.” Claudia Cain scolded. “You promised that you would see this through. You can’t back out now.”Diana sighed. Claudia was right. It had taken an entire day’s worth of begging and a delicious bribe of half a dozen cinnamon rolls but Claudia had finally managed to convince Diana to sneak out with her so that the two of them could go see a movie.The two best friends were spending their summer at Camp Venus and although the summer camp was filled with interesting people and activities, it also had a very strict ‘no technology’ policy. Ever since the day Claudia’s mother had dropped them off at the camp, their only contact with the outside world had been the phone call that the camp administration let them make every evening. It had been a little more than a month since either girl had held a proper smartphone in their hands. And for two teenage girls, that just wasn’t enough.“But this whole thing seems like a bad idea.”“No, it’s not.” Claudia said, carefully coating her lashes in mascara.This was perhaps the second most difficult part of the night as both girls had to apply makeup with the help of the dim light from the tiny flashlights they carried. Anything brighter than that might clue in one of the camp counselors that they were still up past night out. The most difficult part of the night would be sneaking out undetected.“I’m telling you this plan is genius.” Claudia continued. “It’s possibly the best plan I’ve ever come up with. We just have to sneak out of the camp, careful to avoid anyone spotting us. Walk a mile and a halt to the cinema. Spend an hour and a half watching that cute new rom-com that was just released and we’ll head right back. No one would even notice that we’re gone.”“That sounds more like a to-do list than a plan.”Claudia rolled her eyes at her friend. “A to-do list is a plan.”“No. A to-do list is just a list of things you want to accomplish. A plan, however, is a detailed description of how you’re going to accomplish all those things.” Diana explained.Claudia sighed. “Whether it’s a plan or a to-do list, the point is, we’re going to have an amazing time this night. If anyone tries to mess with us on the way there, they’ll be in for a shock because we have a werewolf on our side.”Diana cringed at Claudia’s words. She only considered herself a werewolf in the anatomical sense of things. As she wasn’t a part of a pack, she hadn’t met many werewolves in her life but she knew without a doubt that she was one of the lousiest to exist. One of the points that she had originally made against sneaking out was about how unsafe it was for two teenage girls to be out by that time of the night. If any human tried to harass them, she could probably do something about it. But if another werewolf came at them, she would be practically useless.Claudia sensed her friend’s discomfort and moved on to more comforting topics. “The ratings for the movie are really good. And you know they charge half price for snacks at the cinema.”Diana’s mouth watered at the thought of the sheer amount of snacks she could get with that kind of discount. Caramel popcorn, pretzels, soda: she could almost taste them. “Okay, fine.”“Good.” Claudia said, snapping the compact mirror shut. “Now, how do I look?”Diana raked her eyes over her best friend’s body and for the nth time in her life, she wished that she had Claudia’s body. It would have been nice to have that kind of slender build: to never have to bother about whether an outfit made her stomach look even bigger than it already was or whether everyone was staring at her stretch marks. But Diana wasn’t so lucky.Due to the summer heat, Claudia had worn a sleeveless satin top and a pair of ripped jeans. Her fiery red hair was pulled into a ponytail because she complained endlessly of how hot her back felt anytime she put it down. A grey sweater was tied around her waist in case the cinema’s staff decided to turn on the air-conditioning and it got too cold for her. Her make-up wasn’t as good as it would have been if she had done it in better lighting, but given the circumstances, it had turned out okay.“You look fabulous.” Diana said. “Let’s be on our way. I don’t want to miss a single minute of the movie.”They both turned off their flashlights and pocketed them. Then Diana pressed her ear to the door and listened for any sound of movement outside their room. When she was sure that there was no one roaming the halls, she grabbed Claudia’s hand and led her out of the room. They had already agreed earlier that day that Diana would serve as their eyes until they got to the more illuminated parts of the camp. Even the dim light of the flashlight was enough to draw unwanted attention of camp counselors to them: they couldn’t take that risk.Being a werewolf, Diana had the advantage of being able to see a lot better than Claudia in the dark. Her enhanced eyesight was not as good as that of other werewolves but it helped to lead them through the halls of Camp Venus’ female dormitory, across the vast lawn, and over the fence.“I can’t believe we made it out.” Claudia squealed as soon as she landed on the other side of the fence.

“This is going to be so fun.”

* * * * *

Just had Claudia had predicted, they had had a fun time at the movies. As the movie had started at midnight, only about a dozen people showed up despite how interesting it had turned out. And even at that, a group of four friends had left ten minutes in so Claudia and Diana basically ended up having the five hundred-seater cinema to themselves. But the part about snacks being half off had been false. The movie tickets were the ones that had been fifty percent off, but the snacks themselves had been sixty percent off.Diana had bought as much as she could carry in her arms and backpack and had gone back to the snack booth halfway into the movie, earning herself a disgusted look from the middle-aged woman selling them. At the moment, Diana hadn’t minded but once she was done eating everything she had bought, she was overcome with a deep sense of regret. Maybe if she didn’t eat as much as she did, she wouldn’t be as big as she was.“Claudia! Hurry up.” Diana chided, pausing to let her friend catch up with her.“Don’t tell me to hurry up. Maybe you should be the one to slow down.” Claudia replied.“The earlier we get back to camp, the better. You said so yourself.”“Well, it’s easy for you to say. You can see in the dark. I can barely even see my nose.” She grumbled.The flashlights that they had brought had died on the way to the cinema leaving them to find their way around in the darkness. Their only light source was a half-moon and a couple of stars. It was bright enough that Claudia had exaggerated a little bit when she had said that she could barely see her nose. She was, however, justified in taking her time walking. The ground was uneven in multiple places and she didn’t fancy falling.“Just give me a few minutes, I’ll…” Her next words died in her mouth as what she had been trying to avoid all night finally happened: she came crashing down hard.Gawd! She cried as she made contact with the ground.“Are you okay?” Diana asked.“No. I’m not okay. I fell because the stupid ground moved.”Diana rolled her eyes at her. “The ground can’t move. Except for like, earthquakes and stuff. But even then, this is Florida. We haven’t had an earthquake since… Claudia! Don’t move.”Her enhanced eyesight had allowed her to spot the actual reason that Claudia had fallen. It wasn’t the ground that moved but something else: an alligator. A ten-foot long monstrosity that was just inches away from Claudia.“No thank you. I don’t fancy wallowing around in the dirt.” Claudia said, rising from the ground in one fluid motion. Before she could get used to being on her feet again, Diana surged forward, grabbed her hand, and started to run.“What the ?” Claudia said, nearly stumbling as she tried to keep up with Diana.“Gator.” Was Diana’s only reply. She was more focused on putting more space between them and the thousand-pound killing machine closing in on them. The problem with that was that the ground before them was vast and empty: there was plenty of space to run but nowhere to hide.Claudia turned back to look at the alleged alligator and spotted it sprinting-slithering towards them. “That thing was beside me?! And you wanted me to just sit there?”“Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do when you see an alligator? Stay absolutely still and they won’t see you?”“No. That only works in cartoons or something. We’re supposed to move in zig-zags.” She said. “We should split up.”Diana hesitated for a moment. Even though she wasn’t the best example of a werewolf, she was still a lot faster than Claudia so there was every possibility that the alligator was going to go after the slower target. But then again, considering that she was also bigger than Claudia, she would serve as a better meal option for the alligator. If the alligator came after her, she stood a better chance of fighting it off and coming out alive with just a few scrapes and bruises. If it went after Claudia, however… she didn’t want to think about that.Soon, she spotted a tree up ahead. At least if the alligator decided to go after Claudia, she could make her way up the tree. Alligators didn’t look like animals that could climb. So, she made her decision.“You go left and I go right.” She said, sprinting away from Claudia as soon as the words left her mouth.They had barely been apart for five minutes when Diana heard a shriek from behind her. She spun around to find that Claudia was caught in a swoop net trap hanging from the tree. She must have accidentally activated it when she had been running by. Close to the foot of the tree, the alligator snapped angrily at its lost meal opportunity. Suddenly, it realized that it had been chasing two girls, and spun around to lock eyes with Diana.“Get out of here!” Claudia ordered.Diana didn’t need anyone to tell her twice. She continued running but didn’t get very far before one of her legs got caught in a shallow ditch causing her to come tumbling down. She tried to get up but the searing pain in her ankle pushed her back down. Realizing that its prey was injured, the alligator advanced with more speed than ever until it was so close that Diana could count the scales along its body. Ordinary, whatever injury she had sustained in her ankle could be healed in just a couple of minutes.In typical Catch-22 fashion, she needed to properly stretch out her foot for any healing process to begin. But she needed someone to help her to her feet before she could stretch out her foot. Long story short, she was screwed.The alligator loomed over her and just when she was sure that she was going to serve as its meal, a fast near-invisible blur ran through and shoved it out of the way.