The Vicious Alpha's Ordinary Mate

Elena Jacobs had always been an ordinary girl. She loved animals, the smell of coffee, bookstores, rains, her little brother Kyle, her college, her friends and her eccentric always-busy-with-science parents. Her life was simple where she was about to graduate from college, where she usually went out with her three closest friends on Friday nights and where she made sure her younger brother had eaten his fills by calling back home knowing how forgetful her parents could be with kitchen duties. Friday outings were never outrageous or even rowdy enough since Elena believed in playing it safe always. So it was just a trip to the nearest bar where they would order yummy, greasy food and tequila shots and gossip till midnight. Her friends would then drive her back to hostel and go clubbing till late mornings. She didn’t mind because she knew they wanted to experience ‘living on the edge’, as her friend Sarah put it, once in a while and she herself never really felt the pull of the ‘night life’ of LA. Being from a small town east of Wisconsin, she liked the slight hum of the traffic that filtered through her dorm room’s window as she prepared for bed late on those Friday nights. She liked the warm glow of fairy-lights as they illuminated her bedside and she liked the feeling of getting out her current book-of-the-week as she would get settled inside her covers and get lost in the fantasy world. Living on the edge wasn’t her thing, being reckless wasn’t her thing and getting into dangerous matters was definitely not her thing. But as Elena Jacobs settled down in her bed that Friday night opening Spinning Silver where she had left off previously, she never could’ve guessed that the next week would bring about all the things she avoided religiously: most of all danger. She had just come back from the grueling two hours of giving her last exam and now Elena was tired. Falling back on her bed, she closed her eyes and sighed heavily. Ruby, her roommate and one of her three closest friends, chuckled lightly and asked, “How was it then? Did Mr. Darcy make an easy one?” Despite the exhaustion, Elena laughed. They all called their Economics professor Mr. Darcy for he resembled the actor Matthew Macfadyen and Ruby had a slight crush on him because of that. “No, the exam was as hard as it could be and I am not even sure if I did any good in it at all.” Elena said making a face. “Oh don’t worry darling, it would be fine. You always ace your tests anyways,” Ruby said reassuringly. The door suddenly burst open and in came their other two closest girls. Sarah and Beth. The four of them had found each other in the first week of college and had never let go after that. They gelled together so well that it was difficult to spend time with anyone else and not feel like something was lacking. When the four of them were together, it felt right and thus their bond grew stronger over these three and a half years. Sarah came and sat on Elena’s bed while Beth took up space on Ruby’s and both of them started narrating the past two hours where one of their classmates had to narrowly avoid a disciplinary committee hearing when the exam instructor thought the guy was cheating. Elena looked at her three friends and smiled internally. They really were her closest people aside from her family. Ruby had short black hair and kind black eyes. Sarah had golden hair and blue eyes and a height that made her resemble a supermodel. Beth was a blonde too but with brown eyes and a short height like Elena’s. And Elena, well she had brown hair and brown eyes which she thought were the most boring combination of all. She herself was short, going on the petite side but made it up with her tough attitude: her mom always said that a woman had to be like a valkyrie, ready to battle the world with all the lightening in her grasp so as never to feel helpless. Yeah, my b***h-face always scares away everyone, thanks mom! Elena loved her go-to tough persona, but this no-nonsense attitude always drove guys away. Forget about having a boyfriend, she never even had a guy friend due to it. Well then, my guy would have to be a tough nut to be able to handle all of me was what she always said whenever her friends would tease her about driving guys away and not even having had her first kiss yet. As the four of them settled into talking about their upcoming winter vacations, Beth gave them rather surprising but totally welcomed news. “So, I heard from James from the football team that this year, we’d get almost two months of winter vacations because after New Years, our college is competing in the state-wide annual sports competition that would go on for about four weeks. So a whole extra month of holidays babies,” Beth said excitedly. Elena’s mouth dropped open, “Really? Omg.” “Hell yes,” Ruby shouted, “Two months long vacay and that too in our final year is a dream come true. Let’s plan something; I don’t want to spend them away holed up at home.” “Yes please,” Elena put in, elated. “Let’s plan a trip or a month’s long staycation somewhere. I am already getting so excited.” Sarah clapped her hands suddenly, “I have an idea.” All three turned to look at her expectantly. “What if we go to my place. I know we have met all three of your families but you guys have never met my people. I really want you all to see the place where I grew up. I wanted best friends to see the place that I love the most in the world,” there was a little tremor in her voice as she said it and Elena instantly felt emotional on her behalf. “Of course we’d go Sarah. It means so much to you and the way you always speak about your huge-a*s family makes us wanna meet them too,” Elena said, smiling mischievously. “Huge-a*s family,” Sarah snorted. “Well yes you can say that. They are like my family but we are more of a close-knit community so to speak.” “Yeah right,” Ruby scoffed jokingly, “I am sure you are part of a cult and just want to take us there to sacrifice our poor innocent souls.” Beth hearing that gasped dramatically and fell back as if fainting and Sarah threw a cushion on Ruby’s face as Elena laughed heartily. When they calmed down a bit, Beth asked Sarah, “Where is your home anyways? I have never heard of Greenpines.” “It’s South of Dakota actually. More of a natural habitat than anything. It has a forest nearby and it rains most of the time in Greenpines. You will love it there,” Sarah said, turning towards Elena as she said the last bit. “Ooh I can’t wait to be there then. Greenery, rains and petrichor; my favorites,” Elena exclaimed, grinning. And thus, the four spent the rest of the night planning their trip, talking about the kind of clothes they’ll take and deciding they’d leave after one week into the holidays, spending it with their families and getting from their homes all the stuff they will need to stay for almost a month in Greenpines. Their happiness and excitement was palpable and none of them could’ve predicted how drastically their lives were going to change in just a week.