The After Effect

When Things Get Bloody

Alissa POV

I woke up the next morning to a pounding on my door. I felt a chill run down my spine. Being a beta's daughter doesn't come without any complications. Especially since my pack is one of the most powerful in America. My parents have always reminded me to be cautious, there are rogues and other wolves out there that might want to hurt me or use my rank as the betas daughter against the pack. My worries were interrupted by a girl's voice yelling outside the door.

“HELLOOOOOOOOO" she cried out.

“That must be the roommate." Alexis giggled in my head.

“God I hate screamers." I mumbled back, swinging my blanket off me and making my way to the door. Moments like this, having insanely good hearing is less beneficial and more painful. I opened the door and a tan, blue-eyed, blonde-haired girl looked back at me with a broad grin on her face. She was surrounded by at least a dozen boxes and had the scent of a wolf, which meant she was like me.

“Oh thank god," She said, whilst boldly wrapping her arms around me. I was used to it though, majority of the wolves in my pack are overly affectionate. “I was worried I was gonna have a human roommate. Can you imagine the boredom?"

I laughed in response. "You can say that again."

Though lately a certain dark-haired boy was making me question everything I had ever thought about humans. I didn't want to read into it too much, so I forced myself to continue the conversation.

“I'm Alissa, you must be Stella," I said, smiling at her.

“That would be me, nice to meet you Alissa," she smiled back.

“Likewise," I said, turning around and walking deeper into our room. There were a couple of guys carrying her boxes over to her side of the room. The help definitely meant she had rank in her pack. "What pack are you from?" I asked.

“Riverside. Very far from here, but there are some perks to being the alphas' daughter,” She said confidently, gesturing to the men carrying boxes around her. "And you?"

Riverside was a small but decent pack located far from Duke. I'd heard that the alpha was fair and good to his pack, even the lower ranking wolves, like omegas, had good lives there.

“The Blood Moon pack," I responded awkwardly. “And I'm our beta's daughter."

Blood Moon huh!" She raised her eyebrows at me.

My pack was well known and that often caused tension. We had strength and there was a constant struggle for power in the shifter world. But I could already tell by Stella's demeanor that she wasn't the type to hold it against me.

The two of us talked for the next couple hours and I was honestly glad I had gotten her as a roommate. We were two polar opposites. Where Stella was bubbly and tall with light features, I had long brown curly hair, big brown eyes and tan skin. I was the type of short that everyone towered over me and I would defiantly not describe myself as bubbly. Still, I could tell we were going to be good friends.

I eyed my watch and realised how distracted I had gotten, the lab started in 10 minutes. I ran out the dormitories and towards the biomedical sciences building. I knew if I was late for the lab, it would give Blake something to talk about. And if I was smart, I would avoid talking to him as much as possible. I managed to make it there with a few minutes to spare.

I opened the door quietly and noticed Professor Adrian hadn't arrived yet. All the boys were standing in a circle in the middle of the lab seemingly very interested in what was happening at bench 10B. Someone said something and they all laughed. Oscar spotted me watching them from the door and walked over.

“What's happening?" I whispered as he got close enough to hear me, quirking my eyebrow.

“Blakes happening." He laughed in response.

“You remember him? The one who was super late for the lecture yesterday."

“How could I forget?" I rolled my eyes and took a seat at a nearby bench.

I had never met a human like him before. Every guy in the room was hanging off his every word. Like he's a God and could predict their future or something.

“Alissa 0 human 2." Alexis piped up in my head.

I rolled my eyes at her but before I could respond, Professor Adrian walked in. Behind him followed some laboratory assistants pushing trolleys with vials of blood. Yuck, I thought to myself. Blood was Alexis’s forte, not mine.

“As a biomedical scientist, you won't be working with blood often, but I do like to start off the semester with a little blood group exercise. For labs, I have assigned seats, though these will change every week, so don't get too used to your partner. Your seat is written on the white board," Adrian announced.

My eyes scanned the board, in big writing it read Alissa bench 9B.

So my partner would be 10B which was no other than Blake. Just great, I frowned. I looked over to him and realised he was watching my reaction with a smile on his face. Asshole I thought to myself.

“Hey, at least me and Tom aren't too far away." Oscar tried to reassure me.

Oscar and Tom were on the bench in front of Blake and I. Considering the two of them had plans to pull a prank during this lab, his words weren't as reassuring as he might have hoped. They hadn't explained to me what the prank was exactly but just said it was going to be messy.

So here I was being forced to interact with Blake for a second day in a row. He sat next to me with his hand on the bench top. There was a jet black ring on his index finger with intricate patterns carved into it.

“Family heirloom." He said as if he could read my mind.

“I didnt ask." I responded.

He smiled and shook his head whilst turning to look at me. But I made sure to stare straight ahead at Adrian mumbling on about the safety protocols at the front of the classroom.

Once he was done with instructions he gestured to the equipment that needed to be collected before we could begin. Blake and I both moved to go and get it at the same time.

“What the-" I stuttered out as I was pushed back down into my seat.

“Relax, I've got it." Blake said as he lifted his hands off my shoulders.

“Alexis, I'm going to kill him."

“He's just being nice."

“I don't need anyone to be nice to me." I could handle myself and definitely didn’t need some guy doing anything for me. I got up and started to make my way over to the equipment. As I walked past Oscar and Toms' desk, I noticed Tom was practically fighting with a packet of red liquid next to me. He was shaking it up and down whilst trying to open it so forcefully that it exploded in his hands, going all over him and me.

I stood there covered in red liquid glaring at Tom next to me. All eyes in the classroom were on us and I forbade myself from looking towards the equipment table so I didn't have to see Blakes reaction.

“Whoopsie," Tom giggled whilst trying to smile innocently at me. "Its a packet of exploding fake blood that was not meant to explode so soon hehehe." His blonde hair was so covered in the blood you would be convinced it had actually been dyed red.

“Of course it wasn't." I glared down at him whilst trying to wipe the blood off my white tshirt. Of all the days to wear white.

“What's going on here!" Professor Adrian stormed over to us.

“Wellllll..." Tom began his list of excuses and I zoned out wondering how matted my curls were going to be tonight.

I was eventually sent off to clean up in the girls' bathroom. On my way out the door, Blake stopped me and went to hand me a black shirt.

“I'm not sure if I want to wear your clothes." I said, eyeing the shirt in his outstretched hand.

“Don’t get the wrong impression, just thought you might not want to continue walking in the blood-stained see-through shirt for the rest of the lab. Not that the boys in there will mind." He raised his eyebrows at me and I instinctively covered my chest.

I went to grab the shirt out of his hand but he held onto it tightly. I tried to tug but he wouldn't budge.

“What do you say?" He smirked down at me.

“Thank you.." I forced the words out of my mouth.

he smirked down at me and released his grip on the shirt.

After about 20 minutes of wiping fake blood off my face and out of my hair, I slip Blakes black top over my head. It goes down to my knees and looks like a dress. Today can't possibly get any worse.

I walk back into the lab and notice that Blakes completed the blood group experiment already without me.

“At least we know your comfortable working with blood," I sigh.

He snorts in response. “You could say I'm very comfortable working with blood," he smiled at me. "Anyways, I'll see you later." He starts to get up from the bench.

“Why would you see me later?" I asked, already dreading his answer.

“So you can give me back my shirt, you can come to my apartment this time, its only fair, I'll text you the address." He said before he turned and walked out of the lab.

Why does this keep happening to me? I thought to myself. I was wrong, today could definitely get worse.

“It's a sign?" Alexis offered.