Hidden Alpha

by Jayme Morse

  We walked in silence—an extremely comfortable silence—the rest of the way to the Dining Hall.

  When we arrived, Theo led me over to the breakfast buffet. I piled scrambled eggs, bacon, and three pancakes onto my tray.

  Ever since I had gotten to the Academy, my appetite was insane.

  “That’s because you’ve shifted for the first time, which officially activated your werewolf gene,” Theo explained as he packed food onto his own tray. “Welcome to a life of constant hunger.”

  “So, um, we eat food, though? In werewolf TV shows and books, they sometimes eat… animals.”

  “You don’t think animals can be food?” The hint of a smile tugged at Theo’s lips.

  “Not while they’re still alive, nope. They need to be dead and pre-packaged,” I said with a shudder at the thought of chasing a helpless little bunny around the woods.

  “Actually, we can eat human food or living animals,” he said, and I could tell he was holding back a laugh.

  I shuddered again at the confirmation that we could, in fact, eat living animals. I wasn’t going to lie. I wanted to vom at just the thought of chowing down on a deer leg or a whole chipmunk.

  Once we had finished loading up our trays, Theo led me to a table at the corner of the room where Rhys, Colton, and Aiden were already sitting.

  I couldn’t help but notice that people were staring in our direction. Even though a tiny part of me wondered if I was being stared at because I was part Crescent, I knew it was more likely that they were surprised I was sitting with the Darken. Especially seeing how all of the girls had gone crazy over them during their introductions the night before, I was sure there was probably a lot of jealousy swirling around the room.

  “Good morning, Raven,” Colton said as I slid into the seat across from him.

  “Morning,” I replied with a smile.

  “Are you excited for your homeroom class with yours truly?” Rhys asked me, his gorgeous dark blue eyes locking on mine.

  I laughed as I took a sip of orange juice. “Yes. I’m actually really excited for all of my classes—especially the ones with you guys.”

  “Well, don’t be overly excited for mine,” Aiden said. “The History of Werewolves is actually a snooze, but it’s something every student has to take.”

  “Don’t students have to take all of these classes?” I asked with raised eyebrows.

  “No. Your course load is customized to you and your abilities,” he replied. “You’ll get a lot more electives during the next three years. During the first year, the professors get a better sense of what a freshman’s strengths and weaknesses are.

  “I see.”

  As the bell rang, indicating that it was time for class to begin, I wondered what my strengths and weaknesses were, but I guess we were about to find out.

  ***

  After breakfast was over, Rhys and I walked together to the Descendants’ building for our first class.

  “So, how many years have you and the others been teaching?” I asked him.

  “Actually, this is only our first year,” he replied.

  “Really?”

  His dark blue eyes slid over to meet mine. “You sound surprised by that.”

  “I mean, I am surprised by that. I figured that you guys must have been teaching here for years now. Why the sudden change?” I asked.

  “Honestly?” He glanced over at me then. “You.”

  “Me?” My eyes widened.

  “When we knew we had to protect you, we called the Headmaster to ask if there were any open positions. There was only one, but he replaced a few of the other professors who had been hired this semester,” he explained as he ran a hand over his auburn hair. “Your protection is our top priority, Raven. We will do anything—and I really do mean anything—to keep you safe.”

  “Wow. Thank you.” I paused for a moment. “How did you guys even meet my parents?”

  “They went to the Academy with us,” he explained. “We became very close friends. They were a part of the Swann pack, which is another one of the top werewolf packs.”

  “The Swann pack,” I murmured. I shook my head, trying to make sense of it all. “I just don’t understand. How could my parents have been werewolves and a part of this powerful pack without me even knowing it?”

  “They were really good at hiding it,” Rhys admitted. “It was something that they had vowed from the time you were a baby—that they would never let you know. They wanted you to grow up human.”

  “Why?” I asked. “It makes more sense that they would have wanted me to grow up wolf. Why bother sheltering me from this?”

  “They didn’t want you to grow up in fear. There are scary things in our world, and your life has always been at jeopardy. Milos isn’t the only one who has ever wanted your hand in marriage, Raven. There are plenty of werewolves out there who would do scary things in order to make you their own.”

  I wanted to ask him more questions about it, but I couldn’t. We were just about to enter the classroom.

  It looked like an ordinary high school classroom, except it was set in a stone building that pretty much resembled a castle.

  I scanned the room for an empty seat and chose a seat next to a girl with chin-length strawberry blonde hair at the back of the classroom.

  As I slid into my seat next to hers, she glanced over at me and smiled. “Hey, Raven.”

  “Hey.” I paused. “How do you know my name?”

  “I recognize you from the Sorting Ceremony,” she explained. “It’s not every day that a werewolf gets Sorted into two Houses. Oh. Duh. You already know that. Headmaster Black told you that last night. Sorry. I talk too much sometimes. I even annoy myself.”

  I laughed. I couldn’t help but like her. She was so… different. She didn’t seem the type to put on a show to get someone to like her. She seemed so honest. And, glancing up and down at her plain jeans and white shirt, it didn’t seem like she tried too hard to fit in, either.

  “My name is Iris,” she said. “So, how do you like our world so far? It must be so shocking for you, having grown up in the human world. It must be the hugest change for you.”

  “How does everyone seem to know that about me?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “A lot about your family got shared by the gossips in our world when your parents died. I’m sorry to hear about that, by the way. Do you want to talk about it?”

  I shrugged. “I think I’m good. Right now, anyway. I might take you up on that later.”

  “Well, if your mind ever changes, just let me know. I’m always here.”

  “Thanks, I appreciate it.” And I meant it. Something about Iris just felt so down to earth and genuine. I just had this feeling that the two of us were going to be friends—and, well, we knew how my feelings seemed to turn out. I’d had a feeling that everything was going to change during my senior year, and it certainly had—considering I was sitting at Werewolf Academy.

  Once all of the seats were full, Rhys moved to the center of the classroom. “Welcome to the Art of Shifting. This is a mandatory course that everyone must take during their first semester at Werewolf Academy. I can’t promise you that this will be the most fun course you will take during your time here, but it is necessary. That being said, I hope to make it as interesting as possible for you.”

  Rhys began to walk around the classroom. “During this course, we will talk about some of the factors that will impact your ability—or inability—to shift. You’ll learn about how the different phases of the moon affect werewolves. Our goal is simple. We want you to be able to learn how to shift when you want to, and how to control yourself from shifting when your body wants to.

  “This class will get very… physical.” Rhys glanced over in my direction then. His eyes only locked on mine for a split second, but it was enough to make the butterflies in my stomach swirl around a bit.

  “We will be going outside into the forest to work on our shifting as a class.”

  A
girl at the front of the classroom raised her hand.

  “Yes, what is your name?” Rhys called on her.

  “My name is Jenny. I’m just wondering… if we have to go outside to shift together as a class, won’t it get really dangerous?” She sounded nervous.

  “It could potentially get very dangerous, but we have some guidelines in place to prevent that,” Rhys answered her. “We will put up an invisible, magical barrier around each of you to keep you contained so that you won’t harm one another.”

  “So, you’re going to put us in an invisible jail cells?” Jenny questioned.

  “I suppose that’s one way to look at it.” Rhys hesitated. “On the bright side, we won’t leave you in them for very long?”

  I chuckled. It was really obvious that Rhys was a first-time professor. It was still sweet that all of these guys were only doing this for me.

  ***

  As I headed to my next class, History of Werewolves with Aiden, I was relieved that Iris was in my class. It was nice knowing that I had class with someone I knew.

  I wasn’t sure why I was a little nervous about having this class with Aiden. My mind just kept going back to the comment he had made about showing me his bedroom. That meant that he must have been just as attracted to me as I was to him… I assumed, anyway.

  There was one thing I did know for sure.

  It wasn’t easy being attracted to four wolves.

  “So, do you have any brothers or sisters?” Iris asked me as we sat in class, waiting for it to begin.

  I shook my head. “No, I’m an only child.”

  That had definitely made losing my parents a lot harder. I couldn’t help but think that it would have been somewhat easier if I did have a sibling to go through this with. I wouldn’t have felt so alone.

  “How about you?” I asked, glancing over at her. “Do you have a sibling?”

  Iris nodded. “Yeah, I actually have seven brothers, including my twin brother, Eric. He’s a freshman here, too.”

  “Wow. That must be so cool being a twin.”

  “It’s actually pretty common in our world,” Iris explained.

  “Why is that?” I questioned.

  “Well, dogs tend to have more than one puppy per litter, so I guess it makes sense that werewolves often do, too.”

  “That does make sense,” I agreed, just as Aiden closed the door to the classroom.

  “Welcome to the History of Werewolves. As an alumnus, I won’t lie to you. This is the most boring class you will ever have to take during your time at Werewolf Academy,” he said, his honey brown eyes scanning the room and then finally landing on me. “I hope that I’ll be able to keep you awake for it, however, because this is the most important history class you will ever take in your lives.”

  He glanced away from me then and took a seat at the desk at the center of the room. “We’re going to start our lesson by talking about the feud that’s been going on for hundreds of years between the werewolves and vampires.”

  Vampires actually existed? I wasn’t sure why that surprised me—and unnerved me a little. The idea of fanged people who drank blood was kind of scary.

  An even scarier thought was did they drink werewolf blood?

  “Like most werewolves, you probably hate vampires, but this is likely something that has been passed down to you from generation to generation. We are born to hate vampires. But where did it all begin?” Aiden asked aloud. “Well, no one knows for sure why werewolves and vampires have come to look at themselves as enemies, but there are two major theories. Some say that werewolves are the gatekeepers for humans. Many wolves—good wolves, anyway—have always tried to keep humans safe, whenever possible. One theory says that hundreds of years ago, werewolves went out of their way to protect humans from vampires, which angered the vampires. There’s another theory, too, and it all dates back to Nocturne Island, which isn’t too far away from here, in our realm.

  “During the ancient times, the ancient werewolves called Nocturne Island home. The island was also home to a castle where the King and Queen of the wolves lived. Many of the other ancient werewolves lived on the island, though they didn’t live within the castle itself.” He paused. “According to legend, the vampires invaded the island, in search of werewolf blood. The vampires knew they could drink human blood, but they had a thought. What if they could drink a blood that was more powerful than human blood? What if by consuming this blood, they would be able to take advantage of these powers themselves? So, they broke into the castle and drank the blood of the King and Queen’s only child, Princess Fallyn. However, they took too much—so much, in fact, that they ended up killing the princess. This, allegedly, started the war between the two paranormal races—a war that continues to this day.”

  As he spoke, I couldn’t help but myself intrigued—extremely intrigued—by every word he was saying.

  If he was right, that this truly was the “most boring” class at Werewolf Academy, I was going to love all of my other classes. For the first time, I was really relieved that I was skipping out on my senior year of high school because the vampire and werewolf war was way more interesting than the Civil War.

  Chapter Seven

  Since my next class was in the Crescents building, Iris and I parted ways, agreeing to find each other during our lunch break, which we had at the same hour. It was a huge relief that I didn’t have to worry about finding someone to sit with.

  I was more excited about Taming Your Dark Wolf class with Theo than I had been for any other class so far, mainly because I couldn’t wait to see him again.

  It was a strange feeling, but I almost felt like I was having withdrawal from being away from him for so long. It was as though I craved him.

  Snap out of it, Raven, I thought to myself. You’ve only just met him. This can’t be healthy.

  But the feeling of wanting to see him again, of wanting to be closer to him, just didn’t seem to go away.

  As I opened the door to the building, an odd feeling crept over me. I entered the hallway, and the oddness continued until it was this nagging, overwhelming feeling in the pit of my stomach.

  I wasn’t sure if it was the dim lighting or the dark nature of the artwork that hung on the walls, but everything about this building just felt so… dark. It put me on edge.

  I just couldn’t help but feel like I didn’t really belong here, in this building or in this House at all.

  What if the witch’s potion had somehow messed up? What if I wasn’t actually supposed to be one of the Crescents?

  I wondered if it was possible for me to contest it. But even if that was a possibility, it would have meant not having Theo as my professor, and did I really want that?

  The answer was no. I needed this. As crazy as that sounded, I really believed that I did need to see him every day or I was going to go out of my mind.

  I wanted to see and have class with all of the guys, but especially with Theo. It was like I couldn’t get enough of him.

  As I walked into the classroom where our class was being held, I was surprised to find that I was the first one there.

  I chose a seat towards the center of the classroom. While I normally preferred to sit in the back, I wanted to be closer to Theo.

  The next student who came into the classroom was this guy with blue hair and an eyebrow piercing. I remembered him from the Sorting Ceremony. He was hard to forget.

  “Hey,” he said, sliding into the chair next to mine. “I’m Vince.”

  “I’m Raven.”

  “I know.” He paused and then explained, “Everyone knows who you are.”

  “I’m getting used to that,” I replied with a chuckle. It was even getting to the point where it wasn’t even bothering me anymore. I kind of just expected it now.

  “So, you’re half-Crescent. That’s pretty cool, if you ask me.”

  “Yeah?” My eyebrows lifted in surprise. “That’s one word for it, I guess.”

  “You don’t think it’s cool?�
� Vince asked.

  I shrugged. “It just makes things more complicated. Having to split my classes between the Crescents and the Descendants and stuff.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure it would make things more complicated,” he agreed with a nod. “Have you decided what club or team you’re going to join?”

  “Club or team?” I glanced over at him with wide eyes.

  “We’re required to join at least one extracurricular activity every year that we’re at the Academy. I’m surprised no one’s told you.”

  “Oh, crap. I had no idea.”

  “It was on your application,” Vince said. “You were supposed to choose at least two that interested you.”

  “I didn’t apply to go here,” I admitted.

  “Oh, you were invited?”

  “Actually, I was pretty much dragged here,” I explained.

  “So, you were basically hand-selected,” Vince replied. “I’m not surprised.”

  “Why?”

  “Well, you are Raven Gallagher.”

  I suppressed an eye roll. I was sort of getting sick of my name being tossed around like it really meant something around here.

  “What type of clubs and sports do they even have at this school?” I asked, wondering if there was a sport that was designed specifically for werewolves.

  “Pretty much everything you would expect to find back home,” Vince explained. “They don’t take away all of the things people enjoy or else some of us would probably revolt and go back to the human world or something. What type of extracurriculars did you do back in the human world?”

  “None. I usually just went home or hung out with my friends after school,” I admitted. My guidance counselor had always gotten onto me about it because it wouldn’t look good on my college applications. I didn’t regret it, though. Now that I was pretty sure I’d never go to a human college, I was happy that I’d chosen to spend my time with my friends instead.

  “Well, there’s football and cheerleading. Band. Track is really huge here. Since werewolves are way faster than humans, they get crazy competitive about their running speeds. Werewolves are also really good at javelin, since we can throw really far. There’s also soccer and baseball.” He paused. “There are non-athletic extracurriculars, too. Art club. Yearbook club. Drama club. I’m going to join the Yearbook Club.” He glanced over at me. “What do you think might interest you?”