Alpha

by Samantha Allard

  “But not all Alphas have their own packs?”

  “No.”

  As they talked, I risked a look at Henry only to notice that he was still watching me. I thought about the kiss we shared, and my cheeks went hot. I looked back down at my hands. We probably needed to talk about that. Another thing to add to the list of things that I wasn’t looking forward to. It wasn’t that I didn’t like him, but my whole experience with the opposite sex was non-existent. What if it didn’t mean anything to him? A kiss in the heat of the moment. Oh goddess, what if he had a girlfriend? I fought against the urge to close my eyes and rub the bridge of my nose.

  “Rachel?”

  I glanced up from my inner turmoil and looked between my mum and my potential headmaster. “I’m sorry, did you ask me something?”

  My mum sighed, but Arturo smiled. “I know that’s been a rough couple of days for you and you’ve handled them very well. I was just telling your mother that this school isn’t for everyone and you’re an anomaly. There are two kinds of people here. The ones who were turned against their will and those who have known that they were born with the gene.” He raised his hand to my mum. “That isn’t a dig at you, it’s just a fact. We don’t judge those that turn their backs on their packs. It’s a difficult choice to make, but you have to know that there are people here who have missed you, Catherine.”

  My mum’s face went white. “They aren’t at the school, are they?”

  I shared a look with my brother who frowned. She looked terrified and Arturo must have noticed as well. “No, none of your old pack are here. I also won’t tell them that I’ve seen you.” He leaned forward across the desk. “Is there anything you want to tell me?”

  She shook her head. “This doesn’t have anything to do with me, I would prefer it though if you don’t tell anyone that these are my children.”

  Her words shocked both of us. “Mum, what happened?”

  She ignored me. “That’s my condition. I won’t stand in the way of my children anymore. I know that the choice was taken away from Michael, but Rachel has proven herself more than capable to handle this.”

  If her earlier words had shocked me these ones took all the air out of my lungs. My eyes started to burn with the threat of tears I didn’t want to shed.

  “She can think on her feet and can be as stubborn as a mule. She’ll be a good addition to your school.”

  Arturo nodded. “Okay, then we’ll be happy to take her.” He turned his attention back to me. “Most of the Alphas who are here have been here for a while. You’ll be behind on the studies, so I’ll be putting you in the classes with the bitten members of our student body until you’re up to speed. I’ll make sure that you’ll get a list of the books you need. This isn’t a school that just handles the supernatural parts of the world and our place in it. We also expect all our students to study the subjects you’d find in a human school. I assume that won’t be a problem?”

  I shook my head. “No, that won’t be a problem.” Even as I said it I winced. Yeah, studying wouldn’t be a problem I was just surprised that there was any and the same ones that I would find in a normal school? It didn’t seem particularly fair.

  He got to his feet and offered me his hand. “Then welcome to the Luna Academy Ms. Valentine.”

  I followed his lead and got to my feet taking his hand into mine, strong and brooked no nonsense. Someone who expected people to follow his lead. I’d never had the best of luck with figures of authority. I guess that had something to do with being an Alpha, though I guess that wasn’t something you put down as an excuse.

  ***

  Mum helped me get set up in a room while Michael had stayed with Arturo. I looked out of the window. “It’s really beautiful here.” There was a large field fenced in by a small cluster of trees. The mansion was far enough away from the main road that I couldn’t hear cars. We could have been on another world.

  Mum stopped unpacking a box and stood next to me. “It is.” She breathed in deeply. “I used to run around here when I lived in London, that was before the school. It was always one of my favourite places. A lot of fields back then.”

  “Are you ever going to tell us why you left the pack?”

  Her body went incredibly still. “Maybe one day, but not today, there are some stories that I’m not ready to tell. Not yet. You just need to remember that while this might be all you want; this world is dangerous. There might come a time that you’ll regret this decision, but I can’t make it for you.” She shrugged. “You see how well that went last time.”

  I reached out and took her hand. She curled her fingers around mine. She looked scared as she turned and smiled at me, a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

  “I’ll be careful, Mum, I promise.”

  “I’m pretty sure you’ve made me this promise before.”

  I tried not to smile since I knew that it wouldn’t help my situation. “But this could be the time I keep it.”

  ***

  I waved as the car disappeared down the road. My stomach was tied up in knots. Michael stood next to me and he gently squeezed my shoulder. “You okay?”

  “I didn’t know that I’d feel like this.”

  “Feel like what?” A question that I knew he didn’t have to ask. It wouldn’t have taken much for him to peer through the thing that linked us as siblings.

  “Scared.” I let out a shaky breath. It was one thing to keep up a confident and happy vibe to my mother, the one person who could have blocked my entrance to the school, but I didn’t want to lie to Michael.

  As I glanced at him, I caught the frown. “But this is what you wanted.”

  “I know.” We both turned around and walked back up the stairs. The air was getting cooler and I rubbed my hands together. “I know that it’s stupid to feel this way, but I can’t help it, Michael. I wish everything was normal. That I was a human girl who didn’t know that this world existed, but I also know that I need to face it. I don’t really have a choice.”

  He reached out and grabbed my hand. My lifeline. The brother I’d attacked a werewolf for. “Don’t think of them as wolves, they’re just like you. They are here to learn about their futures and their place in it. What you must realise Rachel is nobody asked to be part of this world, some were born into it, others had that choice taken from them.” He squeezed my hand. “This is the best place for you. I honestly believe that. If anyone can handle it, it’s you.”

  I wanted to ask him if he’d been given the choice would he still be a wolf, but I didn’t want the answer, my brother had always been strong. I couldn’t bear to see him as anything but that. I smiled and tugged my hand free. “When did you get so good at words?”

  “I’ve been known to crack open a book from time to time.” He smirked at me.

  “But have you actually read one?” I ducked away from him as he went to punch my shoulder.

  Chapter Six

  Michael walked me back to my dorm room. He explained that while he was staying at the school, he’d be staying in a small building out the back reserved for visitors. We received a few curious glances from a girl with short pink hair and a nose ring and a boy in a black t-shirt, sporting a scowl that stopped him from being handsome. Neither of them talked to us and Michael ignored them. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end though and a quick glance over my shoulder proved that they were still watching us.

  After he promised that we’d have breakfast together in the morning, Michael left me in what would be my home for the foreseeable future. I closed the door with a click, rested my back against the solid wood and closed my eyes. My tight chest made it nearly impossible to take a full breath. A school for werewolves. I was in a school for werewolves. Nope, it didn’t matter how many times I thought about it, the different ways I could say it, it didn’t seem real.

  And Henry was somewhere in the school. Thinking of the dark-haired wolf made me dart across the room and snatch up my phone from where I’d left it charging. One message.
I’ve seen Michael, you settling in okay? Seeing the message from Henry lessened the tightness in my chest. I could breathe again. I would be better if I could see a friendly face. My fingertips flew across the screen. I was about to put the phone back down when it beeped. As I read the words my face went hot. I’m in a meeting with Arturo, I’ll see you in the morning for breakfast. I’m glad you’re here. I sat by the window and held my phone to my chest. Maybe this wasn’t going to be so bad. Okay, sure people probably weren’t going to like me much, but there had to be a few that did. I helped stop a war, but if that wasn’t enough, I had Henry and my brother. A few years at this place learning about my future and my place would be easy if they were there with me.

  A howl ripped through the air, followed by another and then another one and I looked over at the field. Four wolves darted around, it wasn’t dark enough for me not to see yet. The moon was heavy in the sky and there weren’t much clouds. They could have been the kids from earlier. The ones who’d been playing football. A pang of envy went through me. What was it like? To shift? My day would come, I knew that, but I couldn’t help being jealous and I was, a little bit. I spent the next hour or so watching them until it got too dark to see, then I went to bed. Tomorrow was the start of a new day and while I didn’t know what it held, it was still a new day and one that I didn’t think I would ever see.

  ***

  It hadn’t been easy to sleep. I ended up worrying for the most part. I sorted out clothes and unpacked boxes before my eyelids refused to stay open without the aid of matchsticks to prop them open. It seemed like no time at all before I opened them again to light coming in through the window and someone knocking on my door. I closed my eyes for a fraction of a second before I realised where I was and who I was now.

  “Rachel, you awake?”

  Oh crap, Henry. I sat up bolt right and snatched up my phone, it was nine? Seriously? The urge to close my eyes and hide under my pillow hit me. Mornings weren’t not my favourite part of the day, but the boy on the other side of the door, well he was certainly working his way up to be the best part of any day. I groaned at the cheesy line glad that Henry hadn’t heard me.

  “I can hear you in there.”

  My cheeks went hot. “I thought you weren’t listening to my thoughts anymore.”

  “I didn’t listen in on your thoughts, I can hear you move.” Henry sighed. “If you don’t hurry up there will be no food left. Wolves have quite the appetite and don’t like to share. Michael said that he’d meet us there.”

  I quickly scrambled around the room as I got changed into the clothes I’d left out the night before, ran a brush through my short dark hair, and brushed my teeth before spitting out of the window. It wasn’t nice, I knew that, but nobody had shown me where the bathroom was, and I wasn’t meeting Henry with morning breath. That would kill any romance thoughts quicker than me putting my foot into my mouth. The day was early. I tugged the door open and promptly forgot to breathe. Henry was tall, dark haired with blues eyes that always seemed to only semi-serious.

  A part of me feared him. He was eighteen for one thing, a full-fledged wolf and he worked for Arturo. He’d been sent to London to find out if Jonas was trying to assemble an army and when Michael attacked him, he could have killed him. He also played around with my memories, after he found out that I was a potential target for Jonas and sent me back home. I punched him in the balls, so I figured that we were even.

  The other thing that scared me was the fact he was eighteen, mostly a grown up and I was sixteen. Those two years between us shouldn’t have felt so huge, but they were. He smiled and handed me something. I looked down at his hands and the big pile of books in them.

  I frowned. “That’s an odd welcome to the pack gift.”

  “These aren’t a gift, these are for the school part of your stay here. I told Arturo that I would give them to you.”

  I took them, boy they’re heavy. Henry picked up a sheet of paper that had been resting on the top.

  “This is your planner. You’ve got the morning to yourself, so I thought I’d show you around and the afternoon is Lycan: A History.”

  “That’s great. I think.” I put the books down on a free table and turned around again. A gasp escaped me as I noticed that Henry had moved further into the room. I blushed again as he tucked my hair behind my ear, his hands were hot against my skin as he guided my face up and kissed me. If it was possible, I would have combusted in that moment, a warm puddle of gloop on the floor. The kiss was short, and it made me ache for things I’d never given much thought to before.

  Oh boy.

  He stepped away from me and suddenly I could breathe again. “It’s good to have you here.”

  “Thanks.” As soon as the words left me I wanted the ground to swallow me up, seriously Rachel, a boy kisses you and that’s all you say, thanks? God, you’re pathetic. “I mean, it’s good to be here…with you.” I looked down at the floor. “I’ll be quiet now.”

  Henry laughed. “Come on, I’ll show you where we eat breakfast.” He reached out and took my hand. In that moment he could have led me all the way to Hell and I would have gone with a smile on my face and the memory of his lips fresh in my mind.

  ***

  Michael looked up from his seat as we walked in and waved. He wasn’t the only one who noticed us, but I didn’t look at anyone else. The feel of Henry’s hand in mine gave me strength. Everything’s going to be okay. We collected food, there were a lot of meats and carbs on offer and went to sit with him. When Henry let go off my hand I looked around, the first people I saw where the girl with pink hair because she stuck out the most and next to her the boy in another black t-shirt. Our eyes locked for a moment before I looked away from them and everyone else. There had to be at least five hundred students who attended the school. Some looked at me with curiosity, but I didn’t miss the hostility in others.

  My brother asked me how I slept, and we spent the next few minutes just talking about random things. Henry laughed at a few of our old stories and for a few seconds everything felt normal. As normal as anything, but that didn’t last forever. Michael glanced up at a clock on the wall and finished a streak of bacon.

  “I’ve got to go, Arturo wanted to see me this morning.”

  “About what?”

  He shrugged. “Not sure, but can’t leave the Alpha waiting. I’ll knock on your door later.” He got to his feet. “See you later, Henry.”

  Henry nodded.

  I watched as my brother walked away, a practical skip to his step. He looked lighter, it made a stark contrast to the boy I remembered from my childhood. Had it really been only a few days? I said that to Henry and he smiled.

  “That’s the point, Rachel. It’s all about finding your place in the world and for Michael this is it. All that pain and anguish has led here, because of you, because you didn’t give up on him.”

  I felt my cheeks grow hot and looked down at my own breakfast. I didn’t know what to say to that, so I kept my thoughts, as messy as they were to myself. After we were both finished our food most of the other students had left. The lunch room was huge and had glass windows that looked out into a courtyard and as we put our plates away, Henry led me through one of the doors and I glanced up, into the leaves of the trees. It reminded me of the nunnery, but there was something much more beautiful about here than there.

  Henry walked me around the school, talking about the history and what happens at the school. We walked passed classrooms. It was hard to believe that all the kids inside there jotting down notes and asking questions were wolves. That they could be anything but human. Jonas had hundreds of followers. How many of these were those? Henry kept talking but I stopped listening to him. Instead I looked at the school like my dad would have looked at it. Ways to escape if I wanted to. Places where I could hide if I needed to. It was second nature. I hadn’t even been there a full day and I was already searching for an escape. I didn’t know what my time in Luna Academy would be like and ma
ybe looking for a way out was me keeping a hold of the past me. Someone who always got into trouble. The one who needed a way out. Would I need one here?

  “What’s on your mind?”

  “Why?”

  “Because I asked you a question, twice.”

  I couldn’t help the small chuckle that escaped. “I’m okay. I just got a lot on my mind. Why do I have a feeling that this is going to be a lot like school?”

  Henry smiled. “You don’t look very happy about that.”

  “It’s not that.” There were a lot of reasons why I’d never been a fan of school. I’d been kicked out of a lot of them for one reason or another. Blew up a part of one. Expelled for punching a boy in the face. How was I supposed to adjust to a place like this? I’d never belonged anywhere, but if I belonged anywhere it was the academy. “I don’t know what to expect.”

  “It’s a lot like other schools. The students need to be able to adjust and blend into the real world when they leave here. They need jobs.” Henry reached out and took my hands into his. “There isn’t a clear line between us and humans. Your mum might have been able to hide the part of her that makes her different, but that’s the exception, not the rule. We must hide the wolf parts of us, but it will always be there, and it isn’t something that we can avoid or ignore. When we start doing that. Well that’s when bad stuff happens.”

  I glanced up in his eyes and there was no mistaking the truth there. It was hard to deny something that I’d seen first-hand.

  “The Academy is a lot harder than human schools because we must be prepared for two kinds of life when we leave here. A secret one and the one we shared with people that will never truly understand us.”

  “If you’re trying to make me feel better, you’re failing.” My stomach was churning. “Is it too late to leave?” I asked, only half joking.

  Henry pulled me into a hug and I breathed in. Being around him usually calmed me down, but I wasn’t having much luck finding that place of inner peace. “I said it once and I’ll say it again. This is the best place for you. It might take time to adjust to it but you’re not alone,” he whispered the words against the side of my head as he rubbed my back.