Becoming Alpha

Dastien spun on his heel and left the cafeteria, slamming the door behind him. Imogene stood there for a second, staring at the door, before going after him.



I ground my teeth. She was out there alone with Dastien, and I despised her for it.



I was so dumb.



I thought back to the vision I’d gotten from Imogene. It seemed like I heard her current thoughts, which was odd. It’d happened before—when someone was drunk or when it was Mom—but it was rare enough to throw me a little off. If my visions were coming back, I needed to put on my gloves. I leaned in my chair enough to grab the cobalt ones from my back pocket. I slipped them on, trying to make it look casual, and felt instantly more like my old self.



A glance around the room confirmed that everyone was still staring at me, probably waiting for my reaction. I smiled at Chris. “Hopefully Dastien won’t come back to bite me this time.”



Chris laughed. “So I heard you had a little early morning adventure.”



Meredith dropped her fork with a loud thunk. “She didn’t?”



“Yup.” He grinned as he leaned back in his chair. “Brant Thompson won the pool.”



“Damn it. I was listening for the door.”



Good thing I went out the window.



“Window,” Chris said.



How did he know? Oh God. If he knew, then who else knew?



“Again?”



The jerk was enjoying making me squirm in my seat. “Yup,” Chris said.



“If you were going to try to run, why not tell me so that I could win?” There was a hint of whine in Meredith’s voice.



“Uh. Sorry?” I cleared my throat. “Was everyone in the entire school in on this?”



“Yes,” they all answered as one.



“Wow. That’s really embarrassing. Can we talk about something else?”



Meredith crossed her arms. “No.”



“Okay…”



“If you’re going to run away again, you have to make sure it’s next Tuesday during fourth period.” She punctuated her words by banging the table. “It’s the only way you can make it up to me.”



Holy hell. How dumb did they think I was? “I’m not going to run away again.”



“Yeah, you are. Every once in a while there will be a Were who marries a norm and doesn’t tell their partner about the whole going wolf thing. It’s a hot mess when their kids come here. They always run away. And you were an actual norm. So, you’re due a couple more runs at least.” She paused. “Tuesday. Fourth period.”



Meredith had somehow managed to turn something uber-humiliating into something kind of okay. I could’ve kissed her for that. “I’ll see what I can do.”



“Fair enough.”



I tried to bring the conversation back to something normal. “So, what are the teachers like here? Tough? Easy?” I said as I tugged at my gloves.



“Classes are pretty tough, but the teachers are helpful,” Meredith said. She eyed my gloves, but accepted the topic change. “I mean most people leave here and go Ivy League or study in London or wherever they’re from.” She paused. “What’s up with the gloves? You can’t be cold. Werewolves don’t get cold.”



“I’m not cold.” I shoved a giant bite in my mouth as everyone stared. I swallowed. “So I take it not everyone is from here?”



“Yeah. This is the place to go if you’re a Were. People come from all over. I’m sure you already know all about that because of being with Dastien.”



I knew exactly nothing about that. “Um, I think he mentioned that he’s from France.”



“Oh?” She paused, waiting for me to keep going but I wasn’t going to tell her what happened. There were too many ears around. Plus, she was right. I didn’t trust her yet.



A soft tone dinged throughout the cafeteria, and everyone got up and moved toward the doors.



“Well ladies, it’s been lovely. See you at lunch.” Chris blew us another kiss before leaving.



“That’s the bell?” I said.



“What did you think it was?” she said.



“I had no idea, but it doesn’t sound like any bell I’ve ever heard. Usually they’re more fire drill-like.”



“No fire drills here. Talk about insta-headache. Werewolves have really good hearing. Plus, once you know what the bell sound is, you can’t miss it.”



“But your alarm clock—”



“Just because I have good hearing, doesn’t mean I want to get up in the morning. The more obnoxious and harder to turn off, the better. And I have a tendency to smash them. I go through a couple a month.” Meredith frowned at my tray. “You didn’t eat nearly enough.”