Page 3 of Rise of the Alpha

“Ohhhh, a daddy's girl; okay, I can get behind that. What’s his name? Is he sexy?” I ask her as she makes a gagging noise and covers her mouth with one hand.

“What the hell? No, he’s not sexy. He’s my dad, and he’s a right asshole. I had to beg, borrow, and steal just to come to this school. Hell, I even had to pick a major my Alpha approved of, which I need to figure out how to change. No way am I ever going to be a Political Science major. I want to get a psychology degree,” she tells me as she shoves some clothes in the dresser.

“Okay, so not a daddy’s girl, got it. Do you have any family or friends here? You’re not giving me much here, Magz, and I’m just trying to get to know my new bestie better.”

“You have no idea who or what I am, do you? I thought you knew and were just getting your kicks off playing me, or trying to get more information on my life back home.” She’s looking at me like I’ve missed some big announcement about who the hell I'm rooming with. I mean, who could she possibly be? Lucifer’s daughter? I look at her with one eyebrow raised and shake my head.

“I have no idea, but please enlighten me.”

Sighing loudly, she throws her empty bag under her bed like I did and sits down. “Okay, well, first things first, I’m a wolf, in case you didn’t know or couldn’t tell. I’m from the Exodus Pack.”

“What the fuck?” I gasp and tense up at her admission. Holy Shit, my roommate is from the wolf cult!This is insane!I’m not sure if that’s really how they are, but my grandmother always said the Exodus Pack was evil and to not fraternize with any of them if the opportunity ever arose. Which it hasn’t since they never leave their pack, especially the females if everything I’ve read and Grandmother told me is true. She looks normal though, so maybe what I’ve heard is false? Looking at her stunned, I let her continue.

“My dad’s a Beta and the right-hand man to the pack Alpha. I’m sure you’ve heard of our pack. We don’t socialize, and I know there have been articles on how we live. No, I'm not ready to get into all that. Just know some of the things those articles say are true and some are very false. I’ll tell you when I’m ready and trust you more, I promise.”

Magz is staring at me, waiting for me to say something, nervously rocking back and forth from foot to foot, chewing on her bottom lip. Her eyes get glassy, and she looks like she’s about to fall apart. I need to quickly reassure her I would never judge her or anyone based on where they come from. Collecting my thoughts, I shrug, trying to keep it together for her.

“Umm, okay, cool, I’ve heard of your pack. So you’re right, it’s mostly bad things. I won’t lie to you, but I also won’t push you to tell me more cause that’s not what besties do. Right? Right! So I’m a witch and a necromancer. Yeah, that’s right, baby, I’m a black magic witch. Ummm, don’t be scared. I dabble, but besides necromancy, I don’t do much dark magic.” I laugh and toss a wink at her, hoping to lighten the impact of what I’ve just told her. It normally sends people running in fear.

She laughs, surprising the shit out of me. Yeah, we’re going to be besties. We continue to make more idle chit-chat and order a pizza. I bust out a bottle of Moscato I smuggled in with me, take a swig, and pass it to her. She stares at it like I just gave her poison, slowly lifting it to her lips, and taking a small sip before passing it back. We both take a seat on the floor, while we bullshit back and forth, waiting for the pizza to arrive.

We somehow managed to eat almost an entire large pizza ourselves, and now we’re lying on my bed with drunken giggles, continuing to get to know each other. Magz rolls onto her left side and faces me as she reaches out and runs her finger down my arm, tracing along the outline of the tattoos I have there. Both my arms have full sleeves, so she’s tracing my sheaf of wheat and my crows perched on a large pair of scissors.

“These are amazing, Wylla. I’ve always wanted a tattoo, but it’s forbidden in my pack for women to mark their bodies with anything other than a true mate's bond mark. But that will never happen since the female population declined and we no longer have mate bonds in our pack. You have so many, and they’re all, from what I can see, unique pieces of art. I’m jealous,” she tells me, still running her fingers up and down my arm.

Goddess above, this woman is tempting me, and I don’t think she even knows it. I wish we’d covered what her sexuality is when we were in the ‘getting to know each other’ phase tonight. I’m proud to be openly bisexual. However, being raised so sheltered and close-minded, I don’t know how Magz will react to that knowledge. Being uncomfortable in my own skin or sexuality because of someone else’s bigotry and narrow-mindedness is something I refuse to feel.

“Idea!” I shout, startling her a bit. “What if your first act of defiance is to get some ink? I know a guy, and he could totally get you in right away. Come on! What do ya say? It can be small and easily covered, so daddy dearest never knows.”

She nervously looks at me, then bites that bottom lip between her teeth again. I’m sure she’s going to tell me no and shut down the rest of our night. However, she surprises the hell out of me.

“Fuck it! Text him right now! Definitely don’t want small, though. I want it to take up a good majority of my bicep. A woman and wolf howling at the moon together. Just the outline, no color.” She’s talking fast, her words running together so that I have to listen hard to decipher them. She’s super excited about giving her dad a big ‘screw you’.

I reach back, pick my phone up from the nightstand and text my guy. I tell him exactly what she wants, that we need to have it done as soon as possible and the cost doesn’t matter.I’m going to treat my new best friend to a ‘welcome to the real world’ gift.I no sooner set my phone down and it pings, telling me he’s responded. I read the message and reply.

“Next Saturday, so a week from today. Seven PM, you’re in, and he’s going to send me a sketch later this week for you to check out and make any changes or additions. Does that work?”

She eagerly nods her head at me and whispers how exciting yet terrifying this all is. Before placing my phone down, I notice it’s close to two in the afternoon and we have been chatting most of the day. We make plans to go to the freshman mixer tonight and to walk her to the guidance office to change her major and schedule first thing in the morning. I laugh evilly to myself, I’m already corrupting my sweet, naive roommate.We’ll just have to work around her Alpha and dad’s demands.

Before I know it, Magz is sound asleep. She was telling me about her favorite movieCrybabyone minute and out cold the next. I lie here thinking about how easily she embraced the idea of getting a tattoo and how I can’t wait to see what other things I can show her this year.

Closing my eyes and hoping to catch a few hours as well, I feel an arm and leg fling over me. I tense up and gaze over at Magz; she’s full-on cuddling with me. Now that I’m totally wrapped up in her limbs, I have no intentions of moving.It’s gonna be a long fucking year if this bed situation is a foreshadowing of our friendship.My eyes slowly close and I drift off to sleep. Visions of me and Magz together fill my mind.

Wylla

Iwakeupandimmediately know I’m alone in my bed. “Good afternoon, Goddess,” I say, stretching as I look up at the Hecate tapestry hanging to the right of my bed. I sit up and take a look around our small dorm room. Magz is nowhere to be seen.Where the hell did my sweet girl go?

Getting up, I grab my toiletries from the three-tier rolling cart we’ve set our bathroom necessities on. Heading out, I close our door and head to the communal bathroom. Stepping inside, I see I’m the only one in here at the moment, so I head straight to the closest sink. Setting down my bag, I pull out my electric toothbrush. Squeezing some toothpaste on it, I turn it on, and it springs to life, making a vibrating humming noise. As I get to work scrubbing my teeth my brain begins to think of the oddest shit.

I wonder if my sweet girl will mind this noise from another one of my special gadgets. HA!

Finished with my teeth, I splash some water on my face before lathering it up with my papaya scented face wash. I rinse off my face and pat it dry with a hand towel before quickly running a brush through my rainbow-colored locks. Happy with my after nap look, I give myself a wink in the mirror and gather my shit and head back to our room.

Putting my toiletry bag back on the cart and throwing the towel in our hamper next to the door, I grab my yoga mat from the top of our closet and lay it out on our floor. Starting in the mountain pose, my feet are together with big toes touching and my arms at my sides but palms up.I am enough. I have enough.I hold that until I switch to the downward dog; my feet hip-width apart and bending my knees to lift my hips towards the ceiling.No one can make me act out of character.

Stepping my feet forward, I inhale and lift my right leg up. Taking another deep breath, I hop off my left foot so both my feet are now off the mat. Bringing my left heel close to my ass, I balance and cross my legs above me.I accept my emotions and let them move through me.Once I’m done with my affirmations in this pose, I slowly bring my legs down and straight out in front of me while sitting on my mat.

Sitting up tall, I flex my feet and inhale, sending my arms straight up to the sky. On the exhale, I reach my hands toward my toes, folding my body forward, relaxing my head and neck. I hold this for five minutes while I slowly breathe in and out.I use my voice to speak up for myself and others.

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