Chapter Seven
Idropped into a seat in the far back of the lecture hall, pulled my bag onto my lap, and pulled out my computer. While waiting for it to boot up, I pulled out my notebook and took a sip from my coffee. I nearly moaned into my cup as the first hit of cafeteria hit my bloodstream.
I waited, sipping my French vanilla cappuccino, as the rest of the class streamed in. I scrolled on my phone, waiting for the last few minutes before class was to start. Nix and Megan kept vigil, so when the male approached me, I wasn’t startled.
“Excuse me?” His voice was deep, but I’ve heard deeper. The King’s voice flashed through my mind. His voice was the deepest I had ever heard. Just thinking of it had my skin breaking out in goosebumps. I regretted not bringing a sweater.
“Yes.” I looked up from my phone. The man in front of me was tall, muscular, and decent looking. His chestnut hair and chocolate eyes were warm, and he had a perfect smile. I smiled up at him and waited.
“Can I sit here?” He pointed next to me and I shrugged.
“It’s open.” I turned to the front of the class and slid my phone into my pocket. The man settled next to me and turned to face me.
“I’m Caleb.” He stuck his hand out and I smirked. I shook his hand.
“Amy.”
“What made you pick computer science as your major?” He held on to my hand and I pulled it back forcefully.
“I want to help my pack. And this is a great way to make extra money from the humans.”
Caleb smiled. “My father said the same thing.”
“Smart man.”
“He is.” Caleb tilted his head. “You don’t seem intimidated by me.”
I smirked back at him. “Why would I be? Are you trying to be intimidating?” I watched his eye twitch.
“No.” He forced a laugh. “But lower ranks feel my excess aura.”
“Who said I’m lower rank?”
“I don’t feel your aura.”
“Because in my pack, we learn at a very young age how to keep it in.”
He reeled back. “Why?”
“Because the higher ranked wolves don’t want the lower ranks to feel any discomfort just living their lives.”
Caleb reeled back so hard he nearly toppled out of his chair. “Seriously?”
“Yeah.” I scoffed. “Why wouldn’t you want all your pack to be comfortable?”
Caleb straightened in the chair. “I never thought of it like that. Our Alpha always said to keep our power under wraps, but if our aura leaks out, so be it.”
I shrugged. “Every pack is different. We all have our own way of doing things.”
Caleb opened his mouth to say something, but the door at the front of the room opened and an older man walked in.
He walked to the whiteboard and grabbed a marker.
“Good morning class, welcome to Math110.” He wrote his name on the board.
“My name is Gamma Charles. I’m from the Aurora pack from Alaska.
” He turned to face us in the room and he walked to lean against his desk.
“Obviously, this is a math class. Why are you in math? Who knows, but it helps with computers.” He laughed at his own joke.
“Let’s go around the room and introduce ourselves. I want your rank, your pack, and name.”
The room was silent until he pointed to a man in the front.
I looked around the room and realized I was the only woman in this class.
The first man opened his mouth, but the Gamma touched his lips and curled his fingers, making him stand up.
He huffed out a sigh. “Gamma Cedric. Stonewall pack.” He sat back down and then the next man went.
Over and over, we went around the room until Caleb stood up. He tried to hold in his smirk as he turned to the teacher. “Beta Caleb. Cornwall pack.” He sat down and turned expectantly to me.
Gamma Charles widened his eyes a little as his gaze settled on me. “This is a surprise.”
“What is?” I took a sip of my coffee.
“You. We don’t have many females in this course.” I raised one shoulder as I stood. Everyone turned to stare at me. I cleared my throat, but Charles just smiled. “I ask for ranks, but they don’t matter here. We are all just here to learn.” I nodded.
“I’m Amy. And my pack changes. My father’s pack is the Silvermoon pack and my mother settled in the Oakenfang.” I smiled and went to sit.
“Rank?” Caleb asked. “I mean, if you have one.”
“It’s okay.” Charles waves his hand, dismissing me. But that kind of irked me, and Nix bristled.
“Sorry.” I smiled. “I’m an Alpha.” I dropped into my seat as the rest of the room froze.
“No fucking way.” One guy called out. I hid my smile behind my coffee cup.
Gamma Charles pushed up from the desk. “Amy, while I can understand that, what I said might have appeared dismissive. But lying about rank is prohibited here.”
“I understand Gamma Charles.” I placed my cup down and leaned back in my seat. Caleb, the poor man, was floundering. His mouth was opening and shutting without a sound.
“So, what is your actual rank?” An unranked man, Adrian, I believed, asked me.
I just raised my eyebrows and pursed my lips. “Alpha.”
“You have got to be shitting me.” Another man called out. “Alpha females are rare. Like super rare. Most Luna’s are Betas, or Gammas that mated an Alpha and rank up. But a natural female Alpha is basically unheard of.”
“Now, now.” The Gamma raised his hands. “Amy, I have to urge you to reconsider your answer. If you continue to push that you are an Alpha, then I will either have to command you to tell the truth or call the dean.”
“Okay.” I just nodded. “Either works for me.”
“Listen here, bitch.” One Gamma surged to his feet and rushed over to where I was sitting. “You’re making a mockery of this class by fucking lying to us,” He snarled as he leaned down into my face. “We all went through our ranks as requested. Why are you fucking lying?”
I just stared up at him. “I’m not.” My answer was devoid of the previous warmth. That went out the window when he called me a bitch.
Nix and Megan bristled at the term. He was equating us to the like of a female dog, and we were wolves. He grabbed my arm and squeezed. “Tell us your fucking rank, or I will make you.”
“How?” My voice dropped low.
He reeled back, almost letting me go. “How?”
“Yes.” I slowly stood. “How are you going to make me tell you my rank?” I bared my teeth, my last attempt at being nice.
Anger flashed in his eyes as they shifted, and I felt his weak aura lap at my toes. “Tell me your rank, mutt.” I could see the unranked wolves around the room start to show their bellies.
“If I were you Gamma, I’d learn to better focus my aura, so that you don’t affect the lower ranked wolves in here as you try to command me to do something.” He took a step back, dropping my arm and retreating.
“You don’t feel his command?” One of the unranked men asked softly.
“I do.” I stared at the man down. “It’s like a soft little tickle on my toes.
” I took a step as he stumbled away. “But I will tell you the same thing I told a girl earlier. If you touch me again without my permission, I’ll kill you.
” I let my eyes flash and fangs descend. Losing a slight grip on my control.
Gamma Charles walked over to me. “That’s enough, young lady.” I felt his command wash over me like a gentle river on my calves. “Sit down while I call the dean.” He turned and walked back to his desk, but I wasn’t done.
“Or what?” I put my fist under my chin as he whirled on me.
“My command…”
“As gentle as a babbling brook.” I smiled with my fangs and the unranked wolves turned away. Caleb got to his feet, determination and arrogance on his face. I slowly turned to face him and tsked. “And here I thought we were going to be friends, Caleb.”
“Oh, we still can be.” He smiled at me. “Or more.” He waggled his eyebrows at me and cracked open his power. “Now be a good girl and sit.”
I gagged and leaned my face on my hand. “No, thank you.” His brows furrowed as I spun in a circle. “I think I’d rather stand.” I turned back to Charles. “Now that I have withstood everyone’s command here, can we just get back to class? We are here to learn math, are we not?”
“I said sit.” Caleb’s power pushed harder on my body, but it was still so weak.
I turned to face him and growled. “I said no.” I watched as everyone else in the room slowly sank into their chairs, his command becoming too strong for anyone else in the room to withstand.
“I think that’s enough.” Gamma Charles called out, but Caleb, well, his ego was hurt. “Caleb, stop.” He called out as the unranked wolves hit the ground, laying flat. His command was started to hurt the less powerful wolves and there were a few whimpers. But still he pushed his power.
If you don’t step in, he will hurt them. Nix called out.
“Caleb, please.” All the Gammas had hit the ground.
“Enough.” I slammed my power out, dropping Caleb to the ground.
I looked over the room and every one of these men on their bellies. “What the fuck?” I heard a whisper, but I growled. These fucking men pushed me to the point of losing my control. Now they had to deal with the repercussions.
“Alpha Amy…” Gamma Charles started, but I turned on him and stomped to the front. I wasn’t even using all of my power. And I was making sure they weren’t in any pain, but I was almost past caring.
“Gamma Charles, I’m going to need you to be quiet for a minute.
Please and thank you.” I pulled back my power enough that everyone could sit back on their heels.
“Now.” I turned to face the class like I was the teacher.
I leaned against the table and clenched my fists.
“I was trying to be nice, but you pushed it too far.”
One guy stammered out an apology. “Please forgive us.”
But I just shook my head. “We are past that now, Greg.” I finally turned to Caleb, who was glaring at me. “Have something to say, Caleb?”
“No.” He bit out. I could see his ego was hurt. I was trying to avoid this, but could they let it go? No. Now it was their reckoning.
I felt Nix step closer to the surface, eyes shifting. “No, what?” Caleb tried to fight my power. He tried his best to hold it back, but I just looked at my nails. “You know what? I really wanted to avoid this, but I should have figured I would have to do this.”
“Do what?” Gamma Charles hesitantly asked, and I cut my eyes to his.
“What happens when an Alpha comes into a new pack, Charles?”
He furrowed his brows. “Nothing…”
I turned to face the rest of the class. “Does anyone know what an Alpha wolf does when he encounters a new pack that he wishes to integrate into?”
The smallest guy there, a weak wolf named Steven, called out. “They fight.”
“Right.” I spun towards the board. “A natural wolf will establish their dominance by attacking the standing Alpha. In our structure, they will either fight, try to command the other, or just release all of their power and see if anyone can withstand it.” I turned back to face everyone.
“Like what you all tried to do with me?”
“I’m sorry.” Gamma Charles started. “I just didn’t think you were an Alpha.”
They insulted us. Nix snarled.
“And I would normally let this go, but I just started shifting and my wolf is nearly rabid with it. Keeping her at bay is a full-time job and if you would’ve just taken our word, we would have forgiven the insult.
” I opened my hands and raised my brows.
“But you hammered home that you think us weak. That you were better than us. In my father’s pack, the ranked wolves treat everyone with respect.
But none of you showed your unranked members in this class with anything but thinly veiled contempt.
Fuck,” I pointed at Steven. “When he got up, some of you snickered. One even threw a piece of paper at him and you did nothing, Charles. Why is that?”
“You think you are better than us?” Caleb’s voice was cold, low, calculating.
“Did I tell you to speak, Caleb?” I snarled at him. I watched as the color drained out of his face a little.
“What?”
“I said. Did. I. Tell. You. To. Speak?” I spoke, taking a step closer to him with each word.
“I just-” I crouched in front of him and placed my finger on his lips to shut him up.
“That’s it. You shouldn’t.” If looks could kill, I would have been dead right there. But I stood. “I’m going to do this once. And then we are going to go back to learning math.”
“Do what?”
I turned back to Caleb. But I shook my head. I raised my voice so that everyone would hear me. “If any of you push me to this point again, I won’t use my power to hammer the point home. Next time, I’ll use my fists. Is that understood?”
I heard someone scoff and lean towards another. “Is she joking?”
Before the other could respond, I released all of my power. Every drop of aura was freed, dropping everyone back onto their stomachs, with their faces pressed into the ground. “Is that understood?” I called out and commanded answers without another word.
A chorus of “yes.” rang out and I released them, tucking my aura away, until there was nothing left. The guys slowly got to their shaky feet and I watched a pale Caleb stand and grab his stuff, moving away from me.
I guess he didn’t want to be friends after all.