The Alpha

Chapter One

"We've already settled it, Nadia. Get in the damn car." His hand was gripping the top of the window, holding the door open.

My feet stayed rooted to the porch, my hand clutching my bag strap to my shoulder. "I'm just saying, this is bullshit." It was bullshit but I could tell my father's patience was running thin. Even from a distance I could feel the subtle switch in his iris—blue to purple to red. The hairs on my arms stood at attention and a shiver ran down my back. I could hear my mother's voice in my head, "Just do as your father says." reminding me not to push him too much.

"I'm sorry." I mumbled, keeping my eyes downcast as I threw my bag into the seat then climbing in myself. Wordlessly he shut the door and climbed into the driver seat, starting the long-ass drive. I just kept my eyes on my french tip nails and eventually the car stopped, my eyes opening up fast enough to realize I fell asleep against the car door.

"Get out." Was all Dad said before slamming his door. I glared at him through the window and grabbed my bag, also slamming the door. At least until I turned around and took in the castle-like building in front of us.

I managed a glance to Dad's face. "Is this school rich or something?"

Dad shrugged his shoulders. "Probably." But his grumpy demeanor still persisted so I shut up and followed him inside. Compared to the outside, however, the inside was...stale. For some unknown reason the walls were piss-stain yellow, like they tried to give it a gold ambience but ran out of budget. The floors were a checkered white and yellow but both held a musty film so deeply ingrained that not even a mop bucket could clean them. Posters and flyers were stuck to the walls but the corners were starting to peel.

I took in a deep breath and picked up on something...odd. Something I've never smelled before. It was something I didn't know but felt like I should know, but I had no idea why. "Hey Dad," I turned, accidentally interrupting his conversation with the receptionist. They both looked at me. "Do you smell that?" I asked him, taking in another big breath but this time it felt like it was receding from my nose.

I watched my dad give a confused pause but then he shook his head. "No. What am I looking for? Did you fart or something?" He turned back to the receptionist with a grin on his lips but I could tell it was just meant for her. Not me. It didn't matter because the joke wasn't funny anyway and I could feel my face getting hotter, so I stared at the floor in silence.

I could hear Dad and the receptionist exchanging information about the school year, class scheduling, what to expect at the boarding school, and the reminder about my situation made my stomach start to churn. At some point a tall man in his late forties walked up to us, exchanging hand shakes with my father. "Welcome Mr. Azzi, we are happy to have you."

"Thank you sir," Dad replied. "Unfortunately I wish it was under better circumstances."

"Well that could be said about a lot of our students here." The man, who I assumed was the principal, looked straight at me. "Hopefully we can make a difference in this youth's life as we have many others. I hope you, young woman, find a sense of purpose and adjust wonderfully to the community." Then he held out his hand as if he was expecting me to shake it. I did—because what else are you supposed to do in that situation—but not without feeling a slight bitterness about it all, like I was a child being punished for an extensive crime. I was seventeen for christ's sake.

Still, I gave him a tight-lipped smile anyways. "Thank you sir." We finished shaking hands and he led us down a long corridor passing by different classrooms. Some of the doors were propped open when I walked by and I was able to sneak a look into each one. Then we stopped by one particular.

The principal dipped his head inside. "Thomas, come out here." A tall brown haired, freckled face boy wearing glasses stepped out from the classroom, his hands awkwardly in his pockets. The principal gestured to me. "Thomas, this is Nadia. Nadia this is Thomas Hall. He'll be your student aid and help you get well-adjusted."

Thomas was looking at me expectantly so I waved my hand in an awkward smile. The principal continued on. "Alright well I'll leave you two to it. Don't worry about being out of uniform right now Nadia but I do expect you to be in one tomorrow. Meanwhile, Mr. Azzi, I can help carry her luggage out of your car."

"Oh of course. That would be great, thank you." The two walked away, their conversation diluting into god-knows-what, leaving me to stand there with Thomas. Dad didn't even bother to say goodbye. It felt like I was being thrown out into the ocean and told to swim. In front of this kid, however, I refused to cry so I swallowed the emotion back.

"You alright?" I'm startled a little bit by Thomas' question, not realizing my emotion was so clearly displayed on my face. I nodded, giving him two thumbs up. "Yeah, I'm good." I said, but felt like hitting myself at how awkward it was.

Still, Thomas didn't seem to address it. "Alright just come sit with me and I'll show you the school after class is over."

"Sounds good." As soon as we stepped inside the classroom everybody seemed to look at us, like they detected an intruder in their midst. I ignored it, following Thomas to two empty seats in the back, pretending like this was a normal day for all of us. As soon as I sat down I could feel the smell coming back in ten-fold, tickling my nose.

I was busy looking around the room when Thomas leaned over, whispering to me. "So the infamous royal beta finally arrived."

I scrunched my face, looking at him. "What did you mean by that?" I stared into his forest green eyes looking all sorts of confused.

"You didn't notice? Mr. Hall, the principal, is my dad. I tend to hear a lot about new cases, yours included. You've been the talk of the staff for a while now."

I leaned closer to him, lowering my voice. "How long's a while now?"

"A couple weeks." My eyebrows raised at him. I blew air into my cheeks, not knowing what to do with myself. The fact that the school was already gossiping for that long did not make me feel any better. One thing worse than being nobody? An infamous somebody. A troublemaker.

"A little advice: there's an unspoken caste system here." Thomas muttered. "The alphas sit at top because all of the staff deem them leadership. They're born for that sort of thing. Then comes the betas, witches, vampires, hybrids and werecoyote."

It seemed like such an odd mix. "Why are the werecoyotes last?" I asked.

Thomas shrugged. "Beats me. My guess is it's because they're smaller and most lycanthropes are prejudiced enough to assume that size equal strength. Also because they have a sense of inflated ego." He gave me a side eye, like it was an afterthought. "No offense or anything."

"None taken. What about the witches and vampires? How many are here?"

"Well," he started, pointing at himself. "Including myself, as far as I know, there are about eight witch students in the school. As far as the vampires go, not many people other than dad know. They like to keep it on the down-low because of the Incident that happened a few years back."

"The incident?" I questioned but he waved it off. "I'll tell you about it later." He whispered. "While we tour the school, so we don't get in trouble."

I nodded, taking in all of the information. It felt overwhelming to be at a completely new place, with assaulting smells and rules I didn't know about and—

I could feel my eye twitch, a growing itchiness underneath my skin. My wolf wanted to be let out. I rubbed my eyes, willing her to go away, but in the process I found myself making eye contact with a boy seated diagonal from me, twisted in his chair, already looking at me with a focused look to his face.

And I'd be damned if it wasn't one of the finest boys I'd ever seen.

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Author's Note: WOOT WOOT FIRST CHAPTER!

God I really haven't done one of these re-writes in such a long time. I miss the other one I did before the Navy :( Even though the original author got mad I wish I didn't take it down. I remember it being so fun to re-interpret her book. Whatever. Now we've got a new ride to go on, and if I'm being honest, I've only read the first chapter of the original book so I have no idea where this is going. I saw a cheating tag on the book and now I'm nervous so...BUT WORRY NOT DEAR READER---if the book has a bad ending I'll just rewrite the ending in a way I like >:)