Kiss Of The Alpha : A YA Paranormal Romance Chapter 31

Heather

I picked up my perfu, and took the cap off. The sll of rubbing alcohol filled the room. I put my nose up to the top of the bottle and sniffed. It stank. The florals and gourmand scents that I loved were barely there, and the alcohol was strong enough to give a headache.

Did perfu go bad?

I put the lid on and carefully placed it in the trash so it wouldn’t break. My complexion hadn’t worsened, but I’d found the best thing I could do when feeling a little lacking in the confidence departnt was to put on so war paint. I finished off my brown smoky eyes with so liner and mascara.

Happy with the results, I grabbed a chapstick and went back into my room to try to figure out what I needed for class.

My schedule sat on top of the pile of books on my desk. I stared at it for a minute before shoving everything in my backpack. Who knew what I’d need for taphysics or Were history? Whatever they were. I folded up the schedule and put it in my pocket.

Serena’s flip-flops clacked on the tile bathroom floor. "Give five, and we can go down to breakfast together."

"Okay." I didn’t want to face the cafeteria alone anyway. People didn’t give you the stink-eye like those girls gave and then let it go. The last thing I needed was a fight on my first day of school.

I plopped back on my bed. The whole situation was awful. One stupid party. One stupid boy. One stupid kiss. And my life was virtually over.

Disgusted with my own whining, I pulled my schedule back out and tried to focus on what it said. Normal classes were before lunch, and after seed to be the weird stuff—Were history, taphysics, and martial arts & yoga.

The more I thought about it the worse my nerves got. A bead of sweat rolled down my face, which was odd. Even during gym class I didn’t sweat that much. Maybe I was still sick.

I took deep breaths, but that made feel dizzy. My skin crawled. Head between the knees was all I could think to do.

My stomach twisted and my bones ached.

Not this. Not again.

"Okay, Haze. Ready—" Serena’s voice dropped off as her footsteps quickened on carpet. "Breathe deep for .

Calm. It’s going to be okay. You’re fine. No reason to panic. Just stop fighting the change."

"I’m not feeling super fantastic."

"You’re fine. Your body’s just on the verge of deciding whether or not to go furry."

"That’s crazy. Do you know how that sounds? Completely batshit crazy."

"I know. It’s gotta be weird for you."

I snorted.

"If you don’t want to shift, then don’t get too worked up over anything. Deep slow breaths. Food will help. You didn’t eat enough last night."

"I ate."

"Not enough." She looked around my room. "Damn it. They should’ve put a mini-fridge in here. Once you get used to eating more, you won’t need it. Until then, I’ll get Mr. Langdon to put one in here for ergencies. You’ll have to rely on the one in the common area until then."

After a minute of deep breathing, I started to feel okay, and glanced up at her. "Thanks."

Serena knelt in front of , her mouth quirked up at one side. "Any ti. I know you don’t trust yet, but I hope we’ll be friends."

I shrugged. "I’ll do my best. No promises."

"Cool." She grinned. "Rad shirt."

"You like KMFDM?"

She shook her head. "No idea who they are, but love the screen print—black on electric blue is kind of my thing."

"I can tell." She’d complented her blue streaks with blue eye make-up.

"Feeling good enough to walk to breakfast?"

I stood up slowly, and took a second to make sure I was all right. "You really think food will fix this?"

"It’ll help keep your wolf happy so you’ll be less likely to change."

That ant absolutely nothing to , but it didn’t really matter. "Okay. Let’s go eat." I swung my backpack over my shoulder. I had to start trusting soone here, and Serena seed as good an option as any.

We walked outside in silence. A light breeze ruffled the leaves. Birds called to each other. They sounded different than before. Usually I couldn’t tell the difference between birdcalls, but now I could hear distinct pitches and tones. It was more musical. More lodic.

"You better?" Serena’s voice brought back to reality.

"Maybe?"

"Rumor is that you’ll be changing with the next full moon, but you should talk to Mr. Langdon or Dr. Gonzales about it. You seem like you’ve already changed, and—if I’m right—you’re going to need to get so control. You’ll need help."

I was pretty sure sowhere in the week I’d lost, I probably went full-furry, but I wasn’t trying to repeat that. The whole idea of turning into a wolf freaked out. It was the last thing I wanted to talk about right then.

We reached the cafeteria before I could co up with sothing to say. As soon as she opened the door, the slls of breakfast reached . My stomach rumbled so loud that a few people at the closest table chuckled.

My face heated. "Apparently I’m hungry," I said, trying to laugh it off.

Serena’s smile was back. " too. Let’s get so grub."

The amount of food was intense—eggs, bacon, pancakes, French toast, bagels, croissants, anything and everything. The man at the grill station had to be a Were. He moved so fast I could barely track him as he took orders for olets and crepes and noodles.

I piled my plate up quickly. As we walked to a table, people were quieter than they had been at dinner, focused more on eating than chatting. Thank God not everyone was as peppy in the morning as Serena.

She took forever to get up, but once Serena finally got out of bed, she was all sunshine and rainbows.

On my way to the table, an elbow jabbed my side.

I turned to see what the deal was just in ti to get shoulder checked by La Bitch. I barely registered the brush of her skin against mine before I got sucked in.

Look at this short slut. There’s no way he’s going to dump for her. Not a chance in hell.

Was that a vision?