1 - A Foreign Exchange Student

"Hey, I found your girlfriend." Mark announced two days after the scare incident.

"What fucking girlfriend?"Dean scowled at his friend, he was always doing this, trying to matchmake him with some rich snobby girl.

"The sassy little green eyed monster from the other day..." He shot at Dean with his fingers. "Her name's Aria, she's in senior year with us."

Dean rolled his eyes. "For fuck's sake...the screamer?" So he had noticed her amazing green eyes too, damn.

"She hangs out with the polynesian transfers on the basketball team."

"What? The polynesians, what the fuck?" There was a group of exchange students that came to play basketball from overseas and get college scholarships guaranteed, mostly from New Zealand.

"Ah! I knew you were interested." Mark smirked, pleased with himself.

Dean grumbled, wiping a hand down over his face. "I'm not, i just wonder why she's hanging out with them...maybe she is a cheerleader?"

Mark shrugged. "Don't know, but she was just at the basketball court with them...although, with that amazing light brown skin maybe she's one of them...I heard she's from New Zealand."

Dean felt a trickle of annoyance hearing Mark talk about the girl's skin. "Huh...don't care." He looked at Mark meaningfully.

"Sure you don't...want to know where her locker is located?"

"Are you stalking her?" Dean asked back, his tone dropping into a menacing threat.

"Maybe...like i said before, she's pretty darn cute, I'm amazed we've never noticed her up until now...we're already, what? A month into first semester?"

"Forget it...if she's with that lot she's probably going out with one of them or something...or maybe she has a strict curfew."

"Hmm...she definitely doesn't run in our usual circles, that should be a plus for you, right?" Marc gave Dean a strange smirk.

"Huh..." Dean scoffed. "You reckon?"

But he let Mark lead him over to the building where senior lockers were located. When they got there they saw her. She was struggling with her belongings and trying to move a heavy text book into her locker while holding onto a large art folder that kept slipping from under her arm. Dean's eyes narrowed on the art folder, seeing the graffiti written all over it as his pupils dilated like a predator focusing in on its prey.

He swept Mark aside, striding off in the girl's direction with a scary focus.

Mark smirked to himself. "I knew it..."

۝

Aria was trying to shove her maths revision text book into her locker while holding onto her A3 art folder trying to not drop it when a large hand slammed her locker shut nearly trapping her hand in it, but stopping the text book from falling out. She felt an incredible heat at her back and an amazing smell of expensive cologne filled her nostrils in a smoky caramel aroma. She stiffened in surprise as she felt the gentle brush of someone's chin against her hair as a mouth came to her ear. She stared at the large hand with its supple fingers and the gold ring with a large onyx stone on one finger. She held her breath instinctively, apprehensive.

"Why do you have my name written all over your art folder?" The deep sexy voice demanded, tickling her ear and causing her skin to goose bump.

She felt her stomach tighten with nerves. "Ah...shit...this is awkward." Damn it, is this Dean Mathers? What a fucked up way to meet the hottest guy in school...she had seen him at a distance around school of course, strutting like some rich bad boy. But had so far not actually met him face to face, not sharing any classes with him. This was going to be so embarrassing...it may even kill any chance of being at least semi-popular.

She turned around and put her back to the lockers and looked up at the form that was Dean Mathers, the high school's sweetheart rich brat. As she looked into his face she frowned, he was crazy handsome but his ego was apparently galactic. He was like a legend, stalked around like a gang leader completely untouchable in the town due to his family's massive fortune stock pile of old wealth, but those pale blue eyes were breath-takingly beautiful. Her eyes widened as she realised she had already seen him before fairly up close, it happened so quick she hadn't given it another thought...until now. How embarrasing...she had fake shot at him.

"Oh, you're that guy that called me a loud mouth Monday, look don't get the wrong idea..."

Dean smirked, not disappointed at her sassy attitude. "Why shouldn't I? My name is literally all over your folder in love hearts."

She huffed, blowing a lock of hair back from her face as her hands her full. "I gave it to this guy to do some cool graffiti art on it and a bunch of girls grabbed it and wrote all over it...trust me..." Aria looked him straight in the eyes. "...I am not one of your groupies." She flicked her gaze down and up again with a look of overall disgust but her brain was screaming at her how sexy hot he was and how close his lips were.

Dean grinned widely, licking his tongue out over his perfect teeth like he knew what she was thinking. "It's okay, you can be if you want to be..." He leaned right into her face, his eyes sparkling with devilment. "Someone like you, I don't mind." He breathed over her lips, looking at them intensely before flicking his gaze up to hers. Their eyes locked and her lips parted almost like they were about to kiss.

"Is this guy bothering you, Aria?" A deep voice full of challenge came from beside them, making her flinch back.

Dean looked over his shoulder to see one of the huge polynesian basketballers standing beside him. "No, I'm not...piss off." Dean growled, annoyed at being interrutped just when he had the girl exactly where he wanted, he had just been about to press his finger against her lips and humiliate her for thinking he would kiss someone he just just met...classic teasing technique. Dean's mates huddled together on the other side of the hall ready for it with their phones out, but now they were all tense at the appearance of this guy ruining their fun.

"He's not really bothering me, Kahlia...it's more comical really..." Aria said with a facetious smile at Dean as he looked back at her with surprise.

He dropped his arm, standing up to his full height. "Kahlia? The guy you were screaming out after the other day...lover's tiff was it?" Dean scoffed as he sized the guy up. He was fucking huge, nearly seven feet tall! Dean wasn't short by a long shot at six foot three inches but this guy was a literal giant and built like a lumberjack.

Kahlia folded his arms and grinned with a surprisingly boyish face at Dean's appraisal of him.

"Wow, that's fucking hilarious..." Aria spat back at Dean's lover's tiff comment. "Do you get your jokes off the back of a cereal box?" She sneered.

Dean glanced at her, startled as his mates behind him all hissed in amusement and covered their mouths. "Careful new girl." He growled at her in a low gutteral tone.

"What? Your friends thought it was funny." She pushed passed him, grabbing Kahlia's arm and pulling him away with her before something bad happened. "Oh, and for your information, him and me..." She pointed to Kahlia and herself several times back and forth quickly. "Brother and sister...work that one out in your spare time, sunshine!"

Kahlia laughed and gave Dean a strange warning look before both he and Aria turned away and walked off. Mark bounced over and draped an arm over Dean's shoulders.

"That did not go well, my friend...she's a real sassy bitch...fucking adorable!"

Dean huffed and glanced back at Mark's amused expression then back to watch Aria walking away in those tight blue jeans, long legs, nice rounded ass.

"Well?" Mark prompted, his hazel green eyes sparkling brightly.

"I could be mildly interested." Dean growled, swiping Mark's arm off his shoulders and storming off down the hall in the opposite direction leaving Mark hysterically laughing behind him.

"I knew it! I knew it!"

Mark ran to catch up.

As he fell in beside Dean, Dean glanced at him, his expression dark and grumpy. "How the hell are those two related? They're like night and day..."

"Explains why she's hanging out with them."

"Hmm..." Dean scoffed. "Not a word to anyone about this."

Mark chuckled. "Well, Hamish just saw all that happen with his own eyes..."

"Fucking hell..." Dean raked a hand through his hair, pulling it back from his eyes as he rolled them. He was going to have to make sure that no one mentioned anything to the wrong people, namely his parents. With only a couple of weeks to go until his eighteenth birthday he didn't need them to start getting excited about a new girl in town.

He had to admit though, there was something about this girl that had definitely peaked his interest. Just smelling her delectable scent of coconut, vanilla and something earthy had made his cock react being so close to her.

He was going to have to keep an eye out for her around campus.

۝

Kahlia grabbed Aria by the arm, squeezing his grip tight and stopping her in the hall as soon as they were out of sight of the local rich brats. His new team mates had all warned him about who to avoid in the school already and that dick was top of the list.

"What the fuck was all that, were you going to kiss him?" Kahlia accused angrily. "You've been here for month...just settle the fuck down, did you forget who you are in front of a pretty face?"

"Of course i wasn't going to kiss him! He was just teasing me because of this..." She lifted her art folder and Kahlia saw Dean's name all over it in love hearts.

"What the fuck, Aria?"

"It wasn't me...I gave my folder to a guy in my art class and he had it taken off him...it's a long story." She huffed, wincing slightly at her arm. "Can you let go now? You're hurting me."

Kahlia dropped his hand and scowled at her. "We don't need this sort of attention...buy a new damn folder, that's an order!"

She dropped her gaze to the floor instantly. "Yes, sorry..."

"Alright, let's get going you'll be late for class...and I'll meet you at the basketball court at the end of the day..."

She clucked her tongue. "Do i have to? I can only watch so much b-ball."

"Just do as you're told." He growled and stalked off down the hall.

Aria watched him go with a sulky pout. "Damn it, i don't even want to be here..."

She pivoted around and walked to class. The fact that Kahlia had been adopted by her father and had a rank of Beta was bad enough, but to be sent over here with her as her guardian he was becoming more than a pain her ass. He needed to chill and let her make her own decisions about who to talk to while here. She wasn't stupid, she was an Alpha's daughter.

As she walked into class she was swept up by a couple of girls coming in behind her that pulled her to their art table and sat her on a stool in the middle of them. They were squealing excitedly about her interaction with Dean, wanting to know what the story was with them.

"There's nothing to tell, it's your fault..." Aria grumbled, indicating her folder. "You're the ones that wrote all this crap...he saw it and thought i liked him."

"Are you trying to say you don't like him?" Lizzy asked, she had frizzy brown hair, freckles and glasses but she was a great sketch artist. "Every girl likes Dean...you must be weird or lesbian not too."

Aria laughed. "Well, i mean...you guys weren't wrong when you told me he was like a model, but he's really not my type..."

"So what is your type?" Katie asked, she was blond with grey blue eyes and had a knack for color. "Basketballers?"

Aria rolled her eyes. "God no! They're just as egotistical as that Dean and his mates..." She shrugged. "I don't know really...I hope for someone nice, you know, and I've found that insanely good looking guys generally aren't that nice."

She sighed as the teacher came in and told them to continue to work on their individual art for their portfolios quietly. She looked out the window and felt a little sadness clench her heart. It didn't really matter what her type was. She was here for only one purpose...to meet the Alpha of Thunderwolf pack's son in an arranged engagement scheduled for her eighteenth birthday when her wolf would emerge.

Until then she had been transferred to this school and expected to excel and prove her worth, staying with a host family from the pack her and Kahlia as well as Tama and Valia were left to their own devices, they hadn't even been greeted by anyone from the pack's top heirachy, apparently they were all away on some sort of hunting retreat...nice timing.

"Hey, Aria..." Katie invaded her thoughts with her high-pitched voice. "We're thinking about going to the mall after school on Friday...want to come...you haven't had a chance to go anywhere decent yet, right?"

"No i haven't...what mall, i didn't think there was a mall here?"

"There isn't, nearest one is Bangor Mall, we catch a bus. It's an hour and twenty minute trip but worth it to get out of this backwater town...you really did get sent to the middle of nothingsville, unless you like mountain hikes and lakes." Katie giggled while rolling her eyes. "If we leave straight after school we can spend a few hours there and get back by 9pm."

Aria answered with a pout. "I would love to go but Kahlia...I would have to ask..."

"Really? Are your host family that strict on you, i would have thought you would have free rein to come and go as you pleased."

"It's not them so much as Kahlia...he's been given guardianship over me and, well...he's a dick. He's taking the whole big brother thing too far."

The two girls giggled. "A big one i bet." Katie whispered.

Lizzy looked at her shocked and burst out laughing, going bright red as Aria scowled and shook her head. "Should i tell him to come along...you can find out for yourself."

"Oh my god!" Katie covered her mouth, blushing all the way to her ears. "You think?"

Aria scoffed and shrugged. "Well, yeah, if you like him...I suppose i can try and introduce you...don't get your hopes up though." You are only a human afterall...and with the decline of werewolf births they were all encouraged to keep within their own species in order to try and strengthen the lines.

Katie squealed and jumped around.

"Katie Holmes..." The teacher called out. "People are trying to work, be more considerate."

"Sorry, miss..." She ducked her head back to her work and Aria was grateful for the teacher's input. She didn't want her new friends to start wanting to hang out with the team, she wanted her own friends and her own space. The high school was small enough that everyone basically knew everything if they wanted to with only about five hundred students. The decline in students was what had caused the international exchange program in the first place.

Millinocket, Maine. Population 5000

It reminded her a lot of back home, with the mountains and everything, but she had hoped for more big shiny America.