Chapter 5: Aspen

“Hellooooo?” Rima’s drawn out voice called.

I shook my head, ridding the flashback from the foreground. My mind was wandering too often too soon, I needed to focus.

Remember what you’re here for…

“Earth to Aspen.” Rima teased.

“Sorry, I drifted off there.”

She chuckled softly, surprising me with the comfort and familiarity it elicited.

The kind of laugh a friend of decades would give you, only assuring the fact that I’d found someone I could fall into ease with quite easily.

Fate has a funny way of interfering with the mundane; waiting in line meant a newfound acquaintance.

I hoped she felt the same.

“We’re at the board now, space cadet.”

She nodded with the confidence of someone with all the answers; and as I faced the board I couldn’t find my name placed anywhere in the listing.

“Don’t tell me you registered late.” She chided.

I recalled all the faux testing my mother had done to prove I was a beta; and how long the process had taken.

The silence she had to buy, the preparation we had to endure… and all the time it consumed.

I shrugged, “Yeah, you could say that.”

She groaned, before wrapping her hand around mine.

“Well, you can crash in my room until you get your placement. They have to weed out all the no-show names before you’ll get one.”

My brows furrowed, “Who no-shows at this academy?”

I found it hard to believe with its prestigious title. People fought tooth and nail, quite literally, to get in here.

She called over her shoulder over the clamber of the crowd, “you’d be surprised!”

As we exited the hall, she continued to explain how some couldn’t handle the pressure, or that a handful of applicants chose to use the academy as a guise to their tribes and families before they went rogue.

“You’re kidding,” the thought boggled my mind.

“Not in the slightest,” she rounded the staircase ahead of me as she spoke, “These days I think it’s around ten percent of the student population. Trust me when I say, you won’t be waiting for long to find a roommate.”

We’re came to her door faster than in anticipated, Rima moved through these walls like a well seasoned veteran.

“Let’s just hope my roommate isn’t a total prick.” She prayed as she opened the door.

As we entered together… it hit us like a wave.

I, even with scent blockers, was overwhelmed by the pheromones.

Alpha.

We were met by a tall, statuesque woman, hair long and black as night.

She turned at the noise, eyes piercing us like daggers.

They were dark, and bold. I’d nearly mistaken them for black-brown, before looking forward and recognizing a deep dark blue.

It chilled me, and I gulped.

She smiled, but I sensed no friendliness in the gesture.

“Betas…” she mused, continuing to unpack her items in the bed which I suppose she deemed as her own, “Good to know you won’t compete for the better half of the room.”

I blinked at the statement, surely she couldn’t have scented the entire dorm already?

But by the overwhelming smell that radiated as soon as we entered the threshold, I realized that very well may have been the case.

And if I could smell it… it only showed how domineering and aggressive this woman could be.

Wow.

Rima and I shared a glance; this girl can’t possibly be serious.

Marking her territory before even meeting her roommate? That was next level.

She barely looked at us as she tossed the remaining pieces of her luggage across the carpet.

She offered us a measly once over, seemingly deciding we weren’t worth the interest.

She turned to the doorway and shouldered past us.

“Know your place, stay out of my way—“

She turned back as she stepped into the hallway, meeting us once again with that deadly smile.

“—and we’ll get along just fine.”

I couldn’t help but gulp.

As she bounded out the door and down the hallway, I couldn’t shake the shiver that ran down my spine.

Much Like the alpha I met at the gates, I had the overwhelming sense that she was another person I desperately had to avoid.

I could only hope that my fate in meeting Rima, wouldn’t mean I’d have to cross paths with her often.

Maybe once I got a room, she could bunk with me often. Fingers crossed that I had the luxury of a solitary dorm.

“Wow…” I nodded off, “Who the hell was that?”

Rima rolled her shoulder, before dropping her bag in a silent defiance against her new roommate.

“I wouldn’t even need the roommate signage to figure it out. That’s Madeline Sylverstone.”

I trailed after her fleeting figure, and gulped.

Sylverstone.

Sylver Pack.

Idylewyld pack’s sworn enemy.