Chapter Two

“I don’t see what’s the problem with how I look.”

I looked at Hazel and scowled. “You look like you’re barely worth a cent,” I informed her sourly.

Hazel kept on smiling as though I hadn’t insulted her. “That’s the only way to make Strider notice me,” she said, bubbling with excitement, “and besides, he likes girls who dress cheap.”

With that, I couldn’t argue; Strider liked women whose body was on display. The best example was Megan Lawrence, the female counterpart to Strider. She had a silky dark-brown hair, turqouise eyes, and body so luscious men slipped on their own drool when she passed by. She also dressed like a hooker and managed to get a fling with Strider and even date him for three days - a new record for the local heartthrob.

Hazel looked like the human version of Megan, with curly jet-black hair and green eyes. Her body was short and slim, dressed in a mini red dress that didn’t leave much for imagination, and wore a pair of black high heels. If she were a werewolf, her looks would’ve drawn more than Strider Luxford’s attention, but she wasn’t, and for someone who did well in school, she was pretty dumb to even think she stood a chance.

“If that’s what will make Strider notice us, we’re doing it,” Charlotte said stubbornly while painting her nails in an awful shade of pink. “I’m debating what to wear since I’m also going to try my best. Any advise?”

I didn’t have the heart to tell her that no matter what she wore, she would never look good. It was harsh, maybe even cruel, but it was the bitter truth. It was also true for me. “Just don’t wear a dress,” I warned her with a sigh. I wanted Charlotte to not make a fool of herself, but since it was going to be impossible, considering their plan, I could only try to minimize her future humiliation.

Charlotte hopped off the bed and went to the closet. She opened, took out black tights, blue tunic, and dark boots. She wore them and asked Hazel to do her makeup, which she did to the best of her abilities. Somehow, Hazel succeeded in hiding the worst of Charlotte’s acne, and while my best friend didn’t look remotely as cute as Hazel, she still looked her best.

“I can’t believe you’re going to dinner like this,” I stated dryly. “He won’t pay attention to you even if you go naked.”

The girls had no choice to reply because at that moment Jane got out of the shower, looking absolutely normal like me. Her straight brown hair was pulled into a tight bun and her brown eyes sparkled with happiness - probably toward meeting her beloved at dinner. With her slim body and heart-shaped face, she looked a few years younger than nineteen. The moment she saw the other two girls, she paused in her track. “You look...” she said, her eyes lingering on Hazel as she bit her lip, probably refraining from calling her a hooker like I knew she wanted to. She sighed, shook her head, and smiled. “Let’s go.”

We left our dorm room without further ado. We joined the stream of female werewolves that ignored us as though we were part of the white walls while they chatter among themselves.

Upon arriving at the dining hall, I couldn’t help but glance wearily at Hazel and Charlotte. No matter how hard they would try, they had no chance to attract any attention from any male werewolf in the hall, least of all Strider Luxford. The female werewolves, even the average among them, were too beautiful, too gorgeous. How could they even think they had a chance?

My friends searched with their gaze the werewolf Guard, but Strider was yet to arrive. As usual, he was going to be fashionably late and make a grand entrance. He was such a diva.

After we picked up food from the buffet, we settled at our usual table in the dining hall - at the far, isolated corner. The wolves always left this table for us, because they never liked to be left out. Werewolves were social creatures in their nature, who valued family ties and friendships above all - which was bullshit, considering how they regarded us lowly humans, but it made nonetheless real for them. Hypocrites, the lot of them.

Ethan arrived a few minutes later and sat next to Jane, whom he kissed in greeting as though he was drowning and she was his oxygen. He was nineteen, like us, with bright ginger hair, gray eyes, tall and willowy body, and a face full of freckles. He was cute, I guess, but too boring in my taste. I’d gone on a date with him once upon a time when each of us girls tried her luck with him (and way before he and Jane became exclusive) and not only we’d had nothing in common, but he’d also blushed in nervousness as though he had no idea what to do with me. At the end of that awful date, we both knew it wasn’t meant to be.

“How are you tonight, girls?” Ethan asked us with a small, friendly smile once he finished smooching Jane’s face off.

“Fine,” I murmured, looking out of the window. It was still raining outside, as was normal for November.

“We’re great!” Hazel responded with a wide smile, making me wonder if her face muscles were ever caught from smiling too much. “How do we look? We’re going to try and make Strider notice us today!”

“It’s about time, after two months,” Charlotte added proudly.

Ethan, who wasn’t stupid, thank God, exchanged glanced with Jane. “Er,” he muttered, “I’m… happy for you?”

Charlotte grinned and looked at me. “See?” she said in satisfaction, “we can totally rock it!”

How she gathered that much from Ethan’s less-than-enthused words, I would never understand. I refused to respond, though and left the rest of them to chat about Hazel and Charlotte’s plan. After some time, as I ate in silence, my thought wandered away. I stared bleakly at my reflection in the window, and saw, as always, one more pair of eyes looking back at me. I didn’t know how to explain it; every time I saw my reflection in reflective objects, I saw myself and felt like I also saw something else that I didn’t know how to describe. It’d always been this, and back at the time, when I was very young, I believed it was the same for everyone - until I’d tried to talk to Charlotte about it when I was about ten and she replied she had no idea what I was talking about.

I looked away from the window. Sometimes, I had difficulty looking myself in the eye, and not figuratively; the nudging sense that I wasn’t the only one inside myself - as odd as it sounded - was pretty disturbing.

Gasps and sighs from all over the dining hall shoved me back to reality and I leaned my head on my hands, no longer hungry. Here we go. Glancing to the entrance along with everyone else, I couldn’t help the instinctive wonder when I watched the male werewolf striding inside, with his million-dollar-smile, and his daily fling pasted to his side, who was Rachel MacDaniels this this time. With her dyed-blonde hair and violet eyes, she looked even sluttier than Hazel, but unlike her, was breathtakingly stunning, especially draped as she was on the hottest werewolf I’d ever seen.

Strider Luxford’s arm was wrapped against Rachel’s slender waist. The she-wolf looked like she’d hit the jackpot, and she definitely did if one was to judge a book by its cover - because inside, Strider was one hell of a son of a bitch.

His sea-blue eyes scanned the hall, as though looking for something. Hazel and Charlotte tensed and sent him looks so full of desperate hope it was almost painful to watch. I knew this hope was going to shatter right in their face when his gaze would pass over our table as though it didn’t exist, and so it was when he didn’t even bother looking over at us. Charlotte’s face fell, turning bitter and jealous, and Hazel, while she was still smiling, seemed annoyed.

I honestly had no idea why they’d expected tonight to be any different. Their grand plan was to make Strider notice them by dressing up for dinner and hope he would do a double-take. How thick could they be?

“Good evening, my wolfish friends!” Strider boomed as though he was the king, moving through the tables to the main one in the middle of the hall, where his close friends sat. “Have a great dinner!”

Everyone applauded, clapping their hand as though he’d just given the best speech of the century. I simply looked at him, trying to understand how someone like him had been chosen to be a Guard. He was such an arrogant, condescending prick, and his attitude was dreadful. But I knew that to be a Guard one didn’t need to be kind, only strong. And Strider was helluva strong. I’d seen him once practicing in mock-battle alone against a group of other trained novices, and he beat them all in less than five minutes without breaking a sweat.

The werewolf sat with his daily bimbo on his lap and I saw his friends had already brought him food, as though he was really a king and them his servants. He ate at his leisure and fed Rachel, who was giggling and making sure everyone was watching. The rest of the girls looked at her with death in their eyes and murder on their faces, their envy like a flaring, hot flame ready to blow into a full-out fire.

I was so happy to have a little more sense than them.

Jane and Ethan were now in their own little bubble, kissing and chatting between themselves. Hazel and Charlotte whispered among themselves, too, with eyes full of tears and faces just as full of hatred as the rest of the she-wolves in the room, and Hazel wasn’t even bothering to smile anymore. At that moment, I felt, like many times ever since I started college here two months ago, that I didn’t belong here; Charlotte, while still my friend, had taken to Hazel immediately. True, Charlotte and I were in almost every class together, but it wasn’t like it used to be. On the one hand, it was sad, but on the other hand, I didn’t miss her. It wasn’t like we told each other stuff - our relationship was always about Charlotte, and how Charlotte felt and how Charlotte needed me. I liked keeping my thoughts and feelings to myself, and it wasn’t like she pushed me to tell her anything.

Our friendship was a default one because neither of us had never had anyone else. But now, with Hazel here, Charlotte had already bonded with her, and while I bonded with Jane to a certain level, she’d already started dating Ethan and spent very little time with me.

Being alone wasn’t fun, but it was better than the alternative. Better than anyone, even Charlotte, knowing about the monster I hid deep down inside of me.

“I need everybody’s attention!” Strider suddenly called, his deep voice reverberating through the hall’s walls. Silence fell on the room at once and all eyes were on him. Every evening Strider had different announcements - one about some contest the college held, another about homework he wanted someone to do for him, and so on. I wondered what stupid announcement he was going to give us this time.

“Good,” he smiled when saw he had everyone’s attention, “I need to give you an early notice on behalf of the Millennium Force!”

Okay, so this was a governmental thing. This was new.

And then Strider dropped the bombe. “The Alpha of the Millennium is going to come here next week.”

Shocked gasps echoed in the hall. Even I was surprised. The Alpha of the Millennium? Here? Then I remembered. I’d read a few weeks ago an article in the Wolf’s Howl newspaper that the Alpha of the Millennium is visiting many cities throughout the world. He’d already been through fifty-thousand cities in the past couple of years. I had no idea this city was part of his tour.

“I expect you to prepare for his arrival,” Strider continued, his voice overcoming the whispers. “We will hold a welcoming ceremony at six PM Tuesday next week in which your presence is mandatory.” His gaze passed over each and every person in the hall to make his point clear, and to my surprise, it even moved over our table. Hazel and Charlotte squealed in excitement.

“Have a good night,” Strider finished and smiled his panty-dropping smile before sitting back down.

“God,” I heard the she-wolf at the table not too far from us saying with a sigh, “I want to strip naked just so he’ll smell how ready I am just from listening to his voice…”

I scrunched my face in disgust.

The rest of the dinner went in an animated conversation and speculations about why the Alpha of the Millennium wanted to grace us with his presence. Apparently, not everyone read the newspaper, so I filled them in that he did that to make sure all werewolves and humans alike were all right. The Alpha, unlike the rest of his kin, actually cared about everyone, regardless of their race. He cared about humans because he couldn’t not care; he was the Alpha of the Millennium, and the need to care, to protect, was in his blood.

Despite myself, I felt a little flicker of excitement at the knowledge of the Alpha’s visit. For some reason, something inside me felt like his arrival would bring light into the muted darkness of this pathetic, average, human life.