The Hidden Alpha (Stryders #4) - HOLD

Chapter 1: Everything Goes Wrong

"Just leave me alone to die."

I sniffed out these words to my best friend, Lainey, as we head outside the library. Who gets fired on their first day of the job?

Me. That's who.

Granted, I'm rich and don't really need a job due to my parents funding me and a hefty trust fund, but I thought I should gain some real world experience. Gain some skills. At a place that I loved.

Lucky for me, the head librarian saw that I was reading a book in the middle of working and got mad. I think she had it out for me since she first interviewed me. I was trying to see if the book was going to a good one to check out, but I was caught getting too into the story. Well, I didn't know it wasn't what I was supposed to do even for thirty minutes maybe. She just fired me. Telling me it wasn't going to work out.

I let out a sigh for the hundredth time. Lainey rubbed my back in a comforting manner as we walked far away from my ex-workplace.

"Freya, I'm sure that you'll find something else to do. Let's go to the cafeteria and get some ice cream." Lainey steers me to the direction of our cafeteria.

Ice cream made everything better.

Our cafeteria was quaint- think Hogwarts but on a lesser scale since there was only a small amount of witches and mages/warlocks in the Academy.  But it was still cute and we had many options to choose from.

As my luck happens, the cafeteria didn't have any ice cream left.

"What do we pay this school for anyways?" I asked, sitting down on one of the

"Well, my mom's the headmaster so I don't," Lainey laughed. I always forget Lainey is Headmaster Clara's daughter. Headmaster Clara, head of the witch coven and in charge of a small school where education of magic really mattered. That's why my parents shipped me off here. There were some "scholarship" students- Lainey thinking she was one- but mostly rich and affluent witches and warlocks here to come to this grand school. Learn about discipline or whatever. It was a place where no "outside" noise was allowed so I couldn't speak to my family at all.

My magic was going a little haywire too. Something I didn't want to think about right now.

"Here, let me get you iced coffee," Lainey said. The second best thing.

"Thank you!" I called out. "What would I do without you?"

Lainey grinned, tipping her own coffee cup to mine. "Nothing. You need me."

"It's true," I said, taking that amazing first sip of my iced mocha. Heavenly.

"So has the Ice Queen roommate still MIA?" Lainey asked.

I thought about when was the last time I saw my roommate. Truth be told, ever since I moved into the boarding school almost a year ago, I haven't seen my roommate who has been nicknamed the Ice Queen by everyone in the entire school.

"Haven't really seen her in a while. Hope she's okay though," I answered. At this day and age, being a women was hard. What if she needed help? Being at the Academy wasn't easy either- you had to go through a rigorous application process too.

"Whatever," Lainey sighed. "Someone who thinks she's way better than all of us? I mean you're like super rich too. You don't really act like you're all that...much." Lainey leaned more forward, a smile on her lips.  "Let's get into the more juicer details though. Tell me how it's going with Brian?"

She waggled her eyebrows at me. Asking me about my newly obtained mage boyfriend for about a week now. Still new to me. I forget that I even have one sometimes until she mentions it.