The Alpha Trials

Chapter 9

After running into that man in the hall, my wolf was alarmingly on edge yet soothed at the same time. She wasn't sure what to think about our encounter, but she was a bit nervous about it.

I didn't share her same concerns or sentiments. In my mind it had just been a random encounter and nothing more.

The moment I walked into the dorm, Dariya looked up at me from the bed she had chosen for herself.

"What did Beta Logan have to say to you? The rest of us were almost worried for you," she said, her voice actually reflecting something that sounded like concern.

"He was just asking me about our little run through the woods. How we worked together as a team, and how I knew where to go," I told her, before adding in a grin and chuckle for good measure. "He wasn't too pleased when I told them that I was just following my gut feeling and it led me here."

Dariya gave me a slightly disbelieving look before shaking her head. "I mean whatever works. You got us here first, and in record time. You got us the best kind of attention."

My heart sank at her words. I hadn't thought about it like that. She was right. I had gotten all of us attention. This whole time o had been planning on sticking to the shadows and just working my way along, but here I was sticking out like a sore thumb already.

Damn my wolf and her senses that I just had to follow. Why had I followed her? An Even better question was why did she know where she was going in the first place. It was almost as though she'd been here before.

"I hadn't thought about that whole attention part, if I'm being completely honest with you. My strategy before getting here was to stay low and hope that I could just barely make the cut," I sighed, moving to go and sit on the other bed across from her.

Dariya nodded and chuckled. "Too late for that now. You're certainly the center of attention now. None of the other groups have come in yet, so you're something of an anomaly."

Damn.

Now she'd confirmed it and it was all I could think about.

Deciding to try and take my mind off of it, I went to the bathroom to go ahead and grab a quick shower before dinner.

If I was going to be the center of attention at dinner then I might as well look good while I do it.

I showered and got dressed before braiding my hair and sitting on my bed to wait.

Dariya followed in my footsteps, and sooner than I would've liked we were walking towards what I could only assume was the dining hall.

We ran into the rest of our group on the way there, and Zeke was quick to walk up beside me. "You clean up well, Miss Brynn. Or were you just trying to look nice because you know that you'll be the center of everyone's attention tonight?"

"Thanks, Zeke. I was already dreading going to dinner because of what happened tonight. I didn't need you to go and say something to make it ever worse."

At my words, one of the twins grinned at me. "Holy shit, so she does speak after all. You were so quiet during the running and even once we got back here. I was starting to worry that you were something close to a mute," he laughed, only to shut up when Dariya gave him a stern look.

We mostly walked in silence after that, and even once we got there to sit down, most of the other pack members stopped their conversations and meal to turn and stare at us.

Zeke took it all in stride, just grinning and waving at all of them. It seemed that being the center of attention was not something that bothered him in the slightest.