A New Alpha

Chapter Eleven

Lynx found the room easier than he'd expected. He followed the flow of students from the dining hall, and down to the third floor. He was glad that no one bumped into him in the halls. He thought about the conversation he had in the car with the other males from the Covens and pack, and wondered if the rumors of this being 'the school for rejects' were true.

His class was in N301, which he soon found out referred to the 301th room in the north wing. He looked out the windows as he walked down the hall. It was a crystal blue day, and the sunlight sparkled off the lake. The ground around was covered in a white blanket of snow.

Room N307 was the nearest room. Room N309...

The room was not what he'd expected. It was warm. warmer than the rest of the school, and the hallway outside. The floor was covered in a soft moss. There were trees inside it also. If not for the distant beige walls of the room, and wall sconce lights, Lynx would have thought she was outside.

About twelve students had already arrived. Some stood near a wall, and a couple sat on small boulders around the space. A few leaned against one of the nearby trees. One, Lynx knew, that the witch from last night. His aura would be hard to miss. And yet, it was different from last night. Subdued somehow... What would cause such a change?

The teacher, Mrs. Bee, arrived shortly after.

"Gather round please," she said, bending down to open a box at her feet. "When I call your name, please come get your class marker."

Lynx was expecting the class marker to be some kind of pen, but when the first student received theirs, it looked like a deep orange wristband. The next student, Erin kreft, received one that was more of a washed-out orange.

One by one other students went up as they were called. Most received some shade of orange, but a few got yellows, and one got green. Lynx couldn't help but wonder what the colors signified.

There were only a few students left to be called when Lynx noticed there were only three other males in the class. Lynx thought again about how there must have been some kind of mistake with his classes. Would he even be called at all?

"Ace kreft," called the teacher, as he moved to the front of the forest room to receive a solid black marker.

"Lynx Moon."

Lynx's legs felt leaden as he moved to where the teacher stood. There was a moment as he walked up, and Ace walked back that their eyes met.

It was as if time stood still and all things fell away until there were only his cute dark brownish eyes, and sharp brow and Lynx seemed to feel a thousand things at once. For a moment, he felt drawn to him.

But then they passed, and it was like nothing happened. Lynx resisted the urge to look back at him. He was almost to the teacher now, who was holding out a red class marker.

As he walked back, he noticed that other students had slipped it on their wrist. And Some wore it on their bag. He went to do the same. Mostly because it gave him something to do. He felt on edge after his experience passing by Ace, being up close he didn't seem like a witch.

The rest of the class passed by smoothly. The teacher instructed them on meditation techniques, and they were given twenty-minute intervals to practice each.

Lynx  had a hard time focusing on meditation though. He kept having a tingling feeling in the back of his neck that made him think that Ace was looking at him. He wouldn't let himself turn to look though.

He couldn't help but put up a kind of mental shield. As if to protect his mind. And it didn't seem like he could do that in addition to meditating.

The lunch bell couldn't have come soon.

enough. And when it did, Lynx attempted to make a fast escape.

Unfortunately, the guy Lynx recognized as Erin Kreft from when he was called to the front, got in his way.

Erin plowed his shoulder into Lynx. "Back off loser," Erin in a hiss of a whisper. "I won't tell you twice."

And before Lynx could say anything, or ask for clarification Erin pushed past him and out the door.

"Great," said Lynx to himself. "One class and I already have an enemy."

The class marker didn't help Lynx with his goals of camouflage. He still didn't know what the colors meant, but by the reactions of others, who seemed to avoid him now, a red marker seemed like little more than a curse that made him stick out like a giant pumpkin in a flock of geese.

'Just my luck,' he thought to himself, making his way back up the stairs and towards the dining hall. He hoped that Landon would be at lunch. Maybe he could help him understand what went wrong because rhyme and reason were eluding him.