Rooming With The Enemy Alpha

1. Mr. Perfect

(Danielle)

I am a chemist. Chemically speaking...

Guess what I discovered today?

Discovery 1: Too much of Hydrochloric acid and imagination could earn you a detention with your lifetime enemy.

Discovery 2: And the said detention is bad, bad for your health.

That morning started fairly well, with me waking up without smashing another alarm clock--I had stopped using my mobile phone as alarms. It degraded with every passing hour and was almost unbearable by the end of the day, that I wanted to pluck my curly brown hair one by one and just jump off from a tall building so that I could end it all.

I wanted this to stop. Everything was a disaster.

My life was a disaster.

The teacher wrote something and then turned to look at us. "Get it?"

"No. she did not. She certainly did not," my wolf said with a chuckle. I mentally showed her a middle finger.

Chemicals and I, we had a mutual understanding. I don't mess with them, and they don't mess with me back. It was easier that way.

But today seemed like that day when you knew everything was going to go badly, even before it happened.

My wolf was restless within me as well.

"Pour precisely one milliliter of hydrochloric acid, and make sure to utilize your pipette. Exercise caution as you add it," instructed my chemistry teacher in his unusually monotone voice.

And the HCl was the reason for my detention.

"God, I want to go for a f*****g run. I'm really not interested in chemical reactions,” I murmured under my breath as Mr. Borate--that wasn't really his name, but that was how I called him in my head-- wrote equations on the board, looking so excited about them. That guy should have loved his mate in this obsessive way--and she wouldn't have started an affair with someone else, but instead, here he was, so obsessed about chemicals, so oblivious about his wife's affair.

Life. f*****g life.

My eyes were sore and my neck was already aching from staring at the green board. I had feigned interest for so long, but even I couldn’t pretend that long.

I was allergic to anything that had got to do with school. I was quite the opposite to the one sitting near me, my perfect lab partner, but I had to do this. I had to get through this to find a life I wanted.

As if he could hear me cursing him, he turned toward me, locking his golden brown eyes with mine. His eyes were full of hatred, before he turned away from me, running long fingers into his dark, dark brown hair.

With a father who treated me as a stranger and a family who wanted no interruption from me, I had to carve out my own pace in life. That's why I found myself here, at Semer School for Shifters—a prestigious academy renowned for its academic excellence and comprehensive training programs.

At Semer School, we underwent a myriad of training to equip ourselves for the challenges beyond its walls. Beyond the standard high school subjects, our curriculum delved into shifter history, combat techniques, and the intricate world of supernaturals.

The training programs contains a diverse range of training, including sword fighting, hand-to-hand combat, hunting, tracking, boxing, fighting in our animal forms, running, and much more. Each student had the freedom to choose the skills they wished to master, providing us with a tailored education to navigate the complexities of the world outside.

I was still here only because I needed the scholarship to get myself out of this world, where people wore masks, where smiles were snarky, and whispers were malicious and untrue. Where every claw were sharpened to rip you into pieces.

I had bigger dreams, better dreams and for that I needed to be here. Stuck with chemicals, and guys like the one sitting next to me.

“Yeah, you’re never interested in anything, except making trouble.” His voice held a whole lot of disdain. The perfect mix of irritation and superiority. Snobby.

Fuck him.

Oh, how I hate that voice.

I looked up to see my lab partner, future Alpha of Crimson Woods, Aaron McCarter. His honey brown eyes were so dark they were black now.

I didn't know how I felt about him. Even after months of listening to him, I still didn't know.

“Aww, lookie here, he knows how to talk. Like a f*****g miracle," I said as I showed --or bared-- all my teeth at him in a piranha like smile.

“You look ugly when you do that. But wait, you do always look ugly." He growled. His face was twisted in a scowl and I wondered if he had ever seen his face while he was frowning.

"Here is a mirror. See your face. You are way uglier than I can ever be." I stifled laughter when he pushed my hands away from his face.

“You look as if someone has accidentally dumped the garbage bin all over you or maybe it wasn't an accident." He shrugged as he went back to doing what he was doing before. Painstakingly taking notes. Ugh!

“You look as if a hundred girls have buzzed over your face with makeup kits, eyeliners and hair gels. Do you use mascara, too? I am curious. But really, how many hours will it take to get you ready every morning? To perfect that face." I asked, and he refused to give in to the temptation to say something mean back. "Your face really does look perfect, just like you, but eww. So fake.”

Now he gave in. I knew how to goad him to human level.

His eyes narrowed as he gave me a cold look. His eyes flashed with a hint of his wolf. I blanched before I gave him a smirk.

I looked at the HCl bottle in my hand and back at Aaron.

What would he do if I pour it in his stupidly perfect face? Cry? Stomp?

“Can you add the damn HCl now? I want to finish this stupid experiment.” He said with irritation. "Why fate? Why? Why is this person my lab partner?" he said as he stared at me. "Are you going to pour or what?"

"Oh, I want to pour, alright. In your face." Rexi growled from inside me.

So, between us, it wasn’t just dislike, it was more intense than that. It was beyond the insults. It was beyond everything.

He had been... We had been... We had once been...

"Don't think about that. You will only hurt yourself when you do," my wolf warned. "It is so long ago."

"It has only been two years..."

But still... It was like a scab in the underside of my infected heart.

“Oh, sure, he gets back to being boring when he has exhausted his mind-numbing comebacks! How pathetic.” I rolled my eyes and then did as he asked. I poured the HCL inside the glass beaker in his hand.

I was enthralled when I saw the clouds of white smoke swirling outside the beaker, like mist rolling down in a cold, freezing morning. It was so beautiful.

Aaron cursed. "You are useless." He hissed at me. "You f*****g, useless..."

And that was when I realized I poured more than the required amount. f**k me.

Everyone was looking at us, and I was looking at the half-emptied bottle of hydrochloric acid with a frown, as more and more smoke emanated from the beaker.

And Aaron was cursing, still cursing under his breath.

I closed my nose, and he coughed and his eyes watered. He looked so red. Boiled lobster red.

"Are you okay?" I asked and he growled.

His eyes were furious, as he swiped his fingers through his perfectly groomed hair. Those neatly arranged bangs now fell freely across his forehead, making him a sexy mess.

"I hate you."

But he wasn't made for messes. He thrived and grew in order.

He liked everything in his life to be in that exact order and sometimes when it wasn't, I was to blame. I was always the one to blame. After all, this hatred, it wasn't simple. It wasn't just two people not liking each other.

It was deep-rooted. It was instinctual. It was validated, even, because of what he thought he knew.

I looked up to see Mr. Borate walking towards me, his steps purposeful. His face was rigid and stony as he looked up at me.

I am so dead. Oh, oh, he is getting closer.

I shrunk back as if it would make me disappear. Sadly I didn't have that kind of power. Would have been a handy power to have.

“Ms. Landon and Mr. McCarter, what’s going on here?” His voice was stern.

“Mr. Bor- Boston, I am like..." I tried to reason, but I couldn't find any excuse.

I looked at Aaron, hoping he would save the day, but he was staring at the smoke and rubbing against his nose.

It made me laugh. s**t. That was totally the wrong thing to do.

“You both have detention after school," our chemistry teacher waved his fingers at my face and he walked away, leaving me to face the fury of the guy sitting next to me.

Fuck my luck. With a big stick up its ass. Because it would deserve it.

Aaron growled as soon as Mr. Boston left us alone to our misery.

“You’re a pain in my ass. Why did the goddess even create you? It isn’t like you’re worth her time. You are just a waste of space and time,” Aaron said in a voice dipped in anger and revulsion, and if it was anyone else other than me, they would have shrunk an inch or two smaller.

He looked at me as if I was a lost cause.

It wasn't new. He had given up on me a long time ago, even without asking my side of the story.

I was guilty. Guilty.

And the only girl who could prove that I wasn't guilty of anything he had accused me of, was not here to prove that I was in fact innocent. I sighed.

I had once tried, and then realized he didn't want to hear my truth. So I let him live in his lies.

"He is an asshole. He is a jerk." My wolf was protective of me. Always had been, since I shifted a year ago, at Seventeen.

I stared at him, feeling the year-old pain pushing itself back to the surface. The ache and sting was real.

“Yeah, she created me because... the goddess didn't want everyone to be perfectly boring like you, McCarter. Earth would have been one hell of a boring place, then.” I flipped Aaron McCarter off. It was easy to be flippant and uncaring, than showing him my real feelings.

"I don't want to waste my time arguing with you. You aren't... worth my f*****g time," he said as he looked away from me, his jaw clenched together in anger, his hands in a fist.

I took in a deep breath, curbing the misery that was slowly poking its ugly head out.

"STOP. Stop letting him affect you. Stop letting Aaron McCarter make you feel insignificant. YOU ARE NOT INSIGNIFICANT."

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