The Beta and His Human Mate

Chapter 1: New School, New Life

Ashtyn POV

            I can’t believe my dad made Kyle and I move to this new town, Blue Crescent, Montana. We were doing just fine in Harvest Moon. Also, did he seriously have to move us to another place named after the moon? Like couldn’t we have moved to like Sun City, Arizona, or to Florida in general, you know the sunshine state? I could really go to a place that is always sunny, so I can spend my time on the beach. Instead of being surrounded by all these forests and mountains. Don’t get me wrong the town is beautiful, but a change of scenery would have been nice.

            I am proud that my dad got a new job as a Project Manager at the company he always wanted to work for Star-Cross Engineering. It is a great opportunity for him, and he is super excited. It seemed like they really wanted him because they gave him a huge salary and covered moving expenses. But did I seriously have to come? I mean I am 18 already, and I do not want to finish my senior year at a new school surrounded by people I don’t know. It’s not like I can see my old friends that easy since they are over 3 hours away. Also, who wants to be friends with the new girl, everyone already has their cliques and groups formed by their senior year anyway. So, I get to be the loser new girl. 

            I almost convinced my dad to let me stay. I was going to move in with my best friend Hunter, who is a year older than me. Our relationship is strictly platonic before you think anything. That would be gross, he is practically my older brother. My dad loves Hunter and trusts him with my life, so it would have been perfect. Hunter was planning on going to community college in our town and was going to get an apartment for himself, and I would have moved in so I could continue to stay in Harvest Moon. Yeah, I would have missed my dad and younger brother, Kyle, immensely, but they’re my family we would see each other as much as we could. However, my friends and I are going to drift apart if I don’t stay, it always happens. But Hunter ended up getting an amazing scholarship to go to his dream school and he couldn’t pass that up. So, I had no other choice but to move. Hunter and I won’t drift apart though, we have been best friends since I were born. But my other friends when I said goodbye and got in the car to leave, I knew everything changed the moment I drove across the town line.

            So, here I am driving to Blue Crescent High School with my younger brother to start our first day of school. The best part is we aren’t even starting on the actual first day of school. *Insert eye roll now* My dad recently got the job, so everything happened so fast we had to miss the first week of school to deal with the move. Great, now all the attention is going to be on me even more. I am also annoyed with my dad for making Kyle and I go to school today of all days. Today is our late mother’s birthday, she would have been 43 today. So now I have to go to a school that I don’t want to go to on a day I just want to cry my eyes out. The day she was killed was a pretty traumatic moment for Kyle and me because we were there. Luckily, he at least didn’t see her mangled body, I was able to shield him from that. No 9-year-old boy needs to see that, but it is not easy for an 11-year-old girl to see. But that is a story for another day. But we could not miss today because Kyle has football tryouts and he can’t miss those. He is going to be there new star kicker.

            The two of us pull into the parking lot in my mom’s old 2008, Black Dodge Durango. We both climb out and head inside, not before I pull on the hood of my black zip-up hoodie. I am not really in the mood to deal with people today. Most girls would try to look cute on their first day of school, not me though. I have a black zip-up hoodie that is 2 sizes too big (it's actually Kyle’s, but I took it) zipped all the way up, a white t-shirt, black sweats, black socks, and black Adidas slides. If you couldn’t guess what my favorite color is, it's black. With my hood up covering most of my face, my sweats covering my curves, and my burgundy hair being tucked away in the hood, you might think I am a boy. Well, a very short boy since I am only 5’2”, but you get the point.

Kyle and I walk in together and head to the office to grab our schedules and locker information. We are kind of early so there isn’t a lot of students there right now. But the girls who are there I noticed are checking Kyle out. Kyle is 6’1 with dark brown hair, the same crystal blue eyes as me, and very attractive. He is lean but not scrawny because he has muscles since he is athletic. However, Kyle is that kind of guy who keeps to himself, rather read a book than go to a party, and is sensitive. Nothing wrong with that, I hope my future boyfriend isn't scared to show his emotion. But I am also very protective of him because of everything we been through.

            We go our separate ways to put our stuff away in our lockers and head to our first classes. I have U.S. history for my first class, great. Maybe, I can catch up on some sleep, the teacher won’t notice if my hood is still on covering my face. No, I am not one of those people who doesn’t care about school, I am actually a very good student. I just hate history and I barely slept last night. I walk into the classroom which only has a few students at the moment, and I take a seat in the back corner desk closest to the window. I prefer to sit in the corner desk where there is a wall behind me, and I am the farthest from the door. This is because of some things I went through last year with my ex-boyfriend Ricky. I will get into that later but sitting in this chair makes me feel safe because no one can sneak up on me.

            I place my stuff down and pull a notebook and a pencil out. I start to sketch a drawing of a forest, like the one lining the school. A few minutes pass and the bell for first period is about to ring. I sense someone approach me, but I don’t bother to look up from my drawing. I then hear some guy say to me in a slightly powerful voice as he is looking down at me, “You are sitting in my seat.”

            Still, without looking at him I reply in a nonchalant tone, “Cool… Also, if you think your voice is going to intimidate me, you are going to need to try harder than that.”

            Before he can say anything, the teacher walks in and says, “Mr. Peterson, sit down class has started.” He walks to the other side of the room and finds a seat over there. Clearly annoyed.

            As I am working on the drawing the teacher clears her throat and says, “Class, before I take attendance, we have a new student starting today, Ashtyn Rainer. Where are you Ashtyn?” I quickly raise my hand so people can know who I am and bring it back down so I can go back to my drawing.

            She then states, “Mr. Rainer, we do not wear hoods in my class.”

            We probably shouldn’t gender stereotype based on people’s names either in your class, just a thought. I look up at the middle-aged woman with graying hair and black-rimmed glasses as I remove my hood. I then reply to her in a neutral tone, “It's miss, and I prefer Ash.”

            I now feel all eyes on me. I can tell some people are judging me right away because of how I look. I have my hair pulled to one side to show off my left ear which is pierced all the way up including an industrial piercing and a tragus one. I also have a lip ring on the right side of my bottom lip. For makeup, I don’t go heavy on that. I have just a basic winged liner and mascara. I don’t bother with putting anything on my lips because it gets smeared because I play with my ring so much. At least my tattoos are covered except for the small silhouette of a wolf howling behind my left ear.

            I look at my teacher who is now a little flustered, one because she thought I was a dude and two because of my appearance. After a second, she recomposes herself and says, “Ash, why don’t you stand up and introduce yourself to the class.”

            I stand up at my seat and say stoically, “Hi, I am Ash. I am 18 and I just moved here with my dad and younger brother from Harvest Moon.” (I hate when teachers do these stupid introductions, glad she didn’t make me say a stupid fact about myself.) Once I mentioned Harvest Moon, I noticed that a couple of students including the one who I stole his seat started growling in a low tone. Some of the students who weren’t growling and the teacher seemed to not notice this was happening. Like it was in a pitch that they couldn’t hear. I shot the guy whose seat I stole because he seemed to be radiating off the most power, aura, I don’t know what to call it, a weird glare because I have no clue why they are growling. When I did that I notice that the students growling at me looked taken back by it like I wasn’t supposed to hear it.

            Whatever, they can act like weird dogs. I just sat down after that so the teacher can get to attendance and start the lesson, and I can get back to my drawing. However, I felt like someone was watching me. I look up and see that Peterson guy staring at me. He is looking at me, not like he is checking me out, but more like he is trying to figure me out. I give him a look like what are you doing, but he didn’t seem to care and continued to watch me. I mouth the words “turn around” and make a circle motion with my finger to tell him to stop. He gives me a once last look over before slowing turning his body towards the front of the class.

            After 45 minutes the bell rings indicating that the first period is over. I grab all of my things and quickly head out the door towards my locker. As I am heading that way, I start to hear a commotion coming from over there, so I pick up my pace to see what is going on. I then see a scene in front of me that really pisses me of. My little brother is being pinned up against the lockers by this burly guy who is few inches shorter than him with a crowd slowly forming. I can already see from over here that Kyle has a black eye. I drop my backpack and rush over to end this. I form a tight fist and punch this guy right in his cheek. The only thought on my mind right now is to get this guy away from my little brother. Yeah, I am not scared of this guy or getting into a fight. No, I didn’t get into fights at my old school but with the crap Ricky put me through I taught myself how to fight, especially against an opponent who is bigger than me. The big guy stumbles backward, but not before smacking me in the face. Great, I can already feel the black eye forming. I am all ready to fight this kid for beating up my younger brother, but one of his friends grabs me from behind by holding my arms behind my back and linking his through them. Seriously dude, you are not a part of this. Yeah, I am not either, but no one touches my little brother. So, any fight he is in, is my fight too.

            The ugly brute stands back up and starts making his way towards me smirking. He then says all cocky, “I can’t wait to rip that fish hook out of your face.”

            As he gets closer to me, I brace all my weight against the guy holding me and jump up and kicking both my legs into his gut. The dude falls backward hard. I then bring my feet back to the ground and bend forward, using the momentum to flip the other guy over my back. He lets go of me and lands on his back in front of me.

            I hear some slight gasps and see many people in the crowd staring at me wide eyed. Clearly the crowd is shocked by the two guys getting their asses handed to them by the tiny girl. Before they can stand back up to hit me, a powerful booming voice echoes through the halls saying, “Enough.” Which causes the two guys and the onlookers to cower to him. Thank God, I was wondering when a teacher was going to show up.

            But much to my disappointment it isn’t a teacher after all but instead that guy from my history class. I notice that he isn’t alone but has a friend with him. His friend is insanely attractive. He is tall, like 6’2. He has chocolate brown eyes and dirty blonde hair that is short and perfectly messy. The moment he catches my eyes he can’t stop staring at me. As attractive as he is, I am not dating anyone until college. I need a break from guys for a while. Ricky kind of broke me and I don't see that changing anytime soon. Plus, I guarantee you, I am not this guys type. He probably goes for the popular blonde cheerleader type, I am more like the leave me the f**k alone type.

            The guy from my class approaches the ugly brute and his friend, saying “Chris, Derek, what the hell is going on?”

During this time, I rush over to Kyle to see if he is okay. He is sitting on the floor with a black eye, a busted lip, and his nose is bleeding. I head over to my bag which is a few feet away on the floor to grab him a few tissues to plug his nose before we get to the nurse. I am going to kill those guys for hurting him.

            The ugly brute, who I am pretty sure is the Chris one, stutters out, “A-Alpha Scott,” that is an interesting nickname, “that kid was all over my girlfriend so I had to teach him a lesson, and this b***h out of nowhere punched me.” I know this guy is lying, Kyle is not confident enough and too shy to flirt with some random girl. I do notice that Scott’s friend is glaring at Chris now, maybe in response to him calling me a b***h. Don’t know why he would care. It isn’t like he’s the first person to call me that. Whatever.

            I look at Kyle and say, “Now, what actually happened?”

            Kyle slowly stands up saying, “She tripped, and I caught her before she fell on the floor. I then picked up her books for her and carried them to class since we were in the same class and she was still a little embarrassed.”

            I walk over to Chris and grip the collar of his shirt since he is still sitting on the floor next to Derek and say through my teeth, “You beat him up because he kept your girlfriend from embarrassing herself. What is wrong with you?” I released his shirt and resist my urge to slap him in the face. And just back up a few feet saying super sarcastically, “Heads up guys, if you see a girl trip and she is not your girlfriend let her fall on her face because her jealous boyfriend might kick your ass.” I noticed as I was saying this Scott’s friend was laughing to himself as he is staring at me with a huge smile on his face. His smile is really nice, but why is he staring at me so much.

            I walked away from them back to Kyle to walk him to the nurse's office. As the two of us were walking away I heard that Scott guy say, “You two need to stay here, so we figure out what happened.”

             I look over to him and say, “Are you a teacher?”

            Scott, “No.”

            “Are you the principal?”

            “No.”

            “Are you on the school payroll?”

            “No.”

            “Well, then I don’t need to stay and listen to you.”

            Then Derek spats at me, “Stop being a b***h and show him respect.”

            I then reply sarcastically, “Sorry, just because he is hot doesn’t mean he automatically deserves my respect.” I will be honest Scott is very attractive with his very well-built body, strong arms, green eyes, and short brown hair. Not as attractive as his friend though, just my opinion. But honestly, most of the guys at this school are attractive.

            I then notice his friend started to growl slightly at my comment of Scott being hot. I look at Scott again say, “If we are done here, I am going to take my brother to the nurse.” I then motion to his friend and say to Scott, “You should also tell your dog that it isn’t nice to growl at people.”

            Again, I get the same shocked expression from everyone about me noticing the growling. I am sorry that I have good hearing or something. I think it is weirder that people are growling, but that is just me.