The excitement within her bubbled and boiled as she found her assigned dorm room in the busy and crowded hallway. It felt like she'd been waiting for this exact moment since she'd decided Maine was the place to be. The drive up had affirmed her choices, beautiful trees that were turning to fall colours, rolling hillsides and pastural roads, completed by the faint smell of salt and musk.
It was Maine.
And more specifically, it was The University of Maine, the place she'd fought for and wanted more than anything.
She clutched the information booklet and papers in her arms as she twisted the knob on the dorm room. Peaking around the frame, she found her roommate already there, unpacking her stack of boxes neatly and without any disarray.
Ella decided to just go in, the girl hadn't noticed her yet, with her back turned away and all.
“Hi!” Ella perched her rolling suitcase behind her, it hit the door frame and made a rather loud bang.”
Her unnamed roommate turned, pushing her big rimmed glasses up her wrinkled nose. “Hi.”
“I'm Ella! We're roommates!”
“Janelle Rowing.” The girl looked her up and down, lifted her chin and returned to her unpacking.
Ella frowned, not expecting the shotty greeting. “So, I guess this one is my bed?”
It was empty single bed across the room and the girl give her reply. Ella threw her suitcase to atop it and bounced down into the frame. “When did you get here?”
“A few hours ago. Why?” The girl's cut throat, bitchy tone was clear.
“I'm from Texas, where'd you come from?”
“Look!” Janelle swung around to her, her curly brown hair bouncing at her shoulders. “I'm not here to make friends. I'm here to study and do good. I'm not going to be your party buddy or whatever it is that you want us to be.”
“Hey..” Ella protested, sitting up. “I was just saying hi.”
“Yeah, you and the rest of the everyone. You all think this is a big joke. Well, I didn't graduate high school with a 4.0 for friends. I graduated to get to University, not to party.” Janelle swung around and Ella was left to roll her eyes as she flopped back into the bed, hoping the rest of her peers were more friendly than Janelle Rowing.
“I almost had a 4.0..” Ella grumbled, staring at the ceiling.
#
Ella weaved her way through the library, three and half weeks in and she'd yet to feel what she'd come there for. She had no friends, her roommate acted like she didn't exist and on top of it, her studies were a lot harder than she expected them to be. It might have been a mistake coming, which made her think Abigail and Colten were right all along – like usual.
She found a table with no one at it in the back and dropped her books to cause a big crack across the entire library.
A boy looked up from the table next to her. “Do you mind?” he hissed, his eyes snapping back to the laptop. “Some people are trying to work.”
“Sorry.” Ella sat and threw her feet up on the chair next to her, flipping open a text book. “Not.” Her eyes scanned over the paragraphs and paragraphs of words but she couldn't decipher one line – none of it made sense to her.
“Hi.” Came a chipper female voice from the other side of her table.
Her eyes moved up from the text and took in the beautiful girl, blonde and blue eyes, she would almost fit in back in Texas, if it hadn't been for her preppy pressed blouse and pleated skirt.
“Hi,” Ella said cautiously.
The blonde turned her chin and smirked. “You come here a lot.”
Apparently she already had 'loner' tagged all over her forehead, but that's what when you had no friends.
“I've seen you a few times.” She pulled out a chair and sat, leaning her elbows onto the table. “I'm Cheri Foster.”
“Ella Turner.”
“You might think this is weird but.. there's just not a lot of us around this place, get what I mean? So I thought, I'd say hi.”
Ella opened her senses for a split moment and realized the girl across from her was also a wolf. “Oh, y-yeah. Nice to meet you.”
“Yeah.” She nodded. “So where are you from?”
“Texas,” Ella said quietly.
“Wow!” The girl's smile grew. “That is far away, you must not know anyone.”
“No.” Ella sighed from the truth of that statement. “I'm just here to go.. to school.” She stole her roommates lame excuse for being a weirdo with no friends.
“Right.” Cheri gave her a wandering nod to her text books. “Well, have you been to town?”
Ella paused. “I drove through on the way here.”
“That's no good, come on, let's go.” Cheri stood.
Ella was surprised, the girl had hospitality but it was more direct and less southern than she was used to.
Cheri laid a hand to the table and leaned in. “I'll fill you in on this place. It'll be fun.”
“I really need to..” Ella looked down to the books, if she didn't do this, if she didn't suck it up, she'd be a loser amongst even the wolves. Back home everyone knew her but here...
She slapped her textbook closed.
“Hey!” The boy snapped at her again. “Did you miss the memo when you were a kid, Libraries are quiet.”
Cheri turned to him. “I thought that was a joke, to make the losers feel good about themselves?”
The boy narrowed his eyes at her and shook his head. “Whatever.”
Cheri turned to her and smiled. “Coming?”
“Yeah.” Ella grabbed her books, there was no more loner-ship for her, if she was staying in Maine, getting to know Cheri Foster had become top priority.
“We'll just take a drive through, show you some sights, maybe a few shops. Do the tourist thing.” Cheri swayed her hips when she walked and any boy within close proximity seemed to take note. She found her key fob and beeped her BMW convertible to life once they were outside.
Ella swallowed, she'd always figured her aunt and uncle had been well off but Cheri's simple little car made her's look like meat-grind.
“Nice car.”
“This thing?” Cheri tapped it's hood as she walked to the driver's side. “My father refused to trade it in for a newer model. It's ancient, it was my sweet sixteen present.” She grabbed the door and looked to Ella waiting on the curb. “Are you getting in?”
“Oh, yeah, sorry.” Ella rushed towards the car and climbed in.
Cheri slipped a pair of designer glasses over her eyes and turned over the vehicle, pulling it out onto the road. “Tell me about your pack.”
“Oh, we're Forenone... it's a smaller pack, my uncle, he's our alpha.”
Cheri smiled. “Interesting, you're alpha-blooded?”
“Yeah, both my parents, actually.”
“I knew there was something about you,” Cheri exasperated with a wide smile. “That's really cool.”
“Really?”
“Yes, you will fit in great. You just might want to get some new clothes.”
Ella looked down to her jeans and shirt. “Why?”
“Because most of us are from Crest and we're a big pack, from up state.”
Ella held her eye rolling. “No jeans and shirts then?”
“Let's just say, for our pack meetings, we have a cocktail dinner.”
Ella gulped down her new fears. “Sounds awesome. My uncle usually does a barbeque.”
Cheri laughed and laughed. “That is so cute. Oh! You know what you should do.. we're actually putting on a party. Some of us from Crest that go to UMaine, it's going to be a blast and you should totally come.” Cheri stopped the car on the side of a busy little road. “I'll show you this place, if you want to look at some cute clothes?”
“Uh, sure.”
“Come on.” Cheri chirped from outside the vehicle, the girl wasted no time.
Ella unbuckled her seat belt, left her school work on the leather seat and stepped out into the brisk fall air.
“If you're from Texas, you must be freezing.”
Ella zipped up her hoodie.“I'm surviving.”
“Right.” Cheri smiled and beeped her car into lock. “So, do you have a boyfriend?”
“Uh-” Ella shook her head as Cheri grabbed her arm and looped it around hers. “No.”
“Oh, well, you've come to the right place, the boys here are rather nice looking.”
“Awesome.” Her heart pinged, speaking of boys made her remember Brant's gift and where she'd left it, unopened at home. She'd meant to open it before she'd left but forgotten. Continuing on, Cheri went on and on about boys, clothes, parties, making her question yet again, if Maine had been the right choice.
#
Ella moved in and out of people, dodging boys with beer and girls that had one too many jello shooters. She scanned the crowds for Cheri but over the heavy music and packed frat house, she became aware, it would take her much longer than she expected to find her new friend.
“There you are!” Cheri ambushed her, holding a glass of champagne.
“Hey.” Ella smiled and turned. “I've been looking for you.”
“Well, we've found each other, let's party!” Cheri turned her and led her a few feet to a balcony that looked out over a backyard full of the older boys.
“So, is the partying working out?” Ella asked.
Cheri shrugged a shoulder and looked out over the railing. “What do you think?”
“I could hardly breathe in some spots trying to find you, but it looks fun.”
“I agree.” Cheri suddenly smiled. “Braxton went all out this time.”
Ella lifted her eyebrow. “Who's Braxton?”
“Like the hottest guy alive.”
Ella let out a laugh, not knowing how to reply.
“I'm not joking and he's going to be the next Alpha of Crest, which makes him even more appealing.”
“I'm sure.” Ella was already put off. “You know, those Alpha boys, they're not always all that.”
Cheri scoffed. “Let's go find him and that'll shut you up about alpha boys. And you need something to drink! Why didn't you do that already?” Cheri pulled her through the crowd, down some stairs, until they found a kitchen with many options of alcoholic beverages.
Ella swore the music had gotten louder or maybe it was just the close proximity to the living room, she wasn't sure. She took another sip of her drink as Cheri pulled her through a sea of people.
“Oh, look, there he is.” Cheri pointed across the large, open living room. “I should go say hi, I haven’t' seen him since last week.”
Ella still didn't know who Cheri was pointing at but she couldn't let the opportunity to bug her new friend slip. “Last week, when you were doing what with him?”
Cheri's wicked grin grin as she elbowed Ella's side “Shut up, I wish. Whoever his future mate is, she's way too lucky.”
“Sure.” Ella squinted through the people, she saw good looking guys but she wasn't sure which one Cheri was so convinced about. “So, point him out, cause all I see is a bunch of guys.”
“There.” Cheri lifted her hand and pointed at the huge stone hearth where a group of boys stood, talking. “The one in the grey shirt.”
His back was turned but he lifted his chin enough to give Ella a side profile. Her throat got an itch and she coughed, taking sip of her drink to calm it. “The one with the brown swoopy hair?”
Cheri giggled. “Yeah, that one. Come meet him!” She grabbed Ella's arm before she could register and started pulling her closer to the grey-shirted, swoopy-haired, alpha-son boy-toy.
“Wait, wait!” Ella protested but her pleading was gone unheard as Cheri marched them over to the group of boys by the impressive mantle and burning fire.
Cheri let her go at the last moment and reached to his well defined bicep beneath the fitted shirt. “Braxton, I want you to meet someone.”
The boy turned, a glass in hand with ice and hard liquor. It was the first thing Ella noticed, apparently he was too good for a red solo cup.
Her eyes moved up his built frame to his angular jaw and narrowed expression. Their eyes met and her heart raced, her skin burned, her vision blurred till she became entranced by his ice blue eyes.
Cheri giggled. “This is Ella.” She used her hands in an extravagant motion. “Ella, this is Braxton Hall.”
He stiffened as Cheri continued her introductions.
“Ella's going to UMaine with us. She's from a little pack in Texas, isn't that cute?”
“Nice to meet you.” He stayed entirely focused on Ella, so much so she felt a rage building in her, she wished he would stop just staring at her.
“Did you transfer in?” He asked.
Ella couldn't speak, she tried but her throat was burning, so instead, she drank. To be fair, he was gorgeous, just like Cheri had boasted. Tall, in shape, angled in every right way, his hair a mess but atop his head so very perfectly. But it wasn't his good looks enabling her, it was something way different..
Cheri paused, looking between them. “She's brand new, Brax, right off the meat truck. Can't you tell?”
Ella dropped the cup from her mouth, it hadn't helped her throat at all or her paralysis of her legs and mouth.
“Are you enjoying Maine?” He tried to get her to speak, this time, his voice more forceful. Alpha, couldn't have screamed any louder at her.
Her stomach flipped and the bile rising in her throat was enough to make her run. “I feel sick!” She dashed away, unsure what was going on but knowing it had everything to do with him.
She shoved her way through people till she came to the back of a hall and forced herself inside the room, locking it. It was an office and library, likely used by their frat club. She didn't care too much as she threw up in the garbage-can next to an antique oak desk.
In her mad dash, she'd lost her red booze cup, a drink she'd only taken a few sips out of. It had always taken more than that to get her puking in random places, a lot more.
The knob was turned on the door and she scooted back to her feet, wiping her mouth on the back of her sleeve, she swore under her breath.
A loud few knocks then resonated the room.
“J-just a minute,” Ella called, tripping over a chair and landing on her side, she groaned. Her legs felt like jello, her heart rate erratic as it pumped adrenaline through her so fast, she couldn't keep up.
“What's.. wrong with.. me?” She gasped as the knocking continued.
“Open the door!” It was that guy's voice, the one Cheri had just introduced her to but why he was almost breaking down the door, she didn't understand. She tried to crawl, but failed, her body succumbing to some invisible beating.
“Help..” She tried to yell, but her voice failed before it began.
The knob jiggled and then the door broke open as her vision went black.