Amira lays flat on her bed, going over yet another eventful day in her life while she tries to ignore the buzzing of her phone from the endless calls and texts, the same name popping up on her screen. Isaac hasn't stopped trying to speak with her since she ran off, she wonders why he didn't just run after her then.
That just further proves that deep down, he never truly cared about her the way she does for him and was more interested in the business and financial opportunities Amira's parents provided him, giving them a vast majority of the production projects that have helped their pack flourish recently.
Although they are a pack of werewolves and govern as such, they are also members of society and make their wealth through traditional business with others. The Lund family has made most of their wealth working in the manufacturing business, creating buildings and constructing equipment and supplies for different businesses. Amira's family, with her parents always growing and multiplying businesses, are always looking for reliable companies to work with when it comes to the stability and quality of their buildings. She introduced her parents to Isaac the moment they met, and the rest is history.
But her parents do not work exclusively with the Lund family, and they never tend to give them their larger and more luxurious contracts, not fully trusting them as a rather smaller family business, to fulfill orders of that quantity and quality. No doubt, however, Isaac and his parents were hoping to win that exclusive contract through her relationship with him.
That is one side of drama that she has hopefully taken care of recently by severing all ties with Isaac and finally putting an end to this charade of a relationship. Now, she has a whole other end of drama to deal with by the name of Calix Volkov.
After the few interactions they have had already, one thing she knows for certain is that he is an unpredictable person and she never vibes well with those, being a rather predictable and well-thought-out person herself. One thing she isn't certain about is exactly how she feels toward him.
He both terrifies her and excites her, two feelings she isn't used to feeling at the same time but somehow doesn't dislike it either. Being near him thrills her to the extent of fearing her own self. But she is never in danger, quite the opposite it seems.
She feared telling him the reason she was crying was due to Isaac, seeing the anger and intent in his eyes to hurt whoever made her shed even a single tear. The commanding presence of an Alpha, a true Alpha, is what ignited the fear and excitement in her. Amira has never experienced that kind of presence with Isaac, even though she has never been able to view him as the overbearing and domineering type that she pictures most Alpha wolves being.
Calix is the picturesque man of that fantasy. He is large and brawny but soft to the touch, his arms thick and warm as they envelop you, his chest tough but plush when you lay your head against it. She closes her eyes and thinks back to the way he did exactly that when he came rushing over to her, nearly shaking in her shoes wanting to cave inward on herself. He kept asking her what happened, but she just wanted to feel the pain silently for a few minutes before she could move on, and he understood that, holding her quietly until she stopped crying.
He hugged her against his chest so tight, as if trying to absorb all of her sadness, running a soothing hand over her hair and treating her like she was the most precious thing in the world. Most of her tears were due to the overwhelming unfamiliarity of comfort he was giving her, something she didn't realize how much she needed until then.
She was so ashamed of her actions, coddling a man in the middle of the school hallway, she didn't know what to do other than cry out a rushed apology, and then run off with some excuse of needing to be home. She remembered to at least grab her back from the front desk after searching for it and rushed straight home to her bed.
Tomorrow she won't be able to avoid her problems anymore, however. She took Calix's advice in the end and signed up for the Business Ethics class, not thinking in any way that he could be a teacher at the school. No wonder he knew the best classes to take for her course.
Despite it being a large campus, she knows there is still a sliver of a chance that she will run into both Calix and Isaac at some point during her studies there. Although Isaac decided to take a part-time Business course, she knows for a fact that they have one class together in the middle of the week, giving her no choice but to be in the same room as him for three hours.
All I want to do right now is sleep and pretend this isn't my life.
~*~
It is the first day of her college classes and she has three classes to start her week. One of her first classes is the Business Ethics class that Calix advised her to take, and she can't help but feel a bit of regret for signing up for it. She tries to convince herself that she is only bitter towards it because he is the one who told her to sign up for it while keeping a deceptive secret from her, but in the long run it might actually benefit her studies and give her something to use or gain to work toward her family's business.
Her first two classes are a calculus and media journalism class, both seeming rather easy for someone like her and a good way to start her first day. She arrives at the school and grabs a parking spot as close to the campus as possible, in case there is any chance she needs to make a run for it to her car.
As luck would have it, of course, her great day starts terribly with the arrival of Isaac, his sleek red car pulling up just a few spots away from hers, her eyes able to recognize it before even seeing the license plate. He gets out of the car and senses her instantly, their eyes connecting across the lot.
Amira averts her gaze and rushes over to the main building before he has the chance to approach her and tries to blend in with the crowd in the halls. Once she is sure she has lost him, she takes out her phone to bring up the school's virtual map to find her first class. She takes a deep breath and tries to shake off that encounter before heading to class and hoping for the best.
~*~
Her first two classes feel like they blow by like a breeze and it is already time for her first-hour break where she finally has the chance to grab something to eat. Her first class was only two hours but the second lasted for three, taking up a lot more time between her last meal and the next than she was prepared for.
She makes a mental note to pack snacks to eat during their small 15-minute breaks while she heads to the cafeteria, also not packing a lunch for the day so she can have the excuse of exploring the building. She also assumes Isaac would never be caught dead in such a place as the cafeteria, never eating his lunch there in high school either.
Calix should also be either teaching a class or in the faculty room, meaning it is the perfect place for her to have a peaceful lunch.
Sitting at the cafeteria table with little people around, she is surprised when someone takes a seat in front of her and freezes when she wonders if it might be Isaac. Her eyes trail up to meet the dark, smouldering eyes of Calix as he grins at her.
"What are you doing here? This school is massive, there's no way you just found me by chance," she says.
His grin widens. "I can always sense when my mate is nearby." Calix leans in closer to whisper to her. "How has your first day been, sweetheart?"
Amira bites her lip and looks around her, seeing the other students nearby who probably recognize Calix as a teacher, staring and whispering to themselves. Not wanting to start rumours that she is dating a teacher on her first day, she quickly grabs her food and carries it out of the cafeteria.
Calix follows her out and stops her in the hall, grabbing her lunch tray with one hand while the other grabs her wrist to drag her against the wall.
"I couldn't help but notice how Isaac has been sulking around the pack house like a lost puppy recently. You don't have anything to do with that, right?" he asks.
She glares at him. "Why are you still hanging around another packed house? As an Alpha, don't you have your own pack to go back to and run, like a leader?"
He drops her food tray, disregarding the contents of food spilling to the ground, and grasps her lightly under her chin to lean in dangerously close.
"There is someone that I want, and I won't leave until I get you."
Once again her insides quake from his deep and husky voice whispering such provocative thoughts into her mind.
"Is that why you became a teacher here, why are you here?"
He laughs, shocking her when he licks her neck slightly before pulling away, thankfully before the shiver erupts through her body.
"My family owns the college, actually. I do this as a part-time job, it generates great income that I can use on the side for emergencies and minor concerns in the pack."
Of course, just my luck.
"Well, this has been fun, but I have another class to get to. We'll have to put a pin in this conversation, or not." She tries to move away from him, giving her spilled lunch contents a fleeting look before making her way to class.
She stops when she hears Calix following behind her.
"Why are you still following me?"
He shrugs. "I'm not following you, we're going to class, aren't we?"
Her mind freezes when it all hits her.
"Are you the teacher for the Business Ethics class?" she mutters.
Calix wraps an arm around her shoulders and grins down at her with glistening eyes.
"Of course, I am."