Rise of the Alpha
Chapter 2

Wylla

I wake up and immediately know I’m alone in my bed. “Good afternoon, Goddess,” I say, stretching as I look up at the Hecate tapestry hanging to the right of my bed. I sit up and take a look around our small dorm room. Magz is nowhere to be seen. Where the hell did my sweet girl go?

Getting up, I grab my toiletries from the three-tier rolling cart we’ve set our bathroom necessities on. Heading out, I close our door and head to the communal bathroom. Stepping inside, I see I’m the only one in here at the moment, so I head straight to the closest sink. Setting down my bag, I pull out my electric toothbrush. Squeezing some toothpaste on it, I turn it on, and it springs to life, making a vibrating humming noise. As I get to work scrubbing my teeth my brain begins to think of the oddest shit.

I wonder if my sweet girl will mind this noise from another one of my special gadgets. HA!

Finished with my teeth, I splash some water on my face before lathering it up with my papaya scented face wash. I rinse off my face and pat it dry with a hand towel before quickly running a brush through my rainbow-colored locks. Happy with my after nap look, I give myself a wink in the mirror and gather my shit and head back to our room.

Putting my toiletry bag back on the cart and throwing the towel in our hamper next to the door, I grab my yoga mat from the top of our closet and lay it out on our floor. Starting in the mountain pose, my feet are together with big toes touching and my arms at my sides but palms up. I am enough. I have enough. I hold that until I switch to the downward dog; my feet h*p-width apart and bending my knees to lift my h**s towards the ceiling. No one can make me act out of character.

Stepping my feet forward, I inhale and lift my right leg up. Taking another deep breath, I hop off my left foot so both my feet are now off the mat. Bringing my left heel close to my a*s, I balance and cross my legs above me. I accept my emotions and let them move through me. Once I’m done with my affirmations in this pose, I slowly bring my legs down and straight out in front of me while sitting on my mat.

Sitting up tall, I flex my feet and inhale, sending my arms straight up to the sky. On the exhale, I reach my hands toward my toes, folding my body forward, relaxing my head and neck. I hold this for five minutes while I slowly breathe in and out. I use my voice to speak up for myself and others.

It’s been a few hours, and I still haven’t seen or heard a peep from Magz. I thought we had a great time earlier today, but now, she’s just dipped out. Maybe she didn’t enjoy this morning as much as I did.

Trying not to focus on my missing roommate, I sit at my desk, open a drawer and pull out my tarot cards and notebook. The best way to journal my intentions is by using my deck. Setting the deck on my desk and taking a deep breath, I close my eyes and focus only on the present. I push all the mundane thoughts from my head and center myself, then ask myself what my intention is at this moment. Magz.

Magnolia. I say her name, then grab my favorite purple pen and write the date and her name in my journal.

Taking the deck, I flip through it, thinking only of her, while I sift through the cards, splitting them into two piles. One that resonates with my intention and one that doesn’t. Once I’ve sorted the entire deck, I pick up the pile of resonating cards, laying them all out and letting them just speak to me. I’m not sure why I keep focusing on the Tower card. Almost like it’s calling out to me. Strangely, it just doesn’t give anything close to the vibes I felt from Magz. It’s so contradictory to the woman I met and hung out with earlier. Picking it up, I choose that as my card; it doesn’t have to make sense to me right away, that’s part of the magic.

The Tower card symbolizes sudden change, chaos, burn this shit to the ground type of stuff. This isn’t the card I wanted to pull when thinking of my new friend. F*****g hell, this is bad. Once you select a card, there is no way to change it. Just as I’m about to display the card and start to journal my thoughts about it and why it resonated with Magz, there’s a knock on our door.

Standing up and quickly putting my things away, annoyed I’m being interrupted and loudly voicing that to whoever is on the other side, I storm over to the door and fling it open. Standing there with his fist still in the knock position is a delightful specimen of a man. Did they let any unattractive people in the school this year? He’s every bit of six-foot-four inches and muscular as hell, with black hair buzzed short on the side, with the top long and slicked to the side. He’s had his barber shave a defined line on the left side of his head, distinguishing the buzzed section from the longer. Tattoos cover his forearms and biceps. Large brown eyes look back at me as he takes the hand frozen in mid-air and rubs the back of his head.

“How can I help you? Well, besides the obvious,” I ask, giving him a cocky little smirk.

“I’m Jude, in the room right above you; four twelve. We got a package delivered to our room this morning for a Magnolia Holloway. We figured we’d check the room with the closest numbers to ours before we turn it over to Security. Is that you?” he asks.

I take the package from him, and he quirks an eyebrow at me but lets me have it without issue. I walk over to Magz’s bed and set the package down, then turn back to face the s*x on a stick in front of me.

“Magz is my roommate. She got here this morning, and I’m not quite sure where she’s at right now. We took a nap, and when I woke up, her little a*s was MIA. But I’ll put it there on her bed for when she comes back,” I tell him and gesture for him to take a seat in the desk chair I just vacated. He ignores me and just leans against the door frame.

“So Jude, are you going to the Freshman Mixer tonight?” I ask, hoping he says yes, so we have some eye candy.

“F**k no!” he fires out instantly.

I walk over to him and run my finger down his chest. “Such a shame. Magz and I—I’m Wylla, by the way—will be there. We were looking forward to hanging out and maybe even dancing with a guy such as yourself.”

I give him a little shove and close the door with a wink, laughing when I hear him g***n as he walks away from our room. I look over at the box he brought and wonder what Magz could possibly have delivered that wouldn’t already be in the million things she brought with her. Then again, if her dad sent most of it without her knowing, this might be another daddy surprise package. Which reminds me, I walk over to the trash can, take out the picture she threw away and shove it into the back of our closet.

Maybe my girl has a little love triangle back home, and these fellas broke her heart or she broke theirs. I’ll save the picture in case she wants it later.

I’m sitting back at my desk with my light-up, makeup mirror set up on the desk. There has still been no sign of Magz, and I’m starting to worry. Wanting to distract myself, I decided to do my makeup and hope to Goddess she comes back so we can still go to the mixer together.

After priming my face, I apply my foundation, which is one of the lightest shades I can find. Having such creamy light skin is common among my coven, but it makes makeup and the summer sun a nightmare. The amount of sunscreen I go through is insane! I contour my nose to give myself a more slender, defined look that I like and throw some subtle contour on my cheeks.

Picking up my favorite bronzer, Dr. Pepp, I dab it on my cheeks, chin, and forehead, so I have some color. Then taking my blush, Meet me at Rose, I swipe some across my nose and cheeks. The last step before I can move on to the eyes is the highlight. I grab the Tickle My Pickle. The name always makes me giggle. I brush a little right at the corner of my eyes on the zygomatic bone and a little bit on the very tip of my nose.

Onto the windows of my soul – the eyes. Of course, I like when they match my soul, so black it is. My soul isn’t actually black, but I like to joke that it is, especially when it comes to makeup, because I’m constantly asked why it’s so dark.

After rubbing some black shadow on my eyelids, I dab my brush in a charcoal-like color and blend that out towards the outer corner of my eyelid. Taking my eyeliner, I draw a perfect line on each upper lid from the inner corner to the outer corner, giving me the best wing I’ve seen in a while before smudging the lower liner down just a bit to give me the smoky eye look I love. I then swipe some mascara on my lashes and take my trusty lipstick, Soulless, and apply it to my lips.

Finished, I look in the mirror and blow myself a k**s. F**k, I’m hot. Black eyes, black lipstick, and rainbow hair make perfect sense. I quickly put my hair up in two little space buns, so I look like a sexy, gothic alien and call it a day for the hair and makeup. Now, I just need to pick my outfit. I want to wait for Magz to come back, so she can help me. It’s been hours.

Where the f**k is she?