Kissed by the Alpha

FREYA-

Something felt wrong before Freya had time to think about why.

It wasn’t pain, not exactly, but a tight pull under her ribs that made her breath come out uneven, like her body had forgotten how to do something simple.

“Table six!” Jimmy shouted, the bell clanging sharp enough to make her flinch.

“Heard,” Freya called back automatically, dragging her focus away from the feeling as she wiped the sweat from her forehead and grabbed the plates.

She didn’t have time to deal with whatever that was. Not tonight. Not when she needed every tip she could get.

She was four hours into her shift, and the ball of tips in her apron told her that she'd be going home with at least enough to pay for the books she'd put on her card over the weekend.

"Uhm, Jimmy, this table wanted the ketchup actually on the eggs." She called through the window into the kitchen.

"And like I've said before, not in my kitchen!"

Freya rolled her eyes and grabbed the warm plates, balancing them with ease on her arms. Having worked as a waitress since the 10th grade, Freya felt comfortable in the small diner.

She maneuvered around guests and tables, trying hard to ignore the clusters of conversation, but when she got to the table with the food, she couldn't ignore the conversation happening at the table over.

"So there I was, right? The only one on the field with any sense, so of course they throw the ball to me. Fucking jackass in left field thought it would be funny to cut me off and intercept, but I got to the ball first. And once I have the ball, I'm like lightning, no one can catch me."

Freya couldn't help but roll her eyes again. She'd been at the game as a volunteer, and Casey Stiller may have been the best player on their high school team, but his version of events was a stretch of the truth.

"Really? You must be really good to catch something so small." The redhead he was trying to smooth-talk said as she scooted closer to him in the booth and fiddled with the red rose that lay between them.

"Oh, yeah! I can't remember the last time I dropped a ball. With these fingers, there's nothing I can't do."

Freya leaned over and placed the plates down on the table and said, "Sorry about the ketchup. The kitchen forgot to add it to the eggs, but I put some on the side for you." Then she smiled before asking, "Is there anything else I can get for ya?"

They shook their heads, and Freya took a few steps away but stopped when she heard the girl sitting with Casey giggle.

A strange pulling sensation grabbed at her ribs, and she had to fight to stay upright.

Ignoring it, she peeked at the table and watched as the girl turned red and asked. "What happened then?!"

"I caught the ball, and our team scored the winning point, of course." He said, insinuating that it was his catch that won the game.

The pulling sensation tightened suddenly, sharp enough to steal half a breath from her lungs.

Freya gripped her pad tight for a second, steadying herself. Her pulse jumped in a way that didn’t match the moment, and then she spoke before she realized she was doing it.

"Actually, he was tackled by the defending team's cornerback and had to sit out for the rest of the game. Home team did win though."

For a second, no one said anything, and the silence grew heavy.

The pull in her chest didn’t ease. If anything, it tightened, and she couldn't help but turn and make her way back to the kitchen.

A short time later, she watched the redhead leave alone and couldn't help but grin in satisfaction at the look on Casey's face when he passed by her.

Her shift ended around ten, and when she checked, she found that she had enough tips to cover the cost of every single one of the smutty romance books she'd bought.

By the time she walked through the front door, Grace had ordered pizza for their late-night cram fest, and she didn't have to worry about trying to heat something up from the barely there pantry.

Thinking of it had her making a face.

"What?" Grace asked.

"Uhg," she moaned. "I'm just thinking about the school food and how glad I am that you sprung for pizza. I owe you." She said as she dug a slice from the box.

"Oh. And here I was, thinking you were rehashing what happened this morning." She said as she slid a greasy finger into her mouth.

Freya scoffed as she remembered what had happened that morning, abd the real reason the cheer squad had a target on her back.

"No! I was not thinking about that. If anything, I'd rather never think about it again."

"Oh, come on! It can't be that bad."

"But it was Grace! You should have seen me. When Casey walked over and gave me that breakfast, I thought it was because maybe he saw something in me. No one has ever given me anything like that."

It wasn't like she was pretty like Grace, who was seriously the prettiest girl on the cheer team. She was tall and thin, and although she claimed she had bad hair days, her long blonde locks were the envy of most of the other cheerleaders.

How Freya got lucky enough to have her as her best friend, she would never know.

Freya had dirty blonde hair, dingy blue eyes, and freckles that were splattered haphazardly across her nose and cheeks. She was thin, but she wasn't fit like her roommate.

She was the furthest thing from fit, fun, and sexy.

Growing up as she did had kept her far from any kind of nicety like that. When her aunt adopted her after her parents died, she was always told that they didn't have money for nice breakfasts and fun treats.

"I would give anything to have seen Rihanna's face! From what I heard, she handmade it just for Casey?!"

"Oh, I know!" Freya spat. "She made sure I knew exactly how foul it was that her food had touched my table."

She bit into her pizza with more force than she needed. She wanted to bite Rihanna's head off, and this was probably the closest she'd get.

"Was it good?" Grace scooted closer and grabbed another slice.

"I wouldn't know. The second I tried to taste it, Rihanna knocked the whole thing into my lap."

"No way! I heard she got mad, but that's just wrong."

"Yeah, I missed first period scrubbing greasy eggs out of my favorite cami. Then her little tramp camp turned my day into a nightmare."

She turned fully to Grace and asked, "Did you know we have a nurses' office?"

"Really?" Grace asked, her mouth full of bread and red sauce.

"Yeah. I'd know because I missed third period patching up a cut I got from one of them after they slid razor blades into my backpack."

"Who!?" Grace asked defensively.

"It doesn't matter. I'm just gonna try to ignore all of them for the rest of the semester. Besides, I got back at Casey tonight at the diner."

"He came to the diner after what he did?"

"Yep! And he was trying to smooth-talk this chick with some bullshit story about how he won the game for the Wildcats. I couldn't stop myself. I let her know that he was full of it, and you should have seen his face when she left without him."

"HA! Even if he is the hottest guy in school, maybe next time he'll think twice before throwing his clingy girlfriend at you."

She laughed, but Freya only half-smiled as she rubbed at the spot on her chest where she could still feel the strange pull.

Like a string tugging her towards something.

Grace was still talking and laughing about Casey, but Freya barely heard her.

The feeling in her chest pulled again, only stronger this time.

Her breath caught and her fingers tightened slightly against her shirt as something unfamiliar twisted under her ribs.

And for the first time, she had the quiet, unsettling certainty that whatever this was… it wasn’t going to stop.