Naomi Holt And The SunKissed Alpha

Another hand went up, and Dr Naomi Holt contemplated on her father's offer to retire in the Jamaican Islands.

"Yes?" She sighed.

"What about Omegas & Gammas?"

The class buzzed with gentle laughter. Naomi closed her eyes and crossed her arms.The lecture hall was half-empty in the quiet afternoon and a cross breeze from the long rear windows whipped the projector screen. She exhaled slowly before answering.

"What was your name again?"

"Luna-"

"Rephrase your question. A little more specifically this time."

The 16-year old brunette puffed her cheeks and shifted in her seat. Why were they laughing?

"You didn't mention anything about Betas or Omegas."

The Professor placed her laser pointer like a bridge between both index fingers. She looked like she was about to snap it in half.

"Ms Luna", she began, "Can you repeat the title for this course for me please?"

"I'm sorry, Ma'am. I will pay attention." said Luna, realizing her error. It wasn't worth it. She didn't want the unforgiving Dr Naomi to even remember her, the same professor who had failed an entire year of her class for challenging her syllabus on Vampires.

The Professor drummed the pointer on her left palm, looking at her class, almost unsure whether to return to the whiteboard.

"The concept of Omegas or Betas or Gammas was brought up by a Swedish Scientist that did not understand the complete structure of wolves in the wild. We shall speak of no such things in this classrom."

The Professor put her hand in the pocket of her left pantsuit, and produced a short blip phone. It had been buzzing for the past hour, and she used the reprieve to find out the caller. Her eyes flew back to the class and she banged the pointer on the hollow iron desk.

"Monday. Graywolves. Direwolves. And Luna, complete social structure for every extinct and existing Canine. Good Afternoon."

The Professor bolted from her class with an hour left in her period, and Luna buried her face in her hands.

A man that looked to just about in his early twenties sat on the park bench and closed his flip phone. He did nothing for the first few minutes, but soon put up his right hand in an effort to tame a loose strand of hair.

"Vincent." a disembodied voice called out.

The man turned to the lay his eyes on the Professor, and smiled. He thought he had remembered her well, but she was leagues above what his devout mind could conjure. . He gave thanks for her glasses, which accentuated her large adorable brown eyes and the wind, that whipped and wrapped her clothes around that supple delicate body. Her navy blue pantsuit were lined white pinstripes that contrasted her long jet black hair that floated with the incoming breeze. The man thought about spells that could put time in a bottle to encapsulate moments like this.

"Naomi. Please." he began and gestured to the empty spot on the bench.

"Why are you here?" she cut.

The man did not lose his smile. He looked forward and relaxed on the creaking bench. He spoke with a somber undertone, and his eyes looked heavy and tired.

"I'm getting married.", he forced out.

Naomi said nothing, only moving to find her spot on the hard bench.

"It's this Saturday", he continued.

"Congratulations." said Naomi.

The words cut deep into a black swirling pit resting in the man's soul. They sat in more silence. Students uneventfully trooped out of their lecture halls and sometimes straight to the outdoor cafeteria, sometimes towards the stairs leading away from the Arts department. The chatter and footsteps were muffled by the wind, and it seemed to be picking up.

"But what does that have to do with me?" asked Naomi.

"You know." the man replied without skipping a beat.

"Assume I don't know anything about you. And spell it out.", Naomi retorted.

The man prepared his breath.

"Naomi-"

"Go on. Tell me how it absolutely tortured you to ask." she sneered. She hated it. She hated how chiseled his jaw looked from this angle. How his curls rolled in the wind. How the threads of his sleeves warped and stretched to hold back those powerful triceps. She pictured them, she remembered how they looked, how they felt on bare bodies...

"It wasn't easy. But I wouldn't be here unless it was absolutely necessary. Aurora has been, she left home, no one knows why. It's been 2 years. If she doesn't return by the next full moon, father will ex-communicate her from the pack. I don't even know if she's alive." The man fiddled with the time piece on his left hand. An old sparkling Seiko Tank

"As for the ceremony, Mother doesn't care. She says as long as I'm happy", he continued.

"Looks like she had an attitude adjustment Colour me shocked. Do you know what happened to me after us?"

"You left me first, Naomi." said the man.

"That was because you never planned on keeping me in the first place!" said Naomi.

Naomi pulled in some deep breaths as an effort to calm herself and got up from the bench.

"Well, that's all the time I have. It's been...something, catching up Vin. But my next hour is starting.

"What?"

She stared defiantly. She would not repeat herself.

Vincent Moonlight left his seat too, and leaned lightly into her space. She thought his eyes looked dimmer than usual and he thought hers' burned too bright for an afternoon.

"Aren't we at least friends, Naomi?" he asked.

The sound of the wind was deafening, and a few raindrops had started to pool on the concrete pavement.

Naomi snapped open a brown folder and lifted her laptop lid. A couple of students filtered into the hall, but the numbers were not nearly as great as her previous class. The view from the instructor's desk showed an orange tinted sundown in the rear windows, and the pitter patter of heavy raindrops on the glass panes. Before she could address the class, a woman wearing a black blouse and rim-horned glasses strolled in.

"Naomi, what on earth was that?!" she demanded.

"Charlotte. What are you talking about?" asked Naomi.

Charlotte pulled her by the shoulders.

"That magnificent creature." whispered Charlotte.

"Huh?"

Another woman appeared at Naomi's side. She was shorter than the two, but her presence commanded a certain sense of respectability.

"As much as I'd hate to agree with Charlotte-" she began, "Your park visitor, dummy."

"Oh." remarked Naomi.

"Oh?" said Charlotte, sounding offended. She looked to the short woman, Jennifer. Oh?

"Girl, that is not an oh. That man is a-" started Jennifer.

"Fuck yes. That is a fuck yes, ladies. God, I will scream that into his ears-" finished Charlotte.

"Yeah, let's calm down." sneered Naomi.

"What did he want? " asked Jennifer.

"Nothing. Well, not nothing. Apparently l, he was here for a robotics graduate program. And we don't even have a mechatronics department. I think he was just confused." said Naomi as she powered her computer.

Both girls shook their heads.

"You can't be that thick Charlotte." began Jennifer.

"I hate it. I really hate to say it, but you really can't see that he was flirting with you?" asked Charlotte.

Naomi shook her head.

"Come on! It should've been me. Tell me, please tell me you at least have his number. He just left in a Huracan."

"Maybe." answered Naomi meekly. "You guys do know I have a class, like right now?"

Charlotte clapped both her palms on Naomi's cheeks.

"Listen to me right now Naomi. I've never been more serious about anything until now. You call that number. Whatever you do, you call that man back." Charlotte preached.

"Now now. I'm sure she can make her own decisions" Jennifer interfered, separating the two.

"Life is fleeting, Naomi. At least do it for me!" Charlotte was almost screaming while Jennifer ushered her out of the hall. "We'll see you later" she said.

Naomi heaved a long sigh, and prepared to address her bewildered classroom. She held Charlotte's words in the back of her mind. Life is fleeting...