ENCOUNTER WITH A VAMPIRE

The car is slowing down. I can see some students trooping into a large building, chattering while entering. I look up, and hit my head on the glass. Mum smiles, and swerves to the nearest parking lot, and she stops the car.

"You can go have a check." She suggests, and I immediately unlock the door, and come out. I smile as I come out, and I look up. I squint my eyes to be sure of what I see. "HAPPY KIDS HIGH SCHOOL." It is boldly encrypted on the building. I open the door again and tell mom: "Let's go have a look together."

"No, girl. I gotta go back home." She replies, and I stare at her.

"You mean you won't even try to help me with my luggage?" I retort, shooting a sharp stare at her. She picks up her phone, and dials a number. She shakes her head and her curly yellow hair swirls backwards so she has a space to attach her phone to her ear. She looks at me while the phone rings. I guess I don't have to listen to the conversation but I want to. I open the car's door, and sit near her. She picks up her earphones with her left index finger, and plugs it into her phone. The person is not responding, I think. She hangs up, and throws her phone into her bag, placing her left hand on her forehead, sighing as her forehead furrows. There and then, a man appears beside her, he knocks on the screen, mum jerks up, and winds down the screen. Without much talk, mum hits a button and the boot opens from behind. The man rushes there, and packs all my luggage into another car in the twinkling of an eye. But this car is less in quality compared to mum's. He finishes packing it, and comes to meet mum. Mum stretches few bucks to him and he gladly accepts it. He turns from there to where I am sitting, and he knocks on the door. Mum pulls me tighter in the car, hugs me, and tells me to behave well. I nod repeatedly, and I am hesitant to follow a stranger.

"Mum, are you leaving me?" I ask her though I know the answer.

"No, I'm not. That Alpha will help you." She replies, and points to the man knocking on my panes.

"Alpha?" I say, thinking of how Alpha will be so less busy to pack a student's luggage.

"Yes, Alpha." She nods.

"You sure, mom?" I reply, and she nods, chuckling amidst.

"Okay. Bye, mom! I gotta survive!" I encourage myself, looking back at her every now and then as I alight from the car. The man directs me to enter the car, I follow him, and wave at mom. Mom waves back, and in a minute, she zooms off. I watch until her car is out of earshot. I force back the tears pooling in my eyes, and enter the car with the man. He enters immediately and zooms off.

Grave silence. Sounds of moving cars only.

"Hi. Can I know your name?" He breaks the silence, as he drives.

"Okay. I am Sophia. Yours?" I reply, and bend my head on my laps.

"I am Alpha Ben. You can just call me Ben." He replies, swerving to the left direction and I hear noise as he swerves there. I peep through the glasses to check but once I do that, the noise has died down.

"Okay. Where are we going to?" I ask him.

"To your hostel." He replies, and accelerates the car's speed.

"Careful!" I remark, as I hit my head on the upper switch.

"Sorry for that." He apologizes.

"I was just told the hostel is full now. Can we go to my place for this night?" He suddenly says, and I become scared.

"Who told you that just now?" I ask, even though I know it might be his mind link. But I do hear Dad's mind link - why can't I hear his? I conclude in my mind that it is not his mind link. Maybe he got a text.

"I got a text." He affirms my thought. I sigh and gulp. I freeze a bit as he looks back and stares at me. He drives and suddenly slams his feet on the brakes

"Should we go to my place?" He asks again.

"Of course. Where do I know here?" I reply him, and he frees the grip on the brakes, and the car moves on.

He parks near a house and honestly, I swear, it's a penthouse I have never gone to Dad's Alpha's penthouse but I think it is because he is the Beta. Dad is the first Beta while the man who came the other day is the second Beta of the pack.

"A penthouse?" I remark, as I alight from the car. He suddenly stops walking, he has alit earlier.

"Pardon?" He says, facing back, and staring at me.

"Isn't it a penthouse?" I ask confidently. He moves near me and painstakingly stares at me. " Who are you?" He asks.

I chuckle, and take some steps backwards.

"I'm Sophia. I told you earlier." I shrug, and it seems he is just calming himself.

He opens the door of the boot, and pulls all the luggage on the ground. I bend to pick them but he pats me to stand up, and leave it all alone to him, sniffing as he replies. In ten seconds I swear I counted it, he has packed all the heavy and much loads into the house. As he enters the house, I see some scary human beings bowing to him, and helping him with the luggage which he objects. He carries it all alone into a room, comes out again, closes the door of the boot, and takes me inside the room.

We speak after we sit on a settee near the entrance to his room.

"Sophia!" He suddenly faces me, and yells!

"What the heck!" I yell at him, and he holds me back as I am about to run away from him. The left hand he holds me with grows into a claw, and he smartly turns it into a normal hand again.

"Let's go in to talk." He says, and we both get inside the room. He pats the bed where he is sitting, beckoning me to come sit near him. I object, and sit on a stool instead.

"I am the upcoming Alpha, the leader of MOONSTRUCK pack of the highest school in the town - HAPPY KIDS HIGH SCHOOL." He explains and I gulp, placing my right palm on my chin. "It is a school filled with Vampires, and Wolves." He adds.

"Werewolves?" I ask him.

"Yes, werewolves." He replies.

"Can one be a wolf before turning eighteen?" I ask him, putting off my hand of my chin.

"Sure. Also, finding one's mate in this school is so tasking. Anita is 23 years old, and she has not gotten her mate yet." I sigh anxiously, and ask him: "How old are you?"

"I am twenty years old. I will be mated to a werewolf next year." He replies, and my stare at him tells him that I love his young age and cuteness.

"I am seventeen years old. I will be mated to a werewolf next year." I copy his pattern of reply, and instead of getting a smile or smirk, his forehead furrows.

"Don't you ever think a vampire can be mated to you?" He asks, and I stare at him, as though he knows that I hate them.

"Never!" I object, fiddling my fist.

"Are you going to be mated to the Mate the moon goddess offers you, or you are gonna go through some sort of..." He stutters.

"Some sort of...?" I reply.

"Maybe through your wolf. Maybe any one your wolf smells or whoever cares for you well."

"I will go for whichever mate the moon goddess offers me. I hope it won't be against my thinking though."

He smiles, and it soon widens. He smirks again, and this time, it is a satisfactory one.