The First Step.
The moonstone's emerald glow bathed the room even after Winnie retracted her hand. The light receding somehow left a deeper impression on recruits.
"We don't have all day!" Winnie's voice broke the spell the recruits were on. Yet, no one took the initiative to be the first person to test. The heads kept turning in the room, but no one took a step forward.
Winnie's expression turned ugly, and her eyes started to glow the color the moonstone had shone, she declared in a non-negotiable voice as she prompted the recruits to step forward. "Your. Turn."
The silence that followed was a slap in her face, and her face turned ugly. Some recruits shrank their necks and took timid steps back while others stood contemplating.
A recruit stepped forward, his back ramrod. "What the hell, not like I'd turn back to how I used to be anyway."
He placed his hand on the stone's surface without hesitation, and the moonstone lit up almost immediately, his color, however brighter and more pronounced than Winnie's.
The glow somehow invigorated the entire room before he took his hand off the luminous surface. People were already lining up to get their tests done.
Kristensen watched the whole commotion and let out a sly smile, Winnie's face was uglier. Tate and Isaac were having a hard time suppressing their laughter.
"Order!" Winnie roared, and the antsy recruits calmed down a little but didn't stop queuing up.
It didn't ease the tension on Winnie's face at all.
Kristensen's interest was piqued. She leaned towards Tate and asked the question many recruits wanted to. "Why's she angry all of a sudden?"
"Humph." Tate snorted. "That beta just now, given a few more years, will be more powerful than Winnie. That's why she's angry. It's unfair, alright... it doesn't matter what we do. We simply can't escape our biology."
Kristensen smiled lightly, not giving a response. Her knowledge of wolves and Crandale was limited after all. She couldn't give her two cents. She only watched Winnie's resentment accumulate with every beta confirmed, and it so happened that the betas that tested all had the aptitude better than Winnie's.
Winnie, though, wasn't the only one resentful, Isaac, Tate, and Leah were more so. They knew how to hide it better.
Kristensen watched as one after another lit the moonstone, the colors variations of blue and green, and red hadn't tested thus far.
She narrowed her eyes, tilting her head and her tone questioning. "No alphas yet."
Both Tate and Isaac didn't respond. Their eyes drifted far away, and they coughed awkwardly.
"Who wants to see those domineering things?!" Tate mused when the silence that followed became unbearable. "It'll be good if we don't have any at all."
"Uh huh, but Trudy hasn't gone up yet. Better give up that dream."
A little while after Kristensen's comment, Trudy went forward.
The room at that point was chaotic, people bathing in their new found status and no longer paying attention to whose turn it was on the moonstone. However, the moment Trudy stepped forward, Kristensen's group focus was entirely on her.
They waited with bated breath.
Trudy took a deep breath and placed her hand on the moonstone. It seemed as though Kristensen's group waited forever before the moonstone lit up, but it was only seconds, and it lit.
The moonstone itself let out a sigh before glowing crimson. The color accompanied by smoke occupied the whole room and released an aura that grasped everyone's attention. They gasped.
Those who were relatively weak couldn't stand the aura and voluntarily bent a knee.
Isaac and Tate's stance were stiff, upon closer look with beads of sweat on their forehead, and Mel, Mel's situation was far worse. She was kneeling.
As the hue extended to cover the whole room, Kristensen felt irritable, as though her own authority was being challenged. She was unaware, but her eyes started to glow, the color of the moon. Her aura extended and shielded those close to her.
Trudy's and her eyes met, the charge between them crackled. Trudy gave Kristensen a smirk only she could see and turned sheepish when she faced the room, retracting her hand from the moonstone.
Kristensen's eyes narrowed, clenching her fist. Challenge accepted.
"This is why nobody wants them." Tate said bitterly after the crimson hue faded from the room. "Nobody would willingly invite a wolf into their home."
Mel, Isaac, and Kristensen exchanged glances and then burst out laughing.
"Wolf?" They said at the same time.
"You know what I mean!" Said Tate begrudgingly.
The recruits hadn't come out of their stupor, and Trudy stood next to the moonstone innocently, yet her eyes were bright, alighted with a sense of superiority.
Winnie's face had reached the ugliest of ugly, and Leah kept murmuring on her side.
"An alpha." Winnie proclaimed, her frustration palpable.
The recruits didn't react. Most didn't even raise their heads. The spectrum of colors finally unveiled the classifications within Crandale, the world they were about to step foot in.
The first alpha had stepped forward.
"Next. If this can stump you, you don't belong in Crandale."
The room collectively inhaled, acknowledging the distinction in the alpha's aura. Winnie's scowl deepened but maintained a facade of authority.
The process continued, but no other was alpha discovered.
Kristensen observed with keen interest, her mind deciphering each hue and the difference within each class. So far, she'd discovered that within the omegas, some of their glow was more pronounced while others barely lit the moonstone. The significance of it all was made by Winnie's ever colorful face, especially when betas tested.
"Why aren't you stepping forward?" Tate asked as the latest recruit went back.
Mel, who'd been silent all along, said in a lazy tone. "Arson hasn't gone up yet."
"I think I've seen enough." Kristensen said as she stepped forward.
Their group was at the back. She walked leisurely, yet somehow people made way for her as she passed. It was instinctive.
By the time she reached the moonstone, all eyes were on her. Kristensen didn't immediately place her hand on the stone, her eyes searched the whole room until she found Trudy, standing next to Arson and she smiled, only then did she place her hand on the moonstone.
It was silent, as though the whole room had somehow reached an agreement to watch as she made a fool of herself, but Kristensen ever the calmest, silently waited.
The moonstone started with a hiss, and then the mist, like in the awakening room, started to emit from the stone until it covered the whole room. When they looked at Kristensen again, the moonstone started to shine, the brilliant color of a crescent moon with only a thread crimson.
The aura enveloped the room, both oppressive and supportive, made the recruits subconsciously release their own.
A kaleidoscope of wolves. Alpha, beta, and omega.
Winnie, Tate, Isaac, and Leah trembled, their eyes wide open.
Tate's head shook, "It can't be." She kept mumbling.
The recruits, however, were in a trance. No one could extract themselves from that pull.
Eventually, the glow receded along with the mist and the moonstone shattered to pieces. The sound of the pieces falling to the ground woke the recruits up.
Instantly...
"What happened?"
"What class is she?"
"Did she light it up or not?"
Many people were puzzled only Winnie, Isaac, Tate, Leah, and Trudy stared at Kristensen with fear, bone-chilling fear.
Trudy's eyes on Kristensen were as though she wanted to skin her alive and drink her blood.
Winnie, with a trembling voice, announced the conclusion of the tests for the day. " Those who didn't get their classification, we'll continue tomorrow. I'm sure you've all received your accommodations. Welcome to Crandale."
She hurried off after that, and Tate, Isaac, and Leah went after her, ignoring the displeasure of the recruits.
"Winnie, stop." Tate held her hand when she caught up, and Winnie abruptly released her aura, which caused Tate to stagger back and fall to her knees. "Don't act impulsively."
"Impulsively? She... she... we have to report it. If my house finds out later, do you know what they'd do to me, us?" Winnie sneered.
Tate stood up with Isaac's help and whipped the blood from the corner of her lips. "And you think they won't do anything to us now? Are you being intentionally stupid?"
Leah and Isaac watched the two women silently, neither agreeing or disagreeing with the other.
"It doesn't matter. We have to report her. She's still a pub now. Between her and our house, I think we'll have a better chance against her."
Isaac snorted, turning the heads of the three towards him.
"What?!" Winnie snapped.
"It would be fine if we were the only ones who saw. They don't remember now, but it doesn't mean all those recruits don't remember. Are you sure you can kill all of them?"
Isaac poured cold water on all of them, rendering them speechless. They remained silent for a while...
"Then... what should we do?" Leah asked with a sense of helplessness.
"What else can we do? Act like nothing happened. We're certainly not qualified to know what she represents. Most importantly, we might be wrong. Let's keep quiet." Isaac affirmed.
What they didn't know was the person they were talking about, Kristensen, was eavesdropping on their conversation.
She quietly retreated to the room, and none of them saw her. Kristensen's mind spun. The panic and fear she saw on Tate's group danced in her mind.
They feared her or what she represented. What exactly did she represent?
Her mind involuntarily went to that golden eyed wolf. It seemed the pieces of the puzzle were gathering to her without her lifting a finger. She didn't like it, but she didn't hate it either, Kristensen's eyes shone crimson silver as they narrowed. She didn't mind playing the game.
When she returned to the room, the recruits dispersed, only her former roommates remained.
"Why are you still here?" Kristensen's voice didn't reveal anything out of the ordinary, which made Trudy's gaze on her deepen.
"Mel and I didn't get our classes, so we don't have anywhere to go." Arson's small voice quipped.
Kristensen's eyes shifted to Trudy, then back to Arson, and smiled, "No problem. We'll be roommates from now on."