“Alphas, the time has come for you to get your necklaces. I don’t recommend that you wear them to strength class, but I would suggest that you start wearing them to dinner, especially if you expect to add to them each night.
I step up, getting the necklaces and handing them out. When I get to Christina, I wink.
“I’d suggest replacing your assistant’s necklace with this one, Christina.”
“Or she could wear both of them. She is working harder than anyone else this semester,” Sylvie says, smiling at her.
“What Sylvie is giving you are your tokens. These are all worth one point each. Give them out as you feel appropri- ate. Yours and the instructors‘ are gold, the assistants‘ are silver. We only differentiate so you can see how and who you are impacting. As an Alpha, you want to be well rounded and impact all of your pack members equally. That doesn’t mean you should stop doing right by the assistants if you start getting a lot of silver tokens. It just means you need to pick it up on the instructor side. Remember, you don’t have to win any tokens in any class, if you earn enough points through the single tokens. They say ‘heavy is the head that wears the crown‘. I say, ‘strong is the neck of the person worthy of the title of Alpha“.”
Sylvie passes out bags of tokens to each of the Alphas and the instructors. I take mine, feeling the familiar weight in my hand. After tonight, this weight will lesson each night, at least until I need a new one.
“This bag, right here, is the ten–point bag,” James says, emptying it on the table. He picks up one of the tokens to show everyone. “As you can see, these are larger and more pronounced than the single tokens. If you make it to the leaderboard, the number you receive at graduation will be even larger.”
I smell the coffee brewing in the kitchen. Mia must have started the pot going. Most of us will be up for a while.
“Since most of you haven’t done this before, I’ll start,” James says. I reach into my bag, pulling out the coins I intend to give out. I don’t bother looking down, this bag and the coins inside it, feel like an extension of me at this point.
James walks up to Ezra. “First to find the bell in sensory class. Well done.”
Then he walks to Christina, handing one to her as well. “For getting farther on the Beast than I did my first time.”
Christina smiles up at him. “Thank you, Alpha.”
Sylvie goes next, giving coins to Haley for being the best cook this place has ever had and then going to Tyler. “For being quiet and not feeling the need to talk.”
I glance at James, but he just watches.
“Thank you, Luna.”
I go next, giving Ezra and Tyler coins for their sparring today, and also giving one to Haley and Charlotte for show- ing so much improvement in their first class. Then I stop in front of Christina, pulling out two. “For being the instruc- tor that helped our new students improve so much in their first class, and for getting farther than I did my first time on the Beast.”
Her smile is tentative, not as easy as it was with James. Something is definitely off. I decide that rather that going straight to the classroom, we need to talk in my room privately first. Whatever is causing her to hesitate, it’s impact- ing the trust I’ve been working to create, and I don’t like it.
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