Bullied And Fated To TheTriplets Alphas

Selina’s POV The water was so cold it felt like there was a knife against my scalp. My lungs felt like they were on fire as I fought against the hands holding my head under the rusty faucet in the abandoned girls’ bathroom on the third floor. Nobody comes up here anymore. The ceilings were leaking, the mirrors were cracked, and half the stalls had broken doors. It was the perfect spot for what Ashran and Alex Tranz liked to do to me. “Come on, breathe it in,” Alex’s voice drifted down to me through the water rushing in my ears. “Maybe it will wash some of the stench off.” My chest was on fire. Black spots danced at the edges of my vision. Just when I thought I might actually drown in a high school bathroom sink, they yanked me up by my hair. I gasped, choking and sputtering as water streamed down my face, soaking the front of my uniform. My legs shook so badly I could barely stand. “There’s our little goldfish,” Ashran said, his voice carrying that tone that always made my skin crawl. Like he was talking to a pet. A stupid, worthless pet he enjoyed tormenting. “Did you have a nice swim?” I pressed my back against the moldy tile wall, trying to catch my breath. My wet hair stuck to my face and neck, and I could taste the metallic taste of the old pipes. “Why do you do this?” The words slipped out before I could stop them. I immediately regretted speaking when I saw the way Ashran’s pale blue eyes became excited. “Why?” He stepped closer, so close that I could smell his expensive cologne. “It’s because you keep forgetting what you are.” “I know what I am.” “Do you?” Alex leaned against the broken sink, his green eyes brightened with cruel amusement. “Because you keep acting like you belong here. Like you have a right to breathe the same air as real wolves.” Real wolves. The words hit me like a physical blow, because they were true. Everyone else in this school could shift. Everyone else had a wolf living inside them, sharing their thoughts and dreams and instincts. Everyone else was complete. Everyone apart from me. In a month's time I would be eighteen years old, and I was still waiting for a voice in my head that would never come. In a world where your worth was measured by the strength of your wolf, I might as well have been invisible. Except I wasn’t invisible. Not to them. “You know what I think?” Ashran reached out and grabbed my chin, forcing me to look at him. His fingers were warm against my cold, wet skin. “I think you’re not even one of us. I think you’re making some kind of mistake that got mixed up with the real babies at the hospital.” “That’s not how it works,” I whispered. “Isn’t it?” His grip tightened just enough to make my jaw ache. “Because I’ve never met a werewolf who couldn’t shift by eighteen. Have you, Alex?” “Never,” Alex agreed, pushing off the sink. “It’s like meeting a bird that can’t fly. It’s completely against nature.” Aaron Tranz hadn’t said a word since they dragged me up here. The youngest of the triplets stood by the door like a guard, making sure no one could interrupt their fun. He never participated directly in bullying me, but he never stopped them either. Sometimes I caught him looking at me with an expression I couldn’t understand, but he never tried to help me. “I think you should transfer schools,” Ashran continued, “Don’t you think so, brother?” Aaron shifted uncomfortably but didn’t respond. “Where would I go?” The question came out smaller than I intended. “Anywhere but here,” Ashran released my chin with a little push that made me stumble back against the wall. “Find a nice human school where nobody expects you to be anything more than ordinary.” Ordinary. As if being ordinary was the worst thing someone could be. They left me there in the abandoned bathroom, dripping wet and shivering, to clean myself up and figure out how to explain why I looked like I had been swimming in my clothes. I used rough paper towels to dry my hair as best I could and tried to ignore the way my reflection wavered in the cracked mirror. The girl staring back at me looked exactly like what they said I was. A mistake. I looked at my blond hair that never stayed neat, green eyes too big for my face, and my skin that was too pale from spending most of my time hiding indoors. The omega mark at the base of my neck might as well have been a target from the moon goddess herself. I made it through the rest of my classes by keeping my head down and my mouth shut. In Advanced Biology, I knew the answer to every question the teacher asked, but I didn’t raise my hand once. In Pack History, I bit my tongue when she got basic facts wrong about the founding families. By the time the final bell rang, I was exhausted. During my walk home I tried to ignore all the nice houses with perfect lawns where the alpha and beta families lived. I ignored the shopping district where teenage wolves gathered after school to laugh and flirt and plan their futures. The training grounds where the ones my age practiced for their adult pack roles. I walked past all of it like a ghost. Our apartment was on the other side of town, it was squeezed between a laundromat and a convenience store that sold expired food to people who couldn’t afford better. The building itself was old and tired, with peeling paint and windows that didn’t quite fit their frames. But it was home. The only home I had ever known. Mom’s car wasn’t in the parking lot, which meant she was working another double shift at the pack’s medical clinic. She has been doing that a lot lately, and also coming home exhausted and much later than usual, like her mind was somewhere else entirely. I climbed the stairs to our second-floor apartment, my damp uniform still clinging uncomfortably to my skin. The key stuck in the lock like it always did, and I had to jiggle it just right to get the door to open. Everything about our place was small and worn out, but it was clean. Mom made sure of that. We might not have much, but we had pride. I changed out of my wet clothes into an old sweater that was too big for me, then heated up leftover soup for dinner. The silence felt heavy, but it was not uncomfortable. I have been used to being alone ever since I was little. I was finishing my homework at the kitchen table when I heard Mom’s key in the lock. She looked exhausted but was trying to hide it. Her blonde hair was falling out of its bun, and there were stress lines around her green eyes that seemed deeper every day. “How was school, sweetheart?” she asked, dropping her medical bag by the door. “Fine,” I said, because what else was I supposed to say? That I had spent my lunch period getting my head shoved underwater? That her daughter was so pathetic that even the other outcasts avoided her? Mom studied my face for a moment, her healer instincts picking up on things I tried to hide. But before she could ask any questions, she seemed to remember something that made her whole demeanor change. “Actually, I have some news,” she said, settling into the chair across from me. "Wonderful news.” “What kind of news?” “I met someone.” The words came out in a rush, like she had been holding them all day and they finally burst free. “A really wonderful man who makes me laugh and doesn’t care about it…” She gestured vaguely looking round, and I knew she meant my condition, “even though he is an alpha,” she said. My stomach dropped. Mom never met anyone. She worked at the clinic, came home and took care of me, and that was her whole life. The few times men had shown interest over the years, they always disappeared once they learned about me. Once they realized what dating her would mean. “Mom, are you sure that’s a good idea?” “Why wouldn’t it be?” Her eyes were brighter than I had seen them in years. “Selina, he asked me to marry him.” The soup bowl slipped from my numb fingers and clattered against the table. “He, what?” “He proposed!” She was practically glowing now, happiness was radiating from her like warmth from a fire. “Can you believe it? After all these years, I found someone who wants both of us. Who sees us as a family worth having.” Marriage. The word echoed in my head like thunder. My mother, who had been alone for eighteen years because no one wanted to be associated with the woman who had given birth to a broken child, was getting married. “When?” I managed to ask. “Soon,” she said, reaching across the table to squeeze my hand. “He wants to meet you properly first, of course. Tomorrow night, actually. He is coming for dinner.” Tomorrow night. I nodded, trying to look excited instead of terrified. Because this was what Mom deserved. After everything she had sacrificed for me, she deserved happiness and love and a future that didn’t revolve around protecting her defective daughter. Even if the thought of some strange man judging whether I was worth keeping made me feel sick.