Mated To My Bullies

The Wedding

JULIANA POV .....

Mom came home with a man.

Not just any man.

Alpha Mattias.

The werewolf who murdered my father.

I stood in the kitchen doorway, frozen.

"Juliana!" Mom's voice was too bright. Too fake. "Come meet someone special."

Alpha Mattias studied me with cold calculation. He was handsome in a brutal way...all sharp angles and predatory grace.

"So you're the daughter." His tone made it clear he found me lacking. "Kathy has told me so much about you."

Nothing good, judging by his expression.

"What's he doing here?" I looked at my mother.

"We're getting married," she announced. "Isn't it wonderful?"

The world tilted sideways.

"Married?" I choked on the word. "He killed Dad. He murdered him."

"Your father challenged me to a fair fight." Alpha Mattias's voice held no remorse. "He lost. That's pack law."

"It wasn't fair...."

"Enough." Mom's cheerfulness cracked. "I've been alone for too long. Mattias offered me a better life. You should be happy for me."

"Happy?" I laughed. It sounded unhinged. "Dad's been dead for two weeks and you're already....."

Her hand cracked across my face.

"You ungrateful little brat. I've sacrificed everything for you. Everything. And this is how you repay me?"

Alpha Mattias watched our exchange with mild interest.

"The wedding is in three days," Mom continued. "You'll attend and you'll smile. Understood?"

"I won't..."

"You will." Her eyes hardened. "Or you can figure out how to pay for school yourself. Your choice."

I had no money. No job. No way to survive on my own.

She knew it.

"Fine," I whispered.

"Good. Now go pack. We're moving into Mattias's mansion tomorrow."

"What?"

"Did I stutter? You're coming with us. I'm not leaving you here unsupervised."

Alpha Mattias smiled. "Don't worry. My sons will make you feel right at home."

His sons.

The triplets.

Horror washed over me.

"No." I backed toward the stairs. "I can't....I won't...."

"You don't have a choice." Mom's voice turned to ice. "Pack your things. We leave at dawn."

The mansion was enormous.

White columns. Marble floors. Windows that stretched two stories high.

It screamed wealth and power.

Everything my family had never been.

A butler showed us to our rooms. Mom got the master suite beside Alpha Mattias. I got a guest room on the third floor.

As far from them as possible, thankfully.

I unpacked in silence. Hung my few clothes in the massive closet. Set my books on the antique desk.

This didn't feel real.

A knock interrupted my thoughts.

"Come in."

The door opened to reveal all three triplets.

They looked as unhappy as I felt.

"We need to talk," Harper said.

"No, we don't." I returned to unpacking.

"Yes, we do." Soren closed the door. "About what happened at school."

My hands stilled on a sweater.

"The mate bond," Brian said bluntly. "We all felt it."

I said nothing.

"It's a mistake," Harper continued. "Some kind of error. Hybrids aren't meant to mate with pure bloodlines."

Each word was a knife between my ribs.

"We're going to reject you," Soren added. "At the wedding. In front of everyone."

I turned slowly.

They stood in a line, united against me.

My mates.

My bullies.

Same thing, apparently.

"Why wait?" My voice came out steady despite the trembling in my hands. "Reject me now. Get it over with."

Harper exchanged glances with his brothers. "Father wants it public. To make a statement about pack standards."

"Of course he does." I smiled without humor. "Can't have the precious Alpha heirs tainted by a hybrid."

"It's not personal," Brian said.

I laughed. "Everything you've done to me has been personal."

"We're trying to do the right thing here," Harper insisted.

"The right thing?" I stepped closer. "The right thing would have been not beating me unconscious. Not spreading rumors. Not making my life a living hell for the past three years."

Soren's jaw clenched. "We're not here to argue...."

"Then leave."

They didn't move.

"I said leave!" My wolf surged forward. For a brief second, my eyes flashed gold.

All three triplets tensed.

Then Harper turned and walked out. His brothers followed.

The door clicked shut.

I collapsed on the bed and finally let myself cry.

The mate bond pulled at my chest. Begged me to go after them. To fix this.

I ignored it.

Some bonds weren't meant to be

HARPER POV ....

"That went well," Brian muttered as we walked to our wing of the mansion.

It hadn't gone well at all.

Seeing Juliana surrounded by her pathetic belongings, alone in that huge room, it had nearly broken my resolve.

My wolf had screamed at me to stay. To protect. To claim.

I'd forced myself to leave anyway.

"She'll be fine," I said, not believing it.

"She looked destroyed." Soren stopped at his door. "Maybe we should reconsider...."

"No." I cut him off. "We're doing this for her own good. She'll understand eventually."

"Will she?" Brian leaned against the wall. "Or will this break her completely?"

"She's stronger than she looks."

"Is she? Because from where I'm standing, we've been systematically destroying a girl who never did anything to us." Brian's usual smirk was gone. "Maybe we're the monsters here."

"We're protecting the pack," I insisted. "Protecting our bloodline. Protecting..."

"Ourselves," Soren finished. "We're protecting ourselves from Father's judgment."

Silence fell between us.

"The rejection happens at the wedding," I said finally. "That's the end of it. Agreed?"

Neither brother answered.

I took that as agreement and went to my room.

But sleep didn't come.

Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Juliana's face.

Heard her voice.

Everything you've done to me has been personal.

She was right.

We were monsters.

And in three days, we'd prove it to everyone.