Mated To My Bullies

Prologue JULIANA POV.... The bathroom door slammed shut behind me. Metal scraped against tile as someone dragged a chair across the entrance. My heart hammered against my ribs. "Please." My voice cracked. "I have to get to class." Laughter echoed off the walls. Three voices I'd recognize anywhere. Harper. Soren. Brian. The Alpha King's triplets. My bullies. "Class can wait," Harper said. His footsteps came closer. "We need to have a conversation about respect." I pressed my back against the sink. The porcelain edge dug into my spine. "I didn't do anything wrong." "You exist." Soren's massive frame blocked the light from the window. "That's wrong enough." They circled me like predators. My wolf stirred inside my chest, trying to surface. Trying to protect me. She couldn't. I was eighteen years old and I still couldn't shift. A hybrid. Half werewolf, half human. Weak in both worlds. "Tonight's the full moon," Brian said. He tilted his head, studying me like I was an insect. "Think you'll finally shift this time?" "Maybe she'll surprise us," Harper added. "Maybe she'll turn into something worth looking at." Soren cracked his knuckles. "Or maybe she'll stay pathetic forever." The first blow came from my left. Harper's fist connected with my stomach. Air rushed from my lungs. I doubled over. Pain exploded across my back as Soren shoved me to the floor. My knees cracked against the tile. "Shift," Harper commanded. "Show us your wolf." I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. "I... I can't..." "Try harder." Brian grabbed my hair and yanked my head back. "Unless you want this to get worse." Bones began to break. Not mine ,theirs. The triplets shifted in perfect synchronization. Three wolves materialized where three boys had stood. Massive. Powerful. Beautiful. Everything I wasn't. Their claws gleamed in the fluorescent light. I screamed. The beating lasted ten minutes. Maybe longer. Time stopped meaning anything after the third s***h across my ribs. When they finally shifted back and left, I lay in a pool of my own blood. My phone buzzed. A text from my mother. Working late. Leftovers in fridge. No "happy birthday." No "I love you." Just another reminder that I was alone. I dragged myself to my feet. Every movement sent fresh agony through my body. My reflection in the mirror showed a stranger, bruised, broken, barely human. The wolf inside me whimpered. Soon, I promised her. Soon we'll be strong enough to fight back. I cleaned the blood as best I could. Put on my jacket to hide the damage. Walked out of that bathroom like nothing had happened. Because that's what I always did. Survived. The walk home took forty minutes. Usually took twenty, but my ribs screamed with each step. Our house sat at the edge of pack territory. Small. Run-down. Nothing like the mansion where the triplets lived. I pushed open the front door. The smell hit me first. Copper. Sharp. Wrong. "Dad?" My bag slipped from my fingers. He lay in the center of the living room. Eyes open. Staring at nothing. Blood pooled beneath him, seeping into the carpet Mom always complained about. I couldn't move. Couldn't scream. Couldn't do anything but stare. My father. My rogue father who fought every day to protect others like him. Dead. The door burst open behind me. Four rogues rushed in , pack members I recognized from Dad's meetings. "Juliana." Marcus, the eldest, gripped my shoulders. "We're so sorry. We came as fast as we could." "What happened?" The words scraped out of my throat. "Alpha Mattias." Marcus's jaw clenched. "Your father challenged him about the rogue restrictions. About the beatings, the starvation, the murders. Mattias killed him. Called it a fair fight." My knees buckled. Marcus caught me. "The funeral will be tomorrow night. We'll handle everything. You shouldn't be alone right now...." "I'm fine." I wasn't. "I need to be alone." They left reluctantly. Made me promise to call if I needed anything. I sat beside my father's body until the morgue came. Mom arrived three hours later. Her makeup was smudged. Her dress was wrinkled. She'd been at a party. On my eighteenth birthday. While my father died. "Clean this up," she said, staring at the bloodstain. "It's disgusting." No tears. No grief. No love. Just annoyance. Something inside me shattered completely. I looked at my mother ,really looked at her and I saw the truth I'd been avoiding my whole life. She hated me. She'd always hated me. "He's dead," I whispered. "Dad is dead and you don't even care." "Of course I care." But her voice was flat. Empty. "He was my husband." "You're lying." Her hand connected with my cheek. The slap echoed through the empty house. "Don't you dare speak to me like that. I've sacrificed everything for this family. Everything. And what do I get? A useless daughter who can't even shift properly." I touched my burning cheek. "Get out of my sight," Mom continued. "You make me sick." I walked to my room. Locked the door. Collapsed on my bed. The wolf inside me howled. Tonight was supposed to be special. Tonight was supposed to be the night I finally shifted. Finally became whole. Instead, I'd been beaten by my bullies and found my father's corpse. Happy birthday to me. I closed my eyes and waited for sleep. It never came. Midnight arrived with a strange pull in my chest. My wolf surged forward, stronger than she'd ever been. Yes, I thought. Finally. Bones began to crack. Skin began to tear. The shift was happening. Pain consumed everything. Every nerve ending caught fire. My spine bent in ways it shouldn't. I bit down on my pillow to muffle the screams. Five minutes passed. Then ten. The shift should have been complete by now. Something was wrong. I stumbled to the mirror. The creature staring back wasn't human. Wasn't wolf either. Stuck between both. My face had elongated slightly. Claws extended from my fingertips. Fur sprouted in patches across my arms. But I was still standing on two legs. Still mostly human in shape. Incomplete. Failed. A knock sounded on my door. "Juliana?" Mom's voice dripped with disgust. "What are you?" The door burst open before I could answer. She stared at me. At my half-shifted form. Horror twisted her features. "You're a monster," she breathed. "A complete and total monster." The words stabbed deeper than any claw. My wolf retreated. The shift reversed partially, leaving me even more deformed than before. Mom pulled out her phone. "Don't—" Too late. She took a picture. "Everyone needs to see what you really are," she said. "Everyone needs to know that the Student Union President is a freak." She left. I heard her footsteps on the stairs. Heard the front door slam. My phone buzzed. Messages flooded in. Dozens. Hundreds. The photo had already spread across the entire pack. Disgusting. Knew she was a freak. How is she even alive? Someone should put her out of her misery. I turned off my phone. Tomorrow, I'd go to school and face them all. Tomorrow, I'd attend my father's funeral alone. Tomorrow, I'd figure out how to survive this nightmare. But tonight? Tonight I finally understood the truth. I had no one. I was no one. And things were about to get so much worse.