Claimed by my Tyrannical Stepbrothers

Dionne I walked out of the principal's office where I had gone to collect my schedule for the term, hoping I would not run into anyone from my class. I didn't want to stutter when they spoke to me and I could not stand the way some of the kids in school spoke. They had the air of arrogance about them, and they spoke to others in a very demeaning tone. I knew this elite werewolf boarding school would have remained a dream that would never be lived if not for mom's union with Alpha Marcus, the alpha of the Primordial pack. It was because of him that I had been admitted into the school, and also because he said I was not going to be alone because his quadruplets, Lucian, Hardin, Aspen, and Peyton were in the school and were, of course, the most popular boys and most sought after by girls. Everyone tried to court their friendship and be on their good side. Everyone but me. I didn't like how arrogant they were, and I wanted to be invisible. I did not want to be seen by them or their sycophant friends and all the other obsequious people who were constantly trying to court their attention. Being wolfless kept me in a disadvantaged position and I knew that in a school that was dominated by the rich and influential like this, the weak would soon become the target and object of bullying and ridicule by the rich kids, and I was unlucky enough to be one of the few who had no wolf even at seventeen. I walked to where the lockers were and saw that there was a commotion in front and a small crowd had pulled together, but I was already standing in front of the locker that had my name on it as it had been assigned to me for the term. Seeing my step-brothers made me extremely uncomfortable, and I saw that the quadruplets were in front of their cheerleader, Zuri. I didn't want to be seen by them and I knew I needed to avoid making eye contact with any of them by any means. I clearly remember their warning to me upon showing up at school. "Don't ever let anyone get to know about our relationship with you. The day anyone finds out, you won't be happy they did," they had said to me, and then they had gone to ask me if I had a mate yet, to which I said no. They were handsome, all three of them with dark brown hair that was so full and glossy that the girls envied them. The last of the quadruplets, Peyton, carried his hair in a ponytail. He had the longest hair and the girls liked to offer to help him tie the hair appropriately. They were all tall, as tall as six feet, with athletic builds that showed that they visited the gym regularly. They were tanned too and all the girls liked to be around the honey-skinned brothers. Zuri, their cheerleader, was trying to push another girl out of their way, and they held her back from doing it so they didn't get into trouble. I opened my locker while the commotion was still on and tried to place some of my items in it and sneak away without being noticed. But I did not see that Hardin, the second of the quadruplets, had come to stand next to me, making me suddenly too conscious of my appearance. My hair was not well tied, and I had not ironed my clothes, and my lips were dry, but he took one demeaning look at me and said, "You look totally stunning today, new girl!" He said in the loudest voice I had heard in a long time, drawing the attention of other people to me. Zuri turned to me and started laughing. I looked at myself again. I didn't see anything wrong with how I was looking, and I wondered what they were laughing about. I wasn't terrible, but I just didn't look like them and that was not a crime. But once Zuri started laughing, a few other people joined her and their attention moved from what had been taking their attention to me now. I wanted the earth to open up and swallow me, but it didn't happen, so I knew I would just have to place my things in the locker and leave, but Hardin reached for the locker and slammed it shut without informing me. I withdrew my hand a bit late, he had hit one of my fingers, and it hurt as hell. But I pretended it didn't hurt because expressing my pain would only give them more avenue to laugh at me, and I was not going to give them that satisfaction. "How did you come to our school? Through your mother's unrivaled skill in bed?" He asked and I felt my cheeks burn. Zuri was standing close to me now, and she laughed hysterically even though I was sure she didn't fully get what Hardin was saying. But I was angry enough to fix him with a disarming stare because I wasn't going to stand his insult to my mother simply because she had married their father. "Why are you staring at me that way? Do you want to punch me in the face?" He asked, further jabbing at my patience. I took a deep breath and told myself that whatever happened, I was going to keep my cool and just endure for as long as I was in school. I was already in senior high school with them and in a year, I would have graduated. Dropping out was not one of the options I could consider because it'd leave mom deeply disappointed in me and I didn't want to see her that way. She wanted what was best for me all the time and Alpha Marcus did the same too. They would not be happy if I dropped out. I ran off from them to attend the class that was set to begin in ten minutes. I did not know my dress had picked up dirt, but Zuri was laughing hysterically at me and, for the second time, I was covered in shame.