I had been bullied before.

So I recognized the patterns when it started.

If I had thought the Lycans to be any different from wolves in that aspect, I wasn’t too far off. They weren’t like Cole, having the entire school bully and degrade me. No. They were pettier. Meaner.

It started when I got ready for school and was greeted with the pleasant surprise of learning the driver was on leave. And I wasn’t to use any of the other cars in the garage—not that I even knew how to drive.

Corazon stated clearly that Jericho’s instructions were, "Take the trail through the woods, Adams. Who knows? You just might find someone new to fuck on the roadside."

I walked. It rained. You can tell how it went. We’ve been through this before. I walked into class sopping wet and cold.

Unlike the last time, I wasn’t greeted with laughter.

Stony silence fell in the classroom as I walked in. Every male lowered their gazes instantly. Females watched me with utter disdain.

It wasn’t until lunch period that I realized everyone had somehow learned what happened in the woods with Cole. Only, the version of the story circulating was that he hadn’t tried to mark me by force. But he had railed me through the ass and the Lycans had nearly killed him for it.

Essentially, I was now untouchable to the males, and a stupid whore to the females.

Ah, well, I thought to myself. It wasn’t like it was the first time my reputation was taking a dive into the muck.

I would be fine.

Until I wasn’t.

"I really think you should just tell them the truth, May," Jenny said.

Anger flared hot in my gut. Lately, I was more prone to anger than normal. "Why should I? We aren’t anything to each other. And even if I was meeting someone in the woods, what gives them any right to call me a slut? I mean, when Quinlan had his girlfriend sucking him off, I didn’t call him a rake." I shook my head and looked back at my notes. "I don’t care what they think. They can all go eat shit."

Regina cleared her throat. "Maybe they just feel a little possessive about you. The book of rules does say—"

"That I have to seek permission before I go for a run in the woods to clear my head? Or that I have to seek permission before getting attacked by an entitled jerk? I’m the victim here. Not them."

Regina raised her hands. "Hey. I’m on your side, alright. I was just speculating on your relationship with them."

My spine stiffened. "There is no relationship between us."

"Uh-huh," she drawled dryly. "Just because you think it doesn’t mean they don’t." Then she quoted straight from the stupid book, "That you’re already living in their space makes you a claimed female, with or without yours or their consent. Did you ever wonder what that meant?"

Jenny glanced somewhere above my shoulder. "Er... why is Lana sitting over there with the Lycans?" I stiffened, but refused to look. "And why is she touching Soren’s collar?"

I told myself not to look. I told myself it wasn’t my business who they chose to lavish their attention on. I told myself it didn’t matter if Lana was sticking her tongue down their throats. I didn’t care.

I looked anyway.

Lana was squeezed in between Soren and Jericho. Soren’s lips were quirked up at something she was whispering in his ear. Her finger was toying with the nape of his neck.

Soren let her touch him.

Jericho said something and her giggle was so loud and fake, it grated on my nerves. She bared her neck to him, like she knew what it meant for Lycans when you offered up your neck to them like that.

Mercer stared at her pulse. She bent slightly, her breasts nearly spilling out her bra, giving them a good view of her cleavage. Underneath the table, her hand was in Jericho’s thigh, stroking higher and higher, dangerously close to his groin.

He let her.

Her baby blue eyes found mine. They were mocking me, taunting me. This was revenge for taking Cole from her. She was going to take something of mine.

The Lycans weren’t mine.

But it didn’t stop hatred from brewing in my chest, until it exploded. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

The smoothie cup in my left hand shattered to pieces.

"Oh my god. Maisie, are you alright?" Regina exclaimed, grabbing my hand. There were shards of glass sticking out of my palm, but somehow, I didn’t feel it.

I wasn’t alright.

I snatched my fingers from Regina’s grip and fled from the Cafeteria. Lana’s soft laughter followed me down to the library, where I sat in the most hidden corner and bit on my bottom lip, forcing back tears.

I didn’t understand why it hurt. I just knew it did. It felt like I was being cut up from inside.

It continued back at home. Mercer and Quinlan interchanged sparring with me.

They tripped me on purpose, yanked at my hair and slapped me around, just because they could. And when I lashed out, they did it all over again, laughing as some private joke passed between them.

I’d never known Quinlan to be cruel. Mercer was always a bastard. But this was different. They were punishing me and the harder I fought to gain ground, to hurt them back, the more it excited them.

Soren stopped running with me. And on the few occasions that he joined me, he didn’t look at me. If he accidentally touched me, he would wipe his fingers off his pants like I was made of shit or snarl at me.

Jericho mostly ignored me. And I preferred it that way, because when he wasn’t ignoring me, he studied me with such a ruthless glare, I got the distant feeling that whatever was going on in that pretty head of his, I was better off never finding out.

This treatment continued every day for the next week. And then, a different brand of torment began.

As if it wasn’t shitty enough that I had to deal with being woken every morning by graphic dreams of all the different ways the four of them could rail me to Sunday, drenched in sweat and cum, restless with a need that even the coldest shower couldn’t get rid of, I was kept up at night to the sound of moans.