Alpha Mate Chose My Bully, I Left on My Birthday

I'm the avoidant type. When I was fifteen, my brother accused me of breaking his PlayStation. I didn't argue. I just made sure he didn't see my face for six months, until he wrote me three apology letters and sent me thirty thousand dollars. Years later, I mated his rival. Lucian Vance, Alpha of Northridge. When Lucian didn't answer my texts, I pretended I'd never sent them. When he skipped the dinner I'd spent all afternoon cooking, I ate it alone and said nothing. He bragged to my brother that I loved him too much to ever leave. Then his brilliant new assistant walked through my front door. The girl who bullied me out of high school. I asked him, once, to replace her. He told me to stop being jealous. So on my birthday, I packed everything I owned and got on a plane. That night, Lucian texted my brother a photo of my birthday cake. We're doing great. Hate it all you want. My brother wrote back: Oh, totally. My sister's the most forgiving person alive. Worst case, she never speaks to you again. Chapter 1 I'm the avoidant type. Severe case. When I was fifteen, my brother Dom accused me of breaking his PlayStation. I didn't know how to explain. I had no way to prove I hadn't done it. So I made sure I never had to face him. I left the house before he woke up. I came home after he went to bed. For six straight months, Dom Mercer did not see his little sister's face. He cracked. This was a boy who couldn't write a five-paragraph essay to save his GPA. He wrote me three apology letters. Three thousand words each. He sent me a little over thirty thousand dollars. He apologized to my face for half an hour without stopping. He came this close to getting on his knees in front of our parents. That's what it took. The next morning I waited for him by the car like I used to. He looked like he might cry. When we got in, he let out this huge, shaky breath. "Ives, you are the hardest person in the world to make up with." "Next time you're mad, just kick me. Twice. I can't take the silent treatment." "And when you start dating, find a guy who chases you. Promise me." Chapter 2 When Dom said that, he had no idea I'd end up with his rival. After we made up, Dom had a little PTSD. If I was even slightly cool with him, he'd say I was freezing him out again. So I started bringing him water at his basketball games. The first time Lucian Vance saw me, he froze on the court. Then Dom crashed into him going for a rebound, and Lucian landed wrong on his ankle. Any other day, there would have been claws on that court. They were the heirs to Stonecrest and Northridge, the two biggest packs in the territory, and they'd hated each other since middle school. But then Lucian found out I was Dom's sister. He forced out a smile. "We're good, man. No big deal." Lucian was a lot of energy. Loud, friendly, clingy in a way that should have been annoying and somehow wasn't. He felt clean. Honest. The kind of boy who grew up in a happy house. I turned him down without thinking twice. I didn't know what to do when people were cruel to me. I didn't know what to do when they liked me either. I was a sickly kid. Hospital visits every few weeks for as long as I can remember. Back then, Dad was Alpha of Stonecrest and Mom was his Luna, and between the two of them, there was no time left for a kid who kept getting sick. So they sent me to live with my grandparents. They mailed my grandparents photos. Stacks of them. Grandma would sit me down at the kitchen table and show me. Maybe they did it so I wouldn't forget them. I looked at the happy family of three. Dom at the amusement park. Dom at the aquarium. Dom at the mall. Dom blowing out his candles. It hurt. I didn't let it show. My grandparents liked boys better. More precisely, they liked the heir better. Every Christmas, Dom's check was bigger than mine. When he visited, they couldn't stop smiling. They never smiled at me like that. But they never mistreated me either. I got three hot meals a day. My clothes were always clean. When I threw up in bed in the middle of the night, nobody yelled. I figured the least I could do was be easy to take care of. In fourth grade, my parents brought me home. I thought I'd be happy. They were all good to me. Especially Dom. He didn't act like most firstborns do when a sibling shows up. He was always poking me, dragging me places, spending his allowance on candy for me. All of it felt wrong. When my family crowded around me to sing happy birthday, I felt nothing. When they worried about me, I didn't feel touched. What I wanted was a door. Somebody gets close, I open it, step through, and I'm gone. Lucian was the first person who sat down outside that door and refused to leave. He always had something to say. Just woke up. Dreamed about you. You were hugging a giant tub of ice cream. So cute. Are you craving ice cream? Let me take you to dinner tonight. After, we'll get a giant tub and hug it together. I didn't want to go out. I didn't know how to say no. So I didn't answer. Summer break is torture. I can't see you. Ives, answer me. Even a period is fine. Way too cheesy. I didn't answer. Sorry I went quiet for two days. I was in the hospital. Pneumonia, if you can believe it. Wear a jacket, okay? Don't end up like me. I felt terrible. I was scared he was mad. I didn't answer. He called. "Ives, I know you saw them. You're too nice. You felt bad you didn't check on me, and then you didn't know what to say, so you said nothing. Right?" That was Lucian. Serious. Persistent. Thoughtful. He chased me for three whole years. Long enough that even Dom backed off. Somewhere in there, I started to believe this one wasn't going anywhere. That I was safe with him. So I said yes when he asked me out. A few years later, I said yes when he asked me to be his mate. He marked me the night of the ceremony. On paper, I became Luna of Northridge. In practice, I painted. Luna work meant people, and people were the whole problem. Lucian built us a house on the quiet edge of his territory, far from the pack house, because I couldn't sleep with forty wolves under one roof. I thought that was love. What I never saw coming was this. The brilliant assistant Lucian kept bragging about was the girl who bullied me in high school. Chapter 3 Serena Holt never laid a hand on me. But every time I saw her, I braced like she was about to slap me. We met the first day of freshman year at Crestview. She dropped into the seat next to mine, all smiles. "Hi, seatmate. You're so pretty. They say pretty girls are stuck-up. You're not stuck-up, are you?" I was bad with words. I didn't know what to say. All I wanted was to show her I was friendly. I shook my head fast, dug a chocolate bar out of my bag, and held it out. She took it and turned it over in her hand. "Ooh, imported. Your family must be loaded." I didn't know what to do with that. "No, no, we're not..." Serena tossed the chocolate in her backpack and turned around to talk to somebody else. After that, every group activity was a nightmare. If I was there, Serena found a way to steer the conversation to me. "One lap, Ivy? What kind of wolf gets winded after one lap? Somebody get her a fainting couch." "Don't stand so close to Ivy, you guys. That skirt costs more than your car. If you get it dirty, we can't pay for it." "Ivy got another love letter? Wow. How many boyfriends do you think she's had? Guesses?" "Oh my god, Ivy, you're so sensitive. I didn't even say anything bad. Are you about to cry?" Little by little, I drifted away from all of them. Maybe if I kept my distance, it wouldn't hurt so much. Serena just laughed. "She's a rich princess. Of course she doesn't want to hang out with us." "Anybody want to volunteer as her maid? No? Shocker." And that's what I became. The fake sweet girl. The rich girl who looked down on everyone. The girl who'd been with half the boys in school. Nobody would be my friend. People whispered when I walked past. I didn't know what to do. I hadn't done anything. I'd given Serena a chocolate bar. So I asked Mom to transfer me. I blocked Serena. I blocked every single person from that school. I thought that was the last I'd ever see of her. Chapter 4 Eleven years later, Serena Holt was standing on my front porch. She was dropping off files for Lucian. The second she saw me, her eyes went huge. Then she threw her arms around me like we were long-lost best friends. She actually squealed. "Ivy! It's me, Serena! Your best friend from high school!" "You transferred out of nowhere! Where did you go?" She still wore the same perfume. Sweet, heavy, too much of it. My body knew it before my brain did. Every muscle I had locked up. Lucian heard the noise and came out of the bedroom. Serena kept her arms around me and turned to him. "Alpha! Oh my god, what are the odds? You're Ivy's mate?" Then she slid her feet into my favorite slippers and walked right in. She talked to Lucian about the old days for a long time. It was incredible. Every time she'd turned the whole class against me, it came out of her mouth as something else. "I was so jealous of Ivy back then. She was gorgeous and her family was rich." "Ivy had a nickname in high school. Princess Fainting Couch. She couldn't make it through one lap!" "She was so popular. Guys everywhere. I used to fend off her love letters for her. Didn't I, Ivy?" She hooked her arm through mine. Rested her chin on my shoulder. Chatted with Lucian like it was the most natural thing in the world. I pushed her off. My heart was slamming. Too much feeling at once, all of it knotted together. I opened my mouth to say that's not what happened. Before I could, she pressed her palms together, sheepish. "Oh no, Ivy, I'm sorry. I came on too strong and scared you, didn't I?" "I know you probably never thought of me as a close friend. But I really, really liked you back then." "I never dreamed I'd see you again." And as she talked, her pretty almond eyes actually filled with tears. Chapter 5 Lucian is a man who cares about appearances. He never lets a moment get awkward. So he sat down beside me, put an arm around my shoulders, and patted twice. Light. A silent hurry up. Then he smiled. "Didn't know you two had history." "Dinner tonight? My treat." Serena lit up. "Oh, I'm ordering the most expensive thing on the menu. And you can't dock my bonus for it, Alpha." She nudged me. "It's almost dinnertime anyway. Let's just go now. Ivy, go change. We'll wait." I got up and went to the bedroom. Took a deep breath. Then I started pacing circles around the bed. Sure. I could march out there and tell him everything, start to finish. But some cats get so stressed in the bath that their hearts give out. That's a real thing. Expecting someone like me to start a fight on purpose? Then live through everything that comes after? I'd drop dead on the living room rug before I finished my first sentence. So I took a few more deep breaths. Then I called my brother. He picked up on the first ring. "Ives? What's wrong?" "Dom..." I said quietly. He was instantly on alert. "You fight with Vance?" "He do something to you? You home? I'm coming over." I pictured Dom crossing the Northridge border at ninety miles an hour, eyes already gold, and my heart nearly gave out for real. "No, no, nothing like that!" "I just really want your lasagna. Are you free this weekend?" He let out a breath. "Jesus, you scared me. Yeah, come over Saturday. I miss you anyway." I nodded. "Okay. Sounds good." I hung up. Someone knocked. "Babe? You dressed? How's Thai sound?" I pulled on the first thing my hand touched. When I opened the door, Serena was already sitting in my spot on the couch, right next to my mate.