The Bullied Alpha's Fake Girlfriend

CHAPTER ONE

Tessa — POV

My pack made me invisible after my parents died. Then I found my mate, Alpha Theo, and for the first time, someone looked at me like I mattered.

Theo had been my world since the first day on campus. We'd been dating six months, and he'd promised me I would be his only Luna. No one else deserved to stand beside him. He told me I was his true love. He admitted he was scared to lose me. I believed him. He was the one who showed up, who paid attention to me, who was there when I needed him most. My classmates called me a lucky girl.

I'd spent the whole week thinking about that promise, about what it meant to trust him with it.

Today was Theo's birthday, and I knew exactly what I wanted to give him. He'd been patient with me for so long. I was ready to be his Luna. Ready to consummate our mate bond.

I checked myself in the mirror one last time, smoothing the dress he'd given me, then pulled a coat over it. A layer of surprise for him to unwrap. My hands wouldn't stop shaking. Not from cold. From wanting this to be perfect. I stepped out of the house.

The night skyline stretched along the horizon as I walked to his mansion, my bag strap gripped tight in one fist, like it was the only thing keeping me steady. I wondered what his reaction would be when he saw me. What he'd say.

I heard the party before I saw it. Bass thudding through the walls and the sharp tang of booze in the air. I stepped into Theo's mansion. The entire soccer team was scattered across the furniture, beer cups in hand, a few girls from our classes making out with some soccer team guys. I scanned the crowd for Theo and found Jaxen instead. He was tall, dark blond hair falling over his forehead, blue eyes locking on mine. My whole body went hot under his stare.

Alpha Jaxen was the top-ranked alpha on campus, wealthy, a soccer captain, and popular. His temper was the worst part. No one wanted to make him angry. If you did, nothing could save you from his wrath. You became his target, the way I had, without even knowing what I'd done to piss him off.

He walked toward me, and Selene begged me to run. But I stood my ground. I wasn't going to flee like every other she-wolf did. I'll stand up to him, I told myself.

"Don't be stubborn, Tessa. Run," Selene scratched at the back of my mind. "Do you want to spend a week in stained clothes? Or doing his assignments for him?"

"Enough, Selene," I said, cutting off her rambling.

"Looking for Theo?" he asked, taking a sip from his cup. Why was he asking me that?

"Yes," I said, weaker than I meant to. He smirked. A chill ran down my spine as he stepped closer, his mouth near my ear. I didn't dare move away.

"You'll find him in the bedroom." He said it so low it sent a shiver of dread through me, like a warning. I couldn't tell if this was some kind of prank meant to humiliate me. I clutched my bag tighter. His blue eyes were more stoic than amused. That only confused me further.

I climbed the stairs and pushed the door open. The room was empty, but a sound reached me from the bathroom. Low, muffled, wrong. I told myself it was nothing. I told myself a lot of things in the three seconds before I pushed that door open.

Was this some kind of nightmare? No. This couldn't be real. I stood frozen. Inside me, Selene moaned in grief, and something else curled low and sick in my chest. Jealousy, maybe, though I couldn't put a name to it.

Theo was inside the cheer captain, Marcy, and she was enjoying every second of it. Riding him, moaning, her nails dug into his shoulders. Her hips were wrapped around his waist. This clearly wasn't their first time.

"Theo." His head snapped toward me. Shock turned to guilt in half a second. Marcy just looked smug, like she'd already proven her point. That I was nobody, and she'd taken what was never really mine to keep.

"No. No, our mate can't do this." Selene's voice was weak, and I could feel her painful cry.

Every illusion I had about true love shattered that night.

I should have known. True love wasn't real.

It was a myth.

My legs wouldn't stop shaking, but I moved anyway. I took the stairs two at a time, not caring who saw, not caring that half the party watched me flee my own boyfriend's house in borrowed heels. The music and the alcohol fumes pressed in on me like a hand over my mouth. Then I hit the front door, and the icy night air swallowed it all. The bass, the noise.

I didn't see the last step.

My ankle rolled the second my heel hit the gravel, and I went down hard, palms first, knees scraping against the stone path at the mansion's entrance. Pain lanced up my left ankle the moment I tried to stand on it.

Heavy footsteps behind me. I turned, and Alpha Jaxen was there, looking down at me with those stoic blue eyes of his.

"What made you upset, weakling?" His mocking didn't even sting.

I didn't answer. I turned to leave, but the pain in my leg wouldn't let me move. I tried to hop away like some stupid rabbit and nearly went flat on my face. I never felt the fall. A strong hand caught my waist. My back pressed against him, his scent of citrus and wood wrapping around me.

"Did you see something that broke you, weakling?" he asked.

I went silent. The image was still playing in my head.

"Answer me." His stern alpha voice made me jump, but his hold stayed firm. I couldn't see his face, but I knew he expected an answer.

"I'm okay." I lied.

"I can help you, weakling. If you tell me the truth."

I doubted that. But damn it.

"My mate cheated on me," I whispered through my tears.

"That useless jerk. Theo's shit."

I didn't answer, but he turned me in his arms so I faced him. His gaze was cold as he wiped my tears away. My body shuddered at his thumb brushing my cheek. A heat I'd only ever felt with Theo.

"What are your plans?" he asked. I blinked, confused.

"You can let me go first," I said. He did, and I lost my balance, falling hard on my ass. He just looked down at me with those cold blue eyes.

"You could have let go of me gently, you know. I sprained my leg—" I hissed, then looked up and remembered who I was talking to. His eyebrow rose at my tone.

"Damn it, we need to get out of here," Selene begged. "I can't take this."

I looked toward the mansion entrance. Theo was looking for me, and his eyes found mine. He started toward us.

"Can you help me?" I looked back at Jaxen. "I can't be near him right now."

He didn't answer. He scooped me into his arms like I weighed nothing and carried me to his car.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"You can't walk. I'm taking you to my car." He said it in that same flat monotone, like whether I wanted to be carried by him wasn't up for discussion.

He got me into the passenger seat and slid behind the wheel. Theo reached the car before Jaxen could pull out, knuckles rapping against my window. I rolled it down halfway.

"It's not what it looked like. It was a mistake, okay? You mean everything to me," Theo said.

"Yeah, you accidentally slipped inside Marcy, Theo. By mistake." I snapped. Theo looked at me, not even guilty.

"Tessa. Get out of his car. Let's talk."

"There's nothing to talk about, Theo." I wiped my tears and looked away from him.

The engine turned over, low and steady beneath us. Jaxen pulled away from the mansion, tires kicking up gravel. In the side mirror, I caught Theo's face one last time. Guilt and shame written all over it.

We drove in silence through the tree line, the forest a black wall on either side of the road, the wind cutting colder through the open window. I closed my eyes, but Marcy's smile was still there, stuck under my skin like a splinter. Theo hadn't been patient. He'd only acted like it. He'd pretended waiting for sex didn't bother him, when it did. Instead of telling me the truth, he'd lied, and taken it from her instead.

The tears came without my permission. Selene whimpered in the back of my mind, my wolf grieving right alongside me, restless in a way I couldn't explain. Then she went quiet.

I looked up. We'd already arrived at the college dormitory gate. He got out and came around to help me out of the car.

"Thank you." The words were barely out before my back hit the car, his hands braced on either side of me, caging me in instead of letting go. I looked at him, confused.

His eyes stayed cold, unreadable.

"What's the plan, weakling?" he asked. "Are you going to cry, or are you going to make your mate regret what he did to you?"