5. Zia’s POV

Zia’s POV

I didn't want to go to school to be reminded that I had no friends. Neither was my excitement about my bullies.

Rather, I was excited because Terri and I could be official. I was excited because I'd be able to put Joyce in her place, and everyone who looked down on me would now start to envy me.

They'd all die of jealousy if they knew that Terri was my mate, best friend, and boyfriend.

And that's why I couldn't stop smiling as I watched him clear the table.

So responsible and handsome.

“Did you use all your meds yet?” he asked when he returned to the living room, and I nodded. “Yes.”

How lucky I was—or that's what I thought until I was getting paper thrown at me during class.

They called me the big fat mateless wolf.

It was the year of the wolf, and it had turned out that quite a number of people had double mates and were somehow linked. Most of them seemed to have quickly accepted their polyrelationships of two men and two women, while some rejected the second mate. But they had options. So far, I felt like I was the only one who had three mates.

However, it wasn’t something to brag about.

Because in the end, I had been the only one who didn't get marked in the whole class. More reason to get bullied, have mop water poured on me in the toilet, and get slapped by Joyce without having a way to refute it.

I’d thought my life would turn around for the better after I found my mates, but what I hadn’t thought about was how they might not be around in my most critical moments. And with how they didn’t mark me yet, they wouldn’t be able to feel that I was in danger.

“What did I do to deserve a fate as cruel as this?” I wondered out loud as I sat by the staircase at the back of the school when I sensed someone's presence walking toward me. But before I could turn around, they already had their hand on my shoulder.

There was a sense of familiarity mixed with a sense of dread.

“Where have you been?” His voice came out in a low growl as the warmth of his palm seeped underneath my skin.

He was my mate… one of my mates, so I relaxed a bit, puffing air through my nostrils and turning around.

“Tyler,” I gasped as we shared eye contact.

“You didn’t answer my question,” his tone was daring.

I was at the most unpopular side of the school, mainly because the entrance was covered with crawling leaves, and there was barely any sunlight thanks to that.

So I ought to be the one asking how he found me.

But the moment I tried, my lips shut close upon noticing the color of his eyes.

Red.

“Tyler, we are in school.” I couldn’t care about his question, knowing what was in store for me.

“Why do you sound like it's a problem?” He walked to my side and stood in front of me, giving me a chance to look at his eyes and the growing bulge in his trousers.

Oh goddess.

Seeing it gave me flashbacks of that night, making my core throb. I clenched my thighs together and swallowed hard, noticing how dry my throat was.

“Because it is,” I said, fanning my face with my fingers.

Was it just me, or was it suddenly hot in here?

“And why should that matter?” he asked in a truly nonchalant manner as he pushed me backward until my back was against the wall.

The painting had peeled, and the surface was rough, but irritation was far from me because all I could process was the sparks flying between us.

I sucked in a deep breath and asked, “What are you doing?”

“You know what. There's no use playing pretend.” His face was straight—no smiles, no frowns, so I couldn’t tell what was on his mind.

“And what if I refuse?” I finally saw a small flicker of emotion when he frowned.

“You're my mate. You can't refuse me.” He regained his composure, and I'd never enjoyed seeing someone's facial expressions as I did now.

Suddenly, my only goal was to see what effect I had on him.

“You haven't marked me,” I pouted.

The corner of his lip twitched and made my stomach do double flips.

“That doesn't matter if you want me to, does it?”

“Tsk,” I scoffed. “Just because I let you fuck me once doesn’t mean I'd do it again. I have my pride, and you can’t look down on me because I’m plus-sized,” I said, and a small smile finally formed on his face. His face gleamed, and the redness of his eyes seemed to dim when a stray ray of light shone on him.

“If I looked down on you for having flesh in the right places, I would have rejected you,” he said, and I'd never been called fat in such a sexy way.

My wolf leaped with joy, and my whole body relaxed, making me slide down the wall only to stop on his knees.

I gasped when our skin connected.

It would be awkward to try to stand straight, so I decided to enjoy the feeling of grinding against him.

All the times I'd touched myself, I'd done it alone, so it was the first time rubbing myself using a person—his knee.

And not just anyone, but the main alpha of our pack.

“That doesn’t answer my question,” I swallowed and said to distract him from what I was using him for.

“What question, Zia?”

“Hmm…” At this point, even I had forgotten what question.

All that I could think of was the way my panties kept getting wet with each rub. And the only worry I had on my mind was if he noticed—if he didn’t, or if he was just pretending not to.

“I’ll remind you,” he suddenly pulled close, his eyes scarlet red. “You were asking if I could fuck you against this wall like the way I did on the mating ceremony.”

That was definitely a lie.

There's no way in hell I said that, but it was what I wanted the most.