Mated To My Childhood Bully

"Do you still remember him?" Clarissa asked Hazel as they both stared at an old picture.

The picture was from six years ago and in that picture, there was the youngest son of the Alpha, Axel.

"Of course, I remember him" Hazel affirmed.

There was no way she could forget him easily. He had been with throughout her entire childhood and even her teenage years but there was never a pleasant experience with him anyways but then unpleasant memories were harder to get rid of so she did not forget him at all.

"He must be a man now"

"Yeah and a tease like he has always been" Hazel added and Clarissa chuckled.

Hazel was the daughter of the late beta and Clarissa was her best friend, the daughter of the newly installed beta.

"He would have grown out of it" Clarissa guessed.

"I do not think so" Hazel shook her head and flipped the picture book.

"I do not want to stare too much at his annoying face, it angers me" She muttered and Clarissa chuckled once more.

"Everyone found him sweet but he was different with you. I guess he liked you a lot" she added.

"Liked me? He definitely hated me, always ruining everything for me" Hazel groaned.

"No more talks about him" Hazel closed the subject as she felt memories about him rushing into her head.

He was her childhood bully. To others, he did not bully her, he was just a tease to her but Hazel considered it all nothing but bullying.

He had traveled away about six years ago and she was still glad to the heavens for that favor.

"Do you think there is a possibility that he will come back home soon? I mean, the Alpha is getting old, he would be needing someone to take over the position of the Alpha"

"There is Rex, he is the first son of the Alpha, he is good enough. Axel does not need to come back home, ever."

"Well, well. That is what you say because you have a huge crush on Rex" Clarissa remarked.

For years now, Hazel had feelings for Rex, the first son of the Alpha.

Rex was the complete opposite of his brother, Axel. Rex was gentle and calm with her. He never passed unpleasant comments or teased her to no end like Axel would always do.

Hazel could only hope to no end that she would turn out to be the mate of Rex who had not found his mate yet.

" I heard rumors that Axel might be coming back soon." Clarissa mumbled.

"What? Really? Are you joking now?"

Clarissa shrugged.

"I just heard it amongst the others"

"It would better keep being a rumor. But wait a minute... Why do you keep hearing about everything when I barely hear about anything?" Hazel questioned, dropping the picture book and turning to face her friend.

Clarissa sighed.

"You know the reason behind it, Hazel. The others think it is weird that you are 24 and still haven't shape shifted" Clarissa said honestly.

That was one thing about Clarissa, she never bothered hiding the truth even when it was going to hurt.

"They are isolating you, Hazel." She completed and Hazel bit her lips.

She got up from the edge of the bed and walked towards the window, staring out of it blankly.

It had been a long time concern for her, she had not had her shape shift at the age of 24 while others had theirs during their teenage years.

"You do not have to feel too bad. You can always be assured that I will never isolate you." Clarissa assured her, holding her right hand and giving it a gentle squeeze.

"The rumor that I might be a human is still out there, right?" Hazel asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

Clarissa nodded in affirmation.

"But you are not just human, you are a wolf, I at least know that"

Hazel sighed and looked back out of the window.

"It is fine if they all doubt me being a wolf. I mean... I doubt that myself too." Hazel mumbled.

"Never doubt yourself" Clarissa mumbled and Hazel shut her eyes.

"I might really be chased away to the human world."

She remembered her eighteenth birthday, how everyone had been waiting for her to finally shift but she had not been able to.

And till now, six years later, everyone was still waiting for her to shift and she was still keeping them waiting.

"Don't think about it. Our world, Wolfbrim is your world too. You do not belong to the human world. If you were human, how would you get into Wolfbrim in the first place?. I am sure you are going to turn out to be a powerful wolf. Powerful wolves take a long time before having their first shift" Clarissa rubbed her shoulder comfortingly.

Hazel nodded her head, her eyes still closed.

"C'mon, do not let this ruin your mood. Let's go out for some practice" Clarissa nudged her and Hazel opened her eyes.

"You are going to beat me up anyway" Hazel chuckled, trying to lighten her mood herself.

"You might be lucky today" Clarissa winked and started pulling Hazel towards the door.

Hazel let out a small smile, glad that though everyone was deserting her, there was still Clarissa who stuck to her in every situation.

Hazel was not as strong as Clarissa was but she was definitely not the weakest in the pack.

Clarissa was quite sure that Hazel's strength would come with her first shape shift and though Hazel hoped for it, she was starting to lose hope gradually.

As Clarissa pulled her along, Clarissa bumped into a maid. The smile on her face disappeared immediately and a disgusted look flashed on her face.

In less than a second, she had slapped the maid hard, sending the maid sprawling to the floor.

"I am sorry. I am really sorry. Please do not kill me" the maid immediately got onto to her knees, begging for mercy.

Clarissa took in a deep breath and let the same out.

"I will be merciful to you this once, disgusting wolf" she scoffed and walked away, still pulling Hazel along.

Hazel turned backwards and her gaze fell onto the maid who was wiping away her tears.

The maid was also a wolf but from a different pack. The maid was from the white wolf pack, a pack that they had conquered and captured since about 24 years ago.

Before 24 years ago, the white wolf pack and the dark wolf pack had been against each other for some time the animosity led to a war that the white wolf pack lost.

The white wolf members were slaves, servants and maids to the dark wolf members. They were even lower than omegas of the dark wolf pack.

And being treated like slaves was their entire life but Hazel found it hard to treat them like that.

She could not understand it but she knew that even when she had tried to treat them like trash so as to fit in, she was always unable to do that.

Hazel and Clarissa finally got out to the training grounds and Clarissa readily struck a fighting pose.

Hazel was about to do the same when her phone beeped, reminding her that she still had it in her pockets.

"Just a minute" she mumbled to Clarissa and removed the phone from her pocket.

It was a message from an unknown contact but Hazel went ahead opening the message anyways.

"Hello, pretty head. How have you been?"

Her lips parted in a gasp. There was only one person who called her pretty head.

Axel.

Hazel's eyes fixated on the message that she had just seen, she could not take her eyes off it.

Why was he suddenly sending a message to her after six years?

"Gosh" she muttered as she remembered what Clarissa had just told her about the rumor about him wanting to return.

"What's wrong?" Clarissa asked, noticing the look on Hazel's face.

"Nothing" Hazel took her eyes off her phone and flashed Clarissa a smile.

"I will just drop my phone" she added and walked a few meters away to drop her phone.

She was about dropping her phone when another message popped into her phone. With a little bit of reluctance, she opened the message again.

"How do I look now, pretty head?" The message read with a picture of him.

Hazel gulped as her eyes glued to the picture of him. He had really become a man, he was no longer the young adult she remembered him as.

His face had changed so much and the look on his face in that picture, it was not that teasy look that he had been flashing her all of her life, it was a matured look and she hated to admit that it was not just matured but also hot.

"What are you still doing with your phone?" Clarissa groaned.

"Nothing. Just a second." Hazel was sure that if Clarissa did not call out to her, she would have spent long minutes staring at that picture of him.

She did what she had promised herself to do if he ever contacted her in the future, she blocked his contact and dropped her phone.

"What was it with the message? You seemed quite surprised" Clarissa was curious to know what the message had been about.

"It is nothing particularly. Just some spam message" Hazel dismissed the topic.

Hours later

Hazel was at her home now, she was in her room, holding her phone in her hands and what she was staring at was his picture.

No, she was not crushing on him but she could not hold back the amazement on how much he had changed over the years.

She got up from her bed, dropping the phone and stepping in front of her mirror, realizing that he was not the only one who changed, she had also changed a whole lot too.

She was no longer that tiny girl that she was six years ago.

Even if he came back, she was not going to let him bully her anymore because she too, had grown a lot.

Her memory flashed back to their last moment together.

Flashback

"I will be leaving this night" Axel said to Hazel.

His back was pressed against the wall as he seemed very relaxed in the room of Hazel.

Hazel said nothing in response to his words but she was very glad that he was finally leaving.

"Say something, pretty head. You do not want me to leave?" He asked, his gaze falling on her.

"No, I want you to leave and you know that" Her voice had that timidity to it.

"You really want me to leave?" Axel asked and moved away from the wall, walking over to Hazel who was seated on the sofa in the room.

"Yes" she mumbled, letting her gaze fall to the floor.

"But you are going to miss me a lot, you realize that?" He asked.

"I... I won't miss you. I will never want you back in fact" she swore.

"Why?" His right brow raised.

"You have always been onto me. I do not want you around me anymore. It would be great when you leave, I would finally have freedom that I have always wanted, I would be able to go out on dates, I would be able to focus on myself and then I will shift and then I will find my mate and then...."

He suddenly sent his hand around her neck and with no warning, he pulled her closer and kissed her lips, shutting her up.

Hazel's body stiffened up. She literally froze as his lips came in contact with her own lips.

It was the last thing she had been expecting to happen in her life.

He pulled closer to her, easing the both of them into a much better and comfortable position.

His lips parted and took her lower lip into his own, sucking on her lips gently. He kissed her gently, his lips all over hers and yet fitting so perfectly with her own lips.

Hazel could feel her heart pounding hard as his tongue teased her lips. This was her first kiss and it being taken by him was supposed to be nightmare but this gentle kiss seemed nothing like a nightmare to herself.

Instead she felt her body easing and melting for what was supposed to be a nightmare.

Axel broke the kiss and pulled away from the kiss, his eyes still on her wet lips as he did so.

He pulled away from her and stood up straight before revealing a smirk on his face.

"What did you just do?!" Hazel screamed at him, shooting up from the sofa.

"You were talking too much, pretty head. I had to shut you up" he seemed completely satisfied with himself and the smirk that was still on his lips proved that fact.

"You.... You!" She pointed at him with her index finger expecting him to hit it away like he always did to her whenever she did so but it was different that day.

He grabbed her hand by the wrist and covered her finger with his mouth, sucking on it.

Hazel's eyes widened as she saw this, she tried to push him off but she was too weak for him.

"Stop, what are you doing?" She cringed and he finally pulled away from her finger.

"What is wrong with you today?" Her brows arched.

"I am leaving tonight. I should at least do something to make you remember me, pretty head. I know I just took your first kiss..." He chuckled.

"I will be back some day and I would be your first man too" he took a few steps backwards.

"Never! I will find my mate before you come back!" She yelled at him.

"And if I don't, I will have any other guy become my first, not you! Never you!"

His brows arched into that annoyed look and he pulled closer to her one more time making her shut up.

"Remember this, pretty head. No man is allowed to touch you" after saying those words, he moved away from her and finally exited the room.

That had been their last meeting and yet their strangest meeting. He had been different to her that day, too different.

Hazel shook herself out of the memories of the past. That strange occurrence had been years back but it was still imprinted in her mind, mainly because she had not still found her mate and she had not found any man too.

She had her eyes on Rex for sure but things were not progressing that well between the both of them as he did not seem to have the same feeling for her.

Her phone rang, jolting Hazel out of her thoughts.

She walked back to the bed and picked up the call.

It was Clarissa calling.

"Hey, are you dressed up yet?" Clarissa asked and Hazel's lips parted slightly as she realized that she had completely forgotten that they had an outing.

"You have not, yet" Clarissa sighed, drawing that conclusion from her silence.

"Just a few minutes and I will be done" Hazel requested, ended the call and dropped the phone back to the bed.

"I hate you, Axel" she mumbled.

She had her mind so preoccupied by the thoughts of Axel that she had forgotten that it was Rex's birthday party that evening.

She quickly opened her closet and luckily for her, she had picked what to wear beforehand.

She picked out the black slit dress and dropped it on the bed. She picked a pair of red heels and a red fancy purse.

She bit on her lips for a second as she stared at the things on the bed. She shrugged and rushed into her bathroom, almost slipping as she did so.

She took a rushed bath and dressed up as soon as possible. She tied her hair up in a neat bun while leaving strands of her hair to fall down her face.

She looked into the mirror and smiled, seeing how beautiful she looked in her choice of clothes.

She adjusted her hair a little bit. She wanted to look perfect for the night and tar was because she wasn't just going to meet Rex, she also planned on confessing her feelings for him.

"You're done or not, we are leaving" Clarissa pushed open her door.

"I am done" Hazel grinned proudly.

"Well, that was quick and that is definitely because it is about Rex" Clarissa teased.

"Just let's go already" Hazel giggled.

*

Hazel stepped out of the car and waited for Clarissa to walk over to her. The both of them passed smiles to each other before walking to the home of Rex.

It was a grand mansion and it screamed of the wealth that the entire family of the family screamed of, anyways.

There were white wolves running around, getting menial chores done and getting scolded at any slight provocations.

"Oh, their presence disgusts me" Clarissa scrunched her face up in disgust as a few white wolves walked past them.

Hazel made no comments on Clarissa's words and only walked forward into the mansion.

"Oh, Clarissa, you are here" a female wolf walked up to them and focused on Clarissa, ignoring the presence of Hazel almost completely.

"Yes" Clarissa smiled.

"Never thought you would be here for me" Clarissa added.

"Hello" Hazel called out to the female wolf.

"Hey, Hazel. You are here too, can I talk to Clarissa for a moment without you?" She asked.

"Without me? Why?"

"I am sorry but it is just that this talk is only for those who have shifted and have their wolf forms already"

Hazel knew the mockery was intentional.

"If you can't say it with Hazel here, then forget about it" Clarissa grabbed Hazel's hands and walked away from the lady.

"You did not have to be unfriendly to her just for me" Hazel said to Clarissa.

"She was being unfriendly to you first" Clarissa retorted.

"It is fine. I am okay with it"

"You cannot be okay with it, stop.... Oh my, your Rex is here"

"Really? Is he behind me?" Her face lit up.

"Yes" Clarissa giggled.

Hazel adjusted her dress and turned backwards to see Rex who was also walking up to her.

"Hello" she smiled at him gently.

"Hello Hazel, you are looking really beautiful tonight" he complimented her, his eyes running over her body.

"Thank you and happy birthday to you"

"Thank you for coming"

"Thank you for having me as a welcomed guest"

"Uhm, I have to go see the others. Have fun and let's chat later"

"Of course. Bye" she did a small wave as she watched him walk away.

"How did I do?" Hazel asked, turning to look at Clarissa only to realize that Clarissa was no longer with her.

She looked around and found Clarissa in the middle of three other females, chatting away with them.

Hazel's face fell slightly but she masked up with a smile. She did not want to go pull Clarissa away from the others and she knew joining them was not the best option too as it would only make her feel worse about herself.

Hazel walked over to a servant carrying a tray of drinks and took a glass of wine from the tray.

She walked away from the crowd that still yet felt a bit lonely to her. She walked out and stopped by the pool.

Taking off her shoes, she sat at the edge of the pool and dipped her legs into the pull after which she took the glass of wine to her like and had a taste of the wine.

"Great wine" she remarked, breaking the silence of the pool herself.

She looked up and stared at the moon.

"Why don't you just help me shift, moon goddess?" She asked.

"Why do you have to make mine so late? Am I that much of a bad person?" She queried the moon but of course got no response.

She downed the remaining content of the wine and dropped the glass. She wondered if she really belonged to the human world and wondered what it would be like for her to break the boundaries between this world and the human world and go to reside in the human world.

She fell quiet for long minutes before her name was called behind her.

"Hazel" it was Rex's voice that called out to her.

She turned to look at him and was more than glad to see him approaching her.

"Rex, you are here"

"Yeah, got bored and decided to come out for some fresh air"

"How can you get bored when it is your party?" She chuckled.

"It is just not me, I guess" Rex let out a chuckle and sat beside her by the pool.

The both of them fell silent as Hazel began forming words in her head.

She was going to tell him about her feelings for him. It was now or never and she badly hoped that she would not flop things and make things awkward between them.

"Rex" She called.

"Yeah?"

"You know, I have not... Not had my first shift and I have also not found my mate" She started and almost hit herself as soon as she finished.

Was there really a need for what she had just said?

"I actually... I am actually glad that I have not found my mate because... Because I already have someone that I like and do not need any mate."

"Wow! I wonder who the guy is" Rex grinned.

"You do not have to actually wonder because... Because the guy is you. Rex, I love you" she said to him, her eyes on him as she badly awaited a response from him.

He stared back at her, clearly taken aback by her sudden confession.

"I know it sounds so out of the blues but I really do like you" she added.

"Uhmm... Hazel, this comes to me as a huge surprise and....."

"You do not have to give me a response right away. I can always wait for you until you have thought it over" with those words, Hazel got up from the pool side and ran off, not wanting to hear his response at that moment.

She moved to the garden, the next quiet place in the mansion.

She was breathing quite heavily as she laid on the grass, staring up at the sky once more.

Her phone beeped, breaking the silence with the beep.

She reached for her phone and it was a message from Clarissa.

"Where ever you are, come over to the living room right away" the message read.

Hazel wondered what was going on as she pulled herself up from the grass, adjusted herself and headed back into the living room.

Her eyes fell on Clarissa immediately she walked in through the door.

"What's it?" She asked Clarissa whose face held a million dollar worth excitement.

Clarissa said nothing but pointed to her back.

"Just tell me what it is and stop...."

"Hello pretty head"