Melissa.

I immediately stepped out of Cain's room and the darkness from the hallway hit me, but it felt blinding compared to the dungeon of humiliation I had just escaped. I barely had time to drag in a breath before I collided with a solid chest.

I stumbled backward and froze.

Cypril.

Of course.

Could my day get any better? The bitter thought scraped across my mind, raw and trembling.

Cypril's eyes darkened instantly. A dangerous glint flickered in them, cold, predatory, cruel. His jaw tensed, and before I could move away, his hand shot out. His fingers clamped around my chin roughly, jerking my face upward so hard it rattled my skull.

"Can't you watch where you're going?" he thundered, his voice echoing down the corridor like a trigger ready to explode.

He didn't wait for my response before tossing my chin to the side, as though even touching me left a stain on his skin. Pain flared down my jaw, joining the sea of agony already tormenting my battered body.

"I'm sorry, Alpha Cypril," I whispered quickly, my voice trembling. "I really didn't intend to bump into you."

My apology didn't matter.

His expression twisted-more fury, more disgust-and suddenly, he fisted my hair at the base of my skull. The move was violent and quick, and a scream lodged inside my throat as he yanked me forward.

My feet scrambled helplessly beneath me as he dragged me down the hall, towards his room, which was only two doors down from Cain's. Panic crawled up my spine like a thousand fire ants.

"YOU BITCH!" Cypril spat, slamming the door behind us. The sound cracked like thunder in my ears. "Stealing from your sister wasn't enough, now you want to hit me too?"

His voice dripped venom, every syllable slicing deeper than claws ever could.

He stood inches from me, staring straight into my eyes, daring me to speak, to explain, to breathe wrong. The air between us churned with rage, pain, and something darker, something I didn't understand and didn't want to.

I didn't respond.

Couldn't respond.

My mouth opened, closed, then remained still. My tongue felt glued to the roof of my mouth, heavy and useless. My body screamed in pain from the welts on my back, every breath a stretch of torn skin.

Cypril's nostrils flared.

"I am talking to you. You answer right away." His voice slithered low and lethal, more terrifying than when he shouted.

Still, no sound came out. Not even a whimper.

And that was enough.

In the blink of an eye, Cypril grabbed my jaw, not gently, not with warning, and crashed his mouth against mine.

My mind went blank.

The kiss wasn't a question, it was a punishment, a command, an invasion. His lips claimed mine with bruising pressure, his teeth scraping, his tongue forcing its way into my mouth. It wasn't passion, it was dominance, fierce and consuming.

I shuddered under him, my thoughts scattering like frightened birds. My hands trembled at my sides, debating between surrender and resistance. My heart hammered painfully, fear, anger, humiliation and yet somewhere beneath the storm, something treacherous fluttered.

Want.

No. Goddess no.

I fought against it, against him, against myself. I gathered the last scraps of my strength and pushed against his chest. My palms met muscle, unmoving, unyielding. He didn't budge an inch.

He only growled low in his throat, a beast satisfied by prey that dared struggle.

The kiss deepened, vicious now, like he was punishing me for daring to exist beneath him. My lungs burned as he gave me no space to breathe. His grip tightened, forcing my mouth open wider as if he wanted to consume every breath I owned.

I tasted iron.

Then blood.

My blood.

Cypril didn't stop, instead, he seemed to enjoy it, devouring the taste as though pain fed him. Every movement of his lips tore through me, through my thoughts, my identity, my sense of self.

And all I could do was stand there, body screaming, mind fracturing, caught between horror and the terrifying truth that some part of me responded even when I wished it didn't.

Cypril kissed like he had no mercy.

And I knew...

He wouldn't be done anytime soon.

It happened on instinct, one wild, desperate burst of strength that came from somewhere deeper than muscle or bone. With a strangled gasp, I shoved him away. My palms slipped against his chest, slick with nervous sweat, but the force was enough to create distance.

Cypril staggered half a step back.

I breathed hard. My lungs clawed for air like drowning creatures, my hands trembling violently. My fingers shot up to my lip, stinging, raw, pulsing with pain and came away stained with blood. Warm, thick, metallic.

My lips were already swelling, puffing beneath my touch. The heat radiating from them contrasted painfully against the chill of terror coursing through me.

I was still dazed, gently running my thumb over the torn skin, trying to understand what had just happened, when Cypril moved again.

Not a kiss this time.

A strike.

His hand cracked across my face so hard my ears rang. My head snapped to the side and for a moment the edges of the world flickered white, like lightning behind my eyes. Then pain bloomed, sharp at first, then hot, then throbbing.

I froze.

My cheek burned. Tears spilled instantly, sliding down in hot, helpless trails. They clung to my jaw, dripping slowly, like a betrayal my body performed without permission.

He had kissed me, violently, possessively, not even a minute ago. And now he hit me like I was nothing. A thing. A toy to be claimed, crushed, thrown.

How ironic.

I wasn't a mate, or a woman, or even a wolf to him.

Just an object he could devour and then destroy for sport.

"You don't get to decide when I stop!" Cypril roared, taking a furious step toward me. His voice vibrated through the room, bouncing off the walls, drilling into my skull. "You hear me?"

My breath came in shudders. I forced my gaze upward, meeting his eyes through a haze of tears. The room swam slightly, my vision distorted as though I were underwater.

"Yes, Alpha Cypril," I whispered.

My voice cracked, breaking on the words like they were too heavy to carry. The admission tasted like ash.

The tears kept falling, hot and endless. I swallowed them along with the ache in my throat. I wondered, distantly, if this was what my life would become, pain, humiliation, obedience to men who hated me yet refused to let me go.

Would every breath be controlled by their whims? Would every moment blur into fear and shame?

My thoughts tumbled, disjointed, broken. My wolf whimpered deep inside me, curling inward, wounded in ways the whip could never reach.

Just then, the sharp creak of the door sliced through the tension.

The knob turned. The frame hit the wall.

And Caleb slid inside.

He paused just past the threshold, taking in the scene-Cypril seething, me trembling, blood streaking my swollen lips.

His expression changed, though I couldn't decipher what emotion flashed across his face.

My stomach dropped.

Things could only get worse from here.

MELISSA.

"Hey, Melissa... Did you just seduce my brother?" Caleb's voice sliced through the silence like a blade, low and taunting, yet dripping with false innocence.

His eyes dragged slowly over my face, locking on my lips, swollen, split, smeared with a faint trace of blood. The sight told a thousand stories, none of them in my favor.

Heat flooded my cheeks, shame spreading through me like poison.

"I..." My throat tightened. The word scraped painfully out of me, barely a whisper. "I..."

I choked on the sentence, tongue thick and uncooperative.

What could I possibly say?

Explain?

They wouldn't believe me.

Defend myself?

They'd twist it.

I opened my mouth again, desperate to speak, but the sound died as footsteps echoed down the hallway.

Cain strode in, Amelia nestled in his arms as though she belonged nowhere else. Her body rested fully against him, her arms draped possessively around his neck, his hand gliding lazily around her waist as if he couldn't bear to let her go.

Their closeness stole the oxygen from my lungs.

Amelia's eyes widened, taking in the scene, my flushed face, the welt swelling on my cheek, Cypril standing much too close, Caleb leaning casually against the wall as if watching theater.

"What just happened here?" she asked, her voice soft yet edged with sharp curiosity.

Her gaze flicked to Cypril, then to my trembling hands, then back again.

Before I could gather courage enough to speak, Cypril stepped forward, shoulders relaxed, expression cool, as though nothing had happened, as though he hadn't pinned me against a wall moments earlier.

"Why don't you ask this slut?" he drawled.

The word hit like another blow.

My knees wobbled. My vision pinpricked black at the edges.

A sly smile curled at Cypril's lips, a smile that said I dare you to deny me.

"She forced herself on me," he finished, voice ringing with practiced confidence.

The room spun.

I felt every eye on me-Caleb's amused, Cyrus's unreadable, Amelia's gleaming with something disturbingly close to satisfaction, Cain's dark and cold.

My head moved before my voice could form. I shook vigorously, desperate, panicked.

"N-no. I didn't," I gasped, words tumbling out unevenly. "I swear...I didn't..."

My chest squeezed painfully as humiliation choked me. My heart pounded against my ribs hard enough to bruise. Everything inside me screamed to run, to claw out of my own skin, to vanish.

"Are you calling my brother a liar?" Cain's voice thundered.

The disgust in his tone was unmistakable, thick, suffocating, dripping from each syllable like venom. He stared at me with open hatred, as if merely looking at me offended him.

Amelia pressed herself closer against him, a slow smile creeping across her lips, not pity, not concern, triumph.

I lowered my gaze, the weight of their judgment hammering down mercilessly. Tears stung the corners of my eyes, threatening to fall. My lips trembled as I sucked in a shaky breath.

"No," I whispered, voice strangled and breaking apart. "I'm not..."

But the sentence dissolved before it could be completed. My words meant nothing here. The air was thick with decisions already made, sides already chosen, truth already discarded.

In that moment, I realized something terrifying: It didn't matter that I was innocent. They had already decided I was guilty. And no amount of pleading would change that.

"You dare have the nerve to seduce Cypril, Melissa." Cain's voice wasn't shouted, yet it was more terrifying than a roar, low, controlled, strained, like a beast holding himself back from tearing something apart with his bare hands.

His eyes burned into me, murder simmering beneath the surface, his jaw clenched so tight a vein pulsed in his neck.

My stomach twisted. I felt every inch of my skin crawl under that glare.

Caleb let out a short, cruel laugh, pushing himself lazily off the wall before leaning back again as if the whole moment amused him.

"No matter how you throw your body around, Melissa," he drawled, lips curling upward, "we wouldn't want you."

His eyes swept down my body with disdain so sharp I flinched.

"You are nothing but a disgrace," he continued, stretching the word as if savoring it, "and you are totally...utterly....disgusting."

Each syllable fell heavier than the last, hammering my already shattered heart.

"Honestly, you have no shame at all."

Cain spat the words, taking a step toward me. "You know we are engaged to your sister now," he emphasized with venom, "and you dare show off your body to us?"

The accusation struck like a knife.

I hadn't shown anything, not intentionally, not ever.

"Doesn't that make you a whore?" Caleb cut in, voice rising sharply, the insult thrown at me like a slap.

A ripple of gasps echoed around us.

Only then did I realize we weren't alone.

The housemaids had begun to gather, curious, eager, hungry for drama. Their wide eyes and whispering mouths sliced through me in ways the whip hadn't.

Heat flooded my cheeks, shame crawled up my throat and settled in my lungs, making it hard to breathe. I wrapped my arms around myself, wishing desperately for the floor to split open and swallow me whole.

A sob rose in my chest, and I bit hard on my lip, trying, failing, to choke it down.

Tears blurred my vision, spilled hot and unstoppable down my cheeks.I couldn't hold them back anymore.Not when every word they threw at me felt like claws ripping me open.

"Then... reject me!" The words flew out before I could stop them, raw, desperate, torn from the deepest part of my pain.

Silence crashed over the room like a thunderclap. I saw the way Amelia stiffened in Cain's arms, and Caleb's smirk vanished, Cypril froze mid-breath.

And the triplets turned toward me, slowly as though the air itself had shifted.Their faces darkened, shadows creeping into their expressions. Rage burning through them.

The kind that promised I had just spoken the one sentence I should never have dared to voice.

In that heartbeat, I realized rejection, what I had prayed for moments before, might not be mercy.

It might be a fate worse than anything I'd endured yet, but I didn't mind.

"Reject me already! Free me from this bond!" I said loudly.