STEPUNCLES' ALPHAS, PUNISH ME EVERYNIGHT

CHAPTER 4

Autumn’s POV

I was ten when I lost the only person who truly cared about me.

Jasper Logan. My dad.

He wasn’t my real father, but he was the only one who ever made me feel like I mattered. The stepbrother of the Logan triplets, the man who found me alone in the forest when I was five and brought me into this pack. He sheltered me, protected me—loved me like his own.

Then, on my tenth birthday, he was gone.

Killed in battle.

And everything changed.

The triplets—Adonis, Knox, and Dante—had been fifteen at the time. Too young to take over as Alphas, but still old enough to raise me like their little angel. Their princess.

They adored me.

And then… on my eighteenth birthday, they found her.

Agatha.

A rogue girl. Same age as me.

She had been wandering alone, helpless, and instead of turning her away, they gave her everything.

A home. A family. My place.

And from that moment on, I started to disappear.

Slowly. Subtly. Like a shadow fading from the light.

Agatha made sure of that.

I trusted them. I thought they would always be on my side.

I was a fool.

A sharp bang interrupted my thoughts.

The door swung open without a knock.

My chest tightened.

Agatha.

She stood in the doorway, her arms crossed, a smug grin on her lips. Her golden curls cascaded over her shoulders, perfectly styled as always.

I forced a smile. A small, indifferent one.

She didn’t like that.

"You know," she drawled, stepping inside, "I almost feel bad for you." A pause. Then, with a smirk— "Almost."

I said nothing, just watched her.

She moved further into the room, letting her fingers trail along my desk as if she owned it. As if she owned everything.

"You should’ve seen it, Barbie," she sighed dramatically, flipping her hair over her shoulder. "Last month, when Uncle Adonis gave me that full set of designer bags. Oh, and the dresses? Gods, they were custom-made from Silvermoon Boutique. Only the best, of course."

She hummed in satisfaction, waiting. Watching.

Waiting for a reaction.

I gave her nothing.

Her smile twitched, but she covered it quickly.

"Oh, and the best part?" She tilted her head, eyes bright with amusement. "Remember when you had to spend the night in the storage room? All because of that little mistake you made?"

My fingers curled under the blanket, nails biting into my palm.

She was lying.

I hadn’t stolen her homework.

I had written it.

I had spent the entire night working on it—my hand cramping, my vision blurring from exhaustion—only for Agatha to slap her name on it the next morning.

And when I had protested, when I had tried to fight back—

She had cried. Big, fat, perfect tears.

"She stole it from me! I worked so hard!"

They believed her.

I had been punished—locked in my room for an entire day without food. While Agatha?

She had been praised. Rewarded.

Back then, it broke me. I had been cast aside, labeled the bully while she played the victim.

But now?

Now, I just smiled.

"Oh, right. That day." I tilted my head, studying her face. "The one where you cried like someone died because I got scolded?"

Agatha stiffened. The smirk faltered for half a second.

Gotcha.

"I—I didn’t cry," she stammered.

I laughed, soft and amused. "Of course not. You were just so overwhelmed that you needed Uncle Dante to comfort you for two hours, huh?"

Her jaw clenched.

"You little—"

"Oh, and wasn’t that also when you accidentally let it slip to the omegas that I got punished? Because you were so worried about me?" I smiled sweetly, even as my pulse quickened. I was playing with fire, but I didn’t care.

Agatha’s expression soured. Her lips thinned. For the first time in a long time, she looked… uneasy.

And I enjoyed every second of it.

She straightened, masking her irritation with another smirk. "It doesn’t matter." She scoffed, flipping her hair. "At the end of the day, I’m the one they care about. Not you."

Ah.

There it was.

The real reason she was here.

She needed to remind herself—and me—that she had won.

That she had taken everything.

That she had destroyed me.

In my past life, I would have flinched. I would have doubted everything.

But today?

Today, I simply tilted my head and asked, voice soft, "Why?"

Agatha blinked.

For the first time, she didn’t have an answer.

Her lips parted, but no words came out.

I leaned forward slightly, holding her gaze. "Why do they care about you more than me?" My voice was gentle. Curious. Almost innocent. "Because you’re their real family? Because you’re kind and loving? Because you deserve it?"

Each question made her tense.

Her shoulders drew up. Her fingers clenched the edge of the desk.

She scoffed, but it sounded forced. "Of course."

"Then why are you here?" I asked, tilting my head.

Silence.

Heavy. Charged.

Agatha’s confidence cracked. Just a little.

She opened her mouth. Shut it.

Her knuckles turned white against the fabric of her dress.

She hadn’t expected this. She expected me to break. To rage. To give her something she could use against me.

But I was giving her nothing.

Just questions.

Questions she didn’t want to answer.

"Oh, Agatha," I sighed, shaking my head, a small, pitying smile tugging at my lips. "You look so worried. What’s wrong?"

Her nostrils flared. A flush crept up her neck. "Shut up."

I chuckled, genuinely amused. "Did I hit a nerve?"

She scoffed, flipping me off before storming out, her heels clicking angrily against the floor.

I exhaled slowly, my fingers tightening around the sheets.

I need to leave. Now. Before history repeats itself.

My legs carried me to the Alpha’s office before my mind could fully process what I was doing. Standing at the door, I inhaled deeply, forcing my pulse to steady before pushing it open.

The familiar scent of sandalwood and pine filled the room, once comforting, now suffocating.

Adonis sat behind his desk, flipping through a report with his usual detached expression. Knox stood near the bookshelves, arms crossed, unreadable. Dante lounged in the chair across from me, legs spread in his typical lazy confidence, twirling a dagger between his fingers.

They barely acknowledged me at first. Like I was nothing. Like I always had been.

I straightened my spine, keeping my voice polite, distant. "I want permission to leave the pack."

The air in the room changed.

Adonis’s golden eyes lifted from the report, pinning me with a sharp, unreadable gaze. Knox’s arms stiffened slightly, though he said nothing. Dante’s dagger froze mid-spin between his fingers.

For a moment, there was only silence. Thick. Heavy. Suffocating.

Then—

"No."

A single word. Flat. Absolute.

My stomach twisted, my nails biting into my palms. "I have no reason to stay."

Knox sighed, rubbing his temple. "Autumn, don’t start."

"Start what?" I asked, my voice deceptively calm, though my chest burned with frustration. "I don’t belong here. Isn’t that what Agatha always says?"

Dante let out a dark, humorless chuckle. "Since when do you listen to Agatha?"

I gritted my teeth. "Since it became obvious she was right."

Adonis leaned forward, placing his hands on the desk, his expression unreadable but firm. "You’re not leaving."

Something inside me snapped.

"Why not?" I demanded, my voice rising despite my best efforts to contain it.

"Because I said so."

"I beg your pardon? I hope you understand that I have a right to choose to stay with you people or not and I am deciding to leave! Besides, you all have always wanted this why are you refusing now?" I asked again in confusion.

I sucked in a sharp breath. Of course. No explanation. No discussion. Just control.

Adonis leaned back in his chair, arms crossed. "You’re not leaving."

Knox didn’t move. "End of discussion."

Dante tilted his head lazily, a smirk ghosting his lips. "Where would you even go, Barbie? The world isn’t kind to omegas without a pack."

Like you care.

"I'm going to decide where I want to go for myself. It's none of your business if I decide to be anywhere else but here. Besides there are always kind humans out there that I can live with and won't always remind me that I an omega at every given opportunity!"

I caught the look on Dante's face the moment I said that. It was as if he regretted saying that to me.

His next statement also confirmed that I wasn't going crazy.

"I'm not trying to rub it on your face that you are an Omega. I'm just trying to tell you how dangerous the world out there is." He explained.

I scoffed, "you've been rubbing it on my face for as long as I can remember. Now you are saying you didn't mean to do it? I'm a little bit curious..."

"Do you guys need me to call you a doctor? Dear uncles, please stop scaring me and act like your normal selves!" I yelled at them.

I've been doing everything I can't to get them mad so that I can finally leave but they don't seem to be getting angry. Do they really need a doctor?

"You can say whatever you want but you are not leaving." Adonis replied again.

"Have you guys gone mad? Have you lost your memory or what? I'm the same bully, evil and conniving girl that you all know! Don't you hate people like me the most? What the hell is wrong with you?" I fired at them again.

"What's your point?"

"I want to leave!"

Why the hell are they doing this to me? Could they be missing with me on purpose to make me angry and make me suffer?

That's the only reason I could think of. But what the hell do they want from me? What an I do to make them leave me alone?

I clenched my fists beneath the table, willing myself to stay calm even as anger coiled tightly inside me.

They didn’t know.

They didn’t know that every second I stayed, we were getting closer to the truth—a truth that would bind me to them forever.

A truth I refused to let happen.

I was their mate.

And they had no idea.

But they would.

Eventually, their wolves would feel the bond. Their instincts would scream at them to claim me.

And when that day came?

They would still reject me. Just like before. Just like they always would.

I wouldn’t survive it again.

I lifted my chin, forcing my voice to remain steady. "I don’t belong here."

Adonis’s gaze darkened. "You were raised in this pack. This is your home."

Home. The word was a joke.

"No, it’s not." I met his gaze head-on, refusing to cower. "You made that clear years ago."

Dante leaned forward, his dark eyes assessing me. "What’s with this sudden obsession with leaving? Is this about Agatha? Did she say something?"

I inhaled sharply, forcing my hands to remain still. "Does it matter?"

Knox exhaled heavily, rubbing his temple like I was a problem he was too tired to deal with. "You’re not leaving."

I felt my control slipping.

"Why?" My voice cracked slightly.

None of them answered.

The room was too quiet, thick with something unspoken, something I wasn’t meant to know.

They wouldn’t even look at each other.

Something was off.

My stomach twisted. I scanned their faces, searching for answers. "You always told me I was a burden. That I had no place here. So why now? Why keep me?"

Silence.

Adonis’s jaw tightened.

Dante smirked, but his fingers twitched.

Knox… Knox was watching me too closely.

I hated that look. That calculating, unreadable look.

Like he was trying to figure me out.

A shiver ran down my spine. Something was wrong.

I took a slow step back, forcing a stiff smile. "I see. So I’m a prisoner, then?"

Dante let out a low chuckle, the sound dark, dangerous. "If you were a prisoner, Barbie, you’d be locked up right now."

"What the hell?"