HATED BY MY TRIPLET ALPHAS

CHAPTER 4: THE DEVIL

Theron was the devil.

I could tell from staring into his soulless dark eyes. The eyes were the windows to the soul, and I knew right there and then what his soul was made of.

Theron tightened his hands around my throat, and for a frightening moment, I forgot to breathe.

He lowered his lips to my ear and whispered against my earlobe. His voice was biting, laced with the subtle venom he seemed to wear like a second skin.

“You’re not a woman,” he whispered, his words cutting like glass. “You’re filth, an ugly, embarrassing stain to this pack. Act like it.”

His words were sharp, cruel, just like him. After he said them, he flung me away like I was a rag doll. I crashed to the ground, bruising the side of my ribcage in the process.

Theron lunged for Tobias once again, bearing down on his spine and holding him in place. Tobias winced in pain from the impact, struggling to break free.

“Not so fast,” Theron said, kicking Tobias in the stomach. His assault elicited distorted cheers from the lunch crowd.

I tried to block out the sound as much as I could. All I could see was Tobias being kicked over and over again.

His hands shielded his face, trying to protect himself from the soles of Theron’s polished shoes, stained with hints of blood now. It didn’t stop Theron from getting in a few brutal kicks.

I pressed my hands against my bruised ribs, writhing in pain, and forced myself to my feet.

That was when I spotted Zevran standing next to the doorway.

He had a neutral expression on his face, utterly unbothered. I couldn’t believe he was still here. When he had walked away from me earlier, I thought he had left.

But he hadn’t.

If anything, it seemed he was waiting for his brothers to finish their cruel destruction of my best friend.

Zevran must have felt the burning intensity of my gaze because he locked eyes with me. I expected to see remorse in his eyes. Regret. An apology. Some sort of reaction.

But there was nothing. His eyes were empty, devoid of any emotion.

At the last second, he smirked at me, making everything hurt ten times worse than it already did.

He finally pushed off the wall and breezed out of the cafeteria. The doors closed behind him, and I felt a swell of rage in my chest.

It choked my throat, making it nearly impossible to breathe.

Goddess.

How could I have let myself be swayed by Zevran of all people?

I had bared my insecurities to him, thinking he was different from his brothers. But the truth was that he was the worst of them all.

Zevran Romanov was bad news.

All it had taken was the destruction of my dignity for me to finally see it.

I could barely bear to think of how naive I had been to trust him for even a second. I wanted to scream my lungs raw. My fingers itched to tear my hair out.

But then I thought of Tobias.

Mustering the last of my fast-diminishing strength, I staggered over to where Theron was still kicking Tobias.

Even though he was clearly losing, Tobias kept throwing punches at him, trying to land a hit.

He missed every time.

At this rate, Theron seemed hellbent on kicking Tobias until he passed out. It was his way of punishing him for daring to cross him.

I was done with all of it. I wanted it to stop.

Before Theron could land another kick, I slumped against Tobias, shielding him with my body. Then, I raised my hand in a conceding gesture.

“No more,” I rasped, my eyes pleading. “Please.”

Theron halted mid-kick and lowered his foot back to the floor. He tilted his head to the side, giving me a cold, calculating look.

Kade was staring at me too, but his gaze was more curious than cruel.

I dragged my eyes over to his. There was something inscrutable in his expression that caught my attention, but it vanished a second later.

He pulled his gaze away and feigned an elaborate yawn.

Theron glanced at him.

Kade yawned again, this time more exaggerated.

“Enough of this, Theron. I’m bored. Watching you kick that piece of s**t over and over again is making my head hurt. You know how cranky I get when I’m bored.”

He bared his fangs in a feral grin. His eyes twinkled with mischief.

Whatever his intention, it seemed to have the desired effect because Theron finally stepped away from Tobias and sauntered toward his brother.

The cafeteria’s attention also seemed to have shifted to watch the Romanov brothers being a pair of self-serving assholes.

“If you grow a headache, you could always go shag today’s girlfriend in the chemistry lab.” Theron gave Kade a ghost of a smile.

Kade beamed at him. “I would very much like that, but then, she’s got dance lessons until dusk.”

The lunch crowd chuckled at that. Simultaneously, I felt a wave of relief course through my veins.

Kade seemed to have taken the room’s attention away from me and Tobias with an off-handed joke. Could he have done it on purpose?

Why?

“How about we go for a run in the woods?” he quipped, giving Theron a suggestive look. “Who knows? Perhaps this is my chance to finally beat you in a race.”

Theron snorted at that. He narrowed his eyes at Kade, and I could tell he had forgotten all about Tobias.

“Fine. I’ll humor you.” He walked toward the cafeteria exit with slow, measured steps, looking like he owned the place.

Kade fell into step next to him, giving him the brightest smile I had ever seen. But right before he left, he turned back and looked at me.

Curious blue eyes held mine captive for a heated moment before he broke eye contact. He jogged to catch up with Theron’s retreating figure.

At the door, just before he disappeared from sight, Theron locked eyes with me.

His cold gaze was unreadable. Icy.

“Bye, cousin.”

Vera stepped into my line of vision, spitting her gum in my face.

“I’ll see you back in the house,” she smirked, wiggling her fingers in a condescending wave.

As she sashayed past me, her clique of friends paused to spit at the hem of my skirt.

“Bye, Amaris,” they chorused before hurrying to catch up with Vera.

Lunch ended shortly afterward.

I dropped back on my ass and exhaled a sigh of relief. I glanced across the room to the counter. Gladys was huddled between the stove and the plate rack.

Her eyes were sad and sympathetic. She looked sorry.

I shook my head at her, silently urging her not to be sorry.

None of this was her fault. Even if she had wanted to help us, I knew there was nothing she could have done about Vera and Theron’s assault.

The academy, as well as the entire pack, were pretty much controlled by the alpha triplets.

Thanks to the fact that their father, the former alpha, was in a vegetative state, they did whatever the f**k they wanted.

With their mother, the late Luna, dead, their word was law. They had so much power, it was impossible to cross them.

Not even the school’s authority dared to intervene whenever the Romanov triplets chose to “take care of business.”

Just like today.

As if on cue, Tobias groaned in pain. He had bruises on his arms, and his left eye seemed to have swollen shut.

He looked downright awful, and it was all my fault.

“Oh, Tobias,” I whispered, reaching out to touch his swollen face as gently as I could without hurting him further.

“I’m so sorry about all of this. You didn’t deserve the things that jerk did to you. It’s all my fault. I never should have tried to cross Vera. I should have held it in and allowed her to do what she wanted with me. It’s not like this is the first time it’s happened.”

“It’s not your fault, Amaris. I don’t want you blaming yourself over this.”

As he said it, he gripped his side and doubled over in pain.

I needed to get him out of here.

I looked across the room at Gladys.

“Go,” she mouthed to me. “You both take the rest of the day off.”

I nodded at her.

“Thank you,” I mouthed back.

I helped Tobias up to his feet and bore most of his weight on my shoulder as we staggered out of the cafeteria.

We headed to the pack clinic. Dr. Drew was out on his lunch break. When his assistant nurse offered to clean Tobias’s wounds, I volunteered to do it instead.

It was the least I could do.

The nurse agreed and handed me the supplies I needed.

It wasn’t that I didn’t feel beat up myself—I did. My ribs ached, my face throbbed, and every part of me screamed for rest.

But despite the fact that my wolf was too weakened by the black fever to interfere in most things, it was always quick to heal me of physical injuries.

The downside, though, was that it came at a cost. Every time my wolf used its strength to heal me, it risked deteriorating my health further.

The black fever was cancerous, and my wolf didn’t have much left to give.

Still, the healing was happening, whether I wanted it or not. I pushed the thought away and focused on Tobias instead.

He took off his shirt and sat on the edge of a narrow bunk bed. I eased into the stool in front of him and began to dress his wounds.

“What were you thinking, getting recklessly involved in my fight with Vera?” I scolded him, my tone sharp with worry. “You could have been seriously hurt because of me.”

I must have dabbed ointment on his cracked rib a little too hard because he swore under his breath.

“I’m sorry. Are you okay?” I leaned forward to blow cool air over his ribs.

“I’m fine,” Tobias wheezed out a chuckle, sounding amused.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “None of this is funny.”

“I know,” he grinned sheepishly. “It’s just funny how agitated you are right now, knowing that you did the exact same thing for me.”

“Of course,” I rose to my defense. “The jerk was going to kill you. I had to get in the way.”

“My point exactly.”

“But you never should have gotten involved, Tobias, especially after Theron and Kade showed up. When Theron started kicking you, I thought you were going to pass out. I panicked. I would have done anything to make it stop.”

I finished dabbing ointment on his wounds and began applying plaster.

“You did make it stop,” Tobias said, giving me a lopsided smile. “You saved me, Amaris. Thank you.”

“Oh please. If anyone’s the hero here, it’s you.”

“Are we seriously going to argue about who the hero was in the Romanov brothers’ horror story?” he questioned, raising a perfectly arched eyebrow at me.

It was meant to be a joke, but I couldn’t bring myself to laugh. I was still very much upset about everything that had happened in the last hour.

“I’m sorry, Tobias. I just can’t bring myself to laugh about this.”

“Hey. It’s okay.” Tobias covered my hands with his. “I’m sorry you had to go through all of that.”

“It had all been a setup,” I told him. It was embarrassing, and I felt foolish confessing it all to him, but I knew I had to.

I told him about the wooden wall shattering and my tripping into the warriors’ training. I told him about Master Stone, about Zevran coming to my rescue, being nice to me, and asking me to eat lunch with him.

When I got to the part where Vera confessed to asking Zevran to trick me, Tobias clenched his fists furiously.

“Those Romanov triplets are everything that’s wrong with this pack,” he spat angrily. “I can’t believe Zevran had the nerve to do that to you. Piece of shit.”

I sighed. “I had always thought of him as the nicest of the triplets.”

“None of them are nice,” Tobias deadpanned. “Trust me. They’re all the same.”

Again, I sighed. “I feel so stupid for letting my guard down with him.”

“You’re not stupid, Amaris. I don’t care what Vera thinks. It’s not ridiculous for you to desire a mate for yourself. You’re entitled to that, just like everyone else. You’re also worthy of a beautiful love story—the kind that sweeps you off your feet.”

His words were soft and soothing.

“Really?” I stared deeply into his eyes, caught up in this vulnerable moment between us.

“Are you kidding me? Of course.” He scoffed, looking offended by my question. “You’re so f*****g beautiful and smart. But most of all, you’ve got a kind heart. You’re a total catch, Amaris. If anything, guys should be tripping over their feet for a chance to talk to you. And if Zevran can’t see that, it’s his loss.”

“Tobias,” I whispered, my lips beginning to wobble. “You really see me that way?”

He took my hands in his and gave me a reassuring smile. “Yes. I think you’re pretty awesome.”

“I think you’re pretty awesome too.”

“Really?” he grinned. “Run away with me then.”