Mated To The Alpha Triplets (SPICY)

Chapter 9

CASSIE'S POV

I didn't sit down.

I couldn't have sat down if I wanted to. My legs were shaking but they held me upright. My hands were covered in my mother's blood and they were trembling but they stayed clenched at my sides. Every rational thought in my head was screaming at me to run, to get out, to survive this somehow. But there was nowhere to run to anymore. This was my home. My mother was on the floor behind me. And these men - these monsters who had done this to her - were standing in front of me like they had every right to be here.

"I said sit down," the man repeated.

I looked at him. Really looked at him, at the blade in his hand still dripping red, at the way he stood like he'd done this before, like killing was something as routine as breathing.

"No," I said.

The man's eyes narrowed behind his mask. "You've got spirit. I'll give you that." He took another step forward. "But spirit doesn't matter much when you're wolfless, does it?"

He was right. He was completely, objectively right. Without my wolf, I was nothing against them. I had no enhanced strength, no speed, no healing. I was just a girl who had spent her whole life being reminded that she was less than everyone else - weaker, broken, worthless.

But right now, standing over my mother's body, I didn't feel worthless.

i felt angry.

I felt like pure rage given human form.

The man lunged.

I moved on instinct. I'd had years of dodging Kenny's hands, of avoiding pack members who thought wolfless meant defenseless, of learning to read violence before it landed - all of it kicked in at once. I threw myself sideways just as his blade came down. It missed me by inches and got stuck in the wall where my head had been a second before.

He cursed and yanked it free.

I launched myself at him.

I went for his face first. I used my fingers to claw for his eyes because I knew I couldn't match his strength but I could blind him. He threw his head back and I caught the side of his jaw instead, snapping his head to the right. He grunted then shoved me hard.

I stumbled back but didn't fall.

I grabbed the wooden chair from beside the table and swung it at him with everything I had. It connected with his shoulder with a c***k that sent a jolt up both my arms. He roared and grabbed the chair, ripping it out of my hands so easily it felt like taking a toy from a child.

I knew they could overpower me in seconds but these men just killed my mother. I’d be damned if I went down without a fight.

They can’t just get away with it.

The second man grabbed me from behind, locking his arms around my chest and lifting me clean off the ground. I drove my elbow back into his ribs, once, twice, and felt him grunt each time, his grip loosening just slightly. I threw my head back and connected with his nose. He cursed and dropped me.

I spun around and got one solid kick into his knee before the first man grabbed a fistful of my hair, pulling me backwards so hard my feet left the floor.

“Let me go” I screamed.

“Not a chance, you little b***h” he hissed.

Before I could hit him again, he knocked me to the ground. I hit the ground on my back. The air left my lungs in one brutal rush.

My whole body was filled with pain. My breath was knocked out so much that I started coughing.

For a moment, my vision got blurry and I couldn’t see anything. Still, I didn’t give up. I couldn’t.

Before I could pull a breath back in, something hard connected with my side. A kick.

The man kicked me repeatedly – again and again.

I groaned in agony. I curled around the pain instinctively then another blow came. He kicked everywhere - my shoulder, my ribs again. I tried to get up but my arms wouldn't cooperate. My whole left side was screaming and my vision had gone white at the edges. I could feel myself slowly going unconscious.

I managed to push myself up on one hand, and the third man - the one who had been quiet the whole time - stepped forward and hit me across the face with the back of his hand.

I went down and this time I stayed down.

The floor was cold against my cheek. I could taste blood. I was breathing heavily. Pain spread through my entire body.

I couldn’t move even if I wanted to. My ribs felt like broken glass every time I breathed and my left eye was already swelling shut. I tried to lift my arm but it shook so badly it buckled under me.

This is it, huh? This is how I die.

"That's enough of that," the first man said, crouching down beside me. He grabbed my chin and turned my face up towards his. Up close his eyes were dark and completely empty. I couldn’t do anything except stare at him "You don't have a wolf. You never did have a wolf. You're nothing. You understand that? A nothing who should have been dealt with the same time your mother was."

I stared at him. I couldn't speak. I couldn't fight. But I did not look away.

He stood back up. "Finish it."

The third man raised the blade.

I closed my eyes. I thought about my mother. I thought about all my memories with her.

For some reason, I briefly thought about three impossibly handsome brothers who had offered me something and how I had walked away to think about it and now I would never think about anything again. I thought about how I had never even gotten my wolf. I thought about how unfair it was, how brutally, completely unfair, that my mother had worked herself to the bone for a better life and this was where it ended - in this little house, on this floor, with cold air coming under the door.

Then the door exploded inward.