Chapter 3

Alanza’s POV

“Get off me.”

The words were a dry hiss against the heavy air. I slammed back against the kitchen wall. Teo Montero’s hand tightened around my throat, lifting me onto my toes. My groceries tumbled to the hardwood floor. Apples rolled, thudding dull echoes in the silent house. They’d be bruised. That was the stupid thing my brain focused on.

Teo grinned, a sickening twist of his lips. “I hear you’ve been playing princess, thinking you’re being sent off to find some fool to take you as a mate.” His breath was hot and reeked of something metallic and fishy. I tried to turn my face away from it.

His free hand cracked against my cheek, snapping my head back. “What makes you think you’re good enough for the gala, huh?” He growled each word, pouring out all my worst thoughts. “You think you can ever escape our pack? Do you actually believe anyone would want you? A wolfless freak like you? You’d be rejected in a heartbeat.”

My heart hammered against my ribs. A frantic, trapped rhythm. Teo's grip squeezed tighter, and my lungs burned. I panted, sucking in air through my open mouth.

“Defective,” he whispered, his tongue flicking against my ear. A shudder of pure revulsion ran down my spine, bringing bile into my throat. Punches, kicks, insults—those I understood. This was different. This wasn’t the usual game.

A surge of hot anger ripped through me. I clawed at his forearm, my nails digging in, leaving long, angry welts. I tried to kick out, but he stepped closer, pinning my legs to the wall with his weight. The press of his body was sickening.

“If any bruises show, Dad’s going to be furious,” I spat out. I struggled, trying to ignore the hard evidence of his excitement pushing against my belly. “You really want to piss off the Beta right before the mate-match event?”

The mention of my father and the gala made him hesitate. His fingers flexed but eased just a little. I dropped my gaze. I had learned a long time ago that submission was a tool. Whatever got me through the next five minutes. Whatever kept his hands from doing worse.

“Please,” I whimpered, letting a shake enter my voice. I tilted my head back, exposing my neck. Teo loved that. His grunt of approval was disgusting.

He leaned in, sniffing beneath my left ear. Then he licked the crescent-shaped scar on my neck. A long, slow, wet drag. The bile surged again, stinging the back of my throat. I fought it back.

“Please,” I begged again. His grip on my throat was gone, his hand sliding down to cup my hip, pulling me in. I closed my eyes, breathing shallowly through my mouth. “I need to make dinner. Pascual is coming home.”

Pain lanced through my shoulder as Teo bit down, his jaw hard and unyielding. A raw shriek escaped me. I slapped frantically at his shoulder, twisting against him. “Teo! Fuck! That hurts!”

He let go with a soft grunt, but not before suckling a nasty bruise onto my skin. He grabbed my jaw, forcing me to meet his eyes. That was when I realized the rules had changed completely. I’d expected a beating.

Instead, my tormentor gave me a look of pure, maniacal satisfaction. “You’ll never leave us, Alanza. You’re a defective piece of shit, but you belong here. There’s nothing to save you at the gala. You’ll be our little omega breeder soon enough, even without your wolf.”

My stomach dropped to my feet. “Omega… breeder?”

He chuckled, squeezing my jaw. “You’ll be our little pack whore, Alanza. Even without a wolf.” The small, blessed moment of freedom when he let go of my face vanished as his hand slid slowly down my neck, between my breasts, and rested on my abdomen. He pushed in, then slid lower to cup the soft skin between my thighs. He squeezed.

“You won’t be good for much else, but at least we can fill this with little pups.”

I couldn’t feel my body anymore. Everything around the edges of my vision went dark. But his words kept sliding in, poisoning everything I thought I was working toward.

He held my hips with both hands, pushing his erection against me. He started rocking, nibbling on my jaw, leaving a trail of wetness. “You’re lucky enough to be a pretty little defect, Alanza. It won’t be too hard to use you.” He groaned, rocking faster. “Fuck, Alanza. I’m going to breed you until you learn your place, you understand?”

I understood. Hard not to, with his grunts and his weight against me.

He was panting in my ear. I was lost, trying to climb out of my own skin, when his instruction finally reached me. A hard fist in my stomach brought me crashing back to the present. He shoved me down to my knees and fumbled with his jeans.

“Beg me for it, Alanza,” he rasped. He forced my hand around the length of him. It was smaller than I had imagined, and it smelled like a week-old gym sock.

Then, a sudden, familiar sound. An engine. Teo froze, his head tilted, listening. But he didn’t stop. He shoved his awful length into my mouth. I gagged, my lips tearing at the corners. My whole body heaved with the force of my rejection.

My mouth was instantly full of a bitter, metallic taste. “Swallow!” he growled, even as he was pulling out and zipping up, right as the front door swung open.

My brother Pascual’s distant brown eyes took in the scene. He paused, his gaze sweeping over the groceries scattered on the floor. He seemed to barely register me on my knees in front of Teo. A faint sneer lifted his upper lip. He gave a curt nod.

“Montero.”

He knew. His nostrils flared once. He had to smell the aggression, the fear, the residue of what just happened. But he did nothing.

Nothing.

Teo smiled, rolling his shoulders back, then dropped his head slightly in a show of false submission. “Alpha heir. Alanza was just telling me you were coming home for dinner. I was just stopping by to check on her.” He spoke with a sickening, false intimacy.

My belly rebelled. Against his words, the taste in my mouth, and everything I had just endured.

I shot up and scrambled for the bathroom, Teo’s laughter chasing me down the hall. I slammed the door and fell to my knees, retching violently into the toilet. The tears that came weren’t for the assault. They weren’t for my ruined innocence or the new, terrifying rules of this game.

They were for the brother who walked into this house. The one who saw it all. The one who did not give a single damn that his sister was just attacked in her own home.

“I can’t stay here.”