Chapter 3: My Punishment

“No,” I concluded.

Even though I was sexually attracted to them, I knew it wasn’t love. These dudes will basically run me over with a bus if I was blocking the way to their food in the kitchen. Or maybe I wasn’t just sure of Zane’s intentions, does he have any plans on reporting or is he really suggesting this with like motives?

“Then get dressed,” Zane picked up my shirt on the edge of the bed and threw it to me.

“Hello… Go outside,” I asked nicely, hehe.

“So you can escape?” Axel grinned.

“You’d be like at the other side of the door,” she suggested. “How would I run out?”

Axel scoffed, “She thinks we’ve never heard of locking doors before.”

“She won’t do that,” Thane defended while staring directly into my eyes. “C’mon, let’s give her some privacy.”

“Axel got a point,” Zane picked his side. “She might lock us out.”

“Alright, stay!” I yelled out in annoyance and got out of bed with my blanket.

“Need some help with the dress?” Thane offered to help.

“No!” I turned down his offer rudely. I was pissed. He usually doesn’t ask though, I wonder why he did today.

“Just turn around bro,” Zane ordered with a tone of mockery as he backed me. Axel followed along, then Thane.

Holding up the bed sheet firmly to myself, I backed them and managed to put my shorts back on but then accidentally my bed sheet fell off.

I could hear their necks crack eager to look back. The wind brushed against my nipples, stroking them hard at the thought of changing in front of my stepbrothers.

I bite my lower lip and quickly put on my singlet, “I’m done, you imbeciles.” I turned to them.

They all turned around simultaneously, their eyes lost below my jaw. He looked down at myself and caught my nipples poking out of my singlet.

‘God!’ my thoughts clanked in embarrassment. How do I play this off?

“It’s—“ I struggled for words.

“Obvious,” Zane completed. “I live in a house full of male and female hoes.”

I immediately frowned at him, glaring at him with unforgiving eyes.

“Smile Willow, or else we won’t punish you,” Zane threatened with a grin.

This psycho, what kind of threat is that? I frowned more intensely.

“Haha,” Zane chuckled, this was one of the moments I saw him almost break a smile.

“We’re baptizing you this year,” Axel spoke. “The boys have decided that is our ritual.”

“What!” I exclaimed. “By baptizing you mean, drown me in water still I’m almost out of breath?”

“How did you guess?” Zane acted surprised with all of them smiling behind him.

I knew it. I ran to the door trying to escape but they held me back, Axel even picking me up and walking to my bathroom.

“Help!” I screamed.

“Mom and dad are with the guests,” Thane said.

It’s a big house, I knew they definitely can’t hear me.

Axel carried me into my bathroom and put me in my bathtub where I struggled to come out, sliding my arms across the smooth interior.

“C’mon Willow, we tied a man up for this. Don’t mess up the fun,” Zane whispered in my ears as Axel held me down.

What fun could he possibly be talking about! They were gonna kill me.

Thane turned on the tap and water started flowing into the bathtub. I suddenly started shaking like a fish out of water. I wanted out.

Zane grabbed my forehead, “Relax Willow, the safe word is argh.”

“But that’s my scream!” I yelled out before he submerged me in the same second.

I fought with his push in the water, struggling to raise my head up as the water flowed into my nostrils flushing out the oxygen. He overpowered me.

“Relax,” his voice pierced into my ears from underneath the water, for some reason it was soothing.

I looked up to his eyes and they were shockingly innocent, laced with care. What kind of monster would drown someone he cares about?

His eyes were deep and mysterious, like a mirror in a dark room with faint blue light flashed at him. There was something I didn’t understand about them.

But for the seconds that followed, I was actually calm, with my gaze captured by his eyes.

Suddenly Thane pushed him away, “That’s enough.”

I suddenly bounced out of the water panting for breath. For a moment there I had forgotten that I was drowning.

“That was 4 minutes,” Thane yelled at him. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

4 minutes! My eyes expanded in shock, I could never hold my breath for that long on a normal day. What the fuck just happened between us in that water?

“My turn,” Thane sat by me. “You’re ready to go again?”

Zane pushed him away from out of the blue, “I’m not done yet.”

Thane returned and pushed him back, “You’re not going another turn. Have some mercy on the girl.”

“Not again,” Axel sighed. He was sick of their everyday fighting.

I sat there just panting and thinking about what just happened when suddenly a series of loud screams erupted downstairs.

“What the fuck is going on down there?” Thane spun out of the fight and questioned Axel.

“Let’s go check,” Axel headed towards the door with his brothers following behind him.

“You stay here,” Thane ordered me.

But my curiosity got the best of me and I followed after them as soon as they were out of sight, me and my wet clothes.

Dropping down the stairs I sighted Zane twist the neck of an unknown man then take out the man’s knife to cut another’s legs off.

The screams were getting more and more intense with loud fighting.

What the hell was going on? The other brothers were also fighting off some unknowns. Are we being robbed?

I dropped down the stairs in a hurry and found every one of the guests slaughtered on the floor except for a few of the pack warriors. They all used knives.

‘I should go take dad’s gun upstairs and give our side the higher ground,’ I thought to myself.

But then it suddenly hit me. Where’s dad?

At this point my mind ignored the consequences and I rushed into the ground of fighting men to find my dad, “Dad!” I screamed on top of my voice. I couldn’t bear the thought even for a second that something had happened to him. I had to be sure of it. I needed to see him still breathing and fighting.

“Willow, get back here,” Thane yelled at me.

I ignored him and searched through the crowd of fighting men when Zane pushed a knife that was coming for my head. I gasped. I didn’t see it coming.

“Willow!” Thane rushed for the man while Zane staggered backwards and pulled the knife out of his fist, his index finger hanging loose from all the rest.

I panted in fear, with my heart jumping inside me.

“Go find him,” he said calmly with a drunken look. “No one else is allowed to punish you except me.”

I couldn’t take my eyes off him for one second. How is he still standing strong? How does he still have that grin on his face? Did Zane just take a knife for me?

Zane eyes wandered from my gaze, his eyeballs fixed over my shoulders. I watched them become plain and lifeless in a second before I turned to look.

It was my dad…

My eyes met him the exact second a masked man ran a knife through his heart while he was fighting two men by himself.

“Dad!!!” Time slowed down as I fell to my knees.