Chapter Two, It Can't Get Any Worse

Gemma’s POV

I ran the entire way home.

My lungs burned, my ribs screamed with every breath, and my legs threatened to give out beneath me, but I didn’t stop.

I couldn’t stop.

Not when the image of Alpha Asher carrying me kept replaying in my mind.

It made no sense.

None of it did.

Why had he helped me?

Why had he looked at me like that?

And why, for the first time in my life, had I felt safe in someone’s arms?

That feeling terrified me more than Richard ever could.

The Alpha brothers hated me.

Everyone did.

They’d mocked me for years, laughed while others hurt me, and treated me like dirt beneath their shoes. So why had Asher suddenly cared?

Maybe he pitied me.

The thought made me feel sick.

I tightened my arms around myself as I slowed near the house. The large iron gates of the Blood Moon Pack house loomed ahead like the entrance to hell itself.

Fear settled heavily in my stomach.

Khloe knew I’d left school.

The message burned into my skin had made that very clear.

GET HOME NOW

Even thinking about it made my arms sting again.

I pushed open the gate quietly and walked toward the front door, praying—just once—that maybe they weren’t home yet.

But luck had never been on my side.

The front door swung open before I could touch it.

Khloe stood there waiting for me.

Her dark eyes were filled with fury.

“Well,” she said coldly, “look who finally decided to come home.”

I froze.

The air around her felt wrong, heavy with the dark magic she always carried.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered automatically.

She moved so fast I barely saw it coming.

Her hand cracked across my face, snapping my head sideways.

Pain exploded through my jaw.

“You’re sorry?” she spat. “Your teacher calls me saying you skipped school, and you think sorry fixes that?”

“I didn’t mean to—”

Another slap.

This one harder.

“You embarrassed me,” Khloe hissed. “Do you have any idea what I had to leave work for? Or are you too stupid to think about anyone except yourself?”

Tears blurred my vision, but I forced myself not to cry.

Crying only made her worse.

“I asked you a question!” she screamed.

“I—I’m sorry,” I choked out again.

Her lip curled in disgust.

Then her eyes narrowed.

“What’s that smell?”

My stomach dropped.

She stepped closer suddenly, gripping my chin painfully as she sniffed the air around me.

“Wolf,” she snarled.

Fear shot through me.

“You were near the Alpha heirs.”

“It wasn’t my fault—”

Her fist slammed into my mouth before I could finish.

I fell hard against the wall, tasting blood instantly as my split lip reopened.

Khloe looked furious now.

“No wonder you took so long getting home,” she sneered. “Trying to throw yourself at the Alphas, were you? Pathetic.”

“That’s not true!”

The words escaped before I could stop them.

For a second, silence filled the hallway.

Then something inside Khloe seemed to snap.

“You dare raise your voice at me?”

She grabbed my hair and yanked me toward the basement door.

I screamed as pain ripped through my scalp, my injured body barely able to keep up as she dragged me across the floor.

“Please!” I cried. “Please stop! I’m sorry!”

Khloe ignored me.

She ripped open the basement door and threw me down the stairs.

My body slammed violently against the concrete steps before crashing onto the floor below.

Pain exploded through my side.

For several seconds, I couldn’t breathe.

I curled into myself, gasping desperately as tears streamed down my face.

Above me, Khloe stared down with pure hatred in her eyes.

“You should’ve died with the rest of your family,” she said coldly.

Then she slammed the basement door shut.

Darkness swallowed me whole.

I didn’t know how long I lay there.

Minutes.

Hours.

Maybe both.

By the time I finally forced my eyes open, my entire body felt numb.

Blood stained the concrete beneath me.

My nose throbbed painfully, and my side burned every time I tried to move.

Shaking, I dragged myself toward my mattress.

Every movement hurt.

I collapsed onto the thin fabric with a broken cry and curled into myself.

Why was I still alive?

What was the point anymore?

Nobody wanted me.

Nobody cared.

Not even my own family.

Richard always said they’d wanted me dead—that I was cursed from birth.

Maybe he was right.

Maybe I ruined everything I touched.

The sound of a car pulling into the driveway shattered the silence upstairs.

My body immediately tensed.

Richard was home.

Fear crawled through me like poison.

A few seconds later, voices echoed through the house.

“You need to sort your niece out,” Khloe snapped.

Richard sighed heavily. “What’s happened now?”

“She skipped school, ignored my warning, and came home smelling like the Alpha heirs.”

Silence.

Dangerous silence.

Then footsteps.

Heavy footsteps.

Moving toward the basement.

My heart stopped.

The basement door creaked open slowly.

Richard appeared at the top of the stairs, his expression unreadable.

But his eyes?

They were ice cold.

“Well,” he said quietly, “looks like you’ve finally become a real problem.”

I immediately scrambled backward on the mattress.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered.

He walked down the stairs slowly.

Each step made my panic worse.

“You embarrassed Khloe,” he continued. “You involved the Alpha heirs. And now she’s threatening to leave because of you.”

He stopped directly in front of me.

“You ruin everything.”

Then he punched me straight across the face.

Pain exploded through my broken nose.

I screamed.

Richard grabbed my throat before I could move away and forced me into the wooden chair sitting in the middle of the basement.

My eyes widened in horror.

Not the chair.

Please not the chair.

He yanked my arms behind my back and snapped handcuffs around my wrists.

Cold metal bit painfully into my skin.

“You’ll stay here tonight,” he said calmly.

That terrified me more than shouting ever could.

“I’ll teach you exactly what happens when you disobey me.”

He reached into his pocket.

The second I saw the knife, my blood turned to ice.

“No…” I whispered.

Richard crouched in front of me.

“Stay away from the Alpha brothers,” he warned softly. “I can smell them on you.”

“I wasn’t doing anything—”

The knife sliced across my shoulder before I could finish.

I screamed as burning pain tore through me.

Blood dripped down my arm.

Richard leaned closer, his face inches from mine.

“You belong here,” he whispered. “And if you ever forget that, I’ll make you remember.”

Another cut.

Another scream.

Eventually, the pain became too much.

Everything blurred together until all I could do was sit there shaking while blood soaked into my ruined shirt.

Finally, Richard stepped back.

“You’ll stay in this chair all night,” he said. “And tomorrow, you’ll apologize to Khloe properly.”

He grabbed my chin hard enough to bruise.

“And if I ever find out you went near the Alphas again…”

His grip tightened.

“I’ll make you wish you were dead.”

Then he walked upstairs, leaving me alone in the dark.

The basement door slammed shut behind him.

Silence filled the room again.

I rested my head weakly against the chair, exhaustion pulling at me.

But no matter how hard I tried not to think about them…

I kept seeing Asher.

The way he carried me.

The way he looked at my scars.

The way his voice sounded when he told me they wouldn’t hurt me.

It made no sense.

I hated him.

Didn’t I?

So why, sitting alone in the dark and covered in blood, was he the only thing making me feel safe?