Mated to My Fiancé’s Alpha King Brother

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Seraphina’s POV 1

Kade closed the distance in two steps. I tried to move, tried to circle away, but my legs wouldn’t cooperate fast enough. His fist

connected with my face again–harder this time.

Something in my nose crunched. Blood poured down my chin, hot and thick.

“YEAH! BREAK HER NOSE!”

“MAKE HER CRY!”

I tasted blood. Felt my lip split open like overripe fruit. Heard the crowd screaming for my destruction, and underneath it all, heard

laughter. They were laughing at me.

Just like everyone always had.

Kade grabbed me by the shoulders and drove his knee into my stomach. I doubled over, gagging, trying not to vomit.

“Stay down,” he said, almost kindly. “Just stay down and this stops.”

But I couldn’t. Wouldn’t.

I threw a wild hook at his head. It connected–barely–but it was enough to make him step back in surprise.

“Oh, you’ve got some fight in you after all,” he said, grinning wider. “Good. I was worried this would be boring.”

The bell rang, ending the round.

I collapsed onto the stool in my corner. Rico was in my face immediately, pressing an ice pack against my swelling eye. The cold burned

worse than the heat.

“You’re getting destroyed out there,” he said flatly.

“Thanks for the fucking pep talk,” I gasped.

“I’m serious.” Rico grabbed my chin, forcing me to look at him through my one good eye. “If you keep fighting like this–if you keep letting him back you up–he’s going to knock you out. Or worse.”

“Worse?” My laugh came out as a wet cough. “What’s worse?”

“Hospital. Permanent damage. Death.” His grip tightened. “You need to stop being scared and start being angry.”

“I AM angry!”

“No. You’re terrified. There’s a difference.” He pulled the ice pack away, and I saw his expression. Hard. Demanding. “You want to survive this? You want to win? Then you need to stop fighting like a victim and start fighting like a predator.”

The ten–second warning sounded. Too soon. Way too soon.

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“Remember,” Rico said as I forced myself to stand, “fast and dirty. No rules. No mercy, Fit him where it hurts and don’t stop hitting until

he goes down.”

Round two was worse.

So much worse.

Kade had figured out all my patterns. Every time I tried to circle away, he was there. Every time I threw a punch, he countered with

three. His fists were everywhere–my face, my body, my arms when I tried to block.

A punch to my temple made the world tilt violently sideways. Another to my ribs drove the air from my lungs in a sound that was half

scream, half sob. A knee to my stomach doubled me over, and I tasted bile mixing with blood.

I was drowning in pain. Drowning in the realization that I was completely, utterly outmatched.

The crowd was loving every second of it. Cheering every time Kade landed a hit. Laughing every time I stumbled. Some of them were

literally jumping up and down with excitement, spilling beer and screaming for more blood.

My blood.

“MAKE HER BLEED MORE!”

“BREAK SOMETHING! COME ON!”

“THIS IS PATHETIC! PUT HER OUT OF HER MISERY!”

Kade caught me with a combination that sent me spinning into the ropes. I bounced off them like a rag doll, barely staying upright. My

legs were jelly. My vision was tunneling.

someone shouted from the crowd. “Just

couldn’t. Wouldn’t. Because if I stayed down here, I’d

my fists and

loud enough to hear over the crowd–cruel and delighted. He stepped into my rush like he was swatting a fly

my face with

snapped back. Blood sprayed in an arc across

air I had left from my lungs. The canvas was rough against my cheek. Warm.

my own blood.

started

is where it ends. This is where

“ONE!”

pathetic. Look at

“TWO!”

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you. Gary was right to mock

“THREE!”

weak. You ran away because you’re

“FOUR!”

roaring crowd. Through the ringing in my ears.

From that night at the Morrison

and her

“FIVE!”

I pushed myself up.

grabbed my face, checking my eyes. I could barely see him through the blood and swelling. “Are you

sure you want to

“I’m sure.”

I can

of me with more force than

referee stepped

when Kade came at

fear was gone. Burned away by rage so pure and incandescent it

care about the money or proving

to make him feel a fraction of

a punch.

I ducked under it, my body

was strong. But Rico was right–he’d gotten cocky. Comfortable.

inside his guard and drove my fist into

windpipe. But hard enough to make him

crowd gasped. Actually

was reeling, I stomped on his instep with all my

fist whistled past my ear close

low and drove my shoulder into his knee. The

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staggered. For the first time since the fight began, Kade actually staggered

cheering faltered. Confused. Uncertain.

him time to recover. I threw everything I had left–punches, elbows, knees, anything that

Most of them missed. But

the end

in my corner, Rico was grinning like a madman. “NOW that’s

I panted, spitting blood into a bucket. So

his face. That’s even better.” Rico wiped my

round. Just one more. Can

was so swollen I could barely open my left eye. My ribs might be cracked. I was

had a concussion. Blood wouldn’t

But I nodded anyway.

Rico leaned closer, his voice dropping. “Now listen carefully. He’s going to come out aggressive.

Make him chase you. Tire him out. Then–and only then–you go for

“The kill?”

down. You

Round three.

bell rang like the start of

a man possessed. The confident smile was completely gone. Now his face was

might have been humiliation.

made

have taken my head clean off if it connected. I

fist into his

faster than someone his size should be able to move,

the ring.

my vision again. But I kept my

both breathing hard, both bleeding, both refusing to quit. The crowd was on their feet

rushed me. I sidestepped at the last second and used his momentum against him, grabbing his arm

ropes.

his face now a mask of pure

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snarled. “You

“Prove it.”