Mated to My Fiancé’s Alpha King Brother

171 Chapter 171

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.

down!” someone shouted from the crowd. “Just stay down before he kills

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

raised my fists

to hear over the crowd–cruel and delighted. He stepped

into my

snapped back. Blood sprayed in an

knocked what little air I had left from my lungs. The canvas was rough against my

my own blood.

started counting

This is where it ends. This

“ONE!”

Look at

“TWO!”

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right to steal from you. Gary was right to mock

“THREE!”

your babies because you’re weak. You ran away because you’re

“FOUR!”

heard it. Through the roaring crowd. Through

voice. From that night at the Morrison

and her baby girl needs

“FIVE!”

I pushed myself up.

grabbed my face, checking my eyes. I could barely see him through the blood

sure you want to

“I’m sure.”

can stop this right

exploded out of me with more force than I’d thought I still

referee stepped

time, when Kade came at me, something fundamental had

so pure and incandescent

care about the money

hurt him. Wanted to make

punch. I slipped

I ducked under it, my body moving on pure

Rico was right–he’d gotten cocky. Comfortable. He thought I

guard and

him gag. Hard

gasped.

on his instep with

His fist whistled past my ear close enough to feel the displacement

his knee. The same knee I’d just stomped

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since the fight began, Kade

Confused. Uncertain. Someone shouted “What

had left–punches, elbows, knees, anything that would hurt.

them missed. But

the end of round

corner, Rico was grinning like a madman. “NOW

barely touched him,” I panted, spitting blood into a bucket.

face. That’s even better.” Rico wiped

Just one more.

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

wouldn’t stop pouring from my

But I nodded anyway.

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

Make him chase you. Tire him out.

“The kill?”

put him down. You

Round three.

like the

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

might have been humiliation.

made

threw a haymaker that would have taken my head clean off if it connected. I ducked under it–felt it

into

size should be able

the ring.

exploded across my vision again. But

to quit. The crowd was on their feet

at the last second and used his momentum against

ropes.

and turned, his face now a mask

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dead,” he snarled. “You

“Prove it.”