The Triplet Alphas' Secret Mate

Chapter 4: Accused

Scarlett’s POV

​My heart pounded wildly as the guards dragged me toward the kitchen.

All the female servants were already gathered there, their eyes burning with familiar hatred. To them, I wasn’t a girl. I was the daughter of traitors. A stain on the pack. A weed that should have been ripped out long ago.

"Scarlett, come forward," the Head Maiden, Angela, barked.

I stepped toward her, my head bowed low. Unexpectedly, a loud slap landed across my cheek. The force sent me stumbling to the side, my vision blurring. I gasped as a sharp sting radiated through my face, and the awful taste of blood filled my mouth.

"You’ve been stealing from the kitchen purse!" she screamed.

"Stealing? I’m not a thief," I whispered, a single tear tracking through the soot on my skin.

"Don’t lie to me!" she snapped. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small leather pouch, the one the staff used for market runs. "The guards searched the servant quarters after the cook noticed the week’s grocery cash was missing. Guess where they found it? Hidden inside your pillowcase, Scarlett."

Another slap landed, harder than the first. I shook my head in disbelief. I hadn’t touched that purse. I didn’t even know where it was kept. Someone had planted it to frame me.

it!" I cried out,

you’re a common thief," she sneered. "You think you can steal from the very pack that feeds you? Guards!

pounded against my ribs as they dragged me out into the harsh sunlight of the courtyard. They shoved me against the wooden post and bound my wrists tight with rough hemp rope. I closed my eyes, bracing myself. I had been whipped before, but the weight of this false accusation was

WHIP!

first strike tore through the back of my thin uniform.

WHIP! WHIP!

and warriors gathered to watch. Some were entertained; others whispered, and

eyes shut and prayed for my twentieth birthday to come faster. When my wolf awakened, I would heal

a cold, familiar voice echoed through

"Enough!"

eyes, blinking away the sweat and stinging tears. Standing at the edge of the yard, looking like a god of

uniform, the blood

he asked, his voice low but

stole the kitchen cash, Alpha," Angela bowed. "The pouch was

air as everyone waited