I walked to my usual position under the chains when my brother walked over to me and he grabbed my arms and raised them above my head so he could place them in the clasps of the chains and he locked them tightly. My arms were left above my head and my father stood back and leaned against the wall of the basement while my mother looked at a table that was on the side of the wall. A table that was full of instruments for this very occasion. Mom grabs her favorite weapon, the leather whip but she always soaks it in wolfsbane so it leaves the marks longer and I’m in pain for a lot longer. I don’t heal as fast if wolfsbane is involved. And the silver burns around my wrists will take a while to heal as well. But as my mother walked closer to me, I kept my head down as she ripped my shirt and my pants off of me so I was only standing there wearing a bra and panties. I was still covered in different colored bruises from the other nights when my family decided that I needed to be punished for an incident that happened so many years ago. My mother walked around me, holding a photo in her hand. I could hear her sniffling as she was looking at the photo, but then she took a step back and I suddenly felt the excruciating pain of the whip across my back. I didn’t scream out though. That’s one thing I never did. I never screamed. I never cried. Not anymore. It took me a while to realize that’s what they wanted. They wanted to see me break. But I didn’t give them that satisfaction anymore. Mom whipped me repeatedly until I could feel little blood trickles running down my back. She finally took a step back as she was trying to catch her breath. But that’s when my brother stepped forward wearing some brass knuckles. He forced me to look him in the face, but then he started punching me over and over again in the stomach before he hit me once across the face. “Spencer. You know not to hit her in the face.” Dad scolded him. “I lost control.” Spencer said. “I know. Just don’t let it happen again.” Dad said, calmly. I felt the blood pooling in my mouth and I spat it out on the floor, right in front of Spencer’s feet. I looked up again and he took that as a sign of disrespect so he punched me again and again and again. Obviously not wanting to stop. I started wondering how many times they could hit me before they did enough damage to kill me. I wonder if he’d already caused internal injuries or bleeding. It felt like he had, and I had a couple of broken ribs from what he was doing. But I couldn’t be sure of the rest. And I wouldn’t be able to go to the doctor and get treated. They would alert the Alpha, and that would make things so much worse for me. My parents were great at manipulating people and the Alpha and Luna always fell for their bullshit. I knew they would never believe me if I told them what was happening. That’s why the twins don’t know. “You know what you did, don’t you?” Mom asked. “It was an accident,” I said. So she whipped me again. “After all this time, you still can’t take responsibility for it? What is wrong with you?” She yelled. “I didn’t do it. It was a f*****g accident.” I growled. So Spencer hit me this time. “You caused the accident. You did this to our family. You broke us.” Spencer yelled. “The only thing broken around here is you freak.” I spat at him. So he hit me three more times in the stomach really hard. He started laughing as I was gasping for air. “Do you still have anything to say to me?” He asked. So I slowly put my head up and smiled at him. This time my mother whipped me several times. “I knew they should have gotten rid of you as soon as you were born.” Spencer growled in my face. “Sorry. That one wasn’t my fault.” I smirked. So he hit me again. “I should have killed you when you were born and put all of us out of our misery.” Mom yelled in my face. “Then why didn’t you?” I asked. But she just looked at me strangely. Like she didn’t expect that sort of a reaction from me. “That’s enough. She’s had enough.” Dad said. “What? She hasn’t had anywhere near enough. She hasn’t paid for what she did.” Mom argued. “She has school tomorrow. People will start asking questions if we keep going tonight.” Dad said. “Why don’t you ever hit her? Why don’t you ever get in on this? She hurt you just as much as us.” Mom yelled. “I don’t need to hit her. She already knows that she means nothing to me.” Dad said. So Spencer walked over and undid the chains and I fell to the ground. They put their weapons back on the table next to the wall and I slowly made my way to my feet. I managed to walk upstairs and they were behind me as I got to the ground floor of the house but then I had to go upstairs again. I went to my room and I grabbed some clothes out of my cupboard before I walked across the hall to the bathroom. I had a shower and I washed all of the blood down the drain but I could barely move. The water on my skin was burning and the marks around my wrist were so red that they almost looked like third degree burns. I knew that I would have to cover these up for a couple of days. I got out of the shower and I got dressed into a singlet and track pants before I walked back to my bedroom. I brushed my really long blonde hair before I laid down on my bed and I pulled the covers over me. I looked at the clock and it said 2am. Which means I wasn’t going to get much sleep tonight. But sadly, I was used to it. It’s not the first time I’ve spent a night like this and then had to go to work or go to school the next day. I was laying in bed trying to go to sleep when I heard my brother’s phone ringing and I couldn’t tell who he was talking to but it was probably one of the many whores that he has around town. He left the house pretty quickly after the call and I just felt relieved when he walked past my room and he didn’t come into it. I was tossing and turning all night. Getting a couple of minutes of sleep here and there. It wasn’t easy with wolfsbane whip marks all over my back. But even my legs were bruised. Mom must have gotten them as well. I didn’t feel it. Probably because the pain in my back and torso were so bad. But I still managed to get a little bit of sleep before I woke up to a mind link breaking through my peace and quiet. “Trinity. Are you there?” The man’s voice said. My eyes sprang open as soon as I heard his voice. It’s been months, but I couldn’t forget his voice. Asher.