Chapter 4 Katherine

POV Ayesha

Stella is running through the woods. She runs for hours until she finds a lake to cool off in. Stella walks out of the lake and rolls in the dirt with her feet in the air. She is the happiness she has ever been.

We hear unfamiliar voices yelling. A silver arrow whizzes by narrowly missing us. Stella is back on her feet and running towards the voices. Arrows continue to fly around us, narrowly missing us. Stella is in stealth mode. The voices are unaware that now they are the prey and she is the hunter.

She lunges at the first rogue and rips him apart. She continues with the rest of the men until she is stuck with a silver arrow. I feel the intense pain of the arrow ripping into our flesh close to our heart. Silver arrows have no effect on demon wolves. Stella tears through the rest of them, her anger intensified at the rogue that shot us with the arrow. She leaves him for last.

When she is done ripping apart the rest of the rogues, she sets her sights on the sole survivor.

He runs into a cabin and locks the doors and the windows. Stella brings on her hellfire, setting us aflame. She jumps up onto the cabin roof and waits patiently as the cabin catches on fire.

The rogue never comes out. Stella jumps down and waits until there’s nothing left of the cabin, then heads home. She heads back to the hospital bed and falls asleep.

I open my eyes to Thanatos stroking our fur. Stella nuzzles him. The staff are all standing from a distance, freaked out by Stella’s presence.

“Are you going to fucking stand there or pull the arrow out of her?”

The staff all run up and try to pull out the silver arrow, burning their hands. They don’t seem to have the strength to pull the arrow out.

Stella growls as they are causing us more pain.

“Enough. You are all idiots if you can’t pull a simple fucking arrow out of an injured wolf. Logan show these weaklings hows it's done!”

A huge warrior, the same size as Thanatos, comes up and rubs our fur and looks at us with intrigue. He looks kind of familiar. His silver eyes watch us carefully.

“This is going to hurt a little.” He puts one hand on our side and pulls the arrow out quickly with the other. The pain is quick, then gone. Stella heals in an instant.

Stella shifts, and I’m lying there naked for the world to see. Thanatos wraps me in a blanket and carries me out of the hospital.

“How many rogues did she kill?”

“We found 15 dead, one burned alive in a cabin.”

“I want the woods searched thoroughly. I don’t want my future breeder injured again.”

“Yes, sir.”

Thanatos takes me back to my small room and puts me on the bed. “Your lunch will be here shortly. Stay out of the woods until I know they're cleared. You're no good to me dead.”

We’ll so much for me thinking he was starting to like us a bit. I don’t want to be a breeder. I would rather be a slave until my father sorts out the money. I eat my food when it arrives and then go looking for some slave work to do.

I find the girl from the other day cleaning one of the rooms.

“Can I help you?”

“Sure. What happened to you the other day? You just disappeared?”

“The head servant beat me with her belt, and I woke up in hospital.”

“Katherine can be quite cruel. Some of us think she gets off on it. The king never punishes her. He wants her to keep us in check. He punishes only the ones that fight back.”

“I think he wants me to be his breeder, If my dad doesn’t pay up. Until then, I’m just a servant. Apparently, I’m not good at being a servant. I can’t wash dishes properly or mop floors.”

“Just stick with me.” She hands me a feather duster. “Just dust the rooms.”

Everything is going well until I knock a vase off a shelf with my feather duster.

Katherine appears out of nowhere and orders the other girl out of the room and starts taking off her belt. Stella gets excited again. “If you let her beat us, will end up in the hospital again for the night and probably won’t see Thanatos for the rest of the day.” I whisper to Stella.

I feel Stella weighing her options.

“You're such a stupid, useless wolf. You can’t even dust without breaking something. I’m going to whip you until you're dead and make an example out of you.”

The whole whipping you to death is a great appeal to Stella. She loves being punished. But the instant she used the word stupid, Katherine didn’t have much of a chance.

Stella lets out a deafening growl, shaking the whole room. Anything not nailed down falls and breaks on the floor. She takes over and punches Katherine square in the face. Katherine stumbles back in fear. Stella grabs Katherine’s belt on the floor and starts whipping her with it.

Katherine runs out of the room with Stella chasing her. It’s a fun game until Katerine slams into Logan, spoiling our fun. Logan is built like a house, with sandy blond short hair and an oval chin; his silver eyes say come here in the naughtiest way.

Logan looks at us and smiles. “Please don’t beat the help, Stella. I would like my dinner on time tonight. Thank you.”

Stella gives him a mischievous smile and drops the belt, and we head off to the gardens.

We join the workers pulling weeds and tending the garden. Stella loves to play in the dirt, and I love working with flowers. It’s a win-win. The workers are happy for the help.

Thanatos strolls by with a raised eyebrow.

He comes back after a while.

“Ayesha, come with me to my office.”

“Yay! He remembered my name! Wait to his office? Did my father pay him his debt?”