Amity wondered idly if she’d ever spend a day at the farm not in some kind of pain.
For two days after Matilda’s brutal retrieval and punishment, Amity had been bedridden. Luna had brought her food around mealtimes. A relief, if she was honest; there weren’t many among the others that she could have stood to look at. As it was, she still had difficulty meeting Luna’s gaze, for all the other girl didn’t seem to hold any particular animosity towards her.
Now at least she was recovered enough to leave her bed, but it was still painful for her to move too quickly. Her hips and legs were sore and her pussy and ass still felt raw and chafed. She felt gross; she needed some kind of bath or shower badly, and she was desperate to get out of the tiny room where she’d been confined.
The upstairs bathroom of the house had a tub, which was just what she needed. Still clad in only her nightgown, Amity stuck her head out into the hall and glanced around. No sign of anyone else. Good. She snuck across the empty space and through the bathroom door, closing and locking it behind her.
She ran the water hot and sank into the bathtub with a pleased sigh. It was easier than taking a shower, less painful than standing. The warmth seeped into her muscles and relaxed her aches, and she was finally able to scrub Matilda’s lingering semen from her skin. She washed carefully around the areas that were most tender, but did her best to be thorough. She allowed herself the luxury of lingering in the water, savoring the brief moment of respite without fear.
Finally, when she’d bathed so long that her fingers were starting to wrinkle, she drew herself back out of the tub, water cascading from her softened, steaming skin, and wrapped herself in a towel, carrying her nightgown balled up in her hands. It could use a wash too, for sure.
Once again she checked the hallway carefully before venturing out into it, wary that Matilda or Charlotte could be lurking around any given corner. But the coast seemed clear. She tip-toed out onto the floorboards but then stopped abruptly, heart pounding, as Matilda’s voice floated to her ears.
“-clearly need to be more strict with her.”
It was coming from Matilda and Sophia’s bedroom. Amity stood frozen as a rabbit in the hall, her body refusing to allow her any further movement while it perceived danger nearby. The door to their room was partially cracked open, the murmured voices more audible than they should have been.
“Are you sure that’s really the best idea?” came Sophia’s quiet response. “She’s a teenager, after all. The more rules she’s given, the more she’ll fight against them. Maybe that’s why this happened in the first place. We were too strict with her. She’s still adjusting to life here, after all, and-”
“Don’t make excuses for her!” was Matilda’s growled reply. “She needs to understand her place. We gave her an inch and look what happened. You chose poorly with this one. She doesn’t want to be here. She doesn’t want to be one of us. She’s going to keep fighting us until we break her. It’s the only way.”
Amity shivered. Almost unbidden, her bare feet took her towards the open door, crouched and silent. What did Matilda mean, break her? She felt like she had to know, although she couldn’t be sure whether it was self-preservation trying to get ahead of what might be coming or sheer morbid curiosity. She padded towards the master bedroom until she was close enough that she could look through the crack by the hinges, between the door and the jamb. Sophia was sitting on the edge of the bed, looking up at Matilda, who was pacing restlessly beside it.
“I really think that will be counterproductive,” Sophia said, soothing. “You’re just going to drive her further away, make her try to escape again. We need to give her a reason to want to stay.”
“And what else have we been doing?” Matilda barked. “Didn’t we give her a roof, fresh food, companionship? Haven’t I been teaching her skills? We opened our doors to her, our rituals, and this is how she repays us? No. I’ve seen what happens when I’m too soft on them.”
“She’s not Chloe,” Sophia murmured.
The name caused Matilda to stop abruptly, turning fully to face her. Her expression was one of towering rage. Amity slapped a hand over her own mouth to muffle a gasp at the sight of it.
“How dare you.” Matilda’s voice was black, full of pitch.
Sophia flinched, but ultimately seemed less cowed by this than Amity would have expected. “This isn’t the same as before,” she persisted. “They’re different people. You can’t expect them to behave the same way. And more than that, it’s not fair to Amity to use her to make up for the mistakes of the past. She’s her own woman, and she needs to be seen as such.”
Matilda stepped towards her. With Sophia sitting on the bed, the wolf-woman towered over her, immense and imposing. “You’re so sure of yourself,” she spat.
“I am,” Sophia said, gazing up at her, unintimidated.
“Sure enough to take responsibility?” Matilda challenged. “If I don’t crack down on her and she tries another escape attempt, it’ll be on you. You’ll be punished alongside her. You vouch for her, you fall with her.”
Sophia nodded, still holding her gaze. “She won’t. She’s been punished already; she understands what’s at stake. Let me handle her from here.”
Matilda growled once more, but then abruptly collapsed down onto the bed next to Sophia, leaning her head on the smaller woman’s shoulder. Her tone abruptly changed to one far less aggressive and more sulking. “She at least owes me an apology,” she groused. “If you really think she understands, then get her to come and make amends. You can do that and I’ll believe you.”
“She will,” Sophia murmured. She sounded fond. She turned her head and kissed Matilda’s brow. Her hand roamed up the planes of her lover’s back, fond. “I’m sorry you’ve been so stressed over all of this.”
“You know I hate being reminded...” Matilda trailed off.
Sophia seemed to know what she meant, regardless. “I know. Hush. It won’t be like that, I promise.” She reached over and placed a hand boldly on one of Matilda’s breasts, stroking it. Leaning forward, she buried her face against Matilda’s neck. From her vantage, Amity could just see the tip of her tongue flick out and taste Matilda’s skin. “Maybe we should ease your stress a little,” Sophia mumbled.
Matilda growled and grabbed her, flipping her over abruptly so that she was crouched over her on the bed, pinning her down. Sophia blinked up at her innocently in feigned surprise. Matilda smirked.
“That how it’s gonna be, huh?” Matilda teased. She ran a hand slowly up Sophia’s thigh until it disappeared under her dress. From the way Sophia gasped and turned her head to the side, she’d clearly found an area of interest. Matilda leaned in to nibble softly at the juncture between Sophia’s neck and shoulder while her hand continued its unseen exploration, moving unsubtly back and forth.
Amity had seen enough. She tiptoed away as quietly as she’d come, her thoughts whirling. She snuck back to her own room and tossed her nightgown into the hamper, throwing on more reasonable clothing—one of the borrowed sundresses. She paused to look in the mirror, carding her fingers through her wet hair. When she was once more presentable, she made her way quietly back out into the hallway. The muffled moans and soft wet sounds from the bedroom down the hall left little doubt as to what was going on inside.
Careful not to disturb them, Amity made her way down to the first floor, wincing only slightly as she navigated the stairs. No one was in the living room, so she slipped out the door and made her way to the garden.
Luna was there, carrying a basket and making her way through the small patch of cornstalks that made up one side of the garden. She looked up when Amity approached, raising an eyebrow and saying nothing.
“Can I help?” Amity offered.
Luna shrugged, and went back to checking the stalks for ripe ears of corn. Amity fell in alongside her wordlessly.
Underneath the soft chirping of birds Amity could hear the whir of a sawblade from the direction of the barn. Charlotte must be out in the workshop. Good; she was the last person Amity wanted to see right now. She let her hands idly do their work as her brain churned away over the information she’d just learned from her eavesdropping.
A detail jumped to her mind, and before she could think better of it she asked, “Who’s Chloe?”
Luna stopped what she was doing immediately and turned to her, eyes wide. “Where did you hear that name?”
Amity shrugged. Maybe she shouldn’t have said anything. “I overheard Sophia mention it,” she said honestly.
Luna scowled. “She shouldn’t have. We don’t talk about Chloe. You shouldn’t either.”
Abruptly, Amity was overcome by a feeling of frustration. So much of this place was secrets, rules, weird rituals that she didn’t fully understand. Did they think they were helping her, keeping her in the dark like this?
“Look, if you want me to avoid the subject then whatever, but shouldn’t I know what subject to avoid? Just because I know the name doesn’t mean I won’t accidentally say something else touchy, especially since no one ever freaking tells me anything.”
Luna looked down at her basket of corn. She seemed to war with herself internally for a little bit, but eventually Amity’s logic won out. “Fine,” she muttered, “but don’t talk about it around anyone else, especially Matilda, okay?”
She took a deep breath. “Chloe was one of Matilda’s old mates, back when she was first turned. Chloe and Sophia were Matilda’s original pack, the ones that were in the running with her to inherit the beast. They were all super close. Matilda trusted them both completely, so she didn’t like... impose any rules on them or anything. I mean, I don’t know a lot of the details. I wasn’t there. But Sophia says she was way more lenient back then. I don’t know. It’s hard to imagine. But anyway, I guess Chloe took advantage of the fact that Matilda didn’t have any rules and ran away. Broke her trust. And her heart, maybe. I think she really cared about Chloe. But yeah. Ever since then, she’s super strict with the rest of us. She doesn’t want it to happen again. She’s really sensitive about escape attempts.” She side-eyed Amity. “I could have told you that it was stupid to try. You should have known better.”
Amity scowled and picked an ear of corn, tossing it in Luna’s basket. “Well, now I know,” she muttered. She hesitated. She knew she was pushing her luck, but... “How did she escape? Chloe, I mean.”
Luna gave her an unimpressed look, clearly seeing right through her. “You’re not seriously thinking of trying again, are you? Look. I don’t know how Chloe got away, but it probably wasn’t something that you’d be able to do. She probably had a car or something and just drove off. I don’t know.” She sighed. “You’re just going to torture yourself if you keep thinking about escape like this. The sooner you accept your role here and embrace it, the better. If you try to run away again, you’re just going to get caught, and the punishment will be worse next time. Plus you’ll probably end up getting the rest of us in trouble too.”
Amity thought about Sophia’s promise, her deal with Matilda to share Amity’s next punishment. She winced.
“Stop obsessing over what you can’t change,” Luna advised. “You’ll be happier if you just accept it.”
“Like you’re happy?” Amity challenged.
Luna swallowed and didn’t look at her. Instead she glared at the plants in front of her. “Hey, at least I’m not the one who got punishment-fucked in front of everybody,” she countered. She was silent for a moment, going about her work, but eventually she spoke again, her voice marginally softer. “It’s not perfect here, but I know for a fact that there are worse situations to be in. Let’s just say I consider myself lucky. It’s not worth complaining about. Besides, we should enjoy this time while we can; I really don’t want to think about how much worse it’s going to be once Charlotte is in charge.”
“It doesn’t have to be Charlotte,” Amity argued. “It’s not like the decision has already been made, right?”
Luna scoffed. “Oh? Who else is it going to be, then? Sophia, who rolls over and shows her belly at the slightest conflict? Little baby Rosie? You, with one foot out the door? No fucking way.”
“Not you?”
“Definitely not me,” said Luna. “I’m not...” she hesitated. “I’m not strong enough. And anyway, I don’t want the wolf. I mean, I guess I’d rather have it than deal with Charlotte having it, but...” she shook her head. “Look, it doesn’t matter. The point is, I told you to keep your fucking head down, so keep it down, okay? It’ll spare all of us a lot of trouble.”
Amity didn’t respond, returning to their side-by-side work. But though her voice was silent, her mind whirled with a myriad of pasts and futures.