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Artemis
The hunting group gets smaller by every passing animal they have to carry back to the shed to butcher and prepare. I’m left with a few other men, by time the sun is starting to set. Making our way back, I see a familiar Jeep pulling up to the butcher shed.
I roll my eyes but move them to the ground in front of me. It’s better to just not look at Rome.
“Look what we got, servants!” Rome sings as he jumps from the car and rounds it. When he opens the trunk, I look up, Rome is in a tank top, showing off his muscles and tattoos, and cargo pants that are too tight on his fucking thighs and ass. Some of the servant women says that he’s handsome, but a fucking douche.
I don’t really see it…
He’s covered in blood and more blood drips as he pulls some ash brown huge cat. When he lets it drop to the ground, my stomach churns.
“Our little protector caught us this.”
I have to look away or I’ll vomit from the way it looks. The huge animal has deep claw marks along its body, to the point where I can see the pink muscle.
Rome steps over the animal, moving to us. “You can tell how hungry our friend is by the way he destroys the meat of this shifter…”
The huge cat—cougar—is a shifter, now forever stuck as an animal after death. The huge shifters in the area are mountain lions, bears and our leaders, the wolves.
Every year, on the first day of spring, our little “friend” is satisfied by a human sacrifice. He’s given a human to eat in exchange to protect the wolves from the cougars and bears. One human a year seems to feed him because he disappears for a year, lurking in the darkness of the woods to protect the wolves and in turn protect us humans from the other shifter clans.
To humans, he’s the boogie man told to us to make us behave as children. As we get older, we realize that the stories are all real and the boogieman isn’t just something to make us behave. It’s something that will eat us all one day.
In a way, the wolf shifters are smart. They have a protector, and they get free animal meat. The monster, the boogieman, whatever we call him seems to only be interested in eating humans.
“You want to clean this up for me, baby?” Rome says, stepping close to me and reaching out to touch me.
I turn away, but he grabs my chin and moves my eyes to him. The liquid smears right into my skin. I have to swallow the vomit coming from my throat.
“Awe, this upset you?”
I shake my head.
“Good. Clean up my car, bitch,” he growls, pushing my head away.
I swallow again and nod.
Tears roll down my face, but they blend in with the hot water running over my body. My stomach is in knots from cleaning all that blood from Rome’s jeep.
The whole time he had watched me, sipping a cold beer with his bloody hand. His dark eyes ran down my body, following the curves I have from my large hips to my large breasts.
I felt like a piece of meat that he wanted to sink his teeth into.
Wrapping my arms around myself, I slide down the side of the shower, lower into the tub. Every fiber of me tells me he is going to choose me tonight. He’s going to convince his father, Warren, that I belong out there to the boogieman. If not, the torment would go on for another year. It’s not as bad as it was before. He doesn’t hit me anymore, just takes too humiliating me in front of the others and I never had the guts to stand up for myself.
Who was I?
A human slave to the big bad werewolves.
With the boogieman, they are the strongest clan in the area.
Good for them…
My head drops back as I let out a silent cry. Finally, the water runs clear, not the constant pink that was from the blood of the shifter. Slowly, I rub my bronze skin until it turns a bright red and is raw.
I feel so helpless. I can’t stop what’s going to happen tonight and I can’t control my own life. I’m stuck, forever in a helpless endless cycle of pure madness.
After a few more minutes of crying, I get out, wrapping myself in a towel and leaving immediately to go to my bedroom. A few women are out in the hall. Their whispers travel, but not enough for me to be able to make out any words. When my eyes move to them, the small group of women hush and disperses. I blink.
