Girl In The Woods (4 page)

“Do you know how
to cook?”

“What? No. Of
course not.”

“I thought you
wouldn’t. We have to eat though. And since you are here, I can’t eat as a wolf
on my own. You will have to cook it.”

I look around to
see if there is someone else, although I know we are alone. However, I can’t
believe for one second he is talking to me.

“Me?” I ask finally.

“Yes, you. I
know you are from a noble family and you probably had everything ready by
servants, but here you will have to do everything.”

My jaw drops. He
is kidding. There is no way I’m touching that dead animal.

He takes my hand
and pulls me to get up.

“Come on, I’ll
show you how to cook. It’s not difficult.”

But I resist and
sit on the bed again.

“No.”

“No?”

“I am not your
servant. I did not come here to cook for you or satisfy you.”

He smirks.

“I think that
from the moment you accepted that you wouldn’t deny me anything, you became my
servant, didn’t you?”

“No, I didn’t!
How dare you? Do you know who I am?” I am mad as hell. I will not succumb to
this. He is paranoid if he thinks I will obey.

His look darkens
and he heaves me against his chest forcing me to look at him.

“What I do know
is that you are disrespectful and disobedient. And that is something that we
have to change, don’t we?”

“What…what…do
you mean?”

“When you were a
little girl and you disobeyed your parents, weren’t you punished?”

Punished? Just
yelled at. But in the end they always let me do whatever I wanted to.

“No…”

“Well, that
explains a lot,” he says and I can discern a glimmer of satisfaction in his
eyes, “You have to learn that when you don’t obey and you are being rude there
are consequences.”

He grabs me
forcefully and places the top part of my body over his knees. He presses my
neck with all the weight of his hand, immobilizing me.

“No! Let me go!
What are you doing?” I scream and jolt my legs fiercely.

And then I feel
it. His palm falls hard on my butt. I gasp. He is punishing me…Just like little
children are being punished. I was never hit, but I had seen in the past other
children being hit on their butts. But they weren’t naked. This is…humiliating.
There comes a second one.

“Please…let me
go…” I beg.

“Three,” he
counts. I wonder how many times he is going to spank me. I close my eyes,
embarrassed. I no longer struggle. He has the control of my body once more.

“Four.”

“Five.”

Tears burn my
eyes.

“My parents will
kill you,” I groan.

“Are they here?”
he asks and his palm falls like a thousand stings on my flesh.

“I asked you
something. SEVEN.”

Ouch.

“No,” I whisper.

“Which only
means that you are using your parents as a safety net,” he hisses close to my
ear, “No one is here to help you. It’s just you and me. I was going to go only
for seven, but I see you are really spoiled. Five more will be useful.”

“No! Please, it
hurts…”

“You should have
thought of this before you defied me. Eight!”

I hate him so
much…Every spanking comes harder than the previous one.

“Twelve.”

He leans and
kisses the back of my neck.

“You know, I
could humiliate you further, but it’s your first day here, so be thankful for
only being slightly punished.”

Slightly? Is he crazy?

He lets go of my
neck and orders me to stand up. He doesn’t release me completely though, still
holding my waist.

I keep my head
down not daring to look at him and crying uncontrollably. This is something I
have never felt before.

“Tell me the
truth. Why are you crying?” he asks me.

I only sniff and
don’t reply.

His hand lowers
and caresses my sore butt. Even this gentle touch feels unbearable.

“Does it hurt a
lot?” he asks again.

I nod and he
kisses my butt cheek closer to him. It’s a sign of affection I didn’t expect
from him.

“Is it better
now?”

“No,” I mutter
like a little child.

He leans and
touches with his lips for several seconds my other buttock.

“Now?”

Ok, this is
stupid. He hit me with rage only to play it nice after? I can’t stand his lips
or his hands on my skin. I’m sure that if I try to discharge myself from his
embrace, he will become more persistent.

Calista, be
smart. Play along as he wishes.

“Yes,” I answer.

“Good. It wasn’t
that bad, was it?”

 Yes, it was.
You brainless ass.

Calista,
don’t lose your temper. Give him what he wants. Make him believe you have
succumbed to his will. Make him trust you.

He seems
satisfied and can’t help grinning. He hands me a dress from the closet to wear.
I remain silent while he’s teaching me how to cook. When he took the skin off the
rabbit I wanted to vomit. Seeing the horror on my face, he promised he would
take care of the preparation of the meat every day. My duty would be to cook
it.

He takes a
cooking pot from the shelves and after he fills it with water from the lake, he
hangs it from a hook over the fire on the fireplace. When he went out to fill
it with water, I could have made my move. I could have run. What would be the
point? He would chase me and get me back. No, I have to escape when he least
expects it.

I can’t believe
he wants me to cook. I will never do it. I still pretend I watch him eagerly
when all I really want to do is punch him on the nose and see him bleed. I have
never hated anyone so much in my life. Suddenly, I realize he has everything
required to cook and serve food. Knives, a ladle, plates, forks.

“Where did you
get all this?” I ask him.

“What do you
mean?”

“You know. All
these utensils.”

“From your
garbage.” He stirs the food with the ladle while he replies.

“My garbage?”

“Well, not yours
in particular. But since I am poor I have to take the things that rich people,
like you, don’t need.”

Weird. I didn’t
know that what my family no longer wanted could end up being used by a wolf that
also becomes a man and lives in the forest isolated.

After we eat – I
have to admit the meat is delicious – he tells me I have to wash the dishes in
the lake. I look at him surprised.

“Please, go,” he
says sternly. “Don’t make me be harsher with you. I have been more than I
wanted to for one day.”

With these words
I bow my head and go to the lake carrying our plates and cutlery. When I return
he shows me that I have to leave them on the shelves, so that they can dry. He
sits on one of the chairs again.

“I want you to
kneel on the floor,” he says.

It’s the last
thing I expected.

“Are you going
to keep staring at me or will you obey?”

I lower my gaze
and fool my pride to play this game.
Remember, Calista, this is not true.
You only do it to persuade him that he can trust you.

I sit on my
knees with legs kept close. I’m wearing a short dress, yet I have no underwear.

“Your legs…I
want them apart,” he says.

I close my eyes
embarrassed and open my legs slowly.

“Good. And your
head should be bowed. Your hands on your thighs.”

When I have
assumed the position he desires, he tells me that is how I have to greet him
every time I see him. Even if he has the form of the wolf. I agree willfully.

“There will be
rules from now on. First rule will be kneeling before me. Every morning, I will
go hunting. Then you will cook and serve me. You are not to speak to me unless
I give you permission. You will not look at me if I don’t desire. You will obey
without a second thought. And you will learn to satisfy me in all ways.
Understood?”

“Yes.”

“From now on,
you will answer me like this. Yes, my Lord.”

My Lord? I
wouldn’t call like that any of my candidates and some of them were indeed
lords. He is a beggar, an animal, a nothing and he wants me to call him my
Lord? He must be out of his mind.

“Yes, my Lord,”
I say as loud as my dignity lets me.

“Good. As you
may have noticed there are no facilities of the kind you were accustomed to. No
bath, no toilet. You will have to replace them with the lake and the forest.”

“What?” I raise
my head forgetting about his rule.

“Bow your head.
Now.”

I comply with his
order.

“I don’t see why
you can’t do it. I live like this and I don’t have any problem.”

“But you are an
animal,” I yell with indignation lifting my gaze once more.

He gets up from
his chair rapidly and kneels in front of me grabbing my chin with his hand.

“So? Does that
make you superior? Because you are a human?” At this point he may not be a wolf
but his eyes surely resemble a predator’s.

“Yes, it does. I
can’t pee outside, in the forest.”

He smiles
coldly.

“I don’t care.
You have no other option.”

Oh, yes, I do.
And I will put it into practice as soon as possible.

“You can wash
yourself in the lake afterwards,” he pretends to reassure me. “Don’t make this
a big deal. I know this is huge for you. You are your parents’ little girl. You
should have thought that before you chose my path.”

At that exact moment
that I feel so disgusted by him, he leans and kisses me. Why does he do this?
My stomach churns in a disturbing way.

For the rest of
the afternoon he keeps me tied from my neck to a tree, as if I were his dog –
now this is ironic, a wolf’s dog – and he swims and fishes. Then, he teaches me
how to cook fish as well and we have dinner. He doesn’t talk to me at all apart
from when he is cooking.

The fire still
burns in the fireplace when I feel my eyes closing. It was such an intense day.
I need to sleep and regain strength to go on with my plan.

“Let’s go to
sleep. You had enough for one day,” he says and takes my hand in his leading me
to the bed. He lies down and pulls me close to him.

“I thought…we are
sleeping together?”

“Of course. Why
wouldn’t we?”

“Last night…you
slept on the floor…”

“Last night I
was a wolf. And you didn’t know I was a man, too. Please, stop this. I am
really tired.”

I turn my back
on him as I can’t possibly sleep with his face in front of me. He doesn’t seem
to mind. However, he passes his hand possessively over my stomach, pushing me
against his warm flesh.

“Goodnight,
Calista.”

“Goodnight.”

“Goodnight?”

“Goodnight, my
Lord.”

“You learn fast.
Now go to sleep,” he says and kisses my shoulder.

I keep my eyes
open with difficulty. I am so tired. Yet my mind races. Tomorrow will be my
attempt to escape. Everything will go as planned.
Yes, Calista, everything
will be ok.
You will be with your loving parents in your house soon
…

I wake up
wrapped up in his heavy arms. It takes me some minutes to realize where I am
and what has happened. My sore butt and my recently lost virginity bring back
memories of last day.

I can escape now
that he is asleep…I make an effort to disentangle myself but his embrace is too
tight. At some point he wakes up and pulls me even closer to him. The only
reason I don’t scream is that it’s the last time I let him touch me.

He kisses the
back of my neck.

“Good morning,”
he murmurs.

“Good morning,
my Lord.” Well, I have to offer him what he desires, if I want to gain my
freedom.

“Mmmm…” he
caresses my hair. “Do you know how much I want you and the strength I need to
resist you? Just by calling me your Lord? But I think we must wait. It will be
too painful for you now,” he says and gets up. “I have to go, before I am not
able to control myself.”

For a moment I
think I have misjudged him. That he is a good man. A man that could be all I
have ever wanted. Then, I recall that he is not a man. He is a wolf. That raped
me tied to a tree. And punished me because I didn’t want to obey him. My
determination comes back reinforced.

“I am going to
hunt. Can you pick berries from the bushes near the hut to eat for breakfast?”