I did not like the huntresses before. I like them even less now. They have lain with my man, and judging by the reception they gave me, they would do so again if he would allow it.
Zion has no interest in them. He makes that just as clear to them as they make their disdain for me obvious. Most of our time is spent together, but he has his responsibilities to the tribe. The huntresses hunt, but it is the males who guard. Zion must take his turn at being on patrol and that leaves me alone sometimes.
I am supposed to stay in the hut, but the walls are oppressive. I am used to wider views. I know what will happen if I leave the village without his permission, and I know I don’t want it to.
So I sit outside, take in the evening air and try to work on sewing the skins that will give me something to wear. Running about utterly naked doesn’t do it for me. I want to be covered, but I am obliged to be nude.
“Nice skirt. Not.”
It’s Tyna the huntress and she has some of her friends with her. She emerges out of the shadows in near silence, an impressive trick that makes me jump and poke myself with the needle. A bead of blood appears on my thumb. I stick it into my mouth and suck, saving myself the trouble of replying right away.
One of the other huntresses grabs it off my lap. The stitching comes loose and the two bits of fur hang limp and bedraggled. They’ve broken it! I could cry, but I won’t give them the satisfaction.
“They say the tightness of the stitching is the tightness of the holes,” one smirks at me. “Are you this loose, star girl?”
“Zion likes me the way I am.”
It is precisely the wrong thing to say, though it feels good to remind them of what they have lost. There are other warriors, but I have gathered that Zion was regarded as the most desirable of all. Tyna thought he would be hers. Her jealousy burns brighter than the sun. I can see the hatred in her eyes and I feel real fear. She could hurt me.
“He won’t be yours. You’re just the new thing. You won’t be new for long. You don’t know how to sew. You can’t hunt. You will not make a good mother. You will not provide for your young,” she hisses. “You are an abomination, and you should have been put down.”
“Well, you’re not the first person to say that.” I try to keep things calm. I try not to antagonize her, even though it would give me nothing but pleasure to do so. I have to try to fit in here. I have to become like these women, so when the inevitable happens I will have a chance at staying hidden. As much as it twists me up inside, I have to befriend them, somehow.
“Why did you come here?” She cocks her head to the side, folds her arms over her chest and questions me.
“I was sent. It was a punishment. Apparently, looking at you was the worst thing my boss could come up with.”
Tyna’s hand moves faster than I give her credit for being able to move. Her palm and sharp nails whip across my face, knock me sideways, put the taste of blood in my mouth.
“Don’t you ever talk to me like that, bitch,” she hisses, standing over me. She’s a female brute, a bully, and worse, a coward. She knows I can’t hurt her the way she can hurt me. She knows I didn’t even ask to be taken by Zion. None of this is my fault, but she still blames me.
“Zion’s going to beat you for touching me.”
“Good. I’d like that.” She smirks in triumph and I see how neatly she has played me. If she hurts me and I tell Zion, she gets his attention. Even his hatred is probably better than his utter indifference.
I get up and I take my skirt back from the huntress still holding it.
“I’m sorry he doesn’t want you, but…”
I have barely started speaking when another harsh blow knocks me down. My head is ringing. She is getting angrier and hitting harder.
“Tyna…” one of the other huntresses tries to intervene. “We can’t actually hurt her.”
“Yes, we can. I took her down once. I should finish the job. Right here. Right now.”
“What do you mean you took me down once?”
Tyna smirks at me.
“Tselia? What’s going on?”
Zion’s rumble make the huntresses scramble into the darkness. No longer a pack of wolves, they disappear more like a bunch of cockroaches.
He comes around the corner and gives me a look. “What are you doing out here?”
“I was just…”
“Come inside.”
I follow him into the hut. The light is low and I keep the side of my face Tyna scratched away from him. He didn’t see what they were doing to me. He heard their voices, but that was all.