The Beast's Possession

**Aife

pov**noveldrama

My days went by in a daze. Between twisting and bending myself for every Bane's whim and trying to come up with a plan of escape, I lost the ability to follow time. I had no idea what date it was and whenever I asked Bane, he looked at me as if I was stupid and laughed in my face without giving an answer.

"What are you up to?" His voice startled me, making me jump and accidentally drop the plate I was washing. "Ain't you extra jumpy today?" Bane added with a snicker. That evening after the dreadful party, I promised myself I wouldn't react to his nonsense. Even when all I wanted was to scream and throw objects at him, I kept quiet.

It was funny to watch how frustrated Bane grew when he couldn't get a reaction from me. Sometimes, it felt like his main life goal was to annoy me.

While I was proud of myself for keeping my emotions hidden, some things truly upset me. For example - Silvia wasn't allowed to come here anymore.

I didn't care about the massive workload Bane forced on me, I could manage it all, but I really wanted someone to talk to. Even if she didn't want to be my friend, at least with her around, I didn't feel as alone. "Are you going to clean that up or are you waiting on the magic faeries to come and help?" Bane asked, pointing his finger at the broken plate in the sink.

Sucking in a deep breath, I started grabbing the porcelain shards, cutting my hands in the process. A loud hiss left my lips, but I focused on ignoring the stinging pain and blood that dripped down my fingers. Knowing Bane, I already prepared myself for another lecture. He would tell me that I was supposed to work off the value of the darn plate since I was the one who broke it, even if by accident. "You just can't hold back from proving to me how dumb you actually are, or can you?" Bane groaned as he grabbed my wrist and pulled my hand to him.

I clutched the shards in my hand for my dear life as my body started shaking. Whenever he was too close, I literally acted like a cornered animal and whenever his hands were on me, it became worse. "Let go, damn it," he hissed and tried to grab my fingers to open my fist.

Before he could touch me more than he already was, I opened my hand and let the shards land on the floor, covering the beautiful floor tiles in my blood.

Another dissatisfied noise left him as Bane reached past me to open the tap and shove my bleeding hand under the running water.

I didn't point out that this wasn't a good idea as the water would have an opposite effect to what he probably wanted since Bane didn't care anyway.

"Not too deep." Bane mumbled and pulled my hand away from the water to inspect it. "Stay here," he commanded and left the kitchen.

I stood like an idiot, watching my blood drip in the sink, silently praying to the Goddess I could bleed to death before Bane returned to give me more shit. But of course, just as my luck would have it - he returned far too soon.

Surprisingly, Bane almost looked like a human being simply because he was carrying the first aid kit.

My eyes followed him as Bane approached me and stopped right in front of me. He placed the kit on the corner of the sink, opened it and rummaged through the contains for a moment.

Then, he took a bottle with some weird liquid and poured it over my hand without a warning. It stung so bad tears filled my eyes and I had to grit my teeth to stop any sound from escaping me. Whatever the liquid was, it stung the cuts progressively worse as the time went by. Bane didn't utter a word while I was busy trying not to pee myself in pain.

After what seemed like a whole eternity, he finally focused on my hand.

Wordlessy, Bane rinsed off the liquid, applied some sketchy-looking ointment and bandaged my hand.

Just feeling how wide my eyes were gave me the impression that I had to look like one of those weird, twisted bugs from nature's experiments collection.

"Thank y-" I didn't get to finish thanking him as Bane quickly forced a rubber glove over my injured hand, catching me off guard.

"There. Now you can clean the mess you created here without splattering your stupid blood all over my awesome kitchen."

I could think of plenty of things I wanted to tell him, but decided against it. My attempt to run was far from forgotten and I really didn't need to add more to that trouble.

Instead of going off on him, I nodded and returned my attention to the sink. One by one, I carefully removed the porcelain shards and tossed them in the trash bin. Once the bigger pieces were out of the way, I grabbed a paper towel to remove the smaller shards.

"Can't you just wash it away?" Bane asked, frowning.

"No," I muttered.

"Why?" He kept pushing.

"Because I don't want the small pieces to clog up something or damage weaker plastic pipes. I don't know the correct answer if I'm being honest, all I know is that you're not supposed to wash the glass and porcelain shards down the drain."

"You know," Bane crossed his arms in front of his chest and leaned against the sink top. "You're not as dumb after all. I suppose you enjoy this back and forth game, huh? Acting all stupid one moment to bless me with a moment of wisdom the next?"

Clearly, he was mocking me. But on top of that, Bane was testing me.

He had done the same thing plenty of times, tried to play mind games with me to check how far I would let him go until I dropped the mask of indifference.

"I'm sorry for breaking the plate, Alpha," I muttered, completely ignoring his jab.

"And I'm sorry you didn't answer my question. Are you going to answer or should I make you?"

Cold shivers ran down my spine as Bane's voice echoed against the kitchen walls. I didn't want anything to do with him, if I had a choice in any of this.

Even knowing how much I was risking by ignoring his questions, I still tried to distract him. "Is there anything specific I should cook today?"

Bane's face twisted in disgust as he raised his hands and stepped away from me. "Hell, no. Why would you want to torture me like that? There's no way I'm eating more of that charcoal chicken or dry sandwiches, thank you very much." He was exaggerating. My cooking wasn't bad, I had spent countless hours back home, helping kitchen staff and learning how to cook as I grew up, so I didn't suck nearly as much as he claimed I did.

But whatever. If his insane need to offend me every step he took was now directed to one thing I actually knew how to do, then so be it. For as long as it got him off my back, I was fine with anything. "Okay. Do you have more jobs for me today, or may I leave?" I asked, eyeing the kitchen door.

"As a matter of fact, I do. You're coming to the main building with me today. The pack is preparing for a celebration since we have more incoming girls and some important guests to arrive today. Just make yourself presentable and we shouldn't have any issue."