Every Bite
Every Bite
GINGER
A lamb’s head…so that’s what that was.
Good Goddess, the damn thing looked almost like a wolf for a moment. A burned and battered wolf, but a wolf nonetheless.
I shuddered, closing my arms around myself as I turned to face the wall. I would not be letting them see how badly the sight of that thing affected me and after today, they’d never get a chance to use my horror as fuel for their joy, ever again.
The sound of Zelda cackling had me slamming my eyes closed as a memory from two years ago assaulted my vision and it took everything in me not to succumb to tears.
It was just after my sixteenth birthday, a mere week after I’d been gifted one of the worse beatings of my life. I’d stopped drinking the tea with Wolfsbane three days prior and the fact that my back was still raw, with twelve open lashes from Zelda’s whip barely starting to heal, should’ve garnered me a tiny reprieve from her constant beratement, but…such was not the case.
“Ginger!” Zelda screeched from the kitchen as I’d just begun to dose. “Get your worthless ass up here now!”
Pushing my tear streaked face into the rolled up towel that served as my pillow, I bit down on a manic scream and then pushed up onto my feet.
My back roared as I climbed the half sodden rot of the basement stairs, the fire along my back slowing my steps as I was forced to remain crouched.
“Ginger!” Zelda shouted again, ripping open the basement door just as I reached the threshold.
“Yes moth-” I clamped my eyes shut at my mistake, blinking a few times before I swallowed my sorrow and corrected myself “-L-Luna Zelda?”
Zelda scoffed, snatching me by my braid and yanking me into the kitchen. She tugged me toward the trashcan with an iron grip and my head flared with new pain but I dared not cry out. Crying was what got me the worst of the punishments, so despite that I could feel my hair ripping and my scalp felt like it was bleeding, I didn’t make a sound.
“What-” Zelda snarled, releasing my hair to fling open the trashcan and retrieve the tray of T-bone steaks that I’d chucked in the garbage “-is the meaning of this? Why are we wasting food?”
My brow scrunched together in confusion as my gaze locked on the steaks and then shot to the refrigerator. I’d been made to clean the thing just an hour ago and Zelda was very specific when she said to pull out all the rotten meat.
“I-I don’t understand,” I mumbled like a fool, earning myself a sharp slap across the face for my stupidity.
“Zelda!” Alpha Mario’s voice sounded from the doorway and I had to fight the urge to run and throw myself into his arms. “What the fuck are you doing? I think you punished her enough on her birthday, what could she have possibly done to upset you so soon?”
I whimpered, casting my eyes in his direction and dying a little when he refused to make eye contact with me for the thousandth time.
“She threw away these perfectly good steaks!”
My chin snapped up and I said, “N-No…th-they’re rotten. Over a month old. Y-You said to-”
“Ah, ah, ah,” she interrupted, ripping open the package of meat and tossing them toward the stove. “ I said to pull OUT all the rotten meat, not throw it away.”
“Zelda-” Alpha Mario started, but she glared at him with murder in her eyes.
“You’ll stay out of this if you know what’s good for you. Don’t forget, I still have your letter. You know, the one that I found right before I caught you hiding in the dark of Ginger’s-”
“Fine!” Alpha Mario roared. Then, with an exhausted sigh, “Fine. Just try to keep it down, I’m going to bed.”
“Now…” Zelda turned to me, a soul devouring smile turning her lips. “Keeping you around is expensive and I don’t believe in charity, yet still I put up with you stinking up my house every single day. So, from now on, instead of throwing the expired meat away, I want you to cook it.”
“O-Ok-k-kay,” I hiccuped, biting my tongue to try and still my restless spirit. “Wh-Who am I t-to f-feed it to?”
Again, she smiled. “Well, who do you think, idiot? That right there should keep you for a week.”
Sobs threatened to end me as I lied and said, “B-But I’m not hungry.”
She slapped me again and this time a cold sort of quiet came over me, halting my weakly disguised sobs and stilling the rattle of my bones.
“You are,” she snapped. “And you will finish every bite, right here at this table where I will be able to see if your sneaky little ass tries to throw it away.”
“Yes Luna Zelda,” I replied, stepping doggedly toward the stove.
Zelda’s cackling laugh echoed between the walls of my childhood kitchen and she grinned, saying, “You need to be more grateful. After all, at least I’m allowing you to cook it.”
I opened my eyes to find Lincoln’s hand sealed over my elbow, his face unreadable as he tugged me toward him and then forced my body to turn around.
Zelda’s cackle suddenly stopped, her eyes flashing when she caught sight of me being ushered back into my seat. She smiled, her eyes flashing with colors like that of a snake’s. She held my gaze and said plainly, “At least it was cooked.”
The commotion that followed robbed me of the sudden fury that promised to launch my fist into the side of her head.
After hearing her utter those words, Rafael’s fist slammed onto the table, smashing his plate into an explosion of lamb and shattered glass, but before he or his Beta could so much as inhale a quick breath, Lincoln’s voice sounded, sharp, like the crack of a whip.
“Enough!” he shouted, his jaw pulsing as his eyes spiraled to yellow and black. The entire room seemed to freeze as Lincoln moved almost too quickly for the eye to follow. In the space of an instant, Lincoln switched my dome with his mother’s, depositing the former gently right in front of me, while slamming the latter violently, right in front of her.
Zelda’s mouth fell open in shock as Lincoln swiftly lifted the lid and said, his voice as cold as the winter calm, ”You requested this dinner, mother, and you…are going to eat it. Every bite.”