Chapter 7: The Venom that saves

She flinched when another female jostled her to the pails of water outside and she winced at the clothes she was given. She grimaced at the brown leather but anything was better than smelly old hand-me-downs.

"Zev says he wants to see you, he says you two have unfinished business,"

Jet scowled at her while she left with a grin on her face. Leaving her hanging, like she was supposed to know which place was which. She took the pail to somewhere more private and took a bath scrubbing dirt off her hair.

As she was reaching into the pail, her eyes bulged at the reddish-purple bruise on her knuckles and knee. She rushed into her clothes when she deciphered that people were coming and dashed with the pail but she forgot her old clothes and came back to retrieve them but met the group of injured men.

"There's not many of us no more,"

"He's gonna kill us, which is much I could say about JERK-SOB," He rolled his eyes and she watched closely.

"Did you have to challenge him?"

"He's the one who started it,"

In the blink of an eye, one caught her by the collars. His black eye scoured her face and she jerked running off.

She recognized the rest of them and another pinned her down.

"You wouldn't want to be telling the top dog that we was hunting, would you?"

She jostled and despite being in better condition than them, her head was pinned down

"Why do you care? He's gonna find out anyway," She growled.

"Says who?"

Her lip quivered "Y_you can't do anything to me,"

"Watch me,"

"Oof," She was tossed into the room and he exhaled. "What now?"

"Boss, we was just minding our own business and she was tryna escape,"

Zev sat up from his chair "Don't tell me she fought off every last one of you,"

The one with the black eye named Duko shook his head "Definitely not, she was getting close to the border_"

"I was not!" She hissed

"Quiet you, we clashed with those Lobos and the Beta was one of em, they was trying to get her back when she raised an alarm," The one who challenged Beta Jackson [ Stan ] said.

Zev didn't know what was more infuriating, he did sound convincing but the girl still smelled of soap and possibly wet dirt, she may have been doing some running and there would be signs of struggle if she had to escape.

"Let me see your fingers,"

They looked perplexed, Jet refused to move from her place.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" He urged and hesitantly, she stretched out her hand, he examined her small hand and the bruises, surely he recognized Amy's doing, then he searched her fingernails, there was no dead or bloody skin. They were squeaky clean.

"How far did you run?" By that, he meant how many calories did they burn running? He cast a sinister look at them and they were gagging.

"We don't know, sir,"

"You don't know?" His eyes lowered to her and she slowly turned red.

"Alright Jet, let's hear from your side of the story," His voice was gentle.

"I...I um_"

"Alright! We was huntin' in the reserves, okay?" Stan blurted.

"Where are the rest of you?"

He shook his head "Gone, they was too strong, but I told them to stay back_it was all Duko's fault, he was telling everyone that we was..." His voice muffled when he couldn't put two sentences together.

"Get out," His voice was darker and Stan paled, mortified and they left the room quickly to Jet's relief.

Jet swallowed and his large hand dropped, she rubbed her hand while he went to settle down.

"Why don't you just reject me already?" She conjured up much closure.

"Why?" He retorted and adjusted the papers.

"You said, we had unfinished business," She murmured and he had a look that reminded her of their last discussion and she fumed.

"I'm not offering any help to a bunch of thieving scumbags," She raised her chin.

"That's a new one," He teased flipping a book.

"I said no!"

"You don't yell to prove a point,"

She tapped her chin pretending to think "You're the enemy, you've killed people and you abducted me, is that convincing enough for ya?"

"Point taken but I call the shots and you follow, I take it that you're the only Lobisomem here and what happens when you're in enemy territory?"

She hardened "What exactly do you want me to do?"

His expression softened. "Nothing. Carry on," He grinned and gestured to the exit.

---

She slept peacefully in the pen and stirred up at the lady in front of her face, she had a rich brown head of hair, the straight ends curved right under her chin, she had brown eyes and lashes, every part of her face was detailed, her lips moved and she said some things that she didn't quite remember. She looked like she was parting ways with her and she didn't look back.

Jet tossed and her eyes opened and she rolled away before the water splashed on her, the wet soil splashed on her boots and she glared at the next yahoo who thought he successfully woke her up.

"You've got work to do, get up," Amy grunted.

She grimaced taking a rake when Amy handed it to her, her eyes narrowed and she was expected to follow her, Amy was heading north across the muddy field, but she did see some unidentifiable rubbish and noticed she was walking faster.

"Hey, what am I supposed to do!?" She broke into a run and Jet growled running after her, the forest seemed too dense for anyone to run at that impeccable feat, it was a jungle in here and she used the rake to clear out some jumble and paused at the slope.

Amy had already made it down and was walking as if nothing happened, to the other cabins.

She swatted the bugs and carefully descended the slope hobbling onto the waterhole.

The others seated on logs and stumps were perplexed at why she was holding a rake and she grunted making her way to the Missy who thought this was funny. Her head turned "Oh, you made it,"

The place was nearly immaculate, she glanced at the horizon, it looked like a big gulch with trees on both sides and patches of grass the rest of the way. The white sand was crusty and she clicked her sole.

"You, are going to be tilling this place till it looks spotless, now get to it," She looked serious, almost like she was forced to put up with her and by Luna if she didn't sound like Lovota on one of her tantrums again then she might call herself a doofus.

She got to work with her hands, uprooting bush after bush.

She rolled up the pile to a corner and slumped wiping her forehead. Her vision rested on the black claw protruding from the portion she tilled and crawled over to take it. The string followed and she swivelled it and then hid it in her pocket.

The wolves were engaged in a fisticuff when she watched them and noticed the others were watching too. At the same time, the ground was getting rougher and she stood leaning on her rake to watch them as the other crowd arrived blocking her. Indeed it was a thrill and she somewhat mimicked them.

She composed herself when Amy peeked at her and continued gathering grass.

It continued for days while she spread out the ridges. She learned it was just a