Catch Up Day

POV: Echo

Working with the laundry has never been so uncomfortable in my life. I quickly empty the dryers and then ran the washers again to rid the clothes of the stale damp scent clinging to them from sitting wet for three days.

The pain in my back twinges every time I reach too far into the machines for the clothing, resulting in me having to practically crawl into the massive dryers to get everything out. As I do so, I can feel Brady watching my every move with a purely animalistic gaze of desire. He stands just behind me, his eyes darkening with his wolf, making me desperate to get out of the basement.

I thanked the Moon Goddess when I finished, and he simply gestured for me to head up the stairs in front of him. Not wanting to provide him with the time or opportunity to touch me or change his mind, I scrambled up the stairs as quickly as I could.

Three steps into the kitchen, I pause, stifling a gasp when I see the state of it. In three days, they had covered every single surface in the room with stacks of dirty dishes and empty take-out containers.

My pause gave him the opportunity he was waiting for. Alpha Brady came up behind me, shoving me roughly face-first against the wall and pressing himself against me. I tried to pull away, but there was nowhere to go.

"Don't forget Little Doll, I own you. Don't worry about cooking anything, just get this house cleaned up." He whispers, running his nose up my neck, behind my ear, and breathing in my scent.

He grabs my hips and slowly grinds himself against my ass several times before pulling away and leaving the room. Dropping to the floor the second he's gone, I silently sob. He has never once touched me like that outside of the basement before now.

I had hoped to be safe once I'd reached the main floor. Hoped he would still be trying to hide his obsession with me from the rest of the pack. Obviously not. I only allow myself a moment of weakness.

With four days of work to catch up on and only one day to do so, I don't have time for tears now. Wiping the tears from my face with determination, I started my task by throwing out the piles of take-out containers.

The rest of the morning is spent alternating between scrubbing the kitchen clean and switching load after load of laundry from the washer to the dryer. I make sure to fold the dry laundry as soon as it comes out of the dryer, as I don't dare risk letting it sit and become wrinkled.

The afternoon is spent catching up on stripping the rooms from the missed days. The rooms are on a weekly sheet-changing schedule, so normally only a few rooms need fresh sheets at a time. Today, I have four days worth of rooms to strip.

Towels are typically collected from all of the rooms daily, and after missing three days, most of the bathrooms now have a pile of dirty, musty towels sitting in the corner.

Some pack members will drop their laundry down the chute, especially if it builds up for any reason. Some absolutely will not and will leave it for me. By the time I am done stripping rooms on the first two floors, the laundry chute is backed up to the second floor.

On the third floor, the guest rooms were all empty, so there was nothing to be done with them.

The Beta, thank the Goddess, is relatively self-sufficient. On stripping days for his living area, I typically find all of his rooms striped, and the laundry waiting in baskets to be dumped down the chutes.

He tried dumping the baskets down the chutes himself one time when he first took over the position. The Alpha and Luna saw him and hunted me down, beating me within an inch of my life.

They assumed I'd not done my job and dragged me, black and blue, to apologize to him for my laziness. Furious, they had threatened, right in front of him, that the next time they saw their Beta having to do my chores, they'd beat me even worse, and toss me down the third-floor chute.

Beta John had whispered a hurried apology the next time he and I were alone in the hallway. Since then, he has started leaving his stripped linens in baskets in an unused spare room in his quarters.

I dump his laundry down the chute and replace the baskets. Moving to the last area for the day: the Alpha and Luna quarters. I never like stripping their rooms, and they demand it is done every couple of days. The Luna has a vicious temper, and often my presence in their quarters alone was enough to earn a slap.

I stopped outside their door, sending a prayer to the Moon Goddess for the first time in a long time. 'Please, if you have any mercy left for me, please don't let them be in their apartment. Please, I just want to do my chores without any problems!'

Taking a deep breath, I knocked on the door. I waited for a moment and knocked once more, waiting for a response. Hearing nothing, I opened the door and hurried into the first room.

Their quarters consist of two bathrooms, a kitchenette with everything they'd need to cook for themselves, a living room and dining room, and, of course, the master bedroom. There are also four additional rooms, meant to be for any future children the Alpha and Luna may have.

These rooms can be used for home office spaces, game rooms, or whatever they want until they have children. Alpha Brady and Luna Embry have a different take on what to do with their four spare rooms. Two of the rooms have a fully made bed in them, as they refuse to sleep on the same sheets twice. One room was turned into an expansive closet, and the other into a game room.

Given that I would have missed their last linen-stripping day, I wasn't sure what to expect. This was definitely not it.

The first room I enter has a pile of dirty sheets in one corner, and what must have been a freshly made bed at one point. Now, the sheets are crumpled, the blankets and pillows tossed on the floor and the sheets are covered in the stench of sex.

I haul the previously stripped sheets to the chute and come back to strip the bed. Once I'm done with that room, I go to the next. It is in much the same shape.

The makeshift closet room was a disaster. At some point, Luna had become angry and pulled all her clothing from the racks and stomped on them. I carefully removed the hangers from each item and made five trips to the chute with all the clothes.

Next, there was only a small pile of towels in the main bathroom, as they typically use the master bath. I remove any dirty clothes, hand towels, throw blankets, etc. from the kitchen and living room, before making my way to the master bedroom.

Just as I grabbed the handle to open the door, I couldn't help but wonder in amazement at how fortunate I'd been that they hadn't come home while I was working. I knocked sharply on the door, and, as expected, there was no reply.

I opened the door and stepped into the dark room, closing the door firmly behind me. Their scent is heaviest in this room, and while it is overwhelming in the rest of the apartment, it's unbearable here.

Focusing on breathing through my mouth, in a poor attempt to limit the scent as much as possible, I worked to calm the rising panic in my chest.

I shake my head roughly, drawing myself out of my memories and into reality. Their smell brings me back to some of the worst experiences of my life. Most recently being the brutal wolfsbane-drenched wake-up.

As my breathing evens out, I reach out and flick on the lights. My feet are moving towards the bed, while my eyes roam about the room, taking in the pile of sheets in the corner, and their clothes were strewn about everywhere.

Only a couple of feet from the bed, I suddenly noticed him sitting at the end of it. Jerking to a halt, I also notice the bed behind him is perfectly made, but not with the bedding meant for the alpha apartment.

"Little Doll," he says huskily, licking his lips. My breath catches in my throat, this is the last place I ever want to be caught by Alpha Brody alone. He stands, prowling towards me with a glint of desire in his eyes.

The rush of pure terror flowing through my body immobilizes me entirely, making me easy prey. He wastes no time scooping me up and tossing me roughly onto his bed.