*
I opened my eyes hours later, realizing I had slept through dinner.
When I pushed my blanket off my body and crawled over to the opening of the treehouse, I looked down to find Fennec sitting by the fire all alone.
“What time is it?” I asked, making him turn his head toward me.
“Hey, sleepyhead. You missed dinner,” he stated. “It’s almost ten.”
“Oh. Why didn’t you wake me?” I asked as I put my boots back on before heading down.
“You were sleeping so peacefully. Didn’t want to bother you. Are you still in pain?” he asked, his eyes moving to my belly.
“Uh, not really. I feel better. I’m hungry though.”
“I kept the meat on the grill. Come sit and eat.”
I looked to the fireplace to see the small fire still burning, keeping not only my food but Fennec warm.
“I have to change first. I’ll be right there,” I told him, pointing to Papa’s cabin where I had stored all my pads and clothes.
“Try not to wake him. He wasn’t in a good mood before he went to sleep.”
I nodded before opening the cabin door and stepping inside.
He had placed his mattress in the far-right corner and on the left, there were all of our things.
It was enough space, and I couldn’t wait for the toilet he promised to build.
I could use some privacy when I was on my period.
After grabbing a clean pad out of my duffle bag, I walked out of the cabin again to then head straight into the forest so Fennec didn’t have to watch me change my bloody pad.
“Don’t go too far,” he told me.
I stopped a few feet from our treehouse and hid behind a wide tree before I pushed my pants and thick tights down my legs.
I sighed as I saw all the blood covering my pad and back of my panties, this not being the first time I had lost that much blood.
It wasn’t unusual, and I was sure most women had a heavy flow, but it was annoying.
I pulled the pad from my panties and set it down onto the snow before placing the new one in and pulling my pants back up.
“You okay back there?” Fennec asked.
“Uh, yeah,” I replied, taking one step aside and seeing him standing there next to our treehouse.
“You sure?” His eyes wandered to the pad in the snow, and I quickly picked it up to dispose of it in our compost bin.
“Yes, everything’s okay, Fennec,” I promised with a smile.
“That’s a lot of blood,” he pointed out.
“Yeah, I should’ve changed it before going to sleep,” I said, shrugging.
“Meat’s good for when you’re on your period,” he told me, his eyes still on the pad.
“I guess.” I walked over to pass him and throw the pad away, but before I could do so, he grabbed my wrist and pulled the pad out of my hand.
“Losing that much blood isn’t healthy, you know that? You need to somehow get that iron back into your body.”
I knew that, and since we ate enough meat, I never worried about it.
“Sit.”
I went over to the fireplace and sat down on one of the trunks, watching him inspect the pad once again before he turned to get rid of it himself.
“Good thing I kept the livers, kidneys, and hearts from that deer we shot yesterday. You should eat those.”
I kept looking at him as he walked over to Papa’s cabin, then he went inside and came out again a few seconds later, holding a small steel container in his hands.
“You want to cook it now?” I asked, but he shook his head as he walked over to me to sit down.
“No, you’ll eat them raw. Probably best,” he said, opening the lid and looking inside.
I leaned over to see the organs Papa usually used to catch fish, but we never ate them as the meat of the animals was enough for us.
“You want me to eat them raw?” I asked with a frown, staring at the bloody organs in the container.
“You’re losing a lot of blood, Ves. I don’t want you to suddenly feel dizzy and drop to the ground. It’s good for you.”
“It’s bloody.”
“It’s healthy,” he urged.
“It won’t taste good uncooked.”
He raised his brows. “It won’t taste any different from human blood, and you stop wounds from bleeding with your mouth at times.”
He had a point, but I still wasn’t sure about eating raw deer organs.
“I don’t want it.”
“You have to, Vespyr. It’s good for you.”
I shook my head at him and reached for the pot on the grill, but before I could take off the lid to expose actual, cooked meat, his hand cupped my pussy.
My body froze, and as I looked down at his hand, he pressed his palm tighter against me.
“It won’t taste any different, Vespyr.”
I couldn’t talk, so I kept my mouth shut as his hand moved again, this time to the hem of my sweater, pulling it over my stomach to then push his fingers into my pants.
“I want you to stay healthy.”
His fingers moved into my panties and I tried to squeeze my thighs together to keep his hand out of there, but it didn’t help.
He pushed them further, brushing through my slit and then dipping them into my hole.
“Fen—”
“Shh. Let me show you that our blood is not any different than the one from animals.”
My body was still tense, slowly starting to shake as I was realizing that this wasn’t one of those fever dreams I had weeks ago.
This was real, but even knowing that this wasn’t okay, I didn’t stop him.
I looked into his eyes while his fingers slowly moved in and out of me, and when they were covered in my blood, he pulled them back out to look at them.
He didn’t speak, but his eyes said enough.
I watched him rub his thumb against his two fingers, smearing the blood all over them before he lifted them up to his mouth.
I was speechless, but I didn’t stop him.
He wrapped his lips around his fingertips, tasting the blood while keeping his eyes locked on mine, and when he pulled them out again, the corners of his mouth curled up.
“I don’t taste a difference,” he told me, tilting his head to one side and moving his hand closer to my face.
He grabbed my jaw, then let the pad of his thumb brush along my bottom lip, leaving the taste of my own blood lingering.
“Why did you…” I started, but there were no more words coming out of me.
“Eat, sweet girl. You need it.”
His hand left me, and he turned to grab the container with the organs in it, holding it out for me to take.
“Here, I’ll cut you a piece, but you need to eat it.”
I held the container in my lap as he grabbed the liver, then he reached for the knife in the side pocket of his pants to cut a piece.
I watched him, and as no more words came out of me, I let him hold that piece of liver close to my mouth.
The smell of it didn’t bother me much, but knowing it was raw did.
Shit…what’s he doing to me?
My gaze dropped to the piece he was holding between his fingers, and to not make him angry, I bit down on it, letting the taste of it fill my mouth.
“You’ll get used to it. Mama would tell you the same thing. To eat things like this when you’re losing that much blood.”