DEREK

"Shh. Go back to sleep. I'll go check on mommy", the older girl, Clair, said.

She walked over to the master bedroom and saw me standing in the middle of the room, my hammer dripping with blood. Her mother was lying at my feet, a pool of blood forming around her head, and her father was lying in bed, both silent.

She opened her mouth as if she was going to scream, then shut it tightly and covered her mouth with her hands, struggling to stifle her sobs while tears streamed down her face. How strange.

She turned and entered the boys' room. I heard her trying to shake each of them awake while calling his name, then more stifled sobs when she realized they were already dead. I stood and waited patiently for her to finish, curious to see what she would do next.

I wasn't worried about her running away. I was far too big, strong, and fast for her to fight me, and my wolf senses of hearing and smell would allow me to easily track her down if she tried to run or hide. She must have realized it as well, because after a few moments she came back. She was shaking like a leaf in the wind, her jaw and blood-stained fists were clenched tightly, and tears were streaming down her face, but she quietly entered the master bedroom and closed the door behind her.

"Are you going to kill Pamela and me?" Clair whispered. I nodded.

"Yes".

"Could you please spare her?" She whispered. I shook my head.

"No".

Clair took a deep breath to steady herself.

"Then, can you please kill her in her sleep? I don't want her to be scared, or sad, or to feel pain", she pleaded. The flow of tears seemed to increase while she spoke. I nodded.

"Yes".

"Thank you". She seemed genuinely relieved.

"I should lie down. If I'm standing when you kill me then my body will make noise when it falls, and Pamela could wake up".

So that was why she was so careful to be quiet. Even during the shock of seeing her parents murdered with the killer standing over the bodies, she was already considering how to spare her sister from suffering in case her life couldn't be saved. That was an amazing level of clear-headedness and foresight. All the more reason why I couldn't spare her. I couldn't afford to let such an incredible enemy grow against me.

Clair walked over to the bed on her own and laid down alongside her father's corpse. I kneeled by her side and pulled out my knife.

"I'll cut your throat. As you bleed out you'll feel like you're going to sleep. It will hardly hurt at all", I whispered. Although Pamela acted like a spoiled brat sometimes, she and Clair never really hurt anyone. I didn't like having to kill them, so I wanted to at least provide Clair with some comfort.

"Please in the future only kill those that are necessary", she said. I froze in the act of raising the knife to her neck.

"What do you mean, in the future?" I asked cautiously.

"After you save your people, will your conscience really let you stop?" She asked. "So please, satisfy your grudge with me and my sister, and don't kill anyone else that you don't have to".

Her referring to my conscience was unusual. Humans generally didn't consider beast-kin to have a conscience, since they thought of us as animals. However, her foresight was frighteningly accurate. I myself hadn't yet thought that far ahead, but I knew she was right. I would be visiting other farms and rescuing their slaves. Now that I started, I couldn't leave any people behind that I could save.

"It's a pity that I can't let you live, but you would be too dangerous of an enemy. You could be faking sincerity to earn my trust", I said.

"If you can consider that, then you will be a good leader for your people", Clair said, then took a deep breath. "I'm ready".

I placed the knife against the far side of her throat and prepared to slice it open. I would cut the throat on both sides, passing the knife over it twice to make sure that I sliced through the major veins and arteries. That would cut off the supply of blood to her brain while also draining it of blood. She would swiftly lose consciousness and then die. With a sharp enough knife she might not have even felt the cut, but unfortunately the one I had wasn't a butcher's knife.

Clair's eyes were closed, her fists were tightly clenched and her whole body was shaking, but she kept her chin up and didn't move. She might have tried to touch my collar, but such a move wasn't likely to succeed, and if she failed then I might retaliate by giving her sister a painful and frightening death. She had no options except to surrender and allow herself to be executed.

I watched the tears flow out of the corners of her eyes and over her strangely round ears. Killing her would be truly regrettable.

"You better clean yourself up and change your clothes. You don't want Pamela to get scared, right?" I said suddenly while removing the knife from her neck. Her eyes flew open and she looked at me in surprised disbelief.

"Thank you" she sobbed, not so quietly this time. She slowly sat up and cried her relief while sitting bent over on the edge of the bed.

When she regained control of herself she got up and went to wash the blood off of her hands in the washbasin. I waited while she went to her room to change from her nightgown into a dress. She made sure to close the doors of the master bedroom and the boys' room before waking Pamela up. She then had Pamela change her clothes too and led her down the stairs. I removed the bloody cloth wrapping from the hammer and followed them at a distance. Clair stopped and waited for me in the kitchen.

"What's he doing in the house?" Pamela asked. "Where are we going? Where's mom and dad?"

"Derek will explain", Clair answered.

"Tonight the two of you will get to experience the sleeping conditions of beast-kin", I said.

"I don't want to, and you can't make me. I'm going to tell on you to mom and dad!" Pamela said angrily.

"It was their idea", I said.

"I don't believe you!" Pamela shouted and stomped her foot.

"It's true. We have to do what Derek says", Clair said. Pamela deflated like a bladder being emptied.

"Follow me", I said and led them to the stockade. I had them wait a short distance away from the entrance, far enough that they wouldn't be able to hear, then opened the door.