Sweat streamed down Samantha’s back as she stood in the dark garden barely lit by the lights coming from the mansion's windows. Vapor slowly rose from her naked skin as she breathed heavily, standing in the chilly air with her muscular torso covered only by the tight cloth bra that was now thoroughly soaked with sweat.

Normally she would have been too modest to stay outside in such a state of undress but after Noah left for training, the mansion had only female inhabitants, so she allowed herself a more comfortable dress up while training.

She raised her sword concentrating her senses before swinging it down in a flash-like motion, exhaling the air in a burst. After the swing, she slowly raised her sword again and swung it once more. 

Training her sword skill deep into the evening became a habit in the last several weeks that they lived in the Threadweaver mansion. 

At first, it was an exercise to ease the jitters. The stay under the roof with one of the most powerful monsters known to humans made her jumpy and nervous for the first few days. In her mind, she knew that if Theressa or her daughters wanted to harm her or her friends, there was plenty of opportunity to do that already, and not much she could do to oppose it. Yet still, as every day that they lived here came to an end, bringing the darkness of the evening, all four of them could not help feeling restless to the point of having insomnia.

Humanity has lived wary of monsters for more than a millennia now. The fear was so deeply engraved it was almost instinctual, yet here they were, living under the same roof with such monsters. Even the fact that they were being fed and protected by them did not do much to ease their fear. 

But showing that fear was unacceptable. These creatures after all showed hospitality above any they have received anywhere else in their entire life. They could not disrespect their hosts from mare pangs of fear, lest they really might want to eat them one night in anger.

In an attempt to calm herself, Samantha started doing training every evening, wearing herself almost to exhaustion before going to bed, so that her tired body and mind would overcome anxiety and let her sleep at ease.

The other three women understood it too and quickly found their own methods to overcome these jitters. 

Kate asked for permission to use the library, reading a lot which was always her favorite pastime. The rest of the time she spent meditating, preferring the magic training to normal sleep. Which was not an equal substitution for a mage of her level and accumulated weariness over a few days, thus making her sleepy enough to nap without any regard for any threat. Even if only once every few days.

Lilly seemed to prefer a very long soak in a hot bath that she would take every evening. Staying in hot water until her body relaxed so much that she barely hit the pillow before sleeping.

Dany…For Dany, it was simply keeping a knife under the pillow. Although Samantha sometimes doubted it helped her to calm down as she still needed to sleep with a lit candle. Samantha once questioned her about the knife to which Dany answered that it was more of an assurance that if the monsters were to come, she would not get captured alive again. The fact that she held a knife by her side for quick suicide made Samantha worry quite a bit about her friend's state of mind.

However, what helped them to eventually disregard these night fears was Noah’s carefree demeanor. As they heard, he did not know these monster women all too long as well, yet there was not a trace of fear or anxiety in him under this roof. He truly felt at home and was truly loved and cared for by these monsters.

Was he naive or courageous? Samantha and her friend could not fathom. Moreover, he was even mating with them. She knew that beforehand but actually living under the same roof made her open her eyes to this truth in some enlightening way.

They were definitely gorgeous women. Samantha was nowhere near their beauty in her own opinion. But they were monsters. She had problems sleeping at night while staying in the same house with them, yet Noah stayed in the same bed with them.

Somehow thoughts of it helped all four of the women get hold of their initial fear and cast it away. Sleep now coming to them without problems, and their insomnia ceasing. Or at least for the other three.

Samantha, however, still saw the need to continue this training as a sort of meditation to ease her mind. It helped her blow off steam and lessen the stress that kept piling up every day.

The cause of most of her frustration and stress these days was her very teammates. They were through a lot in the last few months. The recent days were just the worst of a whole chain of events.

The experience they were through no doubt affected her friends and sister in the worst way, but she did not know how to help them. Samantha felt the darkness dwelling in their minds that occasionally would reflect in their moods. Something lurking behind their plastered normal faces. 

She tried to make them talk about it and let these feelings out, offering to hear them out as a reliable elder sister and leader, but they seemed to be distant and unwilling to trust her with their fears and thoughts. The more she tried to make them talk with her, the less they seemed inclined to do so. In fear to make the matter only worse, she finally backed away, giving her friends some space.

However, backing away did not let her miss the traces of the smoldering feelings that must have been inside their hearts. 

Ever since that incident in the forest with Noah raping all four of them in his monster-like state, Samantha noticed her sister's dark mood and pangs of occasional cruelty. The constant ‘bitchiness’ if she could give that state a name would be the best way of describing it. Lilly was unbearable with her snappy attitude when they traveled to the hideout. But now it got only worse after that recent incident with the crazy bishop. The torture Lilly got through that night added constant nightmares to her previous problems. Bad sleep seemed only to worsen that snappy attitude of her sister by the day.

Samantha could close her eyes when that attitude was targeted at her, but could not allow her sister to lash out at her friends who were through no less stressful events than her. Especially at Dany. And even more, she could not allow her to be disrespectful to their hosts. No matter who the girls blamed for their problems, losing the shelter Noah and his mates have offered them would be fatal.

Holding her sister under constant watch and trying to diffuse any tense situation that Lilly would constantly cause, brought half of all the stress Samantha felt these days. 

It helped a lot that Noah was very understanding and seemed to be equally keen on diffusing any tension helping Samantha. Although Lilly seemed to have a more snappy attitude and was especially provocative in his presence.

This gentleness and kindness with which Noah regarded them even after tolerating this attitude from Lilly made Samantha’s heart ache. She knew she herself did not hate Noah for what happened. But could not force her friends and sister to forget that incident.

She was glad that Noah was away just for the reason that Lilly could not be a bitch toward him, hoping that she would calm down by the time Noah would be back.

Another part of Samantha’s frustration came equally from Dany and Kate. Dany seemed to be closing herself after the incident in the forest but the events she was through when she was in the capture seemed to crack her inside altogether. Old Dany was a firecracker of chatter, jokes, and activity. Now she was distant, emotionless, and non-talkative. Sometimes sitting simply staring into a spot without blinking. Sometimes Samantha felt that if she did not speak with her at least once a day, her friend would simply sink into her dream world and never come back. 

The worst thing in situation with Dany however was that Samantha noticed that among the multitude of injuries that were gradually healing were several fresh ones. The ones that could only appear already after coming here and were not gained from that vampire bitch torture while in the capture.

Constant worry on whether those new injuries were self-induced or was it someone else's doing brought Samantha immeasurable stress. She did not want to believe it but could not help having suspicions toward Lilly with her pang of cruelty. 

A few days of constant observation made her sigh in relief finding out that they were indeed self-induced, yet did not make her less frustrated as Dany never answered why she did this to herself although she seemed to stop injuring herself. At least not in any place Samantha could notice.

Kate, against the background of those two, seemed a lot more in a better state of mind and less of a concern. On the surface, she seemed absolutely normal. Kate was always a smart but silent type. A cool distant beauty. This side of her did not seem to change much, but there was something that did not give Samanta peace of mind.

Those gazes that she noticed Kate throw sometimes. At times Samantha would just turn in her direction and notice her friend gazing at her from a distance in silence with an unreadable face, before walking off in silence. These gazes were not reserved only for Samantha. She noticed Kate regarded other household members in this silence as well. As if she was constantly pondering on something but was not willing to share her thoughts with anyone.

Seeing it all and not being able to help frustrated Samantha immeasurably making her lose sleep once again. This brought her back to this way of blowing steam until exhaustion, which let her sleep without a thought.

Samantha lost her concentration for a moment as her thoughts once more dwelled on the situation with her friends making her swing shallow in speed and precision. Realizing her mistake, she shook her head to clear away distracting thoughts when she noticed a new presence nearby.

Even with being distracted, someone creeping up to her so silently was truly remarkable. Had it been an assassin he would no doubt be well regarded for his skills. 

Samantha was prepared to swing her sword again but stopped, relaxing her shoulders and slowly lowered her hands while turning around, to look at the Dryad in the maid’s clothes that observed her silently.

“How can I help you?” Said Samantha. No one usually disturbed Samantha and her team after their daily work in the mansion was done and they had free time, so this maid's appearance made her worry that she calmed through training, ignite again.

“Madam wishes to talk with you.” Said Aster while raising a hand that held a towel, offering it to Samantha.

“Alright, I need to finish this set of training swings and I will…” Started to say, Samantha.

“Now.” Said Aster. “Madam is waiting.”

“Have we done something wrong?” Asked Samantha, taking the towel from Aster’s hand while measuring the Dryad with her gaze carefully the entire time.

“Not to my knowledge.” Said Aster.

Samantha nodded slightly, before drying herself with the towel and putting on the shirt above a still very wet bra covering herself and followed Aster back into the house. As she started to walk toward the mansion, however, she saw a figure in one of the windows that no doubt was watching them but quickly disappeared once Samantha noticed her. Samantha shook her head with a sigh, continuing to follow the maid.

Aster walked Samantha to Theressa’s office knocking on the door and announcing Samantha’s arrival before letting Samantha in and closing the door behind her, leaving the two women to talk alone. 

As she closed the door, Aster bent to pick up the sheathed sword that Samantha left propped up against the wall before entering the office but was stopped by Kate's voice from the side.

“I’ll hold on to it if you don’t mind”. Said Kate calmly watching the maid.

Aster only shrugged her shoulders before walking away with a smile. Noticing the other two of the girls not far away loitering in the halls as if by coincidence.

Although the group was a lot more relaxed these days, Dryads noticed that none of the group members went without a watch from some other members of the group. These girls were a very good team. Always watching over each other's backs. Even now, she barely approached one of them and all three of the teammates were already on the ready to back their friend up. This constant caution was natural for them, so Aster did not feel offended by being regarded as suspicious when calling their friend into Madam’s office late in the evening.

In Aster’s opinion, this team was a good addition to the fold.