The word strongest felt like a condemnation, a curse wrapped in false praise.
"Now open this door! This instant! Don't make it more chaotic than it already is!"
"No." The word came out harder than she intended, edged with defiance she didn't know she possessed, fueled by the rage building in her chest alongside the fear. "I won't."
Silence descended, heavy and terrible, stretching out for what felt like an eternity.
Then her father's full weight slammed against the door.
The impact was brutal, violent, and the sound of it echoed through the small house. The door shuddered in its frame but held, the hinges groaning in protest despite being old and poorly maintained.
"Open this door right now!" her father roared, and Liora could hear the panic beneath the fury, the fear of what would happen if the wolf outside grew impatient, if the situation spiraled beyond his control. "You're going to get us all killed!"
"No!" Liora pressed back against the door with her full weight, bracing herself, knowing it was futile but unable to stop trying.
Another impact. Harder this time. The frame splintered with a sharp crack that sounded like breaking bones. Wood fragments scattered across the floor of her bedroom, pieces of the barrier that had protected her were now useless on the ground.
Liora stumbled backward as the door burst inward, one hinge tearing completely free, leaving the door hanging at an awkward, broken angle. Her father filled the doorway, his face contorted into something between rage and desperation, his chest heaving with exertion and emotion. His eyes, when they finally met hers, held nothing she recognized. No love. No regret. Just a terrible, hollow determination.
Behind him, visible through the sitting area, she could see the wolf still standing near the entrance, watching the scene unfold with detached, clinical interest, like a scholar observing an experiment that held only academic value.
"Father, don't do this... please..." Liora's voice came out smaller than she intended, younger, sounding like the child she'd been when her mother had still been alive.
She tried to dart past him, to slip through the gap between his body and the doorframe, to use her smaller size to her advantage. But he was faster than she'd anticipated, his reflexes honed by years of manual labor. His hand shot out and caught her arm, fingers digging in hard enough to leave immediate bruises, hard enough that she felt something in her arm protest the pressure.
She twisted violently, pulling against his grip with everything she had, with all the strength her terror could provide. For one breathless moment, she almost broke free, almost slipped from his grasp.
"Let me go!" She clawed at his hand, her nails raking across his skin, drawing blood. When that didn't work, she aimed for his face, for his eyes, fighting with pure animal instinct that knew nothing of propriety or restraint.
"You're going to destroy us!" her father hissed, dragging her back with brutal force, his own survival instinct overriding whatever paternal feelings might have remained. "If you cause a scene, if you make them think this family is rebellious, they'll take all of us! Every single one! Is that what you want? You want your siblings dead because of your selfishness?"
The words struck her like a physical blow, but her body refused to stop fighting. Her survival instinct had fully taken over, primal and desperate, the same instinct that had kept her species alive through generations of oppression. She kicked at his shins, threw her weight backward, thrashed like a trapped animal, anything to break free, anything to escape the fate she could see approaching like an oncoming storm.
Her father's expression shifted then, the change subtle but unmistakable. The anger drained away, replaced by something colder, more calculated, more terrible in its controlled violence.
He's going to.....
The first blow caught her across the left side of her face before she could finish the thought, snapping her head violently to the right. The world exploded into pain and white light. She tasted blood immediately, sharp and metallic, flooding her mouth as her lip split against her teeth.
"Father...."
The second strike hit her stomach with enough force to drive every bit of air from her lungs in a single, agonized rush. She doubled over, gasping, drowning in air she couldn't catch, her diaphragm spasming uselessly. Before she could recover, his fist came down hard on her back between her shoulder blades, driving her to her knees on the hard floor with an impact that sent shockwaves through her entire body.
"You think you can defy me?" Each word was punctuated by another blow, a horrific rhythm that her body couldn't escape. Her ribs. Her shoulders. Her face again, backhanded this time, the impact whipping her head to the opposite side. "You think you have any choice in this? Any say in what happens to you? You're nothing! Do you understand? Nothing!"