Anyone but the Butchers.
His inked torso glistened with sweat, and even though I couldn’t see his face, I knew he was pissed from the hard edge in his voice, the way he still held the wrist of the guy in the bird mask who’d dragged me out of the cabinet.
“Claim them by marking them.” My captor didn’t seem fazed by the fact that his wrist was imprisoned in the grip of his competitor, but one of his teammates shifted behind him. The other one swore under his breath. “That’s the rule.”
His knee was still between my thighs, but the guy in the animal bone mask didn’t budge. His blond teammate stood to one side, arms folded across his bare chest. There was no sign of the scary guy who’d told us the rules in the holding room.
“The rules are what we say they are,” the dark-haired man said.
“Fine, fuck.” The man in the bone mask released my captor’s wrist, and the other guy removed his knee from between my legs. “Not exactly fair to make up the rules of the Hunt as we go.”
“It’s our Hunt,” said the blond guy in the animal bone mask. His hair was a little long and falling over the top of his mask.
The dark-haired guy in the bone mask removed his knife from the leather cord at his waist.
I shrank back as he lifted the knife, but instead of using it on me, he drew it across his palm. Blood rose to the surface of his skin, dripping down his wrist.
I tried to put some distance between us, but it was impossible with the stone of the tunnel against my back, the five men looming over me. I barely had time to register that I was still trapped when he drew his fingers through the blood in his palm and streaked it across my cheek.
“Oh my god!” I shrieked in horror. “What the actual fuck?”
“Remy,” he said.
“Oh here we fucking go,” one of the bird men said, clearly exasperated.
The blond in the bone mask removed his knife and drew it across his palm, mimicking the one who’d done it first.
This time I knew what was coming, and I turned my head in disgust, the closest I could come to putting distance between us.
His blood was warm as he streaked it across my other cheek.
“There,” the dark-haired guy said. “She’s marked. Happy?”
“Whatever,” one of other bird men said, peeling off from the group of men. “Let’s get the fuck out of here, Hawk.”
“Gladly. I don’t know why this one’s so special anyway.”
I had no idea what they were talking about, what message had been conveyed from the bone men to the bird men in the holding room, but there were obviously rules for the men too, and the bird men had broken one of them by capturing me.
“Then you won’t mind getting the fuck out of here,” the dark-haired guy said.
The three hawks converged, slowly moving away from the scene. They were a few feet away when one of them glanced back.
“Hope she tastes as good as she looks.”
My face burned as they burst into a round of raucous laughter. It echoed off the walls, growing fainter as they moved away from our position.
But not much had changed. I’d been caught. This was it.
The end.
Now I’d have to live with the three guys who’d caught me. Or maybe I’d take turns at each of their houses? I wasn’t sure how that part worked, but I’d lost the Hunt.
Now that the bird men were gone, the dark-haired guy in the bone mask turned his attention on me. His eyes were dark blue behind the mask, his hair short except for in the front, where a few damp locks fell over his mask.
Several leather cords wound around his neck, all of them strung with an assortment of beads, and on one of them, what looked like a giant animal tooth. His scent — sweat and something woodsy, like trees after a long rain — made its way into my nose. Wet heat rushed between my legs.
His gaze bore into mine until I was almost positive he could read my weird and unexplained lust.
