“So you are eliminating the competition,” I shout at the shadows.
I can’t see but feel his brows rising indignantly.
“Admit it!” I press.
“You think that was for me?” His gravelly voice makes me shiver.
“Who else?” I shoot back, my fists clenching. “There’s only one reason a man enters the Hunt. Why not just take me now? Be done with it.”
“That wasn’t for me, sweetheart.”
My pulse skips. I shouldn’t like that endearment on his lips, but it heats me up. I tell myself I’m reacting this way because my body is confused. It connects him to Drayven’s memory, blending them as one. That’s all.
My gaze narrows as I search through every moving shadow for him.
There.
A glint of steel.
“You don’t like how they look at me.” I step forward but lose him again. “You don’t like the thought of them touching me. That means only one thing.”
Silence, but it’s heavy, charged. Then, a voice like gravel and thunder. “Run.”
I grin. “Make me.”
“You’re playing a dangerous game.”
I tilt my chin up, daring him. “You started it.”
“Maybe next time, I’ll let him fuck you.”
“Maybe that’s what I wanted.”
His audible gasp annoys me. It’s as if he expected me to be pure and virginal. While technically, I am still a virgin, it’s only semantics. I’ve engaged in every other deviant sexual act under the moon. The tattoos covering my body prove it.
What does he think becomes of the women he delivers to the Pen?
I think my first assessment was correct. He’s eliminating his competition. Instead of claiming me now, he’s delaying his gratification. He wants to feel like some kind of conqueror, a knight in shining armor for a damsel.
A smile tugs at my lips. I’ll enjoy ruining his expectations, but most importantly, I’ll enjoy using him to clear my path to freedom.
I swear I hear a grumbled curse about stubbornness and trouble when a hooded figure breaks away from the darkness and stalks closer along the high wall. The fallen torch casts enough light that I see his eyes when he crouches and points to the dead hunter behind me. “At least have the decency to return my arrow.”
Okay. Not what I expected.
He tilts his head. “Or will you just stand there and look pretty?”
I fold my arms over my fluttering stomach. “I am not just standing here. I have a plan!”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Shit plan. Your feet are still bare. I’ll bet they hurt, don’t they?”
I grind my teeth but refuse to answer. Of course they hurt. The ground is covered in rocks and sharp things. The moss can be slippery.
He nods at the corpse. “Take his boots.”
