Total pages in book: 168
Estimated words: 160578 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 803(@200wpm)___ 642(@250wpm)___ 535(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160578 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 803(@200wpm)___ 642(@250wpm)___ 535(@300wpm)
She did it for the safety of everyone around me.
“No. Better to keep it as a surprise.” I stomp up the steps and push open the front door, ignoring Halen’s unease as she breezes past me and back into the lounge.
My intention when I built this house was to have a quiet place. Dark. A replica of my mind and everything that doesn’t go on inside of it.
I lean against the frame, crossing my arms in front of myself as Vaden falls onto the sofa beside a giggling…her. She snuggles into his neck, and I feel…
Nothing.
The feelings I once had for this girl no longer exist. I don’t know when it happened or how it did, but I look at her, and I see…nothing.
I feel nothing.
But when he fucked Luna, I felt everything.
The Kings wanted to use her as the ultimate Rebellis. The distracter. Dad was right all those years ago when he told Lilith that she would be the best that ever came from this line. Even better than Eli, and Eli was mischief and chaos. The perfect rebel.
“You’ve all wanted to know what happens during a Hunt—” I look between all of the girls, purposely ignoring the one beside Vaden.
“A long time…” Stella rolls her eyes, flicking beneath her nails as if bored. “So what is it? Do spill.”
I see her leg moving in the corner of my eye, but it’s the easiest ignore in the history of me ever ignoring her.
“Meet at Halen’s bend.”
War pauses in passing after everyone spills out to their cars. “I didn’t like it the first night it started, and I still don’t, especially now that you’ve decided to involve your sister.” He looks between me and the front door. “What are you going to do, Priest? How is she going to proceed?”
“Shouldn’t I be asking you the same question? Only, what is your plan with Halen? Is she going to continue playing house on an island that’s the fairy-tale side of the nightmare that is Perdita, or is she going to sit beside you as your wife and do as she’s told? Because you and I both know that you cannot have both.”
His mouth closes and then opens again. He blows out a breath, turning toward the direction that the girls went through the front door. “I don’t know. She’s not going to sit beside me as a quiet woman. You know your sister. She has more her father than mother.”
“Wrong answer.”
I hold his stare. He looks at me like I should know all the answers. He always has. When he started fucking around with Halen—even more publicly than they thought I didn’t know—he needed more guidance than ever. We all knew it. The man was in fucking love. He wasn’t making the right choices, and if anything, I swore our time wouldn’t be clouded by something so fragile like love. This is a castle made of steel, not glass.
“Yeah. I know. She’ll be seated beside me.”
I hold in my laugh. “Good luck.”
We both turn to Vaden when he clears his throat. “You sure this is a good idea?”
Swiping my keys off the table, I grin at him. “Have you no trust?”
Vaden, War, and Deacon all answer together. “No.”
Without the guidance of streetlights, the trip to Halen’s bend is dangerous even for the most experienced drivers, but less than five minutes of winded bends, the headlights of a dozen cars light up the cliff.
My tail end swings around when I tear up the brake, coming to a stop.
How many times had I wished for this moment, with her sitting beside me like this. I’d fought for years to have her back, and now that I do, the thought of her touching me has my skin crawling. I had Luna holed up in my house for three years, hoping to get this out of her. Begging for her to switch. To drop. To fall and snap.
The Hunt was created for her. Every step I took was for the girl sitting beside me in this moment, but all I can find myself wanting now that she is here, is to never see her again.
My finger traces my upper lip, lost in my thoughts.
Halen laughs with War, snuggling beneath his arm. She peers up at him with a look I’ve only ever seen once before. Maybe she will sit and play wife. Maybe that’s the dumb shit love does to you.
Maybe that’s something I’ll never know. Or maybe that’s something I’m going to make sure I never know.
“Do they know that she’s gone forever? Or are they still hoping she resides deep within me?”
The grip I have on my steering wheel tightens. “They know what I want them to know.”
“And what is that?” Her hand lands on my upper thigh. Sliding her way up, her fingertips graze the outline of my dick. “They do know that you love me, right? That you never felt anything for Luna and that you only showed her the gentle side of you, let her fuck you, to bring me back.”