Page 6
“The fuck, dude?” I spit at Axel when she’s gone and the room has returned to normal. “You entered her into the game?”
This is bad. Really fucking bad.
“Yes. Your point?” He sneers at me, unconcerned, but I call bullshit on Axel’s unaffected attitude. It’s been a while since we’ve seen her, but she hasn”t changed that much. Not so much that all three of us wouldn’t be affected by her presence, just like we used to be. At least I’m not lying to myself.
She’s more beautiful of course. A little more punky, which I love, and she seems tougher than before too. Her bright green eyes are harder. Wiser. But hauntingly familiar. And she still has that insanely long light brown hair that I want to wrap around and around and around my fist while fucking her into oblivion. Goddamn, don’t even get me started on her body. I wanted to stare and drink in every inch of her, but I couldn’t. Not with Axel watching, assessing.
We’re a team, a unit, a Trinity. Whatever one does, the other two support. And if Axel has decided to fuck with Odile for whatever reason, I have no choice but to go along for the ride, no matter how much I hate it.
Not that fucking with her won’t also be fun for me. I’m more pissed that Axel didn’t clue us in on his plans ahead of time. I would have loved to watch Tom, our regular tattooist, brand Odile with permanent ink in a way which marks her as ours for all the world to see.
Just thinking about it gets me hard, even as a headache forms right between my brows. That’s what loving Odile Kemp does to you: makes you harder than hell even while giving you a migraine.
She’ll be the death or the making of us.
“You made her the fucking Doe! Are you stupid?!” I snap, mainly as a distraction from my stirring cock, and partly because I am pissed at Axel for depriving me of what would have been a glorious sight. Odile passed out and topless? Sign me up. But there’s something more sinister at play here too.
Axel narrows his almost black eyes at me and I know I’m on dangerous ground here. We may be a Trinity, but there’s no mistaking the hierarchy: Axel is firmly seated at the top. Front and Centre. Always has been. Probably always will be. And he hates to be called stupid. Still, I carry on regardless because apparently the reappearance of my childhood crush means I have a death wish today. “Do you have any idea of the target you’ve painted on her back?”
Of course he does. Axel never does anything by mistake. He’s cold and calculating. So the question is why did he do it? He must have known she was coming here. Why keep it to himself?
“I know exactly what I’m doing.” His reply is pure menace. He’s shutting the conversation down, but again, my brain didn’t get the memo. That or my self-preservation instincts have finally gone AWOL.
“She’s going to be slaughtered.” My hands curl into fists of their own accord, and I hastily shove them under the table. Axel sees of course and frowns at me.
“Did you see her?” Axel counters, throwing me off guard. I hesitate. I saw her, but I say nothing because this has to be a trap, right?
“She’s going to have every guy on this campus crawling all over her by the end of the day, every pervert in Black Hallows when she ventures into town. Fifty guys will ask her out and she’ll turn down forty-nine of them. Now, no one will touch her. Not even lucky number fifty.”
I silently groan. Because, while it’s true, Axel’s logic is so fucked up. He seems to be missing the bigger picture.
“You made her the mark. The fucking prey and prize for the Hunting Ground. Maybe no one will touch her by day. But when the games begin, she won’t last a minute. Worse, she didn”t sign up for this so she’s got no idea what’s about to happen.” I know that I need to be careful. I’m too close to sounding like I’m defending her. But I can’t seem to rein myself back in.
Axel’s frown deepens. He’s noticed. Nothing slips past him unnoticed. We have to present a united front at all times, so if I am going to challenge him on this, the very public canteen is not the place to do it.
“I’m betting on it.” His smile makes me shiver. I’ve known him my whole life but that smile has never sat easy with me.
“How the hell will she manage to fend off the chosen…what, ten?”
“Thirteen. Or so. We might have a large number of volunteers this year. There’s lots of legacies too.”
“Excuse me?”
“I thought we’d play this year. Go out with a bang and all that.” His intonation is nonchalant and non-negotiable. I don’t know how he pulls it off, but I do know that to disagree would be suicide.
We are playing in the fucking Hunting Grounds.
Damn it.
I just wanted to get through this year and graduate without the body count rising much further.
Like fuck will that happen now.
And how the fuck is he going to arrange it so that the three of us can win? Because I’m sure as shit not about to go up against my brothers.
“How the hell is the little virgin gonna survive her way through the challenges for the opportunity to get to us?” I groan, my dick stirring once again at the thought that I could win. Odile could be my prize. As horrible as Axel’s idea is, I can’t deny my dick at least is interested in seeing this crazy scheme of his through to the bitter end.
“I’m counting on her feeling stabby.” He laughs, and then turns to the textbook in his lap, effectively dismissing me.
I grind my teeth together. He knows I hate being dismissed and ignored, and I feel like he’s baiting me. I either shut up and fall into line – which he expects – or I say something and publicly challenge him. Which would be messy and downright dangerous.
I sigh and try to let it go, but my anger simmers under my skin, irritating me like the early signs of sunburn.
I dare to glance at The Son to see what his take on all of this is.
He’s white as a sheet, an iron grip so tight on his cutlery that it has bent, and his jaw looks to be made of stone.
Fucking hell. Can’t I just get one year of peace?
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6 (Reading here)
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
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- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
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- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
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- Page 64
- Page 65
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- Page 67
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- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
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- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86