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Rick saw the three backpackers walking along the road, thumbs out, and slowed down. She was laughing at something the two blokes said. Her eyes were hidden behind sunglasses, but that long tumble of brown hair, those long limbs…

Her , an instinct growled inside him. That slut, she must be taking both of them on the regular.

Not her , a purring voice argued. But prey all the same. Let them in the vehicle.

“How’s it goin’?” he said when he pulled up beside them, and his smile felt like it tore at his face as he tried to make it easy-going and friendly looking. “Need a lift?”

“So what brings you all the way out here, Rick?” the girl asked in that sweet tone women always use when they want something.

The bitch didn’t give a fuck, not when she had those two young bucks pressed up against her on the back seat.

One said he was her brother, but Rick didn’t believe that for a second.

“My wife and son went missing,” he said, trying to keep his voice from betraying just what he thought about that.

He studied her in the rear vision mirror, waiting for an appropriate level of sympathy to be shown.

She did, stupid fucking bitch, cooing some bullshit about finding them soon and trying to imagine how he felt.

She wouldn’t be saying shit about what he felt if she actually knew, except for run.

“I figure we stop here for the night,” Rick said, pulling over into a rest stop.

Why don’t we keep going? he’d argued with that inner voice. We could be on that bitch in hours.

Practise, young one , the voice had replied. How will you know the perfect way to punish her, your woman, if you do not explore your options? His gaze had swivelled back to the mirror, watching the hitchhikers dribble shit . They will become willing accomplices. I will make sure of it.

The voice in his head had been spot on. Of course it had.

It had helped him punch Macca into a bloody smear when he balked at giving Rick his car.

It had him trawling the back roads of god knows where, sniffing for signs of her.

And it had the two men’s eyes shining red when the time came.

He’d like the way they glowed, that familiar bright red light, as they tore into the girl.

Initially, it was just thrusting into her while she screamed and sobbed and begged, before she realised what these men had become.

Animals, the two black dogs… No, they were wolves, he realised that now.

Savage beasts that stood like sentinels as they watched the two of them work her over until there was nothing but a bloody wreckage left.

They lifted their muzzles when the men finally stopped, the red light fading for a moment to leave them alone with their actions.

Rick hadn’t liked that much, not really understanding the looks of fear and anguish on their faces.

But then the red came back, staining their eyes and then their flesh as they tore each other to pieces as well.

He’d looked at the wolves.

That didn’t tell me much. I know what I wanna do to that fucking bitch.

No, but it feeds our power, makes us stronger. We are predators, red of teeth and claw. We must rend, we must tear, if we are to be strong.

He shrugged, pulled out a cigarette, and lit it up, momentarily obscuring the view of the horrors before him in a cloud of smoke.