Hunted (The Dirty Heroes Collection Book 13)

by Cassandra Faye

  "Claim me..." My head spins, and I feel my heart racing as I start to understand. "You want to fuck me? In the woods?"

  "Oh, it's so much more than that, Harper. I'm sure you'd spread your legs for me, beg for my cock if I told you to, but that wouldn't be enough. Not yet, anyway."

  I feel a rush of anger splinter through the panic and fear, and even though I'm still trying to stay out of his reach, all I want to do is slap him. "I'm not your fucking whore, Jared. You think I'd fuck you after all this shit? You're crazy! There is something very wrong with you, and you need to listen to me! I'm saying no. I don't want to have sex out here. I want to go back to the cabin, pack our shit, and go home. Now."

  "You're not going home, babe." His low, rolling laugh makes me shiver, and I realize how incredibly vulnerable I am. When he fucked me on the bed yesterday, that had been rough, but he wasn't like this. He wasn't this far gone, and I feel very, very sure that I don't want him touching me right now.

  "Where are we going then?" I ask, my voice wavering, and I hate that I'm on the verge of tears. I want to be strong right now, I want him to see that I'm strong, but I can feel the burn in my eyes and the shaking in my hands.

  "Well, you're going to run," he answers, that dark smile still hovering on his face, and I feel my stomach drop. "I don't really care which direction, and I'll give you a solid head start. It just wouldn't be fair otherwise, since I know the terrain, and I know how to track. What do you think, five minutes?" Jared pulls my phone out of his pocket, and I want to scream, but all that comes out is a broken sound when he suddenly lunges for me and grabs my arm, pulling me back against his chest. His arm locks around my waist, squeezing hard as he unlocks the phone and opens the timer app.

  "Please don't do this, Jared. Please," I beg, my voice cracking as the first tears roll down my cheeks. "I know you love me. You don't want to hurt me."

  "I do love you, Harper." He leans down and takes a deep inhale in my hair before his lips graze my neck, trailing down to that spot by my collarbone that doesn't do a single fucking thing for me as terrified as I am. "That's why this has to happen. You won't truly be mine otherwise. This will bind us together. Forever." He presses a kiss to the side of my head, and then whispers the last part directly in my ear. "If you survive."

  "Jared..." I whine, but he just laughs as he sets the timer to five minutes, then he turns us and points in a direction.

  "The town is about twenty miles that way, not that you'd ever make it that far."

  "Please, please don't do this," I babble, sniffling and crying as he squeezes me tighter in some fucked up version of a hug.

  "Here's the good news, Harper. If you make it off the property, I'm pretty sure I won't be able to follow you. Maybe." He laughs, nuzzling against my hair. "I'm honestly not sure how this works. I've never done it before."

  "You don't have to do this at all, Jared," I whisper, and he grabs my arm and spins me away from him in some fucked up dance move made for this nightmare.

  "I do, though. I want you to be mine, and there's only one way to make that happen. I have to catch you and claim you for myself. Inside and out. Blood and bone." He suddenly flinches, rubbing at his eye with the heel of the hand not holding the phone. "Ahh, fuck. I thought that was over with."

  "What? What was over?" I ask, just trying to buy time at this point.

  "Nothing important. My head is still adjusting to all this, but it's not a big deal. It just wants me to tell you that you really, really don't want me to catch you." Jared tilts his head, smiling again, and I know it's not him. It's something else, someone else wearing his face. "Oh, and one more thing. Time to run."

  Jared lifts the phone and taps the start button with his finger, and for a moment I'm frozen, fear and disbelief paralyzing me.

  "RUN!" he shouts, and I take off. Instinct driving me up the ridge in the direction he pointed. I have to half-crawl because it's so steep, my feet slipping because my sneakers don't have enough grip on them for this loose ground, but eventually I make it up to the top and I do exactly what he told me to. I run.

  As hard as I can, I push myself, leaping over roots and rocks. When I trip and fall the first time, I don't even stop to see what damage I did, I just shove myself off the ground and keep running. I don't know what's wrong with Jared, and I don't know what he plans to do to me — all I know is that I can't let him catch me.

  I can feel it in my bones... if I let him catch me, I'll never get him back.

  And I don't know what will be left of me when he's done.

  11

  Jared

  I'm in no rush to chase after Harper. I told her I'd give her a head start, and I meant it.

  She's going to need it anyway.

  I'm faster than her on a normal hike. I've got a longer stride, more experience, and I definitely know these woods better than her. This is my forest, which means I already have an unfair advantage in too many ways. Five minutes isn't going to really matter in the long run. With the clatter she made taking off into the trees, there's going to be plenty of broken branches and disturbed underbrush for me to find her.

  It's almost going to be too easy.

  But this is what the land wants from me. Not just bedding her in the house but putting in the work to claim her as mine. Giving her a chance to escape like a good hunter would. No traps, no tricks. Just her and me, alone, out in the open.

  Glancing at the phone, I see she still has a little over three minutes, and so I take my bow off my shoulder and check it. It's a wooden one, simple, without any of the modern compound bow shit. This is just my strength, my skill, and simple physics guiding the arrow.

  Setting it aside, I pull off the quiver and check the fletching and the heads on each arrow. I already did it once this morning, but it never hurts to double-check before you hunt down the woman of your dreams.

  I unclip the water from my belt loop and take a drink, feeling a little guilty that I didn't offer her any before she took off — but she probably wouldn't have trusted it anyway. I watched her drink water in the kitchen this morning, and she ate the granola bar during the hike, so it's not like I've started her off at a disadvantage. Beyond the unavoidable ones anyway.

  The timer on the phone passes thirty seconds and I stand up to stretch before I pick up my things. When the jingle finally goes off, I can't help but smile, because somewhere out there Harper is running like a beautiful, scared little rabbit. No... not a rabbit. A fox. Those reddish highlights that the sun always brings out in her brown hair remind me of a fox's coat, and I've seen her run before. She's lithe, quick, not a bouncing little mess.

  Yes, my little fox is on the run, and now it's my turn to join our game.

  I just have to hope she impresses the land enough to live, because I really do love her, and I'd hate to have to kill her.

  I've been following the chaotic path left by Harper's flight for about thirty minutes now, and I'm a little disappointed. When we've gone hiking, I've talked to her about how to leave less of a trace behind, but apparently she wasn't listening.

  Or the panic is making her forget.

  Both are possible, and while I don't want to judge her too quickly, I'm still thinking about the little whispers from the land. At first I'd thought they were leftovers from a dream, but then they started to come through clearly, laying out what my forest wanted from me, from us. It wants me to claim her, to make her mine, but only if she's worthy. This is her test, our test as a couple, and so far… she's not doing well.

  Snapping off a broken twig, I scan the ground to see where it's been disturbed, and I feel a smile slip over my lips. There are three distinct paths out of this little fork in the wood, and while a deer passed by here at some point in the early hours of the morning, the pattern of Harper's sneakers is easy to see in the damp soil as they wander in various directions. Clever girl. Maybe she was listening after all.

  Picking one at random, I follow it a few yards before backtracking and doing the same for the others.
None of them seem to abruptly end, and I'm curious how she managed to produce the effect in so little time. Cupping my hands around my mouth, I raise my voice to call out, "Come out, come out, wherever you are!"

  I close my eyes and stay completely still, listening intently for any sounds of my little fox bolting for safety — but I don't hear anything. Very clever girl. Chuckling to myself, I shift the bow higher on my shoulder and follow the center trail. It leads off into the woods for quite a ways, before looping back. Close to her original tracks, but through thicker brush so that I didn't notice them off her main trail. When I get back to the fork she's created for me, I tilt my head and listen for the whispers of the land.

  When it stays silent, I decide to talk to it first. "She's not doing so bad. This little trick is going to slow me down."

  Find her. Catch her. Don't lose her.

  The whispers tumble over each other, almost too hard to make out as they overlap, but I understand. It hasn't made a decision about her yet, but it wants me to pick up the pace. "I can do that."

  Choosing the path on the left takes me farther out, but eventually it loops back as well, and I'm not in the mood to laugh when I follow the path on the right and end up exactly where I fucking started. This is impossible. She had to go somewhere, Grumbling, I backtrack on the main path, searching the trees on either side for a sign of a new path, a real trail to follow, not her tricks. I'm over thirty yards back from her little fork in the woods when I see a perfect outline of her sneaker in a patch of muddy ground. As I follow it, I realize she's not heading toward the town — which would have been pointless anyway. No, my girl is heading back to the cabin.

  "So smart. You're always thinking, Harper." I know she's nowhere nearby, but I say it out loud anyway. Half for myself, and half for the land if it's listening. Tapping the car keys in my back pocket, I continue tracking her through the trees. If she's hoping to find some way to escape back at the cabin, she's going to be sorely disappointed. I still haven't found my phone, but it's not like hers would have helped her much. There's no reception out here, and even if she did manage to get a call out... where would she ask for help to come? No address. No street names. Nothing but a set of coordinates that I'm very sure she didn't memorize.

  The whispers want me to hurry this up, but I'm enjoying the chase almost as much as I'm going to enjoy what happens when I catch her.

  Hopping over a log, I start to hum a tune that's been lingering in the back of my mind all morning. Dum de dum de de dum de dum. I still can't remember the words, but the tune is clear as a bell, repeating again and again, so I decide to play along. Whistling or humming along with it as I track her down.

  At this point, I'm just curious how long my little fox will be able to keep this up.

  12

  Harper

  My lungs are on fire and there's a stitch in my side that feels like someone jabbed a knife between my ribs and left it there for fun. I stopped crying a while ago, too focused on the ground beneath my feet and the direction I need to keep moving in if I have any hope of finding the road that leads to and from the cabin. Even if I have to backtrack all the way to the goddamn place, at least I'll be able to get out of here. Once I get to it, I'll actually have a fucking chance. The road will be easier than the woods, faster... but I need to find it first.

  I have to ignore the pain and the strain in my breathing, because I have to keep moving. If I stop, he'll catch up.

  The little circles I sent him on, if he fell for them, will only stall him for so long. I don't have any doubt that Jared will figure out where I really went, he's always been good at this shit. My 'king of the outdoors' who is apparently also an insane shot with a bow, and any other weapon he touches — oh, and completely fucking crazy.

  Every time the exhaustion starts to get to me, all I have to do is remember the sinister way he whispered in my ear. If you survive. As if my life suddenly means so little to him. The tears burn my eyes again, blurring my vision, and I swipe them away roughly, clenching my jaw against the urge to cry again.

  No. You will not break down.

  Be smart. Get out of here.

  Fucking survive.

  Pausing behind a thick tree, I lean against it and scan the sky. The sun isn't quite at its peak yet, which means it's still before noon, and it means that direction is east'ish. If I knew more about the movement of the sun throughout the year, I'd know better, but I don't. And it's more than a little irritating that I'm sure Jared knows exactly where the sun is at this time of year. Hell, he's been coming out here for years. He probably doesn't even need the goddamn sun to figure out how to get back to the cabin.

  Groaning under my breath, I try to remember the direction we headed when we left this morning, then I try to flip it around in my head to estimate which way I should aim my next stupid dash through the woods. I know I'm probably wrong, but I pick a direction and skim the trees, looking for a path that doesn't look as difficult to move fast. It feels useless, but I refuse to give up. I won't be one of those dumb girls in horror movies that fucks up and gets killed for sheer stupidity.

  You really, really don't want me to catch you.

  The twisted way he said that sends a chill down my spine, and it kicks off enough of my fight or flight instinct to let me push off the tree and start running again. The momentary pause seems to have loosened the vise around my lungs, but it's done nothing for the stabbing pain in my side. I ignore it though. I ignore everything except the next tree I choose as my goal, choosing a new tree as soon as I reach it. The little mind game has been the only thing keeping me from completely losing it.

  One tree at a time. One breath at a time. Putting one more step between me and Jared. I hope.

  It's past noon, but I haven't found the cabin or the road yet. I fucked up at some point, chose the wrong direction, the wrong tree, the wrong something because if I'd been going in the direction I'd tried to go then I would have passed the road at least.

  With my luck, I've just been running in circles. Well, not running. For the last hour or two it's been more like a stumbling shuffle, one half-step above zombie. I've completely lost whatever temporary orientation I had earlier, and while I'm grateful I've managed to avoid Jared for this long... I have no idea where I am. I'm thirsty, hungry, bruised, aching, and my clothes are smeared with mud from one too many misjudged footsteps. All I want to do is sit down and give up.

  Maybe if my luck turns around one of those bears will find me and end it quickly, but I doubt it.

  Jared would find me first.

  Honestly, I'm surprised he hasn't found me yet. It's not like I've got the energy for anymore footprint tricks, and when I tried to climb a tree to hide, all I earned was a massive bruise on my leg. A while ago I would have sworn I heard him shouting in the distance. I couldn't make it out, but I went completely still and listened hard for several minutes, waiting for another shout... but it never came.

  So, I keep hiking, moving away from him, even though I have no idea where he actually is, but at least I'm moving. I'm still trying even though it's taking more and more effort to lift my foot each time I take a step, and my thighs are burning from the constant rise and fall in the terrain. I'm in decent shape, but apparently I should have been working out on the 'running for your fucking life' plan. Who knew I'd need that particular skill set?

  I choose another tree and aim for it, lying to my body that I'll rest as soon as I reach it — but I think it stopped believing me hours ago. Still, I manage to make it and I lean against the trunk for a moment, forcing deep, even breaths in an attempt to stretch out the constant stitch in my side. I've been heading uphill as much as possible because I feel like that's the opposite of what Jared would expect. He'll know how tired I am, and he'd expect me to take the easy path. Downhill.

  I refuse to go down easy though.

  Digging my nails into the bark, I shove myself away from it and lean into the hill to keep climbing. The light seems brighter all of a sudden and I look up
to find myself much higher than the surrounding foothills. The view is... beautiful. An ocean of green trees waving in the breeze, and the sky is a pale blue, marked with wisps of white cloud that drag in long lines like God let a toddler fingerpaint them on the heavens. If I'm going to die here… at least it's pretty.

  A harsh laugh slips past my dry lips, but it doesn't sound anything like me.

  I don't feel like myself anyway. None of this feels real. I keep hoping it's some terrible nightmare, that any moment I'll wake up in bed with Jared and all of the terrible chaos of the last few days will be nothing but a weird story I tell him over breakfast that rapidly fades from my mind as dreams always do. I don't want to remember this. I don't want to remember the fear, the panic, the exhaustion.

  I don't want to remember Jared looking at me like he's excited to hurt me.

  I just want everything to feel normal again.

  My legs are shaking now that I've stopped for so long, but I have no idea where to go next. Every direction is downhill now, but with the dense trees there's no chance I can see the cabin. Turning, I realize I'm looking at Mitchell Mountain and it's much closer than it is from the clearing around the cabin. Recognizing a landmark should probably be comforting, but it only makes me feel worse. I didn't look at it enough to know what side of the mountain I'm facing, and even if I could somehow figure it out... I'm just that much farther from the cabin. That much farther from the road, and any hope of getting out of here.

  Looking back in the direction I came from, I wonder how far behind me Jared is now. Is he catching up? Did he stop to rest? Is he waiting somewhere comfortable for night to fall so he can track me down when I'm completely exhausted?

  Stupid thoughts aren't helpful.