a scowl on my face, moving to stand by the doorway as they tore through the cabin.
Snow fell from their boots as they pounded over the wooden floorboards, shoving furniture aside and looking in cupboards.
One of them dropped down to hunt beneath the bed and my heart stilled as I forced my eyes away from him and released a sigh of irritation. It was seriously fucking tempting to gut each and every one of them right here and now. If they’d been keeping Winter captive and causing her harm then they’d more than earned that fate. But even I couldn’t overcome these odds. Five men in my home, another ten outside, most of them armed with rifles of their own. But I’d marked them alright. Because their fate was sealed. If they’d laid their hands on that girl then they were as good as dead already. Hell, even the ones who were simply helping in the hunt had bought their fate.
Ever since I’d left home for this mountain to live alone and try to figure out who the fuck I was, I’d been circling around the few true and honest things I knew about myself that couldn’t be shaken by finding out my entire upbringing was a lie. I’d been honed into a monster by the man who’d raised me. And I still had a taste for spilling blood. Just so long as those I hurt were deserving of their fate. These fuckers were the most deserving I’d come across in a long time. And I was already planning out the ways I’d make them suffer the next time I saw them.
“Are you done wrecking my home yet?” I demanded as Duke pursed his lips, frowning at the empty space.
“Seems that you were trustworthy this time, mountain man,” he said, disappointment lining his cruel features. “Sorry to have imposed.”
He whistled and his men gave up the hunt, traipsing from the cabin without a word to me.
“Feel free to leave it longer before your next visit,” I remarked as Duke lingered by the doorway.
“If you do see a girl running around out here, you bring her to me, you hear?” he hissed, his gaze scraping over my home one last time.
“Sure thing, I’ll add it to my to-do list,” I mocked.
He tipped his hat at me and strode from the cabin behind his men as they headed off to continue their hunt in the forest.
I tossed the door shut behind them and bolted it for good measure as Tyson took up a position watching through the window, baring his teeth at the retreating assholes.
I could still hear them close by, shouting to each other as they tried to figure out where to head to next, so I left Winter where she was and started tidying up the mess they’d made with their search.
I didn’t know what the hell that madman wanted with my frozen girl, but I wouldn’t be letting him have her, no matter what it took to keep her safe from them.
And just as soon as I could be sure she was far enough away from them, I was going to come calling for the blood debt they owed her.
My heart thrashed wildly as I stared up at the cracks in the floorboards above me. Farley’s weathered face had passed over them just moments ago as he stuck his head under the bed. I imagined his strong hands ripping me from this hole and dragging me out of here, taking me back to my nightmare. A world where there was only them and me. The predators and their prey.
I couldn’t focus, even when I was sure I heard the door bang shut. The confined space was pulling the strings of my memory, reminding me of the times they’d left me in a wooden crate hunched over on my knees. Hours and hours in the dark and freezing cold, where my body cramped up until I was in pure agony. My screams had gone unanswered. It had almost brought my voice back until I’d remembered that that was what they wanted. So I’d pushed it even deeper until not even I could reach it. Gone, gone, gone. I’m lost in a river of darkness and all the pieces of me have floated away.
I clamped my hands over my eyes, terror binding me, making my body stiff as I became a prisoner once more. A captive to the pain they’d inflicted on me which still echoed through my body like a