Hunt Me! (I Crave The Chase) - Page 189

Fuck.

I couldn’t.

I couldn’t.

I didn’t know how much time I had, but I wasn’t a fucking idiot. A human can only survive so long without oxygen and I couldn’t—I couldn’t—I couldn’t?—

“Butters—” Theo’s voice quaked.

And then more pain exploded in my shoulder. Liquid hot and horrible. I couldn’t even whine, coughing and shaking—and then…

Everything went black.

Six hours. That was how long it took for the hunters to process me into their lodge, to lock me up, and for Jules and Harry to arrive. Because they were…idiots, and wouldn’t let me die. I growled, jerking in my cage, staring at the two of them as a set of hunters marched them in through the back door.

The room was fully concrete aside from the back wall that had what Harry had once described to me as a “garage door.” It was like the basements I was familiar with, but different too. Colder. Larger. An open hangar full of cages and vehicles with manacles hanging from the walls.

The cage I was inside had room for me to pace back and forth—and that’s what I’d been doing. Biding my time. Waiting, because soon enough it’d all be over. I’d planned this out. Planned it out specifically so that I wouldn’t be at risk of hurting the people I cared about most.

They weren’t supposed to be here.

So why were they?—

“Fucking beasts,” one of the hunters muttered, jerking Jules to his knees beside my cage. Apparently they had enough forethought not to put my brothers inside with me. Instead, they got chained to the wall to my left, both of them eerily silent as they held their hands out obediently for the manacles the hunters snapped into place.

Twin sets of violet eyes stared at me.

Stared and stared and stared.

Stared until the door fell shut with a quiet click and several long, silent minutes passed. And then—Harry, because he was Harry, chewed me the fuck out.

“What were you thinking?!” he hissed, glaring at me. “Calling them on yourself. You fucking self-sacrificing, wolf-shaped asshole.” Harry sucked in a breath, face bright red before he started up again. “You were just gonna what? Let them kill you? And let us all figure that out…when exactly? When we saw your fucking corpse? Fuck you. Fuck you so fucking hard in your stupid fucking face.”

Jules glared at me, but his expression softened when he looked at Harry. And then he laughed, but tried to cover it up. “Sorry— You just?—”

“Fuck you.”

“You just…look so stupid when you get mad.”

“I hate you so much right now,” Harry snapped at him, and then me. “And I hate you. And I hate everything about this.”

“I read a scene in a book like this once,” Jules piped in helpfully. “There was this dude who got all tied up—and then his mafia boyfriend came to the rescue. Killed all the guards or whatever. And then they fucked using the blood as lube.”

“I don’t want to know about the porn you read, Jules,” Harry’s hands twitched, like he wanted to pinch the bridge of his nose, but he couldn’t.

“It’s not porn. It’s erotica. There’s a difference, and you know it. You’re just being a bitch.”

“All I’m hearing is that you’re a slut.”

“Oh my god, you can’t just call me a slut.”

“I just did.”

Normally Harry and Jules got along. They very rarely fought. Very rarely raised their voices. Harry was prickly at best, but Jules seemed to be his exception. To see them at each other’s throats like this was sobering.

I whined, and both of them quieted, swiveling to look at me.

The scent of angry-sad-loss clogged the giant empty hangar we were stationed inside, and I knew then, that I’d fucked up. Because even though I’d been trying not to hurt them—that didn’t mean I hadn’t.