Chapter Nine Willow
Chapter Nine
Willow
Ronan finishes combing my hair in silence as Bo stares at me, still holding my hands. His blue eyes bore so deeply into mine that I have to keep my gaze averted. That look brings up strange feelings in my body.
At least he’s not looking at me like I’m crazy, but when several minutes pass without any of them speaking, I find myself asking, “Do you believe me?”
“Of course, you wouldn’t lie to us,” Bo says with a confidence I don’t understand.
“I wouldn’t,” I tell them, unsure what any of this means.
When he continues to stare, I decide to start asking some questions of my own to help me navigate the situation, even though I’m still scared of saying too much.
It’s at times like this that I wish my sister, Izzy, was here with me.
She’d know what to do. She’s the smartest person I know.
I want to ask more about what’s going on here, but I’ve always been told that women are not to question men. That if we need to know something, we will be told. But nothing about this situation is normal, and these men haven’t gotten angry at any of the questions I’ve asked so far.
“Can you tell me more about the Mating Hunt?” I finally ask. “The other women told me a few things, but not much.”
Ronan scoops me up again and starts to carry me out of the pond as he speaks. “It’s an archaic tradition the mainlanders believe will help women find their ideal mates.”
There’s a lot to unpack in that sentence. “You sound like you don’t agree with it?” I ask, deciding to address his thoughts on the whole thing first.
He passes me over to Hawk, making me gasp in surprise as he cradles me in his large arms. I stare up at him with wide eyes until he gently sets me on my feet and starts to wipe me down with a pile of those soft leaves Bo had given me earlier.
“You are staring at me like I make you nervous,” he says from his knees in front of me. “But I know you’re not scared of me.”
“H-how do you know that?” I ask, unsure exactly how I feel about the man who killed others so easily in the night.
“When Bo startled you earlier, you came to me for protection.” I frown as I think back to the incident he’s talking about. Hawk had helped me down from the tree, and when Bo jumped down behind me, startling me, I had thrown myself against Hawk, instinct driving me into his arms.
I decide not to respond as I don’t know why I did that, but also knowing he’s right. I’m not scared he’ll hurt me. Which doesn’t make sense since he’s clearly a killer.
“To answer your question,” Ronan says as he moves to stand behind Hawk. “We don’t agree with the Mating Hunt.”
I hesitate before asking, “Why?”
“Because finding a woman first in the woods doesn't automatically make men the best protectors or the best fit,” Ronan explains.
I try to hold in my concern but end up speaking anyway. “But it’s not who finds them first. It’s who has them at the end of the week.”
“That’s true this year. But in the past, it’s always been the first to find them.”
“Oh,” I say as Hawk stands, and suddenly, all three of them are in front of me, staring down at my body with varying shades of anger and pain. “What?” I ask, glancing down at myself, worried my coverings have shifted.
“You’re covered in bruises and injuries,” Ronan says angrily. “You didn’t get all of those running in the hunt.”
“No,” I say, lifting my left arm and seeing a particularly bad bruise.
“Is that…” Bo trails off as he lifts his hand over my arm, showing the bruises on my upper arm are, in fact, in the exact shape of a hand. “Who did this to you?” he asks, a mask of anger covering his face.
“Was it your brother?” Ronan asks angrily, and I shake my head.
“He isn’t my brother, and no, I already had the bruises when I arrived here.”
“Someone in your home world did this?” Hawk asks, sounding like he’s in pain.
“My father.” Their eyes widen, clearly not expecting that. “And the man he was forcing me to marry.”
“Forcing you?” Ronan asks, his anger pushing to the front.
Nodding, I try to explain. “My father is the head of our cult. His cult.” When I see their confused expressions, I try to explain.
“It’s like a religious group, but he makes up his own rules of what we do and who we worship.
We’re kept sheltered, and away from society.
Especially the females. He told me I was to marry his second in command, an older man named Paul.
He was more than thirty years older than me and. ..”
“And?” Hawk prods, his hand finding its way to gently stroke up and down my back in support.
“And I hate him. I hate both of them. My father demanded I marry him and lie with him, and I refused. He said the next day they would offer me up as a sacrifice if I still chose not to marry him, then they both beat me and left me unconscious.” I lick my lips as I glance up at them.
“When I woke up, I ran. They hadn’t locked the door or chained me up that time, so I ran into the forest and through the night until I came into a large city. Eventually, I found myself in a bookstore, and the woman there sent me through a portal into your world.”
“Where you landed yourself right at the beginning of the Mating Hunt,” Ronan finishes for me, and I nod.
Ever so gently, he lifts my left arm and inspects the red marks around my wrist. “This is where they chained you?” he asks, his voice is quiet, but there’s no mistaking the anger and tension there.
“Yes,” I answer as Bo steps up in front of me. He’s holding a small container with some sort of white cream, and dips his fingers in it before looking at me.
“This is for anywhere you have open wounds. We don’t have anything for the bruises, unfortunately.”
“That’s okay,” I tell him with a tight smile. “I appreciate you helping me.” He starts to rub the cream into scratches on my left arm as I glance at the other two. I hesitate a moment before asking, “Why are you guys being so nice to me?”
Hawk and Ronan exchange a knowing glance before Ronan asks, “What do you know of fated mates?”
I frown, shaking my head. “I’ve never heard that term before.” He nods as if expecting as much.
“What—” I cut myself off when the three of them suddenly spin to face the trees, pulling their weapons out as they surround me.
“Willow, put your dress on. Quickly now,” Ronan whispers, his eyes still glued to the forest. The tone of his voice makes me jump into action, ripping the wet bindings off and yanking my dress over my head.
When I turn back to them, I see Hawk blindly reach a hand back toward me.
“Come here, angel,” he whispers, and I immediately press my hand in his, and he pulls me against his side.
I place my other hand against his warm abs as I stare into the forest. I want to ask what’s happening, what they’ve heard, but instinct tells me to stay quiet.
I hear a twig snap somewhere ahead on our right, and slowly, Hawk bends down and wraps one arm around my legs, right below my butt, and lifts me up against him like I weigh nothing. I wrap my arms around his neck and try to keep my head out of his eyeline as I cling to him in fear.
When I realize how awkward this must be for him to hold me like this, I part my knees and wrap my legs around him.
Luckily, the skirt of the dress has enough fabric to allow me to do so.
His large hand settles on my ass as he holds me against him and starts to back away from where the sound originated.
“Go,” Ronan whispers so quietly, I almost miss it. Hawk turns us as Bo appears in front, leading the way into the trees on the opposite side of the clearing. I watch Ronan follow behind as they move so silently through the forest, and my breathing is the loudest thing I can hear.
Being around these three it’s easy to forget I’m in the middle of the Mating Hunt. A very real game where apparently, I’m the prize. The implications of what that means are still lost on me, but for the first time since this started, I don’t feel completely hopeless.
What happens if I’m still with them when the game ends in six days? What is it exactly that they get from me? Or want from me? Ronan said he thought the Mating Hunt was archaic, so why enter?
“We’ve lost them,” Ronan says, and I see that some of the tension has left his shoulders. “But let’s keep going until we find a good place to stop.” He glances at me before adding, “We’ll need to hunt for food soon.”
We continue on in silence as more questions start to form in my head, but self-preservation has me keeping my mouth shut.
Not only because we’re being hunted by others, but because I know it’s not my place to question a man, even if I am desperate for answers.
I’ve asked too much already and am lucky I haven’t angered them yet.
It’s a while before Bo finds a rocky wall that we follow until he finally stops and motions for the others to wait while he advances toward it.
It takes me a few seconds to figure out what he’s doing, but finally I realize there’s a cave hidden behind one of the larger rocks. He disappears around one, and I wait with bated breath until he returns, two minutes later, stating, “All clear.”
Hawk carries me inside as we look around the small space. The entrance is narrow, but the ceiling is surprisingly high with a small hole at the very top, allowing sunlight to brighten the cave. “We need to find something for her to sit on,” Hawk says as he gazes around the space.
“Oh, I don’t need anything special,” I tell him, not wanting to be a burden.
He frowns at me as he heads toward the back of the cave. “The ground is too hard for your soft skin.” He sits down and leans against the back wall, pulling me into his lap. “You will sit on us until we find something more suitable.”
Okay then.