Chapter 24 The Hunt
The Hunt
RIPLEY
I’m not ashamed to say I fingered myself to it.
The rain is coming down in buckets now, and I’m soaked up to my knees, but I’ve got to keep going despite the mud threatening to suck me under.
“What did you do on Saturday, Ripley?” I grunt. “Oh, nothing! Just let a serial killer chase me through the woods!”
At first I thought about sticking around, taunting him into another fight, but then I realized…
I don’t have anything left to hit him with.
I need to get back to the house, or at the very least the barn.
I’ll be able to grab a real weapon, get prepped for round two.
All I have to do is wear him down, after all.
Or maybe I’ll have enough of a headstart to just make it off the property on my own two feet.
My adrenaline is so high, I’d throw his big ass metal table at him if I could.
This whole thing’s still a nightmare, but somehow… I just feel so free.
The loud pop that cuts through the rain reminds me of a car backfiring, startling me enough to dip behind the nearest tree.
I can’t immediately place what it was, but it doesn’t take long to make the connection to the searing pain in my arm.
I look down to discover the skin at the top of my shoulder is torn right open.
“You fucking shot me?! You goddamn psycho, what the fuck—”
I poke my head out, trying to figure out where the shot came from, but quickly realize it’s almost pitch black save for the little bits of moonlight cutting through the trees.
Then, in a flash of lightning, I see him.
He’s like a fucking phantom, appearing just for a moment as the rain bears down on him, battering his mangled skull mask.
Holy shit, he looks even more terrifying.
I count a heartbeat or two before lightning strikes again, and in those few moments he’s already started charging.
I squeal, bolting in the opposite direction, my chest threatening to burst from adrenaline, blended with the thrill of the chase.
Sure, I also feel like I’ve been run over about eighteen times at this point, but there’s something about the smell of the dirt and the rain that keeps me going, filling me with a new energy.
Somehow, it’s like I’m experiencing everything, truly feeling it all, for the first time.
I duck behind another tree, listening hard for any hint or clue I could use to help stay one step ahead of him, but these woods are starting to play tricks on me again.
Was he the one who just made that branch snap?
Was that a whistle or just the wind?
My throat is dry, and my body’s suddenly screaming for water. I try to catch some raindrops in my mouth, and failing that I turn to sucking in what little’s gathered off of my skin in the hopes that it’ll provide just enough hydration to tide me over.
If I know Preacher, it won’t be long before he catches up to me.
Then, all of the old thoughts swarm their way past my new resolve. What’s he going to do when he catches me? That knife he held against my throat in the barn felt like it was only a step away from something bigger, something deeper and more depraved than I’ve ever experienced.
Another whistle echoes through the night, and this time there’s no mistaking the source.
I’m off like a shot, my muscles burning with every twist and turn, the rain so thick I can barely see three steps in front of me.
It’s only a dozen feet or so before I hear a twig snap, far too close for comfort, but I don’t have time to think before something heavy collides with me and I’m knocked to the ground.
I let out a banshee-like screech as fear and anticipation mix in my veins, and the two of us roll to a halt on the ground.
There’s a moment where it feels like he’s about to say something, maybe gloat or threaten me like he loves to do so much, but I cut through the foreplay and sink my fingers deep into the wound in his shoulder. He howls, recoiling just enough to give me the space to clamor to my feet.
I run straight for some thick brush to try to get a bit of breathing room and gather my wits, but just as I start pushing through it I feel something light but rough slip over my body.
“What the fu—”
Suddenly, I’m yanked backward from the ankles, landing face first on the forest floor. My chin smashes against a mushy log and I let out a garbled noise as the wind gets knocked out of me for what feels like the hundredth time tonight.
Did he just lasso me?!
“What are you, a fucking Looney Toons character?!” I roar.
I feel his presence long before I see him, his boots squelching in the mud as he makes his way over slowly, looming like a bad omen. He grasps my hair, yanking my head backward and forcing my back to bow.
“I told you, you’re mine,” he growls.
I’m forced up onto my knees as he tears my leggings open in one fluid motion.
My heart feels like it might give out from the adrenaline alone, and the pain in my shoulder temporarily overtakes my excitement about all of this.
I have no idea what he’s going to do next, and that thought is both terrifying and thrilling, like being on a rollercoaster just before the drop.
But I can do this.
I was born for this.
Preacher’s hands glide up the back of my thighs, squeezing my ass. His touch is more tender than I expected, and I shiver. God, I need this like I need oxygen. I’m bruised and battered, scarred and bloodied, but I don’t give a shit. All I need is for him to take me.
“I had you pegged, cowboy. I knew you’d give in.”
Blood roars in my head and I can’t hear anything else but the sound of the rain and Preacher’s devilish groan as he glides his dick along my slick pussy lips.
I can feel smooth little bumps on the underside of his cock, cooler than his scalding skin.
I have no idea what they are, but it feels fucking amazing.
“That depends. Are you ready to beg yet?”
My back arches, giving him immediate access as I let out the most pathetic whimper I can muster. It feels like he’s made of pure fire, and I’m planning to add as much oxygen to that blaze as it needs to burn the two of us to the ground.
Suddenly, the strange sensation of cool metal slides along my pussy lips, and I suck in a sharp gasp.
“Thought you’d be a big enough man to finally use your cock.”
Preacher only laughs before thrusting the gun inside of me.
Slow.
Deep.
Savoring it.
“Ah, this? This is called warming you up, little rabbit.” I feel something warm and slick on my asshole as he slowly pulls the gun out of my cunt. “And this? This is for stabbing me.”
The cold tip of the pistol is pushed inside my ass and I cry, groaning as he works it in and out, moving deeper with each thrust. I said he could fuck my ass, but I guess I didn’t specify with what.
The rain falls harder, the rich smell of petrichor overwhelming everything else, save for whatever’s radiating off of him.
I swear, I can smell his desire, so intense that it lingers on my tongue whenever I open my mouth to take a breath.
I wish I could see what he looks like behind me, in that mask with all that muscle, while he uses me like his own personal fuckdoll.
I think he could make me come without even touching my pussy at this point.
“You’re still bleeding, too, aren’t you? It’s got you all riled up. It’s why you haven’t been able to keep your fucking hand out of your pants, huh? You filthy fuckin’ whore.”
I start to whimper, and immediately hate the sound. It’s pathetic, powerless. It’s not me, but at the same time… I need him. I want him. I can’t think about anything but him, and then before I can even react, I hear the words come out of my mouth.
“Please.” I gasp. “Please, Preacher, I need it. I need to be torn apart.”
He pauses for a moment in silence, and then he pulls the gun out, leaving me feeling hollow before grasping my hips and pulling me toward him like I’m nothing but a toy. My mind is moving a thousand miles a second, with my body teetering right on the edge.
Maybe I’m getting the hang of this whole begging thing after all.
“You’re dripping,” he groans. “I bet you thought I wouldn’t be able to control myself the second I got my hands on you, didn’t you? Well, I wanted to savor this. It’s been so long since I’ve been inside a sweet little cunt like yours.”
He pushes the tip of his cock past my entrance, and my body coils like a spring.
I’m filthy, terrified, and on the brink of collapse, but giving in to this desire that’s been running through my veins feels like a kind of freedom.
It hasn’t been as long for me as it has for him, but if we’re counting sex I actually wanted?
Let’s just say we’d both be in the running.
“Please, baby. You’re the only one who can make me come, it’s been fucking torture, I just—”
“How often have you thought about it?”
Every hour? Every minute?
“Every day.”
He stills. Throbbing inside of me. I’m so turned on I could come right now.
“Keep talking.”
“I want your cock shoved so far down my throat I choke on it. I want you to fuck my ass until I bleed. I want to ride you while I bite into a man’s heart— oh God!”
“Now that, rabbit… is how you beg for me.”
Preacher rewards me by forcing me into the dirt, filling me right to the brim. The full weight of his body is like a security blanket, and even though I know this is monstrous, and fucked up beyond belief, I’ve never felt stronger.
He wants me. He chose me.
And when he starts to thrust again? I think I’ve died and gone to heaven.
He pounds into me with a punishing force, and I take every inch like a good fucking girl. My whole body is on fire beneath layers of caked mud, leaves and dirt sticking to my bare skin, with each and every one of my cells primed for destruction by his hand.
He’s taken me to the very brink of climax so many times, only to deny me, and I’m not letting it happen again. I dig my toes into the ground and start to snap my hips, matching each one of his brutal thrusts.
“Now that I’ve got a taste for you, I think I’ll be having you every night.” He nips at my earlobe as his hips snap harder. “You’ll sleep in my bed. You’ll ride my cock whenever I want, until we break that goddamn headboard.”
He’s fucking me so hard that my brain feels like scrambled eggs, and I think if he asked me for my name right now, I’d probably start meowing instead. It’s truly incredible that all it takes is a man with a good dick who fucks hard to reduce my IQ to 6 in a matter of seconds.
“Is that what you want?” He asks. “Tell me.”
I let out a muffled moan, only for him to punish me with a string of vicious thrusts.
“Use.”
“Your.”
“Words.”
I’m going to come. I can feel it. I’m closer than I’ve ever been before, just one more push.
“Fuck! Yes! I want it! All of it!”
His teeth pierce the skin of my shoulder just as his cock slides up against my G-spot. For the first time in weeks, I’m falling apart, coming so hard the edges of my vision blur.
“PreacherI’mco—”
I can’t even get the words out in the midst of his thrusts anymore, listening to his raspy moans as he starts to fall apart right along with me.
“Take every goddamn drop, rabbit.” Another low growl rattles my bones, shaking me to my core. “I’m gonna fill you up every single night.”
And then I’m coming all over again, or maybe it’s just the same one going on and on and on, my body trembling as I let out strangled cries, my cunt spasming around him.
“Preacher…”
To my surprise, as his thrusts slow, he begins to stroke my hair.
The rain patters against the ground.
Against our skin.
And we breathe together.
Slowly.
Deeply.
“I’m here, rabbit.” He kisses my temple. “You were perfect.”
I’ve never craved physical connection after sex, mostly because that sex was against my will. The last thing I wanted was for Gabriel to fucking touch me. But now? This man’s breath is warm, the weight of his body soothing. I just want him to hold me.
He presses soft kisses along the newly formed bite mark that he made, soothing it with his tongue the way an animal would.
He pulls out of me, and I’m left trembling.
Victorious.