29. Hunter
Twenty Nine
Hunter
I wiped sweat off my face, chest still heaving, and grabbed my phone. It was as much a habit as it was a need.
Her location blinked back at me. She wasn’t home, wasn’t even close .
With frantic movements, I zoomed in, my heart pounding against my ribs.
The blue dot blinked merrily, determining my girl’s location at the shitty dive bar in town, with the sticky floors and neon lights.
The Neon Possum .
A new notification slid down the top of my screen. One of her teammates had posted a story of the whole crew, drinks raised and cheeks flushed from victory.
Scanning the picture, I immediately spotted Ella’s vivid hair right there in the middle. My pulse kicked into a sprint.
I snatched the keys off the bench, feeling them bite into my palm. The drive was a blur of headlights and red lights I barely stopped for.
Every second she spent there laughing, drinking, and letting them bask in her presence scraped against my skin like barbed wire.
My hands gripped the wheel so tightly, my knuckles turned white, and my veins stood out. She didn’t even know what she was doing to me.
Or maybe she did.
Maybe she wanted to test me, see how far I’d go.
The thought made my jaw grind until I tasted copper.
I’d go all the fucking way.
When I finally swung into the cracked asphalt lot, I knew I was right. Her teammates’ cars lined the row like mocking grins. My chest tightened, as rage and need choked me in equal measure.
She was in there.
The thought alone narrowed my vision, and a hot pulse of violence sparked in my skull. I slammed the truck door shut hard enough to rattle the frame, and my sneakers ate up the pavement.
By the time I reached the pulsing glow of the entrance, my breathing had leveled out. Not calm. Never calm. It was a predator’s rhythm: steady and lethal.
I was going to walk in there, and every fucker in the place was going to learn what she should already know.
Spotting her in the crowd wasn’t hard. This wasn’t the first time I’d been here.
She didn’t know I was watching; she never did. I lost count of how many times I’d stood in this bar — this very bar — gritting my teeth while some asshole thought he had a shot with her.
The raw possession hammered through my skull as I shoved through the wall of sweaty bodies under the pulsing neon lights.
The air reeked of beer and perfume. Every accidental brush with a stranger’s arm felt like barbed wire scraping against my nerves. It was like acid under my skin. The static was suffocating.
My shoulders locked, breath sharp in my throat. Every step was hell and every touch burned .
None of it mattered, though, not when I laid eyes on her.
Ella was standing at the bar like she belonged to someone else, holding a can of that hard seltzer stuff she liked, laughing like some other fucker had the right to make her smile.
My pulse detonated, and my jaw was locked so hard I tasted blood.
I’ve had to watch this too many times.
Not anymore.
When someone’s nails grazed my arm, my vision went white with rage and nausea, and I could feel bile licking the back of my throat. I wanted to rip my skin off just to make it stop.
My body recoiled so abruptly, the girl’s laughter died on her lips.
I didn’t look at her. I couldn’t .
When Ella spotted me, she froze. Her smile faltered, and her lips parted like she might say my name, but I didn’t give her the chance.
Cutting through the chaos, I closed the distance in three strides and grabbed her wrist. My own nerves prickled at the sharp, electric contact, but this was her .
Ella’s warmth burned differently. The only burn I could take.
“Hunter—what—” Her eyes went wide, her voice soft with surprise.
“You left without telling me.” My voice was shaking with everything I’d buried and the battle clawing at my flesh.
She tried to laugh it off. “Didn’t think you’d care.”
My head dipped until my mouth brushed her ear, breath scorching her skin. “That’s a mistake you don’t want to keep making.”
Her breath hitched, and the sound nearly undid me.
“Say goodbye, baby.” I pulled her flush against my front, fixing my murderous glare on the fucker who she’d been laughing with. I knew it was just some dude from her team, but I didn’t give a flying fuck.
He’d made her laugh. He got too close.
Not giving her time to actually say the words, I turned us on the spot and closed my hand around her wrist, sparks of pleasure now shooting up my arm.
Then I was dragging her past the bathrooms, past the kitchen door, until the music dulled to a distant thud, every second was agony.
I needed her so bad it fucking hurt, and I wouldn’t be able to think clearly until I’d claimed her, inside and fucking out.
I spun her around and slammed the emergency exit bar behind her. The cold metal touched her bare skin, making her hiss. The red EXIT sign burned above us like a warning I had no intention of heeding.
My hands caged her in. Beyond the door, the night pulsed with muffled music and laughter. One push, and we’d be out in the alley. One wrong move and the whole bar would see her wrecked for me.
“What exactly gave you the impression I wouldn’t care about any of this?” I snapped, every muscle in my body clenched tight.
She blinked, then squared her shoulders. “Maybe … maybe I wanted to see if you actually cared.”
“Wanted to see if I cared?” I echoed, my voice low and sharp. “Ella, I’ve been following you everywhere. Fucking watching you, and not for shits and giggles. I’ve seen who touches you, who talks to you, who even looks at you. Every. Single. Time.”
Her eyes flickered. A smirk tugged at the corner of her lips, like she’d been waiting for this confession. “I believe there’s a word for this. Stalking.”
I stepped closer, my hands bracketing her waist. “Call it what you fucking want. I call it paying attention . Protecting. Making sure nobody dares to breathe the wrong way around you. And if they did…” My voice dropped to a growl. “I made sure they never dared to come close to you again.”
Her breath hitched, and her cheeks flushed. “You’re insane.”
“No,” I said, my voice rough. “I’m obsessed with you. Don’t pretend like you hate it.”
I leaned closer, letting my lips brush the shell of her ear. “I notice everything. Like the way your nipples try to poke holes through your shirt, or how you’re so needily clenching your thighs. Every little reaction.”
Her smirk faltered for a moment before she laughed breathlessly and teasingly. “Who says I’m only pretending?”
A low, dark chuckle rumbled through my chest. “Wanna know a secret, baby? Wanna know how fucked up I really am?”
Ella’s eyes widened, pupils so blown there was barely any green visible. A door clanged shut somewhere with a loud crash, but she never looked away.
Finally, she gave me a mute nod.
“I fucking marked myself for you.”
Her brows shot up. “Marked yourself?”
I leaned in and dragged my thumb along her jaw. “The tattoos, the piercing … I got them for you.” My voice a husky rasp, a feral smirk tugging at my lips.
She froze, eyes wide. “Wait, what ?!”
“I got them for you,” I said, pressing closer so she could feel the heat of my chest. “So every time you look at me, you’d know exactly how much of me is yours. Not figuratively. Literally. My obsession with you is etched all over my body.”
Her hand flew to her mouth. “You … you got a dick piercing for me ?”
My lips curled into a wicked smirk. “When I was alone, when I was bored, when I couldn’t sleep, it was always you haunting my thoughts. So I made it permanent. A piece of me that’s yours, whether you want it or not. Every time you see it, you’ll know it belongs to you.”
She pressed closer, her eyes sparkling beneath the dim light, and I relished in her seeking me out. “God, Hunter.”
“Yeah,” I rasped, my forehead resting against hers. “You get it now? You live under my fucking skin.”
Her lips parted, but before she could speak, the image of her at the bar — laughing, letting some other asshole stand too close — detonated behind my eyes. The burn, which had simmered down, flared up again and turned into a wildfire.
My hands tightened on her hips. My voice broke, raw and jagged. “And you thought I wouldn’t care? After all this?”
Her eyes widened, and she swallowed hard.
“You have any idea what it’s like,” I snarled, “standing in there, watching you with other guys? Over and over? Carrying you on my fucking body while they get to make you smile?”
Her soft gasp ripped through me, tore me open.
“Not tonight,” I ground out, dragging her closer until her chest crushed against mine. The burn inside me twisted into something darker, something addictive. “Never again.”
Then I kissed her. Hard. Punishing. Every cell in my body should’ve been on fire from the contact, from the heat and sweat and closeness.
But it was her. It was Ella , and I couldn’t get enough.
I clutched her hair like a lifeline, anchoring myself while I sank deeper into the hell I craved.
“You thought I wouldn’t care?” My words rasped against her throat before my teeth closed over her pulse, biting hard enough to make her cry out, to leave a mark. “You thought I’d let you come here looking so fucking pretty so you could smile for them ?”
She whimpered, and I smiled dark against her skin, dizzy on the taste of her.
“Guess you need a reminder who you belong to.”
Her nails clawed at me as I shoved her skirt up, my hand sliding between her thighs, finding her dripping and ready.
My lungs seized because this much contact should’ve gutted me.Should’ve made me claw my own flesh.
Anyone else, and I’d have torn myself bloody. But with her, I wanted more, wanted everything.
“That’s not really a question,” she gasped, her voice breaking.
The words snapped me clean in half.