30. Hunter
Thirty
Hunter
Sleep never used to come easy, at least not until Ella started sleeping curled up next to me.
Tonight was different, though. The old issues crept out, without asking, sneaking up on me and hitting me like a fucking sucker punch.
One second, I was staring at the ceiling, languid and relaxed, enjoying the warmth of Ella’s body. The next, I was under. Dropped straight into hell.
Screams tore through the darkness. High-pitched. Familiar. The air was thick with blood, choking me. I slammed my fists into something solid — a wall or a door, I couldn’t tell — but it wasn’t enough.
It never was. My body moved on instinct, fighting off the shadows refusing to die.
Then suddenly a soft voice cut through the haze.
“Hunter.”
It sliced through the nightmare, slaying my demons.
My eyes flew open, and the room swam back into focus, with Ella’s face hovering close to mine. My chest heaved like I’d run a marathon, and my hand — my fucking hand — was clamped around her arm.
Hard enough to bruise.
I let go like she burned me, scrambling back, heartbeat slamming against bone.
“Fuck!” My voice cracked. “I didn’t mean to… I’d never … God, I’d never hurt you.”
Ella didn’t flinch, didn’t even move back like I deserved. She just reached out, fingers grazing my wrist like nothing about me scared her.
Her gentle touch damn near gutted me.
“I’m fine,” she said softly, like she knew what I needed before I did.
But I wasn’t. I was a storm trapped inside my own skin, and every breath felt like swallowing glass.
I wanted to tell her to leave, to run, because what was happening — me breaking apart in front of her — wasn’t supposed to happen. She wasn’t supposed to see this side of me.
I didn’t give her a choice when I dragged her into my orbit, didn’t give her room to say no when I told her how it was going to be.
She plays the part. She stays by my side. She belongs to me until I decide otherwise.
It was our deal, and yet, it had never been about the deal.
All of this was about her, always her. From the second she’d touched me, I knew I wasn’t letting go.
So why the hell was she still here?
Why wasn’t she scared?
Didn’t she understand yet? This wasn’t pretend. This wasn’t temporary. I didn’t do temporary.
The truth was, I’d raze the earth before I let her walk away. Ella was mine, she had been from the second I decided it. But she needed to hear every ugly truth first, because once she did, she’d understand what that meant.
She’d know there was no way out, not for either of us.
I should’ve let her go. Really should have. It was what normal men did when the cracks started showing.
But I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe without her close, so I grabbed her. Hard .
Arms around her like if I didn’t hold on, I’d come apart. My chest crushed to her back, my forehead buried in the curve of her neck, dragging in her scent like it was oxygen, and I’d been drowning for years.
She didn’t fight against my hold, she just … let me.
“You want to know how fucked up I really am?” My voice rasped against her skin, raw and jagged, like her fate hadn’t already been sealed. “You want the whole story? The one nobody ever heard? Just know, once I tell you, there’s no going back. Ever .”
Her breath hitched, but she stayed silent. Stayed still.
Brave or stupid, I didn’t care which.
“When I was nine, I watched my dad kill my mom.” The words spilled out, low and lethal. “Cracked her skull like she was nothing. Then he staged it and made it look like an accident. The police bought it. Everyone bought it.”
I laughed, sharp and broken. “You would think I would have told someone, but there was no point. The man owned everything. Every cop, every judge, every headline. He buried her and kept on smiling for the cameras.”
My grip on her waist tightened until my hands shook.
“And then he just kept fucking going. New wives, different faces. Broke them down piece by piece , and no one did a damn thing. But then came Sasha.” My voice cracked on the name.
“My father’s last wife’s son. Sasha hated the bastard worse than me, and he was bigger and older …
maybe I would’ve beat him to it eventually, but one night, he snapped.
Beat my father to death with his bare hands. ”
“They gave him twenty-five to life. And I,” I chuckled darkly, pulling her even closer, “I shut every door in my head and didn’t let anyone in. Not all the way, never all the way.”
I pressed my mouth to her hair, breathing her in like a starving man.
“Until you.”
The truth was setting me free, while every word snapped the lock on her cage shut. I loosened my hold to turn her so I could meet her gaze, gray colliding with green.
“Now you’re in here—” I pointed at my chest, her gaze glued to the movement “—and I can’t let you out. I won’t .”
Another laugh ripped out of me, dark and twisted, as she stared up at me, her lips parted.
“You think this is still about the deal? You think you’re walking away from this?” My lips brushed her ear, low and rough. “You’re not. You’re mine now. Mine , Ella. I’d burn the whole fucking world down before I let you go.”
Her breath ghosted over my jaw, breathless.
“Then don’t. Don’t let me go. You think I don’t feel this?” she whispered, like she was handing me a weapon I could destroy her with. “You think I don’t want you?”
The sound tearing out of my throat didn’t even feel human. I crushed my mouth to hers, savage and starving.
My hands locked on her hips, dragging her into me like I could fuse her bones to mine. Ella was the cure to everything wrong inside me.
“Say it,” I growled against her lips, my tongue claiming her mouth. “Say you’re mine. Right now.”
“I’m yours,” she breathed, the words filled with emotion. “Fuck, Hunter. I’ve been yours.”
Something split open in my chest, so violent it almost hurt. My body caged hers in, not gentle, not pretending I was anything less than the beast I’d tried to keep chained.
The mattress groaned under us as I tore at the shirt hiding her body from me, yanking it over her head as if it offended me.
“You wanna know another truth, baby?” I rasped, voice wrecked, forehead pressed to hers like I was about to confess to murder. “You were the first.”
Her eyes blew wide. “What?”
“I’ve never …” I licked my lips nervously, searching her face. “I’ve never touched anyone . I, um, I never wanted to. Until, well, until you.” My chest heaved like I’d just sprinted the whole length of the field. “You were my first. My first kiss, my first time. My first everything .”
Her hands slid up my back, nails biting into my skin like she wanted to leave her mark on me. “Hunter …”
I kissed her hard enough to bruise, my voice breaking into her mouth.
“There’s only you and me now.” My fingers dug into her thighs, spreading her open for me like she was made to fit here, under me, only me. “For the rest of this life, and the next one, as far as I’m concerned.”
Her breath hitched, pupils blown wide, but her voice cut through everything:
“I don’t want anyone else.”
She tore me apart and put me back together with just five little words.
I surged inside her in one brutal thrust, and her cry shattered the last shred of control I’d been clinging to.
My body towering over hers as I fucked her deep, relentlessly, like I could brand her from the inside out. Her nails raked down my back, a jagged burn, only spurring me on even harder.
“Hunter! Oh my God!”
“That’s it,” I rasped, my lips ghosting over the curve of her throat as I sucked and bit and marked every inch I could reach. “Say my fucking name. Let the whole world know who owns this pussy.”
She whimpered, a desperate, needy sound, and I lost it.
My thrusts went feral, hips pounding, every slam of my cock inside her like a brand, a promise. I spread her legs wider, so wide her thighs shook, forcing her to take every brutal inch.
“Such a pretty little thing,” I snarled against her mouth, swallowing her moans, my breath hot and ragged. “No one else will ever feel you like this.” My teeth grazed her jaw as I panted, feral for my girl. “I’d put you in chains before letting another man even look at you.”
Her back arched off the bed as her cunt clenched around me like she craved that darkness, like she wanted to be chained.
I gripped her thighs and flipped her without warning, hauling her up onto her hands and knees. The sight of her plump ass in the air, her pussy glistening and open for me, made a guttural curse tear from my throat.
“Fuck, look at you,” I ground out, palming her ass, spreading her cheeks wide to watch my cock disappear into her soaked cunt in one brutal thrust.
The sound of my hips slamming against her filled the room, obscene and perfect. “Made for me. You were fucking made for me .”
She moaned brokenly, and I bent low over her back, my hand fisting in her vivid hair to yank her head up so she heard every word.
“You feel that?” My hips rolled deep, punishing, forcing her to feel the length of me, knowing my piercing was hitting the spot that always drove her wild. “That’s me claiming you. Here,” I thrust again, harder, “and here.”
Leaning up, I took aim, and my spit hit her asshole in a hot streak. She gasped as my thumb pressed in, working it slowly and deliberately while my cock kept her pussy stretched to the limit.
“Every. Fucking. Hole.” I growled, sucking hard on her neck. “I’m gonna own them all. You think anyone else is ever getting this ass? This pussy? No. One.” My other hand slid to her clit, rubbing vicious circles while my cock and finger worked her in tandem. “This is mine. Say it.”
“I’m yours!” she sobbed, rocking back into me like she couldn’t get enough, like she wanted me to break her in half.
“Again.” My palm cracked against her ass, sharp and punishing, making her cry out.
“Yours, Hunter. Fuck! Always yours.”
My cock thickened, my jaw locking tight as I fucked her harder, my balls smacking against her pussy. My finger pushed deeper, claiming more space inside her, and her shocked gasp turned into a scream of my name.
“That’s it,” I panted, chest heaving, sweat dripping onto her spine. “Scream for me, baby. Let everyone fucking know you belong to me.”
Ella’s body went rigid, her perfect cunt locking down as her orgasm ripped through her, and the feel of her milking me like that ruined me. My hips stuttered, driving brutally deep. I groaned her name into the skin of her shoulder and filled her up in powerful, savage pulses.
I stayed there, buried to the hilt, chest plastered to her back, both of us shaking like we’d been electrocuted. My hand came around her throat, heavy and claiming, pulling her up so her spine arched, and I could breathe her in.
“Yeah, that’s right, baby,” I murmured against her ear, my voice gravelly and dark with satisfaction.
“That’s my cum in your pussy. That’s me marking you so deep no one will ever wash me out.
You’re fucking ruined for anyone else, Ella, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
You’re mine. Mine to break. Mine to worship. Mine to keep.”
And the way she clung, the way she whispered my name like it was the only word she knew — I believed her.