28. Rurik
TWENTY-EIGHT
RURIK
FRIDAY MORNING
“King, my man.” I’m home for the first time in nearly a week, and it feels weird.
Ash hadn’t noticed, but I’d basically moved in half my stuff.
Which with as particular as he is about some stuff he isn’t at all about others.
He really needs to be more observant if he wants to get into this world, but I’m not about to out myself.
One day we’ll just own a house together and be common-law married.
Then how can he say no to a real proposal?
He’s not going to want a divorce so young. It’s a foolproof plan.
I make a mental note to look up how long common-law marriage takes in New Hampshire, then also in New York. Just in case I can convince him to go to grad school there while he ‘interns’ at The Velleity.
It’s all coming together. And while some might say I’m ‘moving fast’, I think I’m decisive. God forbid a man knows what he wants. What I want is to lock Ash to me in every way humanly, and maybe inhumanly, possible so he can never escape. Is that really so bad?
Now to deal with the itch I’ve had in my brain.
King looks up from his laptop. “What’s up?”
“Can you do a little digging for me?” I’ve been meaning to ask him since the night Ash passed out.
I don’t know for sure he was drugged, but I basically decided it was either his older brother or a someone at the bar, and then my brain deprioritized it because the answer might send me into a dark rage if I focus on it too long.
Who needs that when I’m happy and in love? (Allegedly.)
I don’t need more to worry about since Dad has been quietly camped out at The Velleity, which is already pissing me off enough.
Ruining my own day even more just sounds like a bad time.
But finally, turning it over in the back of my brain got to be too much to ignore, so I came home to ask King for help.
Just to get me some background information on Ash’s father.
The guy gives Ash enough anxiety, and he’s still cagey about being ‘gay,’ so I need to know what I’m working with to make sure project common law marriage goes to plan.
Or one of the fifty other back-up plans I’m working on.
The real win would be to convince Ash to never speak to anyone who’s not letting him be the cute little angel baby he is.
Either that or killing all of them. But I did put that into the last-resort box.
People tend to hold a grudge against guys who kill their whole family, even if it’s fucking justified. Which is wild.
I’d be doing him a favor, and taking on the burden of all the work involved in said favor.
All he’s gotta do is sit back and enjoy the results.
But no, killing someone’s toxic relatives is ‘bad.' I’m so glad my brain doesn’t work like a neurotypical brain and that I can kill my own father for being a royal douche canoe.
“Sure, what kind of digging?”
“Can you run a full check on Ash Conrad? The guy who’s a prospect.
We should already have some of it in the database because his cousin is K.
” I debated outing K, but decided that it was not easy to connect the dots.
I’m sure King and Locke will when he pulls the full background check on every prospect after the next event.
If K doesn’t tell them first. So it’s just a matter of time.
“Why didn’t K say anything?” King turns around, clearly surprised. “She knows we take care of family.”
Code for most crime syndicate nepo babies on vibe check.
I shrug, having my own suspicions, but nothing concrete. “I don’t know. But I’m curious. It’s not often we get two from the same family when they aren’t nepo.”
“For sure. Just being trained enough as a non-nepo is wild.”
“No kidding.”
“I’ll dig around and let you know what I find.”
I’m not expecting much. But it will maybe scratch the itch in my brain for a little while.
I’m required to spend the rest of the day helping get ready for tonights event. So I hang around our place, dipping in and out, filling in where I can.
“Rurik-chan.” Kiho dips into my room, where I’m getting ready for the hunt.
He’s already dressed in his Flecktarn camo, a favorite of his, while I have the M05 Winter ready to go.
He’s wrong for the time of year it is, but it’s fine.
We all have our favorite camo and I can’t expect my friends to be perfect.
“What’s up, bestie?” I like to switch up my terms of endearment for Kiho while he always calls me ‘chan.’
It started as a bit of a tease because it’s an honorific mostly used for girls or couples, since it means something like little or dear, but I love it.
I’ll be his dear any fucking day. In a platonic way, of course.
Can’t be making my baby insecure to the point of rage.
Unless it involves him choking me. Then maybe I want that a little.
But not with Kiho. I’d never use him in my sex games like that.
“I have your results.” He holds out a printout.
“My what? Are we running random drug tests now? Because I will fail. I neither take the pills I should nor avoid ones I shouldn’t.” I reach for the paper.
“No. The blood tests for Ash.” He doesn’t hand it over.
“Oh!” I’d almost forgotten those. “Well?”
He keeps the paper out of my reach. “I need you to remember we have the hunt tonight and you can’t kill anyone.”
If that isn’t a fucking red flag.
“Give it to me.” I toss aside the gear I’m testing and stand up.
“You don’t know who did it.”
“Who. Did. What.” I’m not in the mood and I’m sure Kiho can sense it.
He sighs and hands over the paper. I scan it, looking for what came back positive.
Rohypnol — Positive.
Red engulfs me. I grab my gun, needing to kill anyone who interacted with him that night. The bar will have footage. I can accomplish it.
I’m roughly grabbed by two hands and shaken.
I blink, seeing Kiho’s face in front of mine. “Rurik.”
I come out of it a little, but the rage is still there. “I need the tapes from the bar that night. I should have already pulled them.”
“I knew I shouldn’t have given you that today.”
“You know better than to keep shit from me,” I growl.
“And I wouldn’t, but you are not rational when it comes to this guy.”
“And?” I’m getting annoyed because I could already be in my car. “You going to blame me for killing whoever did this to him?”
“Do you want someone else hunting Ash tonight?”
“Fuck.” I fist my hands, needing the bite of my nails to keep me grounded. “I’ll kill whoever touches him.” I’m mad but there is no way I’m not watching Ash tonight. Not considering where Legacy is taking him.
“I picked up as much when you told me he was off limits.” He doesn’t release me, probably because he hasn’t decided if I’m safe. “If you need help, just let me know. I can keep the others off your back.”
“You’d play defense for me?”
“You know I’d do anything for you and I don’t need you getting into it with one of the other members when you’re in this kind of mood.” He might be right about my fuse being a little short.
“I might need it with how Nik is.” I laugh, but it’s still true.
“Can’t read the air.” He mutters something to himself, then says, “And I’ll help you find whoever did this after tonight. I’ll get King to hack into the bar’s system and pull the videos.”
I hold out my hand. He grasps it and lets me pull him into a hug. “Thank you, pretty boy.”
He rolls his eyes but smiles because I know he likes being pretty. “Anything for you.”
I check that my radar reflector is still attached to my gear, then go through all my equipment for the night. Med supplies. Gun. Emergency flares. Survival crap. All there. Usually, this calms me down, but I’m still pent up and fuming.
I can’t even go take it out on Ash’s mouth or cock. It’s really inconvenient we have to do things outside of my obsession.
For the rest of the day, I just keep thinking…what if whoever drugged him had succeeded?
I barely keep myself out of a dark rage.
He’s mine. I fucking own him and his ass. No one else gets to fucking touch them without eating the barrel of my gun.
I need to get a fucking grip. At least being out in the woods will allow me to use some of this.
The day drags, and it’s far too long before I’m in my Jesko, heading towards the National Forest. It will still be a couple of hours before Ash is let loose.
We have some recon work to do: setting up our barriers, scouting, and getting into position before the prospects get here.
It’s a pretty big operation to put on in a National Forest while making sure some civilian doesn’t stumble into the middle of it.
The last thing we need is for what we do to get leaked to a media outlet so the school is put under pressure for our ‘hazing’.
I’m poised and ready just past visibility in darkness when the van carrying the prospects pulls up. This might be the longest I’ve gone without seeing Ash since I started stalking him. I need my fix.
I eye each person who steps out of the bus, heart thudding in my ears. Finally, I see his beautiful blond head step out of the bus. I’m laser-focused and so fucking hungry. I’ve been planning and waiting for this.
He’s all I care about. Before Ash, the hunting event was just that. Some fun in the woods getting to hunt people. Anyone would enjoy that.
But the idea of hunting him has made my dick hard for weeks. I’ve already warned Nik, Kiho, King, and Viv. Locke is ‘playing,’ but his job is more to supervise than anything else. And most of the rest of everyone in Legacy is at least a little scared of me.
So I don’t foresee having an issue when I call out, “He’s mine,” and start following him.
Before our conversation, I probably would have just toyed with him all night and kept him safe from the other members. But his words echo in my head:
I need you to hold me down and make me.
I don’t think I can do it without fighting you.
So now I have other plans.
I stay just out of view near the starting point.
I don’t know which direction Ash will go, and I have to be the first one on him.
Otherwise, I’ll kill whoever tries to go after him, and that will cause a whole big headache.
Can’t be murdering the kids of criminal underworld leaders without starting an international incident.
Better just to keep control of the situation.
Ash’s cute little face glances around taking stock of the area, I calm, my focus turning entirely on him. I’m ready to take it all out on him. The animal I’ve been caging all day finally has a victim.
Ash takes off north, and we aren’t allowed to move for fifteen minutes.
I have to wait.
Time slows.
It drags.
It’s maddening.
Then finally, the horn blows, and I take off at a full sprint.
A part of me comes alive when I’m chasing prey. One I had to learn to keep locked away the rest of the time. It’s the most dangerous inclination inside of me, and I know how much trouble it could get me in. But that dark need is always present and with Ash I can finally let it out.
I need you to hold me down and make me.
I’m aching for him.
I don’t think I can do it without fighting you.
I need the fight as badly as he does.
My senses sharpen. There are more colors. More clues. My brain processes them faster. It’s a high impossible to recreate. It makes me fully understand why my mother does what she does. Hunting a human is unparalleled.
I get to where he headed and stop. Running blindly won’t help me find him. He could have gone any direction once he was out of sight. I close my eyes and listen. Noise fades as all the prospects get further away from the start. Heavy breathing, footfalls, and breaking branches.
Stillness replaces it.
The horror in the silence and dark.
I absorb it, stepping carefully, finding soft prints in the dirt.
Leaves out of place. I don’t move fast. Even if he were conditioned for this, he’d tire eventually.
Everyone does. And while Ash may have stamina from rowing, he doesn’t have that of a runner, especially over the hills and through the brush.
There’s too many hazards to keep up a full sprint out here.
To win this challenge, the prospects have to be smart, not in the best shape.
The challenge tests resilience. Can they escape and outsmart the pack?
The moon is full, highlighting details the blanket of dark would normally hide.
I slow when I find a broken branch. I run my thumb over the sharp part of the wood. I’m going the right direction.
What will Ash do? I’ve watched him for months. Studied him for hundreds of hours. He’s going to get far enough away to not be in the first sweep, then hide and conserve energy.
I follow the path for a while, sure Kiho and Nik are flanking behind to make sure I don’t miss anything.
The hair on the back of my neck stands up. Like the first time I saw him. My body’s reaction has always been visceral. I’m drawn to him.
I can’t get enough.
“You can’t get away from me, baby boy.”
I’m already hard. It’s going to get painful.
The slightest of inhales snaps my attention. I’d know the sound of his breathing anywhere. I’ve stayed up whole nights listening to my baby boy breathe.
I scan the nearby trees and underbrush for the barest hint of a glow.
The bark of a white birch reflects just a hint of green.
I got you.
“I’m going to catch you, pin you down, and take what I want.”
His audible swallow makes my cock ache.
I step carefully, making as little sound as possible.
He probably can’t hear me over his heart.
I can taste his fear on the air.
“Do you know how hard you have me?”
My fingers brush through leaves while the eerie stillness closes in around us. Even the crisp air is dead, making each movement more pronounced.
“Baby boy, I’m hungry.”
The faintest movement catches my attention, just a flick of an inhale, and I pounce.