Page 113 of The Hunt

“The players don’t know what they’re signing up for,” he repeated. “The recruiters tell them it’s just a game with no risks, except for a few bruises and scratches. None of them have any idea what they’re really in for when they get here.”

“Bullshit.” I snorted. “They know exactly what they’re getting into.”

“Rhett…” Ev looked over at me, head slowly shaking. “He’s not lying about that. Did you really not know?”

I stared at her, heart hammering. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“The other players I met here… they all thought they’d signed up to play a fun survival game and potentially win a ton of money,” she said. “All of them expected to go home to their families afterwards. Not a single one of them knew this was a real hunt.”

“See?” JJ said. “The Patriarchs lie, man. They lie toeveryone.”

“Why would anyone ever agree to be hunted to death?” Ev added, still staring at me.

“Because they aren’t regular people,” I said, eyes narrowing. “Group 1 are all death-row prisoners. They choose between the Hunt—which risks their life but also gives them a chance at freedom—and being executed in a shitty max-security prison. It’s not a hard choice for most of them. And Group 2… they’re all terminally ill. So they’re already dying. They just want a chance to go out in glory after winning the prize money for their families. And Group 3—”

JJ cut me off. “None of them know the truth about it, man. I swear.”

“That’s fucking bullshit,” I muttered. “Theyknow.”

“Nope. They don’t know shit.”

“He’s telling the truth, Rhett,” Ev added softly. “I assumed you knew. I thoughtallthe hunters knew.”

My head was spinning, and my stomach was starting to churn violently. I swallowed thickly. “No, that can’t be right. It doesn’t make sense.”

“It’s true,” JJ insisted. “I swear.”

I slowly shook my head. “If the players are never told about the true nature of the Hunt, then what the fuck is the point in making them sign all those liability waivers?” I asked. “We can see their signatures on their profiles, so we know they’re agreeing to it. Or at least they’re agreeing tosomething.So why make them do that if whatever they’re agreeing to isn’t even real? It’s just a pointless fucking waste of time.”

“It’s not pointless, because it’s not really waiver forms they’re signing,” JJ said. “That’s just what the Patriarchs want you to believe.”

“What the fuck are they signing, then?”

“The players are told that they have to sign ironclad non-disclosure agreements to protect the integrity of the game. But really, it’s just a trick to keep them from telling their friends and family anything about it.That way, when they suddenly leave one day and never come home… their friends and family think they just went missing. No one knows where they really ended up. And no one has any way of connecting them to The Wild Hunt.”

I blinked, trying to process what I’d just heard, but the words wouldn’t settle. They just swirled in my mind, jagged and raw, like shards of broken glass.

All this time, I’d thought the players—the prey—had signed up for this, knowing exactly what they were walking into. They wanted the money, the adrenaline, the chance at freedom, and they were willing to risk their lives for it.

But that wasn’t true. They didn’t know their lives were at stake. None of them knew.

“How do they explain the prisoners disappearing?” Ev asked, frowning. “They can’t just go missing like regular people.”

“It’s covered up as prison suicide,” JJ said. “Happens all the time, so people aren’t surprised to hear it.”

Ev muttered something under her breath. Then her gaze flicked over to me. “What’s Group 3?” she asked sharply. “You never finished telling me.”

Before I could reply, JJ spoke up again. “That’s actually another thing I have to tell you,” he said. “The Patriarchs lie to everyone about Group 3 as well.”

“How so?” I asked, eyes narrowing.

He focused on Ev. “We’re told they’re people who’ve done terrible things that The Wild Hunt has become aware of through various means. They’re offered a chance to sign up for the game, choosing between possible death and having their awful secrets exposed to the world. Most choose the game.”

“That’s why you asked me what I did to wind up here,” Ev said, looking over at me. “Right?”

“Yeah.” I nodded stiffly. “What’s the truth, JJ?”

“Some of them are actually bad people who’ve been caught doing bad shit. So it’s notalllies. But most…” He paused for a beat, slowly shaking his head. “Most are just people with crippling debts. They’re told they can sign up for the game for a chance to win millions, so they can pay those debts off. But they aren’t told that it’s a real hunt. Like I said, none of the players areevertold the truth.”

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