Page 106 of Fated to the Hunters
When she awoke again, Scarlett was surprised to find that she’d slept through the night. The early morning sun streamed through the windows. She’d even missed Vince and Ezra’s return, who slept on either of the two couches. She closed her eyes again, wanting to stretch the moment out as long as possible. When Mateo stirred behind her, she finally dared to open her eyes again.
Mateo pulled her closer and nuzzled into her neck. “Good morning, love.”
“Hi,” she yawned, turning in his arms and cuddling up to his chest. “What time are we leaving today?”
“Once everything is packed. We aren’t on any tight schedule.”
Although she was hesitant to leave the comfort of his arms, the rumbling in her stomach was far too angry with her to ignore. They had a lazy breakfast, and Scarlett insisted on training again to exhaust herself for the long drive ahead. From what she understood, they’d spend at least three days on the road, and she’d only started strength training. She didn’t want to start slacking now. To her delight, Vince joined them this time as well.
Mateo led her through her strength training, then she practiced on Ezra again. Once they’d gone over everything she already knew, Mateo showed her how to twist out of a knife attack.
Ezra stood behind her, a knife to her throat—he’d insisted on leaving the sheath in place—and let her practice ducking to the side and contorting his arm behind his back.
“Good,” Mateo praised. “It’ll be easier if you grip him here instead.” He adjusted her hand on Ezra’s wrist and thenprompted her to do it again. “Try on Vince too. He’s bigger in size, but it’ll work all the same.”
Vince stepped up and held the knife to her throat. And just as Mateo predicted, it worked fine. She still needed to work on her speed, but she had the bones down. She used both Ezra and Vince to practice until Mateo ended their session.
“You did well,” Mateo praised. Every time he did so, her heart fluttered. Though the words themselves were nothing compared to Mateo’s conviction behind them.
“As expected,” Ezra purred, pulling her away from the gym. “Time to feed you.”
“Can I shower first?”
“As you wish.”
Scarlett started up the stairs, but turned back to Ezra. “That grilled cheese you had yesterday looked really nice. Can you make me one?”
“Anything for you.”
As she’d hoped, her body was tired. She stood in the shower, letting the hot water run over her aching muscles. Knowing they loved it, she pulled on a loose, flowery dress but packed extra clothes in her overnight bag.
By the time she was back downstairs, Ezra had her lunch waiting, hair still damp from his own shower. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “Thank you.”
She hopped onto the counter next to Mateo, who mapped out their route on his tablet. “How are you feeling about your first road trip?”
“Nervous, but excited.”
“You’ll do just fine. Have you packed everything?”
“I think so, but if we can still stop for things I forgot, I’m not too worried.”
“Perfect. Once we’re fed, we can pack up the cars.”
“Just the two after all?”
“Yes. We can’t afford to stop on the way back, so we’ll rotate to take turns sleeping.”
Scarlett nodded and looked over Mateo’s shoulder as he went over the route and made notes for stops. He seemed to have picked the route with the most tourist spots along the way. She knew it was for her, and the thought warmed her heart. She also knew that none of them were set in stone, and that neither of them would do anything that overwhelmed her. It took nearly two hours to pack everything up. Once all set she climbed into the passenger’s seat with her overnight bag and travel entertainment of the second car—the one with less gear and not an ounce of silver.
She sat in her seat, watching them lock up, terrified that they would make her choose who to ride with first. She didn’t want to make them think she had a favourite because even with a gun to her head, she wouldn’t be able to choose. Seemingly without a big fuss, Vince took his seat next to her and started the engine.
They drove for a while before Scarlett grew anxious about leaving everything she’d come to know so far behind. Trying to calm her mind, she pulled out her sketchbook and flipped through the pages. When she landed on her first ever sketch of them, she halted and looked over at Vince.
He smiled softly, though his eyes were glued to the road ahead. “I won’t look,” he promised.
“It’s nothing bad.”
“But clearly something you do not wish to share yet, and that is fine.”
