Page 26 of Heartless

Directly east was straight over the edge of the cliff. In order to get by, I had to work my way around the ridges on either side. One looked easier to navigate than the other. The easier way would be the logical choice.

I turned towards the more difficult ridge.

CHAPTER11

HUNTER

I took my time following Lila through the thick forest of gum trees. I loved the smell of them, and the way the scent clung to clothing and hair. We'd all smelled like dirt and sweat and gum trees after this. Earthy and real.

Don't get me wrong, I liked civilisation and city living as much as the next guy, but there was something compelling about being here in nature. Hunting down our mate like a pack of wild animals.

Parker was moving through the trees a few metres to my south, sounding just like that. A pack determined to trample everything in his path. I adored my twin, but he was about as subtle as a hippopotamus on steroids.

Slade was somewhere to the north. At least, I presumed he was. He drew the short straw and had to leave last. He’d looked so smug, I was sure he had a plan to get around us somehow. Or maybe that was what he wanted us to think. That was all part of the game. It wasn't just a chase, it was also a mind fuck. My second favourite kind of fuck. Unless it was my mind getting fucked with.

Either way, I wasn't going to let him psych me out.

I reached a thick section of bushes and tracked Lila's movement around them. Here and there were snapped twigs and sections of disturbed ground coverage. At this time of year, the leaves were thick on the ground and dry. The signs they left behind were almost as good as a neon arrow pointing the way.

I smiled to myself. Lila couldn't be too much further ahead. When I caught up to her, I was going to pin her cute little ass to the trunk of a tree and fuck her silly. I was going to fuck her so hard, the other guys would hear her scream from kilometres away.

They could listen all they wanted. She was going to be my prize. The hunter would catch and claim his prey out here in nature.

This whole thing was so primal, it set my blood on fire. I was so hot it didn't bother me that until now I hadn’t thought to insist Lila wear a remote control vibrator as she ran. I made a mental note to include that next time.

If she had one inside her now, I'd turn it on and grin at the sound of her squealing. That would slow her down like nothing else.

I pushed on through the trees until I reached the boulders. I stopped for a moment to reminisce about the trials. Parker and I had cornered Brinson Smith here. The smug prick was on our radar for quite some time. He seemed to have a thing for every woman we set our sights on. Back then, it was nothing serious, just a fuck here and there, but he was always hanging around.

Not after the trials he wasn't. I gather it was a difficult process to recover his body from the bottom of the cliff.

"Sorry not sorry," I said to myself. Seeing the expression on his face as he scrambled to grab on to something, anything, only to be shoved backwards by Parker, was one of my most satisfying memories. If we hadn't done it then, we would have had to do it later. He would definitely have been sniffing around Lila. No one did that and got away with it, unless we'd agreed upon it. Which, apart from Slade, we never would. One of our many mottos was ‘touch her and die.’

Fortunately, Slade agreed with that sentiment. Lucky for all of us, we didn't view each other as rivals, or shit would get really ugly really quickly.

"Now, which way would you go?" I asked Lila under my breath. One of the ridges was easier to navigate than the other. I would bet anything she realised the same thing. And that I would expect her to take the easier way, rather than risking stepping so close to the edge of the cliff.

That being the case, she must have taken the more difficult ridge. She wouldn't have minded the challenge. She had more balls than most guys I knew. Or a cast iron pussy.

I turned towards the easier ridge and started to make my way carefully around the edge. Both ridges led to the same place, but this one would get me there more quickly. Taking the difficult route was unexpected, but it would, potentially, slow her down.

I kept my eyes and ears open. If this was the actual trials, it was exactly the kind of place I'd expect an ambush. That wasn't going to happen here, but it was treacherous nonetheless. The last thing I wanted was for me to end up at the bottom of a cliff. That would not help Lila to claim her throne. And it wouldn't end with me fucking her against a tree, or on the bare ground. Or…

I pushed the thought out of my mind for now. If I kept thinking like that, my heavy balls would drag me down. I needed my blood in the head on my shoulders, not the one in my pants.

"Focus, Hunt," I told myself. I pressed my lips together and kept moving.

The sound of snapping branches and grunting from behind me told me my brother was on the same ridge, making his way as loudly as he could. It wasn't laziness or carelessness on his part. No, there was strategy in everything we both did, including this. The amount of noise he was making was his way of trying to psych me out. If I knew where he was, I'd know he was close. He'd expect me to freak out and make mistakes.

Fuck that. I had no intention of doing either of those things. I moved carefully and kept my head as clear as possible, ignoring the sounds from behind me. And trying to ignore the frustration at not knowing where Slade was.

Was he so far behind us I wouldn't hear him anyway? That was possible, but for some reason I knew that wasn't the case. From past experience, I knew to rely on my instincts. They’d never let me down yet. Doing otherwise would get me killed. Or worse, I’d lose.

That wasn't going to happen.

"Ouch!" Parker cried out behind me. "Fucking tree." A branch cracked off and flew through the air. It sailed over the side of the cliff and disappeared. A thud followed a moment later.

I grinned. Only Parker would stop to take vengeance on a branch at a time like this. He wasn’t acting out of anger though, not really. He knew better than to get pissed off with inanimate objects. This was just another trick to remind me he was right on my heels. To make me stop and look back.

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