Page 70 of Midnight Hunt

“What are—” Cough cough. “What are you doing?” he wheezed, craning his neck around as Jagger stopped behind his chair and began to untie his remaining arm.

“Setting your arm free so I can more easily remove it,” Jagger bluntly replied.

“Oh,snap,” Griff exclaimed, choking out a laugh.

Yes, do it, Sable morbidly encouraged.Finish what I started.

“Wait,” the hunter said, his voice filling with terror as Jagger’s words sank in. “You’re seriously going to leave mearmless?”

Jagger ignored him, his movements calm and unhurried.Unfeeling.

“Wait,wait!” the hunter cried, fruitlessly beginning to struggle.

“He’s breaking. He’sbreaking,” Griff whisper-yelled.

“I-I’ll tell you why we’re taking the females. Just don’t rip my arm off.”

Jagger paused, then resumed untying the arm.

“Hey! I said I would tell you!”

The binding fell away, and Jagger firmly gripped the arm, placing his other hand on the hunter’s shoulder to hold him steady. “Speak quickly, or the arm comes off,” was all he said, then gave the limb a sharp tug as if to test how strong it was. Or weak.

“Okay, okay!” the hunter shouted, the whites of his eyes clearly visible. “We need the females for breeding.”

My breath caught.

Jagger was silent for a lengthy beat, then jerked on the arm again, hard enough to make the hunter cry out. “Tell me more.”

“W-we’re outcasts. Packless rogue males. Too dominant for another pack alpha to accept us, so we formed our own pack. But we don’t have females.”

“So you’restealingthem?” Jagger growled, finally showing a shred of emotion.

“Yes. How else are we supposed to get them? The pack won’t grow and thrive without females.”

Jagger pulled his lip back in a silent snarl. “There’s more you’re not telling me. You’re targetinghybridfemales specifically and going to great lengths to do so. Why?”

The hunter suddenly clamped his jaw shut. Jagger yanked on the arm again, this time with brutal force. The hunter’s mouth popped back open again as he released a bloodcurdling scream.

“Tellme,” Jagger barked, his eyes flashing dangerously bright.

“I . . . I can’t.” Cough cough cough. “They’ll kill me!”

“Then give me names. Who’s your leader? How many of you are there? Where are the females being kept?”

“I . . .”

“Tell me!” Jagger thundered, then jerked on the arm so hard that it popped out of the socket.

The hunter screamed, and I reached up to rub at my own shoulder, phantom pain flaring in the joint. Griff noticed and moved closer to wrap an arm around me. When I felt him tremble with barely-suppressed anger, I leaned into him, accepting his comfort as well as giving my own.

“They’ll kill me, they’ll kill me,” the hunter continued to sob.

“Sounds like I no longer have use for you or your arm,” Jagger muttered. As he tightened his grip on the hunter’s arm, I braced myself, prepared to watch the limb get severed.

“No, wait.Wait!” the hunter cried. “I-I can tell you a little more. We’re only takingunclaimedhybrid females, so your alpha female and the rest are safe. We only want the dark brunette one, your alpha’s sister. If you give her to us, we’ll leave Midnight Pack territory. We’ll—”

“Boss,” Jagger abruptly called. “I can’t do this anymore.”

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