Page 7 of Blood So Brutal

“Now is not the time to be stubborn, Huntyr. Let's go.” Jessiah fumbled, pulling the keys from his pocket before unlocking her cell. The bars creaked open loudly before clanging against the rest of the metal cage.

Huntyr slowly pushed herself to her feet, using the bars beside her as support. Her legs shook, quivering beneath the weight of her. Fuck, she looked so thin, so pale. I should have never let this happen, should have never left her down here.

Jessiah entered the cage first, cautiously. “You need to bathe and get some clean clothes. Wolf can take you to?—”

“No,” she argued. “I won’t go anywhere with him.”

Jessiah cocked his head to the side. “You’ll die out there alone. Do you know how many hungry ones are crawling the streets as we speak?”

“I’m not going with Wolf,” she pushed. “I’ll go with you instead.”

“Absolutely not,” I interrupted before Jessiah could say anything further. “Not an option. You’ll come with me willingly, or I’ll throw you over my damn shoulder and carry you out.”

Even with her legs shaking, even with her body so weak that she could barely stand, she glared at me, jaw set. I knew her well enough to know she wasn’t going with me easily. She was serious about leaving with my brother, but there was no way I was letting that happen.

“Let’s go, Huntress.” I waved my arm out in front of me, toward the hall that led to our rooms.

A few painful seconds passed before she finally stepped toward me, and Jessiah sighed in relief. He would have kept her safe, but that wasn’t what I worried about. She needed to shower. She needed clothes. She needed to eat and decompress and breathe. I wouldn’t allow that to happen around anyone else but me.

“I still hate you both,” she muttered as she passed me.

Jessiah looked at me and raised an eyebrow as I smirked. “I would expect nothing less.”

Chapter 3

Huntyr

“Your rooms are seriously this close to each other?” I asked, not bothering to keep the venom from my voice. Wolf led me down the hall with a hand hovering at my back, barely touching me. Still, it was enough to light up every one of my senses. If I had a single ounce of energy left, I would swat him away.

Lucky for him, I was exhausted.

“Yes, they are. Not like we had a choice in the matter, but it comes in handy when hungry ones get too close,” Jessiah answered from ahead.

We walked through the dark shadows. A small window, barely large enough to look out of, lit the hallway every few feet, but aside from that, nothing. You would have thought we were deep underground in a cave somewhere with the lack of, well, anything. No furniture, no carpeting on the floors. Just empty space.

It made me uneasy. Everything about this place did.

“This is my room,” Wolf said. “Jessiah stays across the hall. He’ll be there if you need him, but I’m sure you won’t.”

I rolled my eyes at the arrogance in his voice and pushed open the door to Wolf’s bedroom. It was smaller than I expected. Cozier, too. There was minimal furniture, with one bed pressed against the back wall and a singular wardrobe beside it.

“Not much for personal effects?” I asked.

“There are no personal effects around here,” he answered. “It’s best to keep things as simple as possible.”

A pile of fabric caught my attention in the corner of the room, and I realized quickly what I stared at—bloodied cloths and gauze from his severed wings. I blinked my attention away before he caught me staring.

Wolf brushed past me, toward a door on the far side of the room. “You can wash up in here,” he said. He opened his wardrobe and pulled out a pair of black men’s trousers and a matching top. “Take these.”

“You expect me to wear your clothes?” I asked.

His eyes raked down my body, and I fought the urge to cover my arms over my chest. I looked like an absolute disaster, I knew that. I wore the same clothes for days now. Or was it weeks? My hair was one massive knot of sweat, dirt, blood, and tears. Mud from the dungeon caked my skin from the floor I’d slept on.

Still, I stared Wolf in the eye. It was his fault I looked like this, after all. He was the one who dragged me into this mess, who lied to me about why he was helping me and delivered me directly to his father.

I still wasn’t sure what he truly wanted from me, but I did know he was awfully interested in my power.

“It’s my clothes or nothing,” he said before smirking. “Both options are fine with me.”

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