Page 53 of His to Hunt

Twenty-Two

BECKETT

The phone buzzes again,insistent against the marble countertop.

I don't want to answer it. Not while her weight still lingers on my lap, not with the heat of her cunt still burning through my skin. My cock remains half-hard from the way she moved for me—slow, controlled, like she thought she was still the one calling the shots. The memory of her soft gasps echoes in my ears, threatening to pull me back into that moment before we were interrupted.

But I know Sebastian's name lighting up on my screen isn't a coincidence. He doesn't call unless something's coming—and whatever it is, it won't wait.

I answer on the third ring. "Yeah."

No greeting. No mask. Just the bare minimum.

"Don't hang up," he says, voice lower than usual, stripped of its usual casual arrogance. "You need to hear this."

I step away from the stool, away from the counter, andpace toward the far end of the room. My jaw clenches as I move. My bare feet are silent on the marble, but I can feel the tension building in my legs with every step I take.

"Talk."

"There's a problem."

"That's not new." I keep my voice level, refusing to give him the satisfaction of hearing my concern.

"This one is." Sebastian pauses, and that alone sets off alarms.

He doesn't rush.

Sebastian never rushes. So the fact that I can hear the tightness in his tone—that controlled urgency beneath the words—that's what makes my pulse quicken.

"The Collectors are angry," he continues. "There are rumors about someone sneaking in."

I stop moving, my body going still.

"They're reviewing the Hunt footage," he says, letting the implication hang in the air between us.

My fingers curl into a fist at my side.

I knew this, of course. Not only from Luna confirming it, but from the moment I saw her standing there in that dress, eyes wide, mouth set like a trap, I knew she didn't belong.

And I took her anyway. Consequences be damned.

"A woman," he confirms. "Name unknown. Face unregistered."

"Your girl wasn't wearing the anklet," Sebastian adds. "That's what tipped them off. It wasn't turned in at the end of the Hunt."

"And?"

"And you claimed her."

"Clearly it fell off in the woods somewhere. Maybe they should check outthere."

"Maybe you know the rules and chose not to follow them."

"Maybe they should have checked better when validating her invitation. Seems like a 'them' problem. Not a 'me' problem."

"You know as well as I do that the guard responsible for letting her in will be punished accordingly. But they are still going to rectify the situation."

The silence between us stretches, taut as a wire. He doesn't fill it. Doesn't push. He knows me too well for that.

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