The Prey: A Dark Enemies to Lovers Romance (Oakmount Elite Book 3)

Shock waves ripple across my skin, and I find it hard to admit even to myself how turned on I am right now. As afraid as I was a short time ago, that fear is nothing but a fleeting memory now. Especially with Sebastian’s cock pressed against my pussy. If I lift my hips even an inch, I’ll have him right where I need him.

No. I can’t. This is wrong. I shouldn’t be here.

I look away, and the heat, the tension…it snaps.

Shivers wrack my body as adrenaline continues to course through me. My brain picks at the things Sebastian told me. How this is a game—The Hunt, he called it. I can’t seem to wrap my brain around why Lee and Drew thought putting me in the middle of it was a good idea.

Even worse, now I’m wondering if Sebastian was going to play this game with another woman. That seems to cut through the haze more than anything else. Him taking another woman down to the bare leaves and fucking her like an animal.

Oh. Fuck. No.

I shove at his chest, and his mouth goes slack under the shadow of the mask. Concern is etched deep into his features. “Move. I want to get up.”

He nods and slowly pulls away.

“Why would your friends bring me out here? They said they were trying to help us. That this would help us. I don’t understand how any of this is helping us.” I feel like I’m losing my mind, and maybe I am.

What was the intention behind all of this?

He scrubs his hand up his face, almost toppling the mask off the top of his head. “Fuck. I’m going to kill both of them.”

I scramble to my feet and stare down at him, but as soon as my eyes lock on his, I realize he’s not looking at my face. His dark gaze is trained on my body, and the flames of desire blaze a path of territorial need from my thighs up to my tits.

I rip at the blindfold that’s still hanging around my neck, and then tug at the fabric, but the knot is too tight. Annoyed, I give up and turn my attention back to him.

“Why are you people like this?”

“Like what?”

“Psychopaths who kidnap people and bring them into the woods to be attacked by other people.”

“I’m sure there is a reasonable explanation for why they did this, and I will figure it out as soon as I get you back to the mansion. If that’s where you want to go?” His tone has an undercurrent, and it’s like he’s asking me something without asking me.

I’m not sure if I’m reading too deeply into it or not. Is he asking me if I want to play? If I want to be hunted by him? I can feel him watching me, his gaze penetrating deep into the darkest parts of my soul, shedding light on spots that have never seen or felt the warmth of the sun. I trust him. I know this. I trust him more than I’ve trusted even those that were supposed to protect me and raise me. Sebastian would never hurt me.

He shoves off the leaf-covered ground in one smooth motion, nothing like me scrambling to get my legs beneath me.

“Yes, and that explanation is that you’re all in desperate need of psychological help.”

Even as I say the words, my heart hammers against my ribs, nervous energy zinging up my spine. But mixed with that nervousness is a deep-seated arousal. Is it fucked up of me to want him like I do? To be taken in such a way that mimics the exact scenarios I found myself in with Yanov?

“Oh, we all need psychological help, Little Prey. Even you, since I know what you’re thinking right now, even without asking.” His voice is low, dipped in danger.

Shit. I take one hesitant step backward, and he cocks his head to the side. I can almost hear his unasked question in my mind.

Have you made your decision yet?

“Think it through because if you run, I will chase you, and when I catch you—and we both know I will—there will not be a single thing to stop me from claiming you. Do you understand, Ely?”

“What if I want you to stop?” I whisper.

He grins, and it both terrifies me and excites me. “I doubt you’ll want me to stop, but if you do then say the word red.”

I nod and swallow down the fear and hesitation.

I’ve made my decision. We both know it.

“Are you sure about this? I need to make certain that you understand the consequences. Are you ready to be chased, captured, and fucked?” His words are still slow and enunciated, like he wants to make sure I understand.

I can’t explain it. Why? Why is this urge rushing through me? I want it. I want him to hunt me down and fuck me in the woods until there is nothing left of Ely, until I’m his little prey and nothing else. I want to break free of the hold Yanov has on me. I want to learn to love myself, to trust, and I can’t do that if I continue to hide behind the person I used to be.

It’s now or never.

“I trust you, Sebastian,” I tell him because I need him to know I’m giving up my power and control.

“You really shouldn’t say things like that.” He takes a predatory step toward me, and I can see the hunter lurking beneath the surface, waiting to come out and play.

“Why?” My voice wobbles.

“Because men like me take your trust, break it, and then shove it back at you. We eat fragile girls like you for breakfast and spit out the bones. Is that what you want me to do to you?”

“I don’t think you’re the monster you want me to believe you are, and even if you are, I could never see you like that.”

“Maybe it’s time I let you see the real me, let you feel what it’s like to be broken in two.”

“That’s the problem, Sebastian. I’m already broken, and so are you, but maybe there’s still hope for us. Maybe we can break free of the chains trapping us in who we used to be. Maybe we can be whole.”

With one last, devastated look, I turn my back on the old me, and I run. Not like I did before, like I was trying to escape, but like I’m running toward something.

Racing away from the death of the woman I used to be. That’s what he can give me. The ability to take it all away and make me into someone else. Someone who deserves to be touched and looked at the way he touches and looks at me.

I race through the dark, only tiny lanterns casting light here and there as I go. Adrenaline drives me higher and higher. I hear his footfalls crash behind me a second later. He’s fast, even in his suit. It makes me smile before I feel the ghost of his hand near my back. Shit.

I burst forward, quickening my pace, trying to stay ahead of him, jumping logs and shoving branches into his line of path.

Air burns in my lungs, the organs aching, but it feels good at the same time. I barely notice the chill on my skin as my body warms from the inside out from the exercise and the memory of his hands on my body.

It started as fear, but now it’s different. I quicken my pace but startle when something to my left catches my attention. A man has a woman pinned to the ground while he fucks her from behind, almost like he hates her. She mewls, panting and pushing back against him. It’s erotic and puts the porn I’ve watched to shame.

Distracted by the sex taking place mere feet away, I’m not surprised when his hand closes in around the back of my neck. His grip is hard, and I scramble to get away, but he’s got a good hold on me.

Without releasing me, he turns me in his arms to face him, and I’m greeted by the eerie mask of a fox. The usual panic returns, but I stare into his eyes through the holes, reminding myself that this is Sebastian. That I’m safe, and all I have to do is say the word and he’ll stop.

“Little Prey,” he says, his voice low and dark. “You have no idea what you’ve just done. Running from me. Making me chase you.”

He drags me through a copse of trees but doesn’t release me, no matter how much I struggle and swat his hands away. When we are alone again, with only the sounds of the forest for company, he shoves me forward, and I stumble to the ground on my knees. I wince as I fall, but the burn only adds to the rest of it. It’s one more sensation to drown out the terror, the fear, the self-loathing.

As he circles me like a predator, I move to get back on my feet, and his hold changes. He digs his fingers into my hair, pulling my head back with my neck outstretched.

“What am I going to do with you, Ely? You deserve a punishment for teasing me, not a reward, but I want you so fucking bad I’m tempted to do just that. To reward you for being a good rabbit and running from the predator.”

He tugs me by the hair, and my scalp burns, but it doesn’t hurt enough for me to say red. It joins the other little stings and cuts to add to the experience. I almost feel like I’m in a haze, standing outside my own body, watching as I give myself to him.

In my mind, we are the only two people in the entire world here right now.

The hunter.

And his prey.

He pulls his knife from his ankle, shaking his leg so his pants fall back over the sheath.

I catch sight of the sharp blade in the little bit of moonlight that cuts through the trees. The blade dances in front of my eyes, and I watch, mesmerized by the flick of it. Then he slides the tip down my right arm. He doesn’t cut me with it, just caresses, until it reaches the scrap of rope at my wrist. He jerks the blade hard so it digs into my skin, and the rope snaps beneath the pressure. I’m free. I resist the urge to rub at the small burn marks that reside there now. He does the same to the one on my ankle, then gives me another circle.

“Should I call you Little Rabbit?” He jerks his chin up to the bunny ears I’m still wearing.

I shake my head and tug them off to throw them on the ground.

“Ahhh, there’s my Little Prey.” His seductive tone reaches inside me and strokes me from the inside out. “I’ve caught you, and what did I say I’d do if I caught you?”

Crowding me with his body, giving me no escape, he reaches between my thighs and cups my sex. A shocked gasp slips out of me, and my core tightens in approval as his fingers press against the silk between my thighs.

“Little Prey… you’re really trying my patience.”

With the knife in his other hand, he uses the tip to trace a path over my collarbones, then down between my breasts and lower to bump over my belly button until the blade replaces his hand, the point of the blade resting toward my opening with the flat of the blade angled up against my clit.

My lungs burn, and while my brain continues to remind me that I’m in danger and that this could end in a terrible way, I lean into that trust.

“You…you said you’d fuck me. Mark me.” My voice sounds different, sensual, labored. I want him. I need him.

“Mmm, good girl,” he praises.

“Are you going to hurt me?” I ask, my voice hesitant.

Do I want to know? Worst of all, will I let him?

“Do you want me to hurt you?” he counters, cocking his head to the side.

I bite my lip and shake my head. “No, but I want you to fuck me.”

A groan emits from his throat, and I won’t lie—it’s the sexiest sound I’ve ever heard.

“Oh, Little Prey. I’m going to fuck you. I’m going to fuck you and own you in ways you’ve never been used before, but before I do that, I’m going to prepare your little cunt. Get your pussy dripping wet, and stretch you so I don’t tear you with my cock.” He rocks the knife forward and back, giving me a little sensation but nothing like what I need to ease the ache there.

I squeeze my eyes closed, trying to focus on the feeling alone, but he removes the knife, and I blink my eyes open and stare up at him, begging for him to continue.

“Tell me again, do you trust me, Elyse?”