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Sixteen

The Storm

RYDER

1:45 AM

Istep out from the shelter of the barn, my boots sinking heavily into the earth as my eyes lock onto the deep, frantic impressions her boots have left behind.

She’s making it way too easy.

The rain comes down in violent, punishing sheets, soaking through my recently dried clothes in seconds and turning the dark forest floor into a slick, churning sea of black mud.

I don’t run. There’s no fun in ending the chase too soon.

Harmony’s footprint path is wild, uneven, and chaotic—the unmistakable trail of a cornered animal running on pure adrenaline.

As I track her muddy footprints into the dense tree line, a slow smile spreads across my face.

My mind weaves through the exquisitely violent possibilities of the discipline I plan to inflict on her when I catch her.

When I promised Harmony a punishment that would make the devil weep, it wasn’t a promise of bloody torment or cold steel cutting her skin. No, what I have in store for her is a far more sadistic form of heated anguish—a brutal, unyielding wrecking of her senses before I give her the best, most mind-shattering orgasm of her life.

I want to break her mind, to strip away every shred of that stubborn, arrogant mask she wears, and leave her shuddering beneath me in absolute, undeniable surrender.

If she thought what we just did in that barn was a sin… I’m about to introduce her to the fiery pits of hell itself.

Because even now, after everything she’s confessed to me—after admitting her cold, calculated hand in the night that destroyed my life—I still want her.

God help me, I still crave her with a feral, sickening intensity that burns straight through my gut into my marrow.

She isn’t just a victim or a villain of this story; she’s a magnificent, dark puzzle I intend to solve. Even if it takes the rest of my life.

She’s already given me her body. Now, I plan on taking her soul.

I want to slide under her skin. I want to invade the blackest, most hidden corners of her mind and find out what truly makes her tick. What set her on that path of cruelty all those years ago. What turned a young girl into a creature who could leave a boy to freeze in the dark, only to return years later with gratitude in her eyes.

No other person has intrigued me the way she does, serving as a shadowy reflection of the untamed corners of my soul.

I tilt my head back, letting the freezing rain wash over my face as I throw my voice into the roaring outburst.

“You can’t run from me, pretty girl!”

The howl of the high-pitched wind, carries my voice through the dense forest.

I know she’s close. Her fear hangs in the humid, ozone-rich air, a pungent scent overpowering the smell of decaying pine and soaked earth.

A deep, primal satisfaction hums through my veins.

I take immense pleasure in being the predator, in experiencing the thrill of the hunt as I stalk my prey through the black woods.

Tonight, there are no rules.

I deliberately keep my pace slow and measured, dragging out every agonizing second. I don’t want to end this game too quickly. I want her heart to hammer against her ribs until she can taste the terror in the back of her throat.

Besides, there’s nowhere for her to flee.

She’s mine when she’s next to me. She’s mine even when she runs from me. Nothing will keep me from her now.