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But I didn’t have to act.
Tonight I had acted. Fuck me, I had acted.
Tonight as I stood on my cliff of penance, I knew I had taken it too far.
I had just wanted to teach her a lesson. Scare her, punish her even, so she’d learn to never do something like that again.
But I’d hunted her. I’d fucked her. I’d crossed the line.
Jesus fucking Christ, what was wrong with me? It was Storee! Storee. The daughter of my best friend. Who the fuck did shit like this?
Me. That was who. A goddamn monster.
My chest heaved. “Fuck.” I slammed my fist into the nearest tree with enough force to cut my knuckles and split the skin of my hand open.
“Trees don’t bleed,” Braken’s voice said from behind me. “If you’re going to bust your knuckles at least make it worth it. Hit someone who deserves it.”
I kept my back to him, staring at the sea below.
Braken didn’t take the hint and walked up to stand beside me. He held a similar mask to the one I still held in my non-bloody hand. We clearly were both partaking in The Hunt. But I was the only true monster.
“I wanted to scare the shit out of her. To make sure she’d never do something like this again. I knew if I just forbid it, she’d do what she wanted anyway. She’s stubborn.”
“She is. Like her father,” Braken agreed.
“But I took it too far. I hurt her. I fucking hurt her.”
“That happens on The Hunt. It’s part of it. She knew that. She didn’t go into this blindly.”
“I tossed her to the ground. I fucked her like an animal.”
Braken nodded. “We were all animals tonight.”
“Butsheisn’t,” I argued.
“If it hadn’t been you, it would have been someone else,” Braken pointed out.
I tossed my stag mask to the ground. “It shouldn’t have been me.”
Braken chuckled. “If it was any other man, I’d be helping you dig a six-foot hole for the poor soul rather than convincing you to step away from the cliff.”
“I’m not going to jump. That would be too easy. I deserve to pay penance for what I did tonight, not be put out of my misery.”
“You fucked her. No sin in that.”
I turned to face him. “She’s Gabriel’s daughter, dude! I fucked my best friend’s daughter, and she doesn’t even know it was me. And I didn’t just fuck her. I lost control. I took all of her. All. I treated her like an animal!”
Not fazed in the slightest by my raised voice and the visible rage that shook me, Braken casually asked, “Would you have preferred her to know it was you?”
“Fuck, no. How would we ever move past that?”
“It was one night,” Braken said. “Did you scare her? Did you achieve your goal?”
“I sure as fuck hope so.” I ran my fingers through my hair. “I just left her there in the dirt. Alone. Cold. Taken and abused. I sure as fuck hope she learned her lesson from that and would never turn the red light on again.”
Braken shrugged. “So we move on. That’s what the night is about. One night of primal passion. You gave. She took. It’s done.” He patted my back. “Let’s go home. You can beat the shit out of yourself again tomorrow. It’s been a long night. No regrets, my man.”
“No regrets,” I mumbled, reciting a chant he and I had been saying since we were kids. It was our motto for when we fucked up but there wasn’t anything we could do about it after the fact.
