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“What are you—” Hunter’s frown morphed into a grimace the second Odin pressed the pad of his thumb against one of his broken ribs.
“I can see where this may be confusing, and I apologize for my part in making it that way, so let’s start at the beginning, shall we?” He dug a little deeper, not enough to risk reinjuring Hunter, but enough to get his point across. “You had twelve lacerations on your chest and back, a stab wound that just barely missed any vital organs on your left side, a swollen eye, a dislocated shoulder—”
Hunter managed to lift his arm, grabbing onto Odin. He was too weak to do much more than apply a little pressure, but the defiance in the move was clear.
“—and here,” he grabbed his wrist with his free hand, tightly so that Hunter actually cried out this time, “your hand was almost broken. As it were, you got away with a few minor fractures in your fingers. They’ve been set already, along with your three busted ribs. It’s true that I did that, but let’s make one thing crystal clear, I am not your savior, Huntsman.”
“No?” Any sign of the timid kid Odin had once known vanished in a puff of smoke. Instead, the man staring up at him now was angry and bitter.
He’d stopped with that damn pleading look at least.
“No,” Odin clarified, leaning forward so that his weight shifted onto the palm he still had across Hunter’s ribs, “I’m your owner.”
“Like hell.”
He chuckled. “There we go, drop the innocent act entirely. That’s better.”
“I didn’t—”
“This is hell,” he cut him off again, not wanting to give him the chance to make any more excuses.
Hunter grew quiet for a split second. “Why didn’t you just let them kill me?”
“Because you owe me a blood debt, and you aren’t allowed to die until you’ve paid me back in full. You’re going to wish you hadn’t missed in the forest that day.”
“I’ve been wishing that for years,” Hunter spat.
Odin shoved off the bed and away from him before he did something stupid like punch the guy. There it was. The truth. Cold and honest.
Hunter had taken him into the woods to kill him and had botched the shot as Odin had always known.
“Isa Frost ordered me to take out his competition,” Hunter said. “The pay was good, and the threat on my sister’s life was even more incentive. All I had to do was kill you and my sister and I could leave this bullshit behind forever. We could have made it off-world even.”
Odin hated the way his gut twisted at the thought of Hunter leaving the planet. Completely out of his reach, for likely ever.
That only pissed him off more.
“You expect me to understand because she was on the line?” He grunted.
“No,” Hunter stated. “I wouldn’t expect a Shout to understand the importance of keeping a family member alive. How long did it take you, anyway, to cremate your dad and add him to your collection?” He motioned with his chin at the ink tattooed across Odin’s skin.
No one knew about what happened to Ander Snow, and despite how tempted Odin was to tell Hunter right now, he refrained. Instead, he clenched his fists at his sides, shoving all memory of the timid, older boy from his mind.
Hunter wasn’t that kid anymore. Had possibly never been.
That’s why they were here.
Odin had followed him into the forest and almost lost his life. And not even to anyone of importance. To a mere associate. To someone who was nothing in the grand scheme of things. If he hadn’t already ordered his father moved somewhere safe beforehand, things would have ended up even worse for Odin than they had.
The gun Hunter had aimed at him had somehow missed its mark at the last second. The bullet had hit Odin in the shoulder, going straight through. It’d been aimed at his heart, and he could still clearly picture the shocked expression on Hunter’s face after he’d missed.
He’d been horrified.
No doubt shocked by his own failure, terrified of what Odin might do in retaliation.
The look he’d given that day was nothing like the one the Huntsman was currently wearing.
“What?” The corner of Hunter’s mouth turned up, momentarily knocking Odin off his axis. That wasn’t an expression he was used to coming off someone like Hunter. “If you’re going to hurt me, do it. Why wait?”
