Page 46 of Marked By Myth

“So you brought her here?”

I nodded. “Yes. It’s cut off from the main park, no one comes down the trail anymore, not even back then.”

She looked around, at the forestry around us, the thick brush, the creek that led down into a deeper river system. The only sounds were the birds above and the lizards skittering around for food.

“How?” she asked. “How did you kill her?”

My chest swelled. Would she recoil and leave me when she knew how callous I’d been or would she embrace the darkness inside her soul…the one I was called to back in those days we spent in detention.

“How’d you know?”

“Come on, Adrian. I’m not stupid. Why would you bring her here to fuck her…and since you seem to be pussyfooting around the whole what happened to Stacey shit…I know it’s dark…so just tell me already.”

I chuckled, wiping a hand down over my face. Fuck me, I wanted her on her back and my cock buried deep inside her right now. Her fire was coming back and it had me hard as fucking stone.

“You sure, kitten?”

“Adrian, tell me now or I’ll beat you over the head with the helmet.”

I turned her in my arms, my hands on her hips, my mouth hovering over her ear. I could feel the tension in her body as she looked out at the spot I needed her to see.

“I brought her here, leading her over to that tree,” I told her. Rox’s eyes were on the large tree in front of us. “She thought I’d fuck her against it. I couldn’t stand the idea of touching her. I had her like this, my chest to her back, my hands on her neck and I bent down to her ear, and I said, You fucked with my ol’ lady, and the punishment is death, before I knocked her the fuck out.”

“That’s it?” she asked, wheeling around and looking up into my eyes. “That’s all?”

“Of course that’s not all, babe,” I said, pushing her hair behind her ears. “Are you sure you want to know the rest?”

Rox nodded. “I need to know.”

“I tied her up with the ropes from my saddle bag, tight. Waking her up before I carved your name into her stomach. She was screaming, crying that she was sorry, that she loved me, all the usual crap people proclaim when they know their life is forfeit.”

Rox smirked. “Do your enemies normally proclaim their undying love for you before you kill them?”

Fuck me, I loved her.

“Probably, not that I’d listen to them. Whiney bastards.”

“So you carved her…for the animals, right?”

“Yes. It didn’t take long. She was dead a few days later, half eaten. I came back a few months later when I heard they were putting some railings in around here. I scattered her bones around the forest.”

She was looking at the tree, silently. I would give anything to know what she was thinking right now, but I remained quiet behind her. It was a lot to process…especially for someone who wasn’t used to this kind of world. I mean, she was, but it had been a while.

Slowly, Rox started to move across the flats of the dirt toward the creek. Jumping onto the rocks throughout the creek, she jumped up to the tree. I followed, as I always would, keeping a distance.

“What are you thinking, baby?” I finally asked, my heart hammering in my chest, fear lacing through my veins like fire.

“I’m wondering how long it’s going to take you to come over here and fuck me against this tree.”

When she turned to face me, I saw it. The fierce determination in her eyes that told me she was mine.

She was choosing me.

Us.

I closed the distance between us in a heartbeat, throwing her up against the tree. “You’re going to take every fucking inch of me against this tree, Rox. Then you’re coming home with me and I’m going to fuck my baby into you.”

Rox