Would Be Hunter - Completed

Chapter 7 - One Still Standing (Edited)

Greyson turned on his heel and looked at her. He knew what she had said but didn't allow it to click right. "What?"

"One of my friends is still alive. We need to go find them! They're probably hurt, lost in the woods." Marie reached down and lifted the long skirt of the dress they had given her, ready to run back to the cabin.

"What are you doing?!" His hand snapped out and enslaved her wrist, drawing her quickly to a halt. "Whoever is out there is dangerous. Who leaves an accident if they don't have something to hide?" Instead of releasing her wrist he started forward and nearly dragged her after him. "Come on, you will sort through their belongings. Tell me who is missing."

She wasn't sure if she was ready to do that. Which one did she desire to live more than the others? Looking at their personal items would only make it feel like they died all over again. That pain forced her to dig her heels in, stopping their progression.

"No. I'm not doing that. It is a waste of time! We have to find my friend now. We are not hunters! We're just normal people who came out here to have fun!"

"You are not normal!" His turn on her was so severe that she shrank back, clutching her free hand tightly around her cloak. She would have made the distance between them farther if he did not still have a death grip on her arm. "At least one of you was and possibly still is a hunter! I am not ready to say that you are not one yourself. Trying to find your friend now would be pointless. It has been months, if your friend was a normal human, they are dead by now"

His crude marks and dismissal over her friend's demise brought tears to her eyes that burned but did not fall free. She would not give him the satisfaction that he had managed to hurt her yet again. "Then we must at least find their body. Bury them with the others. I wish to mourn them all properly. Regardless of what you believe, they were my friends, not murderers."

"You are either very good at lying or completely naive." With the thrown insult he turned and started walking back again. Though the path was not taken towards her cabin, instead he led her right into the main area of their pack and into his home. It was simple, but beautifully crafted; the front porch stretched the entire length of the front and was covered. Thick pillars carved with wolves and trees, held up the roof. She would have stopped to admire them had he not tugged her inside and practically thrown her into a chair before dropping a large black bag on the table in front of her.

"See for yourself." Greyson sat in the chair across from her, waiting for her to open the bag. He wanted to watch the play of emotions and realization on her face. That alone could tell him a lot of what she could possibly be hiding.

Entrapment crossed her mind as she watched him skeptically before looking to the bag. She had never seen it before, had no idea what was inside. Rising to her feet, she stood over the bag and unzipped it slowly, speaking before she thought it through. "This is my bow...and arrows" Each item was pulled from the bag as she named them, placing the quiver of arrows down on the table beside the bag in order to free her hand to run across the taut string of her bow.

"These are yours?" She did not hear the strain in his voice; her focus was on why they had been packed in the car. She did not bring them. Suddenly she was being thrown back in the chair, the pointed head of her arrow pressed to her throat as he glared down at her. His eyes were black once again and he shook with anger. "You lied."

"No...no! I didn't! I mean, these are mine but I did not bring them. Why would I condemn myself by admitting to you that they were mine?!" Even though she knew that she could not pull away anymore, she pushed her back flat against the chair when she felt the sting of the sharp point cut into her flesh. "I told you that I'm an archer. It is only a hobby! I never intended to hurt anyone."