Ready Or Not (The Hunter’s Club #2)

Epilogue

Halloween (feat. Nicolle Galyon) - Walker Hayes

Two months later

“Jesus, Rachel.”

The unexpected voice makes me jump. I look up from where I’ve been walking the riverbed, looking for Riley. I don’t see her until she clears her throat. I look up. She’s in a tree stand right over me, rifle held facing up.

She cocks a dark eyebrow. “So much for not coming into my area, hmmm?”

Shit. I was supposed to be walking the woods quite a ways away. But I got caught up in this stream and kept finding skeletons of mice, muskrats, and even a deer, so I followed it.

I grimace. “Sorry.”

She shakes her head, but there’s a small smile. “Come here.”

I frown, looking up at her on the small platform.

“Come up here.” She motions.

I walk to the base of the tree. “I don’t think there’ll be room.”

“I’ll make room. Up here, now.” There’s demand in her tone, so I drop my bag and climb up the ladder. It’s rickety, and I feel it moving with every step. But when I get to the top, Riley has made just enough room for both of us to stand.

I feel the stand shift, and I grip onto her, brushing her chest. Immediately, I let go of her, trying to make space. “Sorry.”

I expect her to freak out, but she just looks at me with those dark, expressionless eyes. “Again.”

“What?” I look at her, thoroughly confused.

“Touch me,” she says quietly.

I freeze.

Riley chuckles softly, then grabs my hands. She yanks me closer to her, and as I tip into her, she smashes her mouth to mine in a kiss. The press of her soft, full lips to mine makes the blood rush to my pussy. Riley kisses me harder, tracing her tongue along the seam of my lips until I open to her. I sneak my tongue out to meet hers, and she groans into my mouth, melting into me and pulling me closer. She nips and sucks and licks, worshiping me with her mouth. I can feel the press of her lips shoot sensation all the way through me.

Riley pulls back for a breath, a slight smirk on her lips. I blink, also breathing heavily, only to notice that my hands are on her tits. Where she’s placed them.

I try to yank them back, but she keeps them there. “Touch me.”

“Riley, I…”

“I want to try it.” She looks at me, her dark eyes remaining the same. I see no anger or pain in them. Her tits are soft and pillowy and feel so fucking good under my hands. I can tell she isn’t wearing a bra, and it just makes my cheeks flame hotter. I pull my hands away just enough to trace them around. When Riley feels what I’m doing, she lets go of my hands completely, letting me explore. I trace soft circles around them, feeling their fullness even under her shirt. She’s so soft and perfect and just…everything. I feel my pussy getting wet.

“That’s pretty gay for a straight girl.”

My gaze darts to hers, and there’s a twinkle in her eye.

I shake my head and open my mouth to say something, but Riley lifts her shirt in one go. “Uh uh. If that mouth’s gonna open, it’s gonna be to suck titties and nothing else.”

I stare at her perfect breasts, then at her eyes.

“I’m good, Rachel. You feel good.” Her pupils are wide. “Now suck.”

I lean down, anticipation buzzing along my skin. For a second, unsureness fills me. I don’t know how to suck a titty or make it feel good.

“Here.” Riley’s hands snake behind my head, and she pulls me to her, lining me up with her nipple. “Lick.”

Tentatively, I stick my tongue out and swipe it across her nipple. I see the nipple pebble, and Riley lets out a soft breath. “Again.”

So I do. Riley’s reaction is everything. She grips my hair tighter, pulling me closer. So I close my lips around her nipple and suck. Her breast is soft, but her nipple is hard, and I roll it around in my mouth. Riley groans, falling back against the tree. I stumble into her, and she catches me, breathless. I look into her eyes, and it doesn’t fill me with discomfort. Just a sense of…peace.

Riley grins at me. “That was hot.”

My face flushes, and I pull back. “Was it…okay?”

“Yeah,” Riley’s voice is soft, and she brushes a piece of hair out of my face. “Because it was you.”

Warmth runs through me, and I blush again.

We stay there for a while longer, just looking at the woods, soaking in the peace and each other, and then Riley takes me home. Well, to Riley’s barn. We spend most of our time there, with Riley working on hides and butchering and me organizing and making a space for myself. Riley is chaotic at best, and things get scattered everywhere. Plus, the barn is old and full of junk. So, I’ve had my hands full sorting and organizing to my heart’s content. It’s peaceful in the best way.

I am muddy from the stream, so I head to my room and start changing my clothes. I’ve made a room for us out of an old stall. I’ve turned it into a giant bed of sorts. There are mattresses and pillows all over the floor, fairy lights strung up in crisscrosses across the top of the stall, and fake ivy and leaves all over the walls. Every available wall space is hung with shelves for my skulls, but it’s still not enough, so I just keep my favorites in here. Pup is here too, right by the head of our bed. I’m pretty proud of how white I got the bones. Oh, and there’s also spell ingredients everywhere. Riley collects the most random things and leaves them all over the place. The chaos bothers me, but it seems to make her happy. So I leave them.

I get into my dry clothes and sigh. I haven’t decided if I want to go back to work yet. Manson insists he can get me my job back if I want it, but part of me loves the silence and peace of hanging out here. And I’m not ready to face the emptiness of my old place. Not that I think they’d let me go alone. Neither likes to let me out of their sight. They breathed down my fucking neck when I got my skulls so much that I nearly dropped my snakes and raccoons, bumping into them.

I glare at the wall, just thinking about it. I’d have skinned them alive if they made me break anything.

Riley’s been hunting a lot more recently. Manson decided to move all the bodies of the people he dumped here for Riley to dispose of. Said there’s too much heat on us right now. He’s having Riley bury the carcasses of the deer she gets over the spots the people used to be, just in case the cadaver dogs are let loose on our property. In addition to hunting, Riley has been disappearing at odd hours and coming back with random deer mounts. There are beginning to be so many of them that I’ve had to devote an entire stall to their housing. She never wants me to display them, and when I ask, all she’ll say is: at least it’s not murder.

I hear a commotion at the door, then Manson’s voice says, “Goddamn it! Riley, come get your dogs.”

Riley’s coyote pups yip. I grin and step out of the room. The two pups howl and jump up on Manson, who brushes them off with a look. They love him and immediately follow him whenever he’s around. He hates it.

“Printer, Toothbrush, down.” Riley halfheartedly waves at the pups, then gets back to packing her bag. Riley brought them home after one of our hunting missions. She found them without a mother and brought them back to the barn. She insisted they were dogs.

They are not. But Manson humors her, so I do too. She also insisted on naming them the most random things, and secretly, I’m here for it.

“Rachel, I have something for you,” Manson says. He drops the bag he’s been holding and pulls out a bone. It looks like some kind of…deer femur.

He hands it to me with a proud smirk on his face. Manson has been bringing me back random bones he finds while he’s out…digging up Riley’s bodies and whatnot.

“It’s not human.” Manson shoves it at me.

Well, I know that. I smirk and take it. I only collect the cool bones, like skulls and sometimes the spines. That is until Manson started gifting me with them. Now, they all seem kinda cool to me.

“Thanks,” I smile.

Manson turns back to his pack. “Oh, and something else.” He pulls something small out. It’s a…vial of some liquid. With a needle attached.

I frown.

“Birth control,” Manson explains.

Riley turns to look at it, then at me. “Manson.” Riley lifts an eyebrow. “She doesn’t need birth control; you’re fixed.”

Manson just motions at me. “Come here.”

I most definitely do not want to go near that needle. I look between them. Riley mouths something at me, and Manson shoots her a glare.

I couldn’t tell what she said. Riley shakes her head, then stage whispers, “Tracker.”

Manson sighs loudly. “Fine, it’s a tracker. Come here.”

“What? I don’t want a tracker.” I take a step back.

He just raises an eyebrow. “You're mine now, and I need to know where you are at all times.”

Riley looks at the vial, then back at me. She grins, and before I know it, she’s snatched me up and put me on her workbench. “It’s all you,” she gloats. “Loser.”

Manson comes around to my other side, and both of them trap me in. “Oh, I already got you, Riley.”

Riley snaps her gaze to him. Manson just shrugs. It takes a second, then Riley’s eyes widen, and she pats her body down. “Where?”

Manson just shrugs again.

“Where, Manson?”

He just smirks. “Guess you’ll have to find out. Your turn, Rachel.”

Riley rips off her shirt, patting herself down with exaggerated motions. “Manson, I swear to god I’ll kill you.”

He just laughs. “Bring it on, little pain.”

I inch off the table. I know what running will do. I know they’ll hunt me down and force me to take it. But it’s become our little fucked up game of hide and seek. The push and pull between all of us is dynamic, scary, exciting, and kind of everything I didn’t realize I was missing in life. I know things will be hard living with these two. They already have been, but these are two of the most stubborn people I’ve met in my life. When there’s a problem, they dig into it until it’s addressed.

I’ve fallen for two serial killers.

And I wouldn’t have it any other way.