HELLO ALLLLL! I hope you all had a great holiday break, I know I did! (And a snow day today!) Please vote if you can! I'd really appreciate it!

Here's a lil' something. :)

P.S- Banner on the side was made by my sister. It says "Smile bishes. :)" on the card that she's holding, and beneath it says, "Pepper Ballard and Smiley. Love connection?"

* * * 

               It's amazing how quickly you give into someone when they have a somewhat crazed look in their eye and a knife at your back.

                  "I knew I shouldn't have trusted you to stay in the room." Hunter tightened the leather leash around my neck until it was hard to breath, and knotted material around my sore, once broken wrists, to secure my hands firmly behind my back. Now that I was unable to escape, he told me quite curtly at my ear, "Good morning, I hope you slept well after practically eating my neck. Which, by the way, won't happen again." He tugged on my leash. "I think it's time that you and I had a nice, long discussion about my dominance over little, uncultivated newborns like you."

                  Stop. Rewind. Press play where I was finished taking a shower in Hunter's bathroom, and realized my dirty clothes were gone. Hunter must have came into the bathroom and quietly taken my bloody, quite smelly clothes while I was showering. So that's right, I had nothing to wear. Well, except for a fluffy towel that came down to my mid-thigh.

                  "Damnit," I muttered, facing the bathroom door. What was Hunter planning on doing once I came outside with just a towel on? All he had to do to see me naked was unknot the top, or take one of his handy-dandy claws and rip the flimsy thing off.

                  Then I realized: Hunter had already seen me naked before, I had seen him naked before. We had mutually seen eachother naked.

                  Who cares about you being naked! The point is, you haven't seen HIS nipple-pierced, sex-god self naked yet... Good lord, someone give me a can of whipped cream so that I can compare the amount of compressed air in the can to the compressed air in your head! Hop on that monster while'st you can! This might be your only chance of being alone with him!

                  "I thought you were getting scared of Hunter?" I whispered, feeling slightly schizophrenic. "I could have sworn--"

                  Please. I was just trying to make you think like he was all yours, but that CLEARLY didn't work, because you took a short-ass shower! SIX MINUTES? My girl, you know I love you and all... but didn't you hear Hunter say he would join you if you took more than 10 minutes?

                  "He sounded like he was going to punish me."

                  Honey, that's not a punishment, that's a delicious, overwhelming, promising, seductive, naked... Oh god, it's getting hot up in here.

                  "Hunter's a psycho," I replied. "Psycho, as in someone who has lost their freaking mind! He kills people, Conscience! Him joining me in the shower would be anything but seductive, especially when he reaches for a chain saw instead of the bar of soap!"

                   Please! As if I haven't dated serial killers before! Chain saws are the newest additions to BDMS. Talk about aggressive... Anyways, I've been around the block, and my next stop is Hunter's pen-nay-nay. If you don't get em' while you can, I'll get em' and destroy em' with my body--

                  Growling a little, I shut Conscience out before she could finish, and opened the bathroom door, poking my head out into the massive cave-room. To my utter disbelief, it was empty.

                  I walked out into the center of the room, frowning. "Hello?"

                  Nothing.

                  This was my chance.

                  Heart faltering, I quickly scanned for any clothing. Crossing the room, I threw myself towards an old, wooden dresser next to what I had decided was Hunter's bed. Inside the drawers were casual clothes, thank god. I rapidly slipped on a pair of grey sweatpants, rolling them up many times, and then yanked a white t-shirt over my head. The shirt almost fell like my knees. The sweatpants almost fell off as I sprinted to my next destination: his desk. I yanked open drawers, looking for a letter opener, a pen, some sort of weapon... My throat constricted as I slowly began to realize that Hunter had taken every possible sharp object off of his desk. Even his journal was gone.

                  He knew I was going to search his desk. I had misread Hunter entirely, thinking he was an open book after telling me about his motives. Thinking he would make a mistake and leave me at his Pack House, as he had called it. He wanted revenge from Vladimir, so he was killing Vladimir's customers to run him out of business. Then he was going to make his own drug, using me. Something was missing in that plan. It was too clean, to obvious. There were things about Smiley that I didn't know, that he hadn't told me.

                  The hair on the back of my neck stood up. I whirled around. What the hell was going on? The room was still empty. Now I was paranoid, sensing a pair of eyes on me no matter where I went. Facing the center of the room, watching every door, every corner, I slipped towards a bookshelf, feeling in-between books for a hidden knife--anything I could use against Hunter when he got back.

                  Suddenly, my hand touched some sort of button between two thin leather-covered novels. I pressed it. At first, nothing happened, and I started to laugh to myself. What did I expect to happen, the bookshelf to move and reveal a hidden staircase? Then, suddenly, there were a few clicks behind the wall, the sound of gears moving. I stepped back as the book shelf shifted to the side, revealing a shadowy staircase.

                  "Freaking clichés," I grumbled.

                  Every fiber of my being wanted to turn around when my bare foot touched the cold stone of the staircase. In fact, I did turn around, but the bookshelf slammed back into place before I could exit.

                  Now I was in darkness. Cold, bitter darkness. I wrapped my arms around myself, inhaling Hunter's shirt. I realized that I was finding comfort in his spicy, masculine scent and cringed. My only option was to follow the staircase, to find what exactly was at the end of it. Hopefully, it was a way out. I began climbing it. Towards the top, my head hit the ceiling. Odd. I felt around. There were still steps ahead, but they ended into a wall. I felt the sides of the narrow area. Nothing. Finally, my fingers caught a latch on ceiling. A trapped door. I unlocked it,  pushing upwards with both my legs and arms. It barely budged. The trap door would have been much too heavy for a  human if I was having trouble.

                  God, that was still really strange to think about. I wasn't human.

                  At that thought, anger boiled inside me. I pushed upwards with all of my might, groaning and growling until I finally lifted up the trap door. I peeked through the gap the trap door left me, eying the room above. It appeared to be a guest bedroom, expensive furniture, with maple wooden floors and a neatly made bed. I had only been in Hunter's house once, and only really remembered his bedroom. This wasn't his bedroom, but it definitely had Hunter's dark, masculine style. Deciding the coast was clear, I thrust my hands upwards against the heavy trap door. Hard. I had definitely used a little bit too much strength, because at that moment, I let go of it, and the door made a loud thump on the ground.

                  I muttered a curse and froze. I listened to the empty air for heavy footsteps. Not that Hunter would have even made a sound if he chose to. Finally, I jumped up into the room, carefully putting the trap door back in place, straining with its heavy weight, and wiped my sweaty palms on my pants. I felt a sharp pain. My finger was bleeding, probably from getting it cut on a splinter. A light bulb went off. I searched the floorboards around the trap door. Finally, I found a wedge of wood, big enough to stab someone with, that had somehow started to peel off of the door.

                  I yanked the large splinter from the door, smiling. I had my stake.

                  Blood was definitely not a good thing to have on me if I was planning on hiding from a killer hybrid. I put the finger to my mouth. The instant the blood hit my tongue, my fangs shot out and pierced my finger. "Mother fu--!" I let out a silent scream, slowly pulling my fang out  of my finger. Now I had multiple, stinging wounds, and I was fighting the urge to bite myself again. I tried to stand up, keeping practically my whole hand in my mouth, when I finally saw the young, beautiful Russian-looking woman kneeling on the bed next to a handsome blonde man with rock-hard abs and rough features. I noticed the girl had a fading hickey-looking mark on her neck and started to panic.

                  I took my hand out of my mouth. I probably looked like I was trying to stuff my entire hand down my throat, when I was just trying to keep the scent of my blood as less as weak as possible. The woman started to get off of the bed to help me, when something stopped her and she sat closer to the man. Were these people Hunter's next meal? Next victims? Was he coming back for them?

                  "I know this looks bad, but how do I get out of here?" I whispered. "I've been captured, Hunter's going to kill me if I don't escape."

                  There it was, the truth. Hunter had captured me, and I knew, deep down inside, that once he got all the information that he wanted out of me--whatever that information was, that he was going to kill me without a second thought. I had denied his mating proposal. I had annoyed him. I had tried to kill him. I had promised to kill him. He would eliminate me, and if for some odd reason he didn't do it soon, he would do it later. Our connection, our attraction....it was undeniable, but we were enemies in every shape and form. He inhaled and exhaled revenge, whereas I inhaled and exhaled justice. Only one of us could come out on top, and Hunter was too intelligent, too determined, to not take the next chance he could to kill me, just as I was.

                  The Russian woman's eyes shifted silently to a door, my exit, whereas the large man beside her appeared to be getting angry, refusing to help me. Maybe, I thought, he's a part of Hunter's pack. The low, menacing growl from the man confirmed my suspicions.  He was making no move to get up. I found that odd, unsettling, as if he knew someone else would find me first.

                  I had to get out of there, fast.

                  Rushing to the door, a sense of excitement washed over me. I had made it all the way to this door, escaping seemed a bit more easy than expected. When my hand felt the doorknob, I felt an all--too familiar presence touch the opposite side of the door at the same time, and like a brush of a seductive masculine finger on my cheek, I shut my eyes for a moment, absorbing the sensation.

                  I gripped the stake in my hand, I raised it high, throwing the door open.

                  Hunter's big body leaned lazy against the door frame, waiting for me, with a cocky, non-psychotic grin on his face. I tried to get past the fact that he was shirtless and sweaty, or the fact that he had on a pair of running pants low on his hips, revealing almost all of that indented masculine 'V'. I really did try. But then I started to picture him completely naked...and, well,,,,

                  Conscience shrieked happily in my head. THE SWEET LORD HAS ANSWERED OUR PRAYERS! LET US GATHER HANDS AND SACRIFICE OUR PANTIES.

                  Snapping out of whatever hormonal trance I had been in, I came forward with a roar, pushing all of my force into the swing of the stake. Hunter moved out of the way faster than the speed of light, catching me on the back of the neck with one large hand, pinning me against the wall.

                  "I knew you'd be a bad kitty," Hunter purred against my ear. Then I was airborne. Before I hit the ground, for a second, I thought someone was eating celery sticks. Nope, it had been Hunter breaking my wrists. Hunter stalked around me on the ground, watching me as I bit back the urge to cry out in pain. My wrists started to heal, but they were at awkward angles.  I pretended to be unconscious, I even managed to slow down my heartbeat.  Kicking out, kitty nailed Hunter right in the face. His head went back sharply, I smelled his blood. Stunned, I think he touched his face, feeling the coppery wetness I had created.  Hunter's heavy weight was on me, crushing me into the ground, wrestling with me. He broke my wrists again, this time they healed at a normal angle. I let out a scream that was muffled by sweaty chest. Why was he so sweaty? Had he been working out? Having sex? Killing? All of the above? Now was not the time to be thinking about that.

                   I saw black splotches as he squashed me. I felt like an Elephant was sitting on me. I was unconscious for a second, then I came back, digging my nails into hard, muscular flesh. A shadowy face hovered over mine as a knee dug into my kidney. Bright blue eyes, black hair, sharp features, massive fangs...  

                  Out of panic, I bit him.

                  "Let go," Hunter rasped. It sounded like a warning, I wasn't letting go because my life indubitably depended on it. Now I was up off the floor, his hands carrying me underneath my bottom, still latched onto his neck. Clearly, I had him at a dangerous position, my fangs deep within his carotid.  "Let go. Of my. Neck," he said firmer, and dangerously colder.

                  Never.

                  He shoved my back into a wall. Once, twice, three times. I only bit harder, claws digging into his back. I started to drink from him in rough, long pulls. I was taking in raw power, heating every inch of my body with each intake of Hunter's Alpha blood. 

                  "You're taking too much," Hunter informed me more urgently. He bit back a moan. I growled deep in my throat in response, and in response, he started to grind his hips against me. "That feels so...good. Holy... But it's bad. Stop. You have to stop." Groaning, he exposed his neck more to me. "Ah, crap... You don't know what you're doing. I'm your maker.... if you drink too much.... from me, you'll go somewhere you won't want to. Stop.... kitten. Stop, before you--"

                   The world fell apart around me, crackling, collapsing until there was...nothing. Hunter was no longer in front of me. I was alone, standing in at the center of darkness. Abruptly, blinding white lights went on. I was standing in the middle of a football field, facing the back of my darkened high school. It was night time, the school was closed. I felt trapped, unable to move or scream out loud within a body that wasn't my own. A few shadows pushing squeaky garbage cans came out of the school. I started them quickly, unseen as I fell into step behind them.  It stalking someone's prey before someone else's eyes...

                  It had happened so fast I could barely process it. The shadows were screaming beneath my hands, they were three adult men. Janitors, by the look of their uniforms. Two of them were already unconscious on the pavement. The other I had by the neck, strangling. I had black leather gloves, and my height towered over the frail man.

                  "I warned you to stop supplying VOID to the students. I told you what I would do," I snarled at the man. My deep voice belonged to Hunter, which had confirmed my suspicions.

                  "That was you? That was you on the phone?" the man wheezed out, his face caught between a laugh and a scream of terror. I squeezed his head harder until he turned purple. "I didn't know! I thought it was a prank, I swear! What the heck is wrong with you? Let me go, man! That hurts! You're crazy!"

                  "I'm not crazy. I know what I'm about to do is wrong, I just don't care. Killing is in my blood now. Ever since I murdered my Alpha and took over his pack, I can kill anyone. It feels pretty nice, actually. Us Alpha's have no concience."

                  "Alpha? What are you doing? Don't, man! Please...I....can't... Don't take...my money. Don't kill me."

                  "Oh, I'm not going to take your money and kill you." I let out a harsh laugh. "First, I'm going to snap your neck. Then, I'm going to inject you with this serum that has my blood in it. It's a special mix, I got it from a witch. A friend of mine who loathes your boss as much as I do. It'll burn, you'll feel like you're slowly being eaten alive. It turns human's into flesh-eating creatures, similar to zombies. After I inject you with the serum, I'm going rip you to fucking pieces, and leave you to die. You'll feel dead, you'll look dead for days, but you'll be buried alive. Your pieces will form back together, and I will be your master when you awaken again. I'll be your Alpha. You'll be an undead monster. You'll look normal, talk normal, but inside, you'll just be a virtual weapon under my command. I'm going to do to you, what VOID did to me. You're going to be my bitch, and I'll control you entirely, because you will have my blood in you--"

                  "W-w-what are you going to make me do once I'm your...your plaything?" the man stuttered angrily.

                  "How dare you interrupt my monologue. I was well rehearsed, and now I've forgotten my next line." Hunter snapped the man's neck with one fluid motion, dropping the lifeless body to the ground. He continued to speak as if the man was still alive. "Rude. Anyway....you'll help me destroy Vladimir, of course. I plan on only killing him, and well, anyone else in my way. I'm going to run Pale-ass out of business, kill him, then I'm going to take over Orange Gate County. It's time that someone else, with bigger plans for the future of this town, take over, and break us free from this small, confined prison. Hunter Trinidad: Handsome Ruler of the Human and Supernatural World. Rings a bell, doesn't it? We shouldn't hide from humans. They're weak, broken things. We should embrace them, increase our population, and then overtake them. We'll stand together against hunter's, and with brain-washed human's on our side, we'll overtake them as well... Nothing, not even my weakness, will get in my way. The world has no idea what is coming for it."

* * * 

WELL? What do you think of the chapter?!?!?! I know it's short, but this is where I wanted to end the chapter because I is evilllll.  You know you wub me, though and my alien emoji faces. :::::DDD

Please vote for every chapter of HTBC if you haven't already, it helps me immensely! :)

Twitter and Instagram (my crazy life, yo): @Katrocks247

Like my writing page on Facebook, please! :) The link is in the EXTERNAL LINK!

Thanks for reading!!! <3333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333