Hooked (Never After, #1)

by Emily McIntire

It feels different than I thought it would. Killing him.

I’m the monster he helped create. The living incarnation of his sins coming back to sow justice.

and the knowledge it’s not his death that will bring me peace.

Luckily, he has me, and I’ll slice my knife deep into the belly of anyone who tries, reveling at how the life drains from their eyes while their blood drips into my hands.

Fitting nickname, I think. After all, one can’t leave their shadow behind without missing it in the end.

And until I decide otherwise, Wendy Michaels is mine.

someone’s judge, jury, and executioner.

Maybe people never change, and it’s only our perceptions that alter the view.

thing about you. Other powerful men don’t like to be around that.”

The biggest monster of them all is one who sits at the same table for dinner.

An enemy of my enemy is a friend.

“Don’t walk away when someone asks you a question, kid. You’ve already come this far. Keep going, yeah?”

“Straight on ’til morning.”

“That means you don’t quit until you get what you want. Even if it takes all damn night. Understand?”

But my father stopped listening to me a long time ago, so maybe it’s time I return the favor.

“And if you’re a good girl, maybe I’ll show you the real reason why my mouth should be illegal.”

Giddiness flows through my veins like pixie dust flows through a junkie,

The mind is far too easy to manipulate, even by our own subconscious. Fact becomes fiction, or at the very least a warped version of the truth. And the past grows distorted and blurred.

And in this moment, I’m not sure how I’ll let her go.

If I’m honest with myself, in the deepest parts of my mind and the darkest chambers of my heart, there’re pieces of me hoping that maybe once my virginity is gone, the coat of innocence I can’t seem to shed will disappear too.

“I’m yours just as much as you’re mine.”

“I don’t beg,” he says. “Ever.”

“I trust you.” A flash of something coasts across his eyes. “You shouldn’t.”

try to move my hand to wipe it from my cheek, but he bats it away, his mouth pressing kisses along my jaw until he reaches the path of wetness, licking it up.

“Don’t apologize. I want to be the one you turn to when life gets hard.”

“Just remember that whenever things feel bleak, all situations are temporary. It’s not your circumstance that determines your worth, it’s how you rise from the ashes after everything burns.”

Because mine was just decimated to ash. They didn’t just kill him. They gutted him and strung him up for the animals to feed.

But I’m worse than any of the wild things that live in these woods, and I’ll hunt down everyone involved like prey, bathing in their blood and dancing to their screams until they repent for their sins.

My head is clear, no longer clouded with the lust for a woman who has the same DNA as the man responsible for so much of my pain.

angel of death.

“It’s all to do with pheromones, really. The scent of fear triggers a reaction in the amygdala and hypothalamus. A type of warning, as it were, that humans have long since become numb to recognizing.”

At the way I gave him everything only for him to be the villain in disguise.

“I would have gone anywhere with you.”

But he’s long gone. Or maybe he never existed at all. He’s right. I am a stupid girl.

Funny how he once stopped my nightmares, only to become them in the end. Life is always full circle, I suppose.

“Even if you were to escape this room, there’s nowhere you could go that I wouldn’t find you.”

“Just remember, that whenever things feel bleak, all situations are temporary. It’s not your circumstance that determines your worth, it’s how you rise from the ashes after everything burns.”

I’m so close I can feel it on my tongue. And it tastes like vengeance.

“I know of your birth, Wendy Michaels.” His lips press against my cheek. “And I’ll know of your death.”

“I know exactly who he is. It’s you I’m beginning to question.”

“These are my streets,” he continues. “And I’ve been waiting so patiently for you to come and play.”

“I want you to memorize this moment, darling. Remember how it feels to realize your father was willing to let you die in order to save himself.”

“Do not ever bring a clock on this yacht again. Do you understand?”

“But I regret, with every fiber of my being, that for even one moment you suffered under my hands.” Her eyes widen, the beautiful shades of brown glossing over.

“You are, without a doubt, the only good I’ve ever known.” I rest my forehead on hers, my shaky breaths ghosting across her lips, my thumb rubbing against her cheek. “So don’t lie to me, Wendy darling. Because my heart won’t survive it if you do.”

It’s in this moment that I know, as wild as it seems, that I love her. And that terrifies me more than anything else ever has.

“If someone else touches you, I’ll cut off their hands so they can never touch anything again.”

“You want to watch the world burn?” “Let me guess, you’ll set it on fire?” I ask. He chuckles, the sound vibrating through me and settling into my bones. “No, darling. I’ll hand you the match and stand at your back, watching you become queen of the ashes.”

“Darling, if I’m the dark, then you’re the stars.”

“James?” “Yes, darling?” “I think I love you.”