The Ruthless Read online

  I slit his throat, dragging the knife as deeply as I can and then watching the blood pour out of him all over the ground and myself.

  It’s done.

  I stand there and pray it’s all over when the lights abruptly come back on, the front entrance lighting up completely. I blink a little and the front door slides open slowly, a tall, dark and very familiar figure stalking through the doorway.

  A sob of relief rips through my throat.

  The knife falls from my hand as Ash stares at me, his eyes like dark, bottomless voids. My heart feels as though it’s going to burst out of my chest.

  He’s home.

  I’m safe.

  I take a step forward, my feet slipping a little in the blood, but he doesn’t react. He doesn’t come forward to tug me into his arms or crush me to his chest like he usually does when I’m freaking the hell out. He doesn’t yell and run at me; there’s no arguing over what’s happened.

  There’s nothing on his face at all.

  Until Aodhan steps around the corner and the quiet, deadly, killing rage visibly fills him. The type that doesn’t mean a beating, it means death.

  “You.”

  Also by J Bree

  The Mounts Bay Saga

  The Mounts Bay Saga

  The Butcher of the Bay: Part I

  The Butcher of the Bay: Part II

  Hannaford Prep

  Just Drop Out: Hannaford Prep Year One

  Make Your Move: Hannaford Prep Year Two

  Play the Game: Hannaford Prep Year Three

  To the End: Hannaford Prep Year Four

  Hannaford Prep: The Complete Series

  The Queen Crow Trilogy

  All Hail

  The Ruthless

  Queen Crow

  Standalone Novels

  Angel Unseen: An Unseen MC Novel

  About the Author

  J Bree is a dreamer, writer, mother, farmer, and cat-wrangler. The order of priorities changes daily.

  She lives on a small farm in a tiny rural town in Australia that no one has ever heard of. She spends her days dreaming about all of her book boyfriends, listening to her partner moan about how the wine grapes are growing, and being a snack bitch to her two kids.

  For updates about upcoming releases, please visit her website at http://www.jbreeauthor.com, and sign up for the newsletter or join her group on Facebook at #mountygirlforlife: A J Bree Reading Group

  CONTINUE READING FOR AN EXCEPT FROM

  Just Drop Out:

  Hannaford Prep Year One

  Available now on Kindle Unlimited

  Prologue

  The forest at the edge of the Mounts Bay, California, city limits are well known for being haunted.

  The kids at the local high school have spent generations whispering about the bodies buried in shallow graves, waiting for the wolves to scent them and dig them up for food. There’s even more legends about the souls that walk amongst the towering redwoods. It’s quiet, not silent, but compared to the ever-present sounds of traffic and human experience, it’s eerie and adds to the haunted feel.

  While I don’t believe in ghosts, I can feel the souls that linger here.

  It’s probably just my guilty conscious giving me the heebie-jeebies as I look over the corpse of my opponent. His blood is still fresh on my hands, cold and congealed, and I wipe them uselessly down my jeans. My clothes are just as stained as my hands, even my face is spattered with the red stains of his life ending. I look like something out of a horror movie, which is about right considering I’ve just bashed a man’s skull in with a rock while a whole crowd of people looked on in sick fascination. There isn’t a person watching that dares to make a noise. The vise-like grip of the Club holds their tongues.

  I’m not afraid of being caught.

  I’m small for my age. Years of food insecurity have taken their toll, and I was the youngest contender in the Game this season. None of that matters, though; I’ve won. I’ve beaten thirty men and teenage boys to take the victory and the spoils of this war.

  I stumble toward the men at the perimeter of the fighting ring. They’re all cloaked in black, hard looks on their faces and black ink etched over their cheeks. My hands tremble at the thought of wearing those same marks. The marks of the Twelve. But I’ve earned them. I’ve earned the right to stand with them and be one of them.

  To be free.

  “Congratulations, you’ve won the Game,” the Jackal speaks, and I shiver at the cold tones of his voice, so unlike the warmth he usually extends to me.

  I nod my head. I want this over with. I want a hot meal and an even hotter shower.

  “Welcome to the Twelve. You’re replacing the Hawk. Who do you choose to be?”

  Free. I guess a hawk is a good embodiment of freedom, but it feels strange to take a dead man's name, like climbing into his bed with the sheets still warm. I look around at the other men that make up the Twelve. Their names are what they’re known as on the streets, what their gangs cover themselves with as protection and a warning. I could have that too. I could make myself a queen of my own empire. I could rule the streets and never go hungry again.

  I could escape the cycle of poverty my mother has left me in.

  My eyes land back on the Jackal, and I lift my chin until I no longer feel like I’m looking up at him.

  “I am the Wolf.”