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106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU1owxxP2UZ
At eighteen, Jax had arrived on the island as nothing more than a broken soul - a boy dragged through hell, his chest bound with chains of grief and fear. He had been prey then - his wrists bound, his mouth gagged, thrown into the wild like discarded meat.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp8hX2LJ16Q
He wasn't supposed to survive.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr9bl0OAuu3
But he did.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡodjO4DlTbk
He didn't just endure - he evolved.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLVR0nSfr2b
Three years later, Jax was no longer the hunted. He was the hunter - a predator sharpened by pain, forged by the island itself. Day by day, it had stripped away his humanity, layer by layer, until only something raw and deadly remained. What had once been dreams became tools. What was once innocence became memory.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnzJJKfl0M0
He learned to survive not by running, but by watching. By studying. Learning the rules.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1OoRToCtod
Then mastering them.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlQHf2e6YY2
His body had changed - muscle built over lean bone, reflexes honed like weapons. He could read the trees, hear danger in the wind, disappear into shadows like fog. He moved like rumour. Like fear.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡULa5blVCO0
The hunters who had once looked down on him now whispered his name. Some with respect. Others with unease.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLxLJ6TGOO3
Jax was no longer just a player in their twisted game. He was a force. A ghost.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxWtGmGZV5a
A legend in the making.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEUcdL0tdqb
At first, he hunted to survive. Now he hunted to dominate.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJI4jDqFYra
He carved out his own territory deep in the forest - a brutal network of shelters, traps and lookouts. No one approached without his knowledge. His camp was invisible to the unwary, untouchable to the weak.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUNoAnhqoAq
The island's newest prisoners spoke of him as a myth. The shadow in the trees. The silent one. The predator who knew your name before you knew his.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaPRIlQrR6s
But Jax remembered everything.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8IL6VgFbKH
He remembered the bruises. The screams. The girl who had tried to save him. The way her voice broke as they dragged her away. That sound lived inside him - no longer as grief, but as purpose.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ9rqhei09t
He trained. He waited. He calculated.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0mQwtGiKzu
And when it moved, it moved like nightfall.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGGgO4VpYjo
The women who came were no longer sisters in suffering.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF5u5VCwbG0
They were pieces. Booty. Currency.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl9coosvzT9
Currency. Strategy. Each one had value - and Jax decided how to use it.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRLvH7HIrKd
He didn't take them all. That would have been clumsy. Predictable. No - he was methodical. He studied them. Watched. Waited. Understood what made them tick. What made them tremble.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOFZJ2SbizI
And then, when the thread holding them together was thin enough to snap - he struck.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwvizsxim7N
Some followed him out of fear. Others, finally, out of something colder. Something that looked like loyalty. Affection was a rare and irrelevant thing in Jax's world. He didn't need to be loved.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCWLYTCnKiJ
Just obeyed.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4X1F1dOGtg
Jax had become the dark balance of the island.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHLZC2RCKht
Not its saviour.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHbzNI4DjFX
Not its devil.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpjX3EeA7DO
Its law.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡInYDyqMvAd
And the law was cruel.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3TkFyIIawZ
There were no fairy tales here.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcspMarnOKM
Only choices.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZVKvWYO1zP
Only consequences.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ8pDlzpp4d
From the top of the cliffs, he watched a new transport cut through the water far below. His fingers curled slightly, the familiar thrill already crawling under his skin.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmHxozQ9lJK
New arrivals.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXC1sSLIkBU
New eyes.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL6WE7TnQzM
New fear.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjA5heoHxkx
New fires to put out - or to test.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwW5BgqSynS
And maybe, just maybe...106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs96hffNf6L
Someone worth breaking.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2CLq2vpFKy
He turned away from the edge and disappeared into the trees, the forest swallowing him whole. The birds scattered. The leaves fell silent.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYq3S2nKlU6
The hunter was on the move.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSQlKnVZkmb
And this island?106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXXY8PlviDd
This island was his.
The narrow path that wound through the forest had all but disappeared. Overhead, the trees arched like clasped fingers, filtering the sunlight into shards of green and gold. The air was thick, almost heavy, and the sound of birds had all but disappeared - replaced now and again by a faint, unfamiliar crunch in the undergrowth.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKB6ILc3BAf
Jessica narrowed her eyes at the map in her hand, turning it over for the fifth time.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6VmffkNUqX
"This is complete rubbish," she muttered. "According to this, we should've hit 'Bottom of the Well' ages ago. There's no well. Hell, there's not even gravity that feels normal here."106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF03afkseUv
Tom leaned over her shoulder, studying the faded lines. "So... if this isn't it, then where the hell are we?"106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGaD8SzoGKV
"Even if this map is ancient," Jessica said, "there should be some landmarks. Unless the trees have decided to replant themselves."106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXfbYB27RPg
Tom squatted down and dropped his rucksack. "Maybe whoever drew this map wanted it to be confusing. If this island is undocumented... maybe it's meant to stay that way."106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk9E499MpJ5
Jessica didn't answer immediately. She had taken a few steps forward and was leaning against a large tree, her eyes scanning the dense foliage. The sound of the ocean had faded completely - replaced by something quieter. Something deeper. The rustling of leaves. The call of a bird, distant and strange. The heartbeat of the forest itself.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmnVmmD2BTU
And for the first time since his arrival, a flicker of unease danced behind her confident demeanour.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmaWGCCVAiJ
Tom bent over the map again - and that was when the sound came.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN66ADsVqdx
Deep. Muffled. Mechanical. An engine.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ57Cy5S2R10
It didn't roar. It didn't roar. It pulsed through the floor like a whisper in metal.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgZws7pPFnv
Jessica straightened instantly, her eyes narrowing as she turned her head towards the sound.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsJwZgHuR9I
"That's... an engine," she said in a hushed voice. "A truck, maybe. Not close. But not far."106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7H24we1BTX
Tom nodded. Slowly. He tightened the straps of his pack and stood.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9CO33Jj3Xp
"Let's move. Carefully."106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbkG0cPdABV
The forest swallowed their footsteps as they started again, slower this time. Jessica took the lead, her stance sharpened by instinct. Tom followed, each step measured, his breath held.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ694xidfL1B
The sound became clearer. Not louder - but more defined.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcobCRgu767
A rhythm. A vibration.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtVpx4f1X65
Not natural.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEFcfz6qUMI
And definitely not alone.
Jax remembered the first time he saw them.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa8ThpnK0mL
He had been hidden deep in the woods, his body woven into the shadows like a predator born of the trees. Not a sound escaped him. Every breath was a silent calculation, every twitch of muscle restrained by instinct sharpened over years of solitude. The wind howled in from the ocean, tearing through the branches, dragging the scent of salt and something sweeter—sweat, skin, life. The waves below crashed against the rocks in a rhythm only Jax understood now, a rhythm he had listened to for years. It was the pulse of the island. His island.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIUnqABTaoN
That moment, the moment he first laid eyes on the woman and her daughter, was etched into him like fire into flesh.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJLQ0yeXuv3
The girl moved without fear. She danced barefoot across the mossy stones and fine sand, her laughter rolling with the wind, piercing the night with something innocent, something that had no place here. Her long curls shimmered in the moonlight, her blue bikini catching starfire like scattered sapphires. She was light. Unspoiled. Untouched.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKF2I2UAGlo
To Jax, she looked like a forest nymph, something not quite real.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPg1oKVNq3U
But the mother—she was different.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8OvpR8bveM
Every movement was measured. Her feet tested each step before committing. Her eyes didn’t just look; they hunted. She read the trees, the silence, the shifting air. Jax could see it in her face—the weight of experience. This woman had seen pain. She had survived it. Her body, still graceful, moved like it remembered violence. She was danger wrapped in beauty. And unlike her daughter, she didn’t belong to the light.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5Rbt2m4EjI
She belonged to Jax’s world.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdmUMM9vc07
They were both prey.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKUGOi9f5qs
But the girl? She would break too easily.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtDtvcJtOga
The mother? The mother was the real game.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvZkYuQkVBP
Back then, Jax had still been learning. The transformation from prey to predator had been violent, but it had also been necessary. He had come to this island when he was only eighteen, dragged into its shadows by those who thought he would disappear into the trees and never matter again. And for a time, they were right. He was just another broken thing dropped into the island’s silence.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8vA0zLSSdC
But the island had spoken to him.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYtZgWSddlr
It had taught him that survival wasn’t enough.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnDDSXVpjRq
He had suffered. He had run. He had cried under the rain and curled into the roots of trees like a dying animal. He had been prey—beaten, hunted, used. But the pain hardened him. The silence became his armor. He learned how to move without being seen, how to listen when others made noise, how to wait when others acted. The island had taken him in like a wild thing and made him sharper than the thorns that tore his skin.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRLzoYVE5Cz
Now, at twenty-one, Jax wasn’t just a survivor.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEgMJjLERVu
He was the island’s reckoning.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeF3AJECV2e
He knew every trail, every cave, every blind spot. He knew how to avoid the hunters and how to hunt them in return. He had built a territory of shadows, where no one entered without him knowing. The island had its laws, unspoken and brutal. And Jax? Jax had rewritten them. He had become a law unto himself.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx7hWKoOq7x
And the island had begun to offer him gifts.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBmsfkV7FC6
Women. Girls. The lost, the trapped, the forgotten.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNepqVH6GNf
Some came in boats. Others were dropped like coinless secrets in the night. They arrived frightened, defiant, angry. But none of them understood the rules. Not at first. Jax did. And that made all the difference.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2bxlFQhT8r
He had become more than a hunter.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqmAvd2ukHn
He had become a collector of choices.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMzNFCiBJdC
Every time he watched a new arrival, he measured the moment they crossed the line from hope to fear. From fear to desperation. That change—that precise instant when they realized no one was coming to save them—was the most exquisite part. It wasn’t about hurting them. It was about watching the light fade from their eyes, knowing he was the one who took it.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaePtN3St31
Power wasn’t in dominance. It was in knowing when someone broke.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxLKpgRd1vb
That mother and daughter, walking the shore that night—they were something different. Something rare. And Jax, hidden in the trees, had seen everything. The daughter had skipped toward the waves, throwing her arms up to the sky like she belonged to it. So open. So unaware.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5mnM2ajCOL
The mother had stood back, watching the sea with a silence that Jax recognized. She was waiting. For a man who would not return. Jax didn’t need to know the story to read the outcome. Her body held the stillness of someone who had waited before.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmjE9FSbVlF
And then, in the pause between one breath and the next, Jax saw something in her face.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkGHL5sW6ZL
Uncertainty.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl4DeojL16K
It broke through her mask for a second. A tremor. A memory. A hope.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCCH1Iffwna
And Jax felt it.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbtu1R7NSfU
Empathy. Just a flicker.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCEkWpFVLYg
He crushed it.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡczKywbiN3Y
Empathy had no place here. He was not the boy who came to the island crying. He was the man who ruled the night.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjz8HsoCeAf
He remembered how he watched the mother’s shoulders stiffen. How she scanned the darkness. Almost like she sensed him. He hadn’t moved. He hadn’t even breathed. But something in her blood knew.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeblcdLbjqq
She was dangerous.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVqwIlgLzDV
She was perfect.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡixtRHb5dZX
She would take longer to break. But that was what made it worth it.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkh6libMoPQ
He didn’t want them to die.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgNDjVnykhP
He wanted them to surrender.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUZxDYoJ9fg
Not with screams.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZCbu9cGs36
But with silence.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcrrmTEyAaE
With acceptance.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqA3YxCVFkO
That night, something shifted in Jax. A stone rolled into place. A decision was made. And in that decision, there was no turning back.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4UphNLS7cS
This wasn’t about the girl. This wasn’t even about the mother. This was about the island. About everything it had taken from him.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ547KK8ImiI
And everything it had given back.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUZ5GqJfF9N
Jax knew the game now.106Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAHLs9p1Rq7
And he was done playing by anyone else’s rules.
