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83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjZJA53tbDz
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.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4ddCGCLdep
He wasn't supposed to survive.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSaFyhukxgb
But he did.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpIIdjfCVdo
He didn't just endure - he evolved.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOzz2Nc1mxv
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.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfvh7qOeuZM
He learned to survive not by running, but by watching. By studying. Learning the rules.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrbGbf4xxSE
Then mastering them.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7LbsmOCQ77
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.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiy7kmzyYvY
The hunters who had once looked down on him now whispered his name. Some with respect. Others with unease.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfBvV92rqgM
Jax was no longer just a player in their twisted game. He was a force. A ghost.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ26OWqk1zHV
A legend in the making.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9FoSn5D7zW
At first, he hunted to survive. Now he hunted to dominate.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE4iByhz5Q2
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.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJTIQILjdwV
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.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuP7HaNQMBf
But Jax remembered everything.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo8F4JU9HmQ
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.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhRVrtVwap2
He trained. He waited. He calculated.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4pe90Y21vk
And when it moved, it moved like nightfall.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT0ZdhARt52
The women who came were no longer sisters in suffering.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfjxTGrSIJn
They were pieces. Booty. Currency.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb3M4YfYMfc
Currency. Strategy. Each one had value - and Jax decided how to use it.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCzMYm1Uyzp
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.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgTvKwpaXWN
And then, when the thread holding them together was thin enough to snap - he struck.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0sN5XtOfVr
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.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡja96S7sPqd
Just obeyed.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOGVXlki3H8
Jax had become the dark balance of the island.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbPz5U4SLQf
Not its saviour.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeiX7K5mTMF
Not its devil.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡocAGftzQLH
Its law.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYxN9nB9TLB
And the law was cruel.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPnrq4DfZpV
There were no fairy tales here.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnrpjSj0udV
Only choices.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXKO1nUmjPU
Only consequences.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFzplWnNyN2
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.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqXsfchY3qG
New arrivals.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeM8ohjkllo
New eyes.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOQymdY73R0
New fear.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdXuWKhByDN
New fires to put out - or to test.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfMoN06yDFs
And maybe, just maybe...83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhWgDfnT60p
Someone worth breaking.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCiH9W0NPAw
He turned away from the edge and disappeared into the trees, the forest swallowing him whole. The birds scattered. The leaves fell silent.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG35hcDAMUn
The hunter was on the move.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaRfKLy56Nr
And this island?83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAZJFZSk1zR
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.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4k8jHd22Fh
Jessica narrowed her eyes at the map in her hand, turning it over for the fifth time.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ9DX7W7VE7
"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."83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLUQPDLrOq6
Tom leaned over her shoulder, studying the faded lines. "So... if this isn't it, then where the hell are we?"83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2R9gQeOY5J
"Even if this map is ancient," Jessica said, "there should be some landmarks. Unless the trees have decided to replant themselves."83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVqkOVYdCAk
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."83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0C45s2nZgh
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.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxvcj3MNlE5
And for the first time since his arrival, a flicker of unease danced behind her confident demeanour.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA7ojOBYZKq
Tom bent over the map again - and that was when the sound came.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmHfi80i9rf
Deep. Muffled. Mechanical. An engine.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr2tYrgSavM
It didn't roar. It didn't roar. It pulsed through the floor like a whisper in metal.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPAB6tCddmm
Jessica straightened instantly, her eyes narrowing as she turned her head towards the sound.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsXefhjd8rO
"That's... an engine," she said in a hushed voice. "A truck, maybe. Not close. But not far."83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZGviBfWLzR
Tom nodded. Slowly. He tightened the straps of his pack and stood.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrSr8QEZhzi
"Let's move. Carefully."83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ3IpV2c4Ju
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.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSmpdifKSxJ
The sound became clearer. Not louder - but more defined.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrXdLGEqE24
A rhythm. A vibration.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0Um2LhAX5Q
Not natural.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3gefM4Jhqg
And definitely not alone.
Jax remembered the first time he saw them.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQbPXKCgf94
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.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMAdr26KLKj
That moment, the moment he first laid eyes on the woman and her daughter, was etched into him like fire into flesh.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX3UupABqDd
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.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0KWtpLKoTW
To Jax, she looked like a forest nymph, something not quite real.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPo880sTcVa
But the mother—she was different.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4oVIgJqoAo
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.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMlVFlEHZjS
She belonged to Jax’s world.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmzWfAqkWdA
They were both prey.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLqcEab2Oy1
But the girl? She would break too easily.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwhNNXzlUOx
The mother? The mother was the real game.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrx6Aw6VPal
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.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFtQe3GJuAH
But the island had spoken to him.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPpv5GDhpO7
It had taught him that survival wasn’t enough.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXjnjGrgNQl
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.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbISCJYSwDq
Now, at twenty-one, Jax wasn’t just a survivor.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYSZmqJnle7
He was the island’s reckoning.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCvMnF4FoQG
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.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRkQPFmJxnU
And the island had begun to offer him gifts.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg5eFKVdFPV
Women. Girls. The lost, the trapped, the forgotten.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4FGAFtC2rH
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.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv1AiFfdvdZ
He had become more than a hunter.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGrbtctkj8d
He had become a collector of choices.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTAX0ysse96
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.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRYr8ijrenz
Power wasn’t in dominance. It was in knowing when someone broke.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyGl820UhY5
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.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVCbGRShM5o
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.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9DJOfv6Ekb
And then, in the pause between one breath and the next, Jax saw something in her face.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyHh15gAIEU
Uncertainty.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW2vZguvmY3
It broke through her mask for a second. A tremor. A memory. A hope.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL0Qq1Z95fy
And Jax felt it.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEIs6v8czze
Empathy. Just a flicker.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE8tAYrQxBE
He crushed it.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmXIXb7jMD6
Empathy had no place here. He was not the boy who came to the island crying. He was the man who ruled the night.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRIXFNcrBTl
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.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAoGHRfmJog
She was dangerous.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaCeCMsfEIz
She was perfect.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHMq6F3YD1M
She would take longer to break. But that was what made it worth it.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaZ9bDKA3v3
He didn’t want them to die.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmWFQlhAV85
He wanted them to surrender.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr5up1GPiZf
Not with screams.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSK83UPpij2
But with silence.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkuXyaquSHL
With acceptance.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc4vQ83BjdI
That night, something shifted in Jax. A stone rolled into place. A decision was made. And in that decision, there was no turning back.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsdpxQn01n2
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.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuD7bqndbwP
And everything it had given back.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX2ZBRozs8y
Jax knew the game now.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0rXoQen5Gk
And he was done playing by anyone else’s rules.
