ELVIS POVAlmost like they'd been there long before those three days, or am I wrong?”I coughed, suddenly aware of how exposed I felt under the doctor’s survey. “Uhm… what are you getting at?”I looked over to my mum.She was watching me too closely, lips pressed together, and her expression strained. The faint glimmer in her eyes "hinted at the tears she was struggling to hold back," and I wondered how much fear she’d swallowed or let spill while I lay unconscious in that bed, tormented by nightmares that refused to end.I was fidgeting with my fingers now.Dr. Roman’s eyes shifted down to my hands, then back up. “An answer to the question,” he responded evenly. extending a hand toward mine.I pulled away before he could reach me, setting both hands flat at my sides. He hesitated for a beat, then resumed jotting something down“I just don’t see how some nightmares are worth writing a shitty report over when I got hit in the head,” I snapped, my voice harder than I intended."Ivan!" m
ELVIS POVPresent momentMy eyes tore open to the half-light bleeding through the room. reflexively, I flinched, squeezing them shut again. It wasn’t even that bright, but my brain, overloaded, treated it like a floodlight. Slowly, I blinked through the static haze, once, twice. then, I forced them fully open.The ceiling warped above me, swaying like a mirage, as if it might collapse any second. A relentless, dull throb pulsed at the base of my skull and was out of sync with my racing heart. “My body didn’t feel quite right.”.I lay there, my eyes pinned on the blur above, until shapes sharpened and clarity inched back into my mind. A bedroom that wasn’t mine gradually came into focus. It was large, painted in soft creams that felt empty and suspiciously quiet.A sterile scent curled sharply into my nostrils, and my gaze dropped to a plastic line snaking into my arm. A red light blinked from a clip on my finger. Electrodes clung to my chest. Medical monitors. I didn’t remember agreei
ELVIS POVHe spoke like he wasn’t human. And maybe that wasn’t far from the truth. The way Oleg acted... detached, like a psychopath pretending to be a boy.Normally, it was outright disrespectful for them to speak to us like that, especially here, in the Bratva's lair. Given our bloodline, they should’ve been kissing the ground we walked on. But most of them were assholes, especially when it came to young heirs, crawling all over this place like snakes. That’s how the game worked: break you down, size you up to test your place, see if you’d flinch. All bark, though. They wouldn’t dare cross the line, not with the rules in place. Not unless they had a death wish.Very few of them had even tried with me, but honestly, I was more afraid of my father than any of those snakes. There was one thing my father hated above all—weakness. And I still had it. I probably would’ve broken if they had kept coming at me.Oleg was new,” fresh blood”, clueless about the politics. I'm sure that’s exactly
ELVIS POVAnd only friends help each other,” Oleg muttered with a mocking pout, almost playfully as if this wasn’t me hanging between life and death. He reached down and brushed the soaked strands of hair from my eyes, like I was some helpless doll. I flinched at his touch.“You fucker,” I spat. “Don’t lay your hand on me again,” I yelled, my voice shaking. “You touch me again and—”“And what?” He jumped in, sounding bored.“You’re still threatening me?” Disbelief was clear in his tone. “In a matter of minutes, Elvis, it won’t matter. Hands will be all over you… in a body bag.” He dragged a thumb slowly across his throat. “And of course, it doesn’t end there.”I glanced down at the pit again, my heart slamming hard. It wasn’t just the depth. it was the shadows of the unknown.“What are you staring at?” he taunted. “There’s no ladder down there, you know. Just darkness. Maybe some hungry little beasts waiting for you to drop in.”My grip faltered as his words hit me. My fingers burned,
ELVIS POV I glanced at my watch more times than I could count. Thirty minutes into the hunt, and almost everyone had already bagged something , all ahead of me now. Everyone... except Oleg. I still had nothing. Not a single catch. Just me, a walking disaster. My hands shook, and my legs felt like I was dragging chains. Every breath came shallow and ragged, like I’d swallowed ice. I was sweating so much my fabric stuck to me, ridiculous, considering the forest breeze was cold enough to make my teeth chatter.And Oleg? I had no idea what game he was playing. After watching him cleanly take down that coyote with no wasted motion, he should’ve been leading the pack. So why wasn’t he?The sounds of the forest, chirping birds, rustling leaves, wind whispering through branches had turned from clues into torture. It was like the whole wilderness was laughing at me.I wiped the sweat off my brow and muttered a curse under my breath. Every little noise sparked hope, only to reveal empty bush
ELVIS POV And yet, after everything that had gone down over the past week, there he was, wading into my space like he owned every molecule of air between us. Arrogance clung to him like a second skin, shattering what little focus I had left, treating this like some petty playground scuffle instead of the high-stakes hunt it really was. It was like he wore two faces. Yesterday, I was invisible to him. Today, he acted like none of it had ever happened. But I remembered. And it still burned. I couldn’t care less what the world saw in him. I’d made it my mission to keep him from getting under my skin again. If he wanted to keep playing his cheesy little game, fine. It was me against him now. My fingers coiled instinctively around the grip of my pistol, the urge to raise it and let the bullet fly settling hard in my chest. Not at the animals we were supposed to be hunting, but at him. A perfect shot through that smug expression would guarantee my victory, wouldn’t it? I wanted to