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At eighteen, Jax had arrived on the island as nothing more than a fractured soul—a boy dragged into hell with chains of grief and fear twisted tight around his chest. He had been prey then, a trembling shadow of a human being, eyes wide with the memory of what he had lost and the brutal initiation he had suffered. His wrists had once been bound, his mouth gagged, thrown to the island like discarded meat. And just like the others who had come before him, he was meant to be consumed. But Jax didn't break. He evolved.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUsgKsVyewn
Three years have passed. Now, at twenty-one, Jax is no longer the hunted. He is the hunter—a predator molded in blood and fire. The island didn't just shape him. It reforged him. Day by day, it stripped him of humanity, layer by layer, until only the core remained—hardened, unrelenting, and dangerous. What once were dreams became tools; what once was innocence became memory. He learned to survive not by running, but by studying. Observing. Understanding. The island had rules, and Jax made it his mission to master them all.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuzGK54OlVP
By the time his body had filled out—muscle grown sharp over lean bone, reflexes honed like blades—he had memorized the rhythms of the island. He could read the wind through the trees like scripture. He knew where the soil turned soft underfoot, and where the ground swallowed footsteps whole. He knew how to make himself invisible in plain sight. The hunters who had once looked down on him now whispered his name in quiet recognition, some even with fear. He was not just another player in their twisted game. He was becoming something else entirely: a force. A ghost. A legend in the making.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ47RYUuvMR
At first, Jax hunted to survive. Now, he hunted for control.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ38ZE4kA7OH
There was no longer any doubt in his mind: he belonged here more than anyone. The island, with its suffocating mist and echoing cries, had become his domain. And the women who arrived—those trembling, wide-eyed new captives—were no longer sisters-in-suffering to him. They were pieces on a board he had mastered. Ganimetler, he called them in the silence of his thoughts. Spoils. Currency. Each one carried a different weight, a different value. And Jax, the architect of his own new order, decided their place in the game.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡazrYPXwdA7
He had seen many arrive. Some broken before their feet touched the ground. Some defiant, eyes burning with fire. The fire always died eventually. Jax made sure of that. Not out of cruelty—at least, not at first. But because he knew the rules better than anyone. And the first rule was simple: only power protects.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXkM7G15PHB
And so he became powerful.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUs3hPettqy
He established his own perimeter deep in the forest, a labyrinth of traps and vantage points. No one approached without his knowing. His shelter was brutal in its simplicity—a series of connected structures carved into the earth and camouflaged beneath thick foliage. Here, Jax could see without being seen. He became an urban myth to the newcomers. They spoke of him in whispers: the shadow in the trees, the man with no past, the predator who knew your name before you ever learned his.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdpYhdu2Yzx
But Jax remembered everything.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTXfaaE0Tt6
He remembered the hands that had once bruised his skin. He remembered the faces of the men who had laughed when he cried out for mercy. He remembered the girl who had tried to save him—her eyes wide with fear as they tore her away. She had screamed his name until her throat gave out. That scream haunted his dreams like a hymn. He had failed her. But the island would never see him fail again.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwVQvpJn8py
He trained relentlessly, turning his pain into precision. Every movement was purposeful. Every breath calculated. Jax didn’t just learn how to hunt—he learned how to manipulate. He infiltrated supply routes, listened in on the guards, gathered information like a spider spinning web. In time, he understood how power moved on the island. He understood which men made decisions, which women had been broken, which ones still believed they could escape.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPddye8AunJ
And then, he began to choose.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZXVYlCPIJN
He didn’t take every girl. That would have been sloppy. Predictable. No, Jax was methodical. He watched for days, sometimes weeks. He studied their habits. Their fears. He wanted to understand the thread that held each one together so he could learn the exact moment to cut it. When he did move, he moved silently, like nightfall. Sometimes they came willingly, drawn to his silence, to the myth. Others, he had to break first.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf6XOVzffcS
But they all became part of his order.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoeJnylutuj
Some followed him out of fear. Others, eventually, out of something resembling loyalty. In his world, affection was a currency more rare than gold. He didn't need to be loved. He only needed to be obeyed.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwMy2EqKHIk
Jax had become the dark equilibrium of the island. He was not its savior. He was not its devil. He was its law. And the law was cruel. There were no fairytales here. Only choices. Only consequences.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRsDoWCLROV
Now, as he stood atop the cliffs overlooking the bay, watching a new transport boat bob in the distance, he felt that familiar thrill crawl under his skin. New arrivals. New blood. New games to begin.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCZAbuWqGOn
And perhaps among them, another test.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3z4ttAhzgN
Someone with fire.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUqwPMAuoRf
Someone worth breaking.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQJl6yW2DW5
He turned from the cliff and disappeared into the woods, his form swallowed by the trees. A silent command passed through the forest as birds scattered and branches swayed.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJvB3a8a9L9
The hunter was ready.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPfbbAvcxXa
And this island?11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZRvkA4coea
This island belonged to him.
The narrow path through the forest had become almost invisible over time. The branches of the trees were joined together above, as if covering the sky, and the sun's rays turned the shades of green into a thousand different colours. The sounds of birds had faded, replaced by the occasional mysterious crunch. Jessica squinted at the map in her hand.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡigkjiF9XKH
This is complete rubbish,' she said, turning the map from side to side in her hand. According to this, we should have reached the so-called 'Bottom of the Well' by now. But even the gravity seems different, let alone anything that looks like a well.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDipzJ2QPnU
Tom leaned forward, looked at the map and sighed. 'So... if this isn't 'Bottom of the Well', where are we? Could the map be old?'11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5fdiiR18NE
Jessica shook her head from side to side. 'Even if it was that old, there would be some reference points, assuming the trees haven't moved. But nothing fits.'11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwumSEn0f7P
Tom put down his bag and crouched down. 'Maybe whoever made the map was being deliberately misleading. After all, there's no real record of this island. We came here for the mystery, but this is getting really weird.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡigxmfL4jUp
Jessica leaned against a tree a little further ahead. The sound of the waves was almost inaudible here, accompanied only by the occasional rustling of leaves and distant birdsong, like the heartbeat of the forest. For the first time, there was real unease on his face.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtGOmlgnVZr
Just as Tom bent over the map again, a distant sound came.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6CxK2mk4FT
A slow, muffled, subdued engine noise. It was a sound they were not used to hearing on the island. Metallic vibrations in the wind.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrj7YZ5uAlz
Jessica sat up quickly and turned towards the sound. Her eyes were narrowed, her muscles slightly tense.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwggxGqWlTi
'An engine...' she said in a whisper. 'Like a lorry. Not too close, but not too far.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdu1J6jkLcp
Tom nodded silently and put his bag back on his back. 'Let's walk. But carefully.'11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3I79diDUU8
The two brothers moved silently through the shadows of the forest. Jessica was in the lead, scanning her surroundings carefully, and Tom walked behind her, almost holding his breath. The sun fell intermittently through the leaves as they made their way. The sound became clearer and clearer.
Jax remembered the first time he saw them.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuyJzTxcbBa
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.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxA3fhWydkb
That moment, the moment he first laid eyes on the woman and her daughter, was etched into him like fire into flesh.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe7NILrQqKb
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.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ76yNSx4sxF
To Jax, she looked like a forest nymph, something not quite real.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡve4P97Pmjq
But the mother—she was different.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYVZmNuFzQv
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.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSarS1L5sEQ
She belonged to Jax’s world.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdWuIEhcd8r
They were both prey.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTCTuuLYeKM
But the girl? She would break too easily.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWCFo3Xb2nY
The mother? The mother was the real game.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4tS9Xtiopf
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.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqPKyLJ8d7y
But the island had spoken to him.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSmqFNoOQjS
It had taught him that survival wasn’t enough.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZSa1m0HKWp
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.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDCYcUqwArW
Now, at twenty-one, Jax wasn’t just a survivor.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJAWhPuKKM0
He was the island’s reckoning.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvAYqndOhsa
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.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQowmtPsjki
And the island had begun to offer him gifts.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6p1Ur5Yo5K
Women. Girls. The lost, the trapped, the forgotten.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ62Ssjde9O2
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.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw8t5SwINHt
He had become more than a hunter.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQx6gwU6WeR
He had become a collector of choices.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZnXFtyXnbR
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.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmpzkZG57jr
Power wasn’t in dominance. It was in knowing when someone broke.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm6xwYFW0Nm
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.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDTUdjqcMYC
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.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBxoXq1PZUC
And then, in the pause between one breath and the next, Jax saw something in her face.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy8U863AfM0
Uncertainty.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjw939rAi4W
It broke through her mask for a second. A tremor. A memory. A hope.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOn5q26ZXX1
And Jax felt it.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdZo18xZs24
Empathy. Just a flicker.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ53rPCr61EO
He crushed it.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡorhi3rM4KT
Empathy had no place here. He was not the boy who came to the island crying. He was the man who ruled the night.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA2RPsdUyHh
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.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJuQ4a1dK1E
She was dangerous.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUWW8zaG2NQ
She was perfect.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsghddjbdO8
She would take longer to break. But that was what made it worth it.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9KxifVCuvG
He didn’t want them to die.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡprTxRipsbI
He wanted them to surrender.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJYjHbXMUnc
Not with screams.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVxeNslV8E9
But with silence.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkQB9i0kBVG
With acceptance.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPPeO5fURUd
That night, something shifted in Jax. A stone rolled into place. A decision was made. And in that decision, there was no turning back.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4eEGYTds7u
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.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuWXEdBYiiq
And everything it had given back.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMNsCgjz4tS
Jax knew the game now.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe2BVk5LG9v
And he was done playing by anyone else’s rules.11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgdvsCix06z
