TIMING: Current LOCATION: Near the 3 Daggers PARTIES: Wyatt (@loftylockjaw) & Winter (@longislandcharm) SUMMARY: Winter's revenge isn't complete, but Wyatt cuts her off at the pass. CONTENT WARNINGS: none. :---)
—
The folder with precious information was tucked under her arm as Winter made her way from her car towards the bar she’d heard about, the dirt road beneath her feet making her stop to try and wipe some of it off of her expensive boots. Hunters really needed to think about the more… hygienic of the human race when scouting a new location for their next meet up. This was such a drag. She finished wiping the dirt from the black suede the best that she could before she stood to start her journey again.
In hindsight, she should have tried to park beyond the gate. She should have tried to find a way inside of it to get closer to the bar instead of choosing the difficult path of the road but she’d gotten frustrated at needing to climb out to push open the doors just to climb back in again. Parking off to the side right in front of it had seemed like the better option. It seemed that decision was going to bite her in the ass though as the bar was still far enough back that she couldn’t yell for help once she saw the person blocking her way.
Before Winter could even start walking again and gain more dirt on her shoes, she stopped in her tracks when she spotted the very man she was here to complain about. Her hand went to clutch the folder of information as tightly as possible, heart rate climbing just slightly at the sight of him. “What? Are you following me again? Want to throw me out of another tree?” Wyatt Barlow continued to be the bane of her existence but she had a plan. If she could make it past him he would no longer be her problem. She could get rid of him, make sure he didn’t terrify another person, make sure he wasn’t such a pain in the ass to the others in this town. If only a hunter would ride up to the gates for a nice jug of piss beer and she could do this the easy way.
But it looked like the hard way was her destined path.
“I’ve left you alone. That’s what you wanted so I don’t understand why you’re stalking me.” Okay, so that wasn’t the whole truth but did he know that? Maybe he did since he was here. Playing dumb didn’t usually work with him and yet she couldn’t help it. “It was the apple I threw at you, wasn’t it? I wrote ‘die asshole’ as a joke, not a prediction.” But if it came true she wouldn’t cry about it. In fact, she might have been trying to help that prediction along just a little bit.
—
“Left me alone?” the lamia scoffed. “Is that why you got some good fer nothin’ creeps snoopin’ on me? Didn’t think I’d notice, eh? Well I fuckin’ did.” He jutted his chin out toward her, gesturing with his head and eyes at the folder she was holding onto for dear life. “Why? What you got in there, hm?” He didn’t actually know that this was the road to a hunter bar where Winter would have her pick of the litter from rangers who’d be more than happy to take him out, but it definitely wasn’t her scene, and the whole thing had been suspicious enough for him to step in before she got wherever she was going. He had been stalking her for a few days, trying to figure out what she was up to before it became too large a problem to handle. She was a stupid girl who seemed to just like bullying people on their worst days, so he hadn’t ever really thought it was anything serious… until now. This place she was headed for was suspicious as fuck, and Wyatt wasn’t having it.
He stepped toward her, holding his hand out expectantly. “Give it ‘ere, and maybe I won’t throw you out of another tree.”
—
“No, I didn’t, actually. You don’t seem like an observant person.” She sneered at him, looking him up and down as if he were less than the dirt she had been trying to wipe off her shoe. She really hadn’t thought he would notice anything. From what Winter could tell he wasn’t exactly the brightest person in the world so she was inclined to believe her hired help had been just as idiotic for him to catch on to what was going on. That would teach her not to outsource to someone she trusted in the city next time. “I have enough to keep me safe from those jaws of yours.” The bravado coming out of her did not match the fear climbing its way up her spine. Really, what was to stop him? “There’s copies of all of this with the stupid goons who don’t know how to stay out of sight for shit. They’re to send it to a contact if something happens to me.”
Paying no mind to the way she’d most likely condemned the PI she’d hired to death if Wyatt deemed it necessary, she took a step back as he stepped forward. ‘Turn around and get in your car, Winter.’ But she ignored her inner thoughts, not wanting him to know how terrified she truly was. He got that from her once already, he wasn’t getting it from her again. “Yea? Why don’t you go fuck yourself instead?” Her eyes narrowed at the alligator, her own fury radiating between them. She was so sick of this brute, sick enough that she was determined to make it past him to that bar.
—
He hadn’t been lying when he told Emilio that he didn’t want to kill this girl. He still wasn’t when he told himself he’d rather avoid it now, but his patience was running terribly thin. “You got a big mouth for someone who don’t stand any kind of chance against me,” Wyatt growled, jerking his hand toward her again. “Give it here, I said. Your goons got copies, then you don’t need this one, right?” He wanted to know what was in it, wanted to know how much she’d been able to find out about him. “Where you takin’ it?” He glanced over his shoulder. “What’s that place, down the road, hm? Talk, girl. Quickly, ‘fore I get any more impatient. I like this shirt, n’ I don’t really wanna have to shred it just to put you in the ground ‘cuz you’re too fuckin’ stubborn to see when you’re outta your league.”
—
“I was raised to keep fighting no matter how big my opponent is.” It had been ingrained in her over and over as a child. Her parents, mostly her mother’s, voices echoed in her mind whenever situations like this arose pushing her into fights that she couldn’t handle. But mother always knew best and she would want Winter to use what she knew against the prick to get her out of this. Lifting the folder up, she waved it tauntingly in the air but still made sure to keep it out of his reach. He wasn’t close enough to grab it and run. “I know so much more than you’d think. You have a history of violence, don’t you Wyatt? Not shocking knowing how riled up you can get with a little teasing.” Or harassment. She wasn’t innocent but she wouldn’t admit that to him.
The folder was tucked back into her arm before stupidity started to take hold. Her pride mixed with her over confidence was enough to have her moving forward as if there wasn’t an alligator bitch boy blocking her way. “I think your mom is going to love the copy I sent her, by the way. Is she an alligator too? Do you guys bond with your violent natures?”
—
He was a few seconds away from simply decking her in the face and taking the folder when she mentioned his mother. Immediately, he felt lightheaded. “What?” he snapped breathily, squinting his eyes closed for a moment. “You — you did what?” When he opened them again, his vision was swimming. Adrenaline was dumping into his system, thoughts turning to all the horrible people that might love to know about a large family of lamias living in Louisiana, and what they might do to that family.
Wyatt’s voice trembled when he spoke again, but not from fear. He was angrier than he’d ever been — angrier than when he’d found out his cousin had been lying to him and stealing from their family for years, angrier than that night he’d confronted Owen in that bar, far angrier than he ever got during any paid fight. “Oh, girl,” he growled, kicking off his boots into the snow and shrugging off his jacket. “That weren’t very smart.”
He was lunging at her even before the shift began, the ridge of scales that ran along his spine ripping through his clothing, hands reaching for her as they shifted and grew dangerous claws in the blink of an eye. When he landed on her, he was himself, pinning her in the snow with one hand as he leaned over the top of her, snarling in her face. He ripped the folder out of her hand, throwing it to the side. There was no enjoyment to be had here, rage still fueling him as he bit down on her midsection and snapped his head up again, dragging her along.
It wouldn’t do to have her screaming and drawing attention, so this time, he didn’t play any cat and mouse. He simply bit down as hard as he could, feeling her warm blood coat his tongue. Another couple jerks of his head and he’d turned her enough in his jaws to gulp her down head first, stooping to gather up the folder she’d been holding and his clothing, the latter of which he chucked up into a tree to come back for later. From there, the shifter stomped off into the woods, pausing every few yards to swallow Winter down a little more, not thrilled about having to eat and run but not having much other choice.
She’d gotten what was fucking coming to her.
—
The moment the words had registered with him Winter knew it had been a mistake. “Wait…” The word was barely a whisper as she started to back away from him. “Wait, just listen.” But he wasn’t listening. He was infuriated and she should have known that any mention of a mom would have caused such a visceral reaction. Even if she wasn’t speaking to her own mother at the moment she still would have been blinded by rage too. She’d just been trying to get him to back off, maybe panic a little and give her a chance to run off, but this was backfiring tremendously.
She didn’t even have a chance to tell him it wasn’t true.
Winter had no idea where his mother was but she wished she could see her son now on the off chance that she would be ashamed. For all she knew, the woman was just as violent as he was though, a thought that shouldn’t have been plaguing her as he pinned her to the ground. Maybe they would hear her screams up at the bar but even as she thought it she knew it was hopeless. It was still so far away and bars had loud music. Nobody was coming for her.
For the first time in so long hot tears slid down her cheeks while the inevitable sank in; she wasn’t getting out of the trouble her big mouth had caused this time. Here she thought that she could get out of anything either with sheer confidence or her family’s power alone but the moment before her death only proved how naive she had been. She’d been naive her whole life, hadn’t she? Why had she fought so hard to be like the woman who killed her spirit over and over? Why hadn’t she given her father more gratitude for everything he had done to keep her safe? Why did she push people away so often, refusing to get too close to anyone? They say clarity comes with death. They say that everything flashes before your eyes, that peace comes in your last moments…and now, Winter knew how right that was.
It was fear. Everything boiled down to that one emotion that she had sworn over and over to never let rule her life and yet it had ruled it so gracefully that she’d never even known it was there. Now, flashes of her parents' faces, of Mack, Henry, Charlie, Finn, and even Thea came through in her last second before Wyatt’s teeth sank into her flesh causing that peaceful bubble that had formed to shatter. Her scream cut through the air and as he dragged her along she did what she could to fight him even though it was no use. She would go down, but she would go down kicking and screaming.
Until his teeth cut deeper through her flesh, ripping through muscle and tendon and her spinal cord. The pain slowly faded away as life was drained from her. She wanted to laugh, a realization sweeping like a wave through her broken body. It took a monster to take her down, proving that she’d always been a monster herself.



















