I followed the path north, moving carefully through the thick jungle. Goliath stayed close. His massive head swung left and right, his nose twitching as he tested the air. The bear was on edge. He could smell the fresh blood on my clothes. He knew we were hunting.
It took just over an hour to reach the cliffs.
The ground changed as we climbed higher. The jungle thinned out, replaced by steep, gray rocks. The air was cooler up here, and I could hear the ocean waves crashing far below.
Then I saw it.
The cave entrance was exactly where the dying man said it would be. It was a dark opening in the rock, maybe ten feet wide, hidden behind hanging vines. You would have to know it was there to find it.
I crouched behind a boulder fifty yards away and watched.
No guards. No movement. No sound.
Either the man had lied and this was a trap, or the last two men were inside waiting. I couldn't afford to guess.
I looked at Goliath. The bear stared back at me with dark, patient eyes.
"You're going to make some noise," I told him.
He let out a low breath.
I climbed up to a higher rock that gave me a perfect view of the cave entrance. I rested the stolen hunting rifle against the stone and looked through the scope.
Perfect.
I looked down at Goliath and gave a low whistle.
The massive bear stood up, filling the space between the trees. He opened his jaws and *roared*.
The sound was deafening. It echoed off the cliffs like a bomb going off. Birds scattered into the sky.
I kept my eye on the scope, my finger resting gently on the trigger.
Ten seconds passed. Twenty.
Then, movement.
A man stepped out of the cave. He was young, wearing a tactical vest and holding a pistol. He squinted against the bright sunlight, looking left and right for the bear.
This wasn't the bearded leader. This was the other guy. Marks.
I put the crosshairs right on the center of his chest.
I exhaled.
**CRACK.**
The rifle kicked against my shoulder. The gunshot echoed across the rocks.
Marks stumbled backward. A dark red stain instantly spread across his vest. He looked down at it, confused, before his legs gave out. He collapsed hard onto the stone and didn't move.
I pulled the bolt back, ejecting the empty shell, and loaded the next bullet.
I waited. If the bearded leader was smart, he would stay inside. If he was desperate, he would come out.
Two minutes passed.
Then, the bearded man stepped out of the shadows.
He stayed low to the ground, his rifle raised. He was looking at the trees, trying to figure out where the shot came from. He crouched next to Marks's body, checked his neck for a pulse, and cursed.
I moved my aim down. I put the crosshairs right on his left thigh.
**CRACK.**
The bullet tore through his leg. He screamed and went down hard, dropping his rifle. He grabbed his bleeding leg, his face twisting in pain.
I stood up, slung the rifle over my back, and walked down toward the cave.
Goliath followed right behind me.
By the time I reached the entrance, the bearded man was trying to drag himself toward his dropped gun. His fingers were just inches away from it when I stepped heavily on his hand.
He howled in pain.
I kicked his rifle away and pointed my Glock right at his face.
"How many more?" I asked.
He was breathing hard, sweating from the pain. "Fuck you."
I shot him in his other leg.
He screamed again, the sound echoing off the cave walls. He tried to crawl away, but I grabbed him by the shirt and flipped him onto his back.
"How many more?" I asked again.
"Just me!" he gasped. "Just me and Marks! That's it, I swear!"
I looked at his face. He was telling the truth. Extreme pain usually burns away the lies.
"Where are the prisoners?"
"Inside," he cried, his voice shaking. "In the back. Two cages. They're alive."
"Anyone else?"
"A girl," he choked out. "We grabbed her yesterday. That's it. Three prisoners."
I nodded.
Then I shot him in the chest.
He jerked once, his eyes going wide, and then died.
I stepped over his body and walked into the cave.
***
The entrance was narrow, but it quickly opened up into a massive, cool stone room. It was huge, easily thirty feet wide.
And it was fully furnished.
There were cots against the wall. A table covered in maps and radios. Wooden crates filled with ammo and supplies. Lanterns hung from the walls, casting a warm, flickering light. These men hadn't just crashed here. This was a permanent base.
And now, it belonged to me.
I walked deeper into the cave. The main room split into two smaller tunnels. I took the left one, following the sound of heavy breathing.
The tunnel opened into a smaller, darker room. Against the back wall, there were two iron cages.
The first cage held two men.
David was sitting against the bars. His face was beaten black and blue, and his clothes were ripped. When he saw me, his eyes went wide.
"Jack," he gasped. "Oh my god, you came—"
I ignored him and looked at the floor of the cage. Isaac was lying there, completely unconscious. His shirt was covered in dried blood. He looked half-dead.
"What's wrong with him?" I asked.
David swallowed hard. "They beat him. Badly. He hasn't woken up. I think he's dying."
I turned my head to look at the second cage.
And I stopped breathing for a second.
There was a girl inside.
She looked barely legal. Eighteen, maybe nineteen at the most. She was incredibly petite, maybe four-foot-ten, with a tiny, fragile frame that made her look like a doll.
She was wearing a thin white tank top that was way too big for her. The neckline hung loosely off one of her soft, pale shoulders. She clearly wasn't wearing a bra. Even through the fabric, I could see the outline of her small, perky breasts.
She also wore a pair of denim cut-off shorts that were criminally small. Because of the way she was sitting, the frayed denim had ridden up her smooth, pale thighs, exposing the soft, lower curve of her tight little ass.
She looked so incredibly young. Innocent.
Despite the blood on my hands and the dead men outside, my cock went instantly, painfully hard.
I wanted her. Right now. I wanted to pull that oversized shirt off her small shoulders and see her breasts. I wanted to spread those pale thighs and see what was hiding under those tiny shorts. I wanted to know if her tight little body would tremble when I pushed inside her.
She noticed the bulge growing in my pants. Her eyes flicked down to my crotch, then quickly darted back up to my face.
"Who is she?" I asked. My voice came out deeper and rougher than normal.
David spoke from the other cage. "Her name is Mia. They caught her yesterday. Please, Jack—"
I wasn't listening to him. I just kept staring at Mia's tiny, shivering body.
***
I walked over to David's cage first. I took the keys I had stolen from the bearded boss and unlocked the iron door.
David stumbled out. "Thank you."
He immediately took a step toward Mia's cage.
I stepped smoothly in front of him, blocking his path.
"Jack," David said, his voice tight. "Please. Let me—"
"Let you what?"
He looked past my shoulder at Mia, then back at me. He looked pathetic.
"Please," David begged softly. "Leave her alone. Don't touch her. Let me take care of her."
I raised an eyebrow. "You think you can take care of her?"
"Yes." His eyes were desperate. "I know you have my mom. You can keep her. I won't fight you anymore. Just let me have Mia. Please."
I looked over at Mia. She was watching us with wide, confused eyes.
I looked back at David. "You think you can trade your own mother for a girl you met yesterday?"
"I don't care!" David cried. "I love her! I need this. Please, Jack!"
I shook my head. "You don't get to ask for anything, David. You lost that right when you told those men where to find our camp."
David started to cry. "I didn't have a choice! They were going to kill me!"
"Because you talked, Isaac is dying in that cage," I said coldly. "Because you talked, I had to kill four men this morning. You're lucky I don't shoot you right now."
David grabbed my arm. "Please, Jack! Don't take her from me!"
I looked down at his hand on my arm. Then I shoved him backward so hard he fell onto his ass.
I turned my back on him and walked over to Mia's cage.
Mia pressed herself against the back bars, her small body trembling. Her tank top slipped even further down her shoulder, exposing her delicate collarbone and the soft swell of her cleavage.
"What's your name?" I asked.
"Mia," she squeaked. Her voice was incredibly soft and high-pitched.
"I'm Jack." I unlocked the cage door and swung it open. "Come out."
She didn't move. She just stared at me.
"I said come out," I ordered.
Slowly, she got onto her hands and knees and crawled out of the cage. The position made her tiny shorts ride up even higher, giving me a perfect view of her round, tight ass.
When she stood up, her legs were shaking. She was so short that the top of her head barely reached the middle of my chest. I could probably wrap my hands completely around her tiny waist.
"Thank you," she whispered, looking up at me through her thick black eyelashes.
"Don't thank me yet," I said.
She blinked, confused. "What?"
"You're coming with me. You belong to me now. You will do exactly what I say, when I say it. Do you understand?"
Her eyes darted to David, who was sitting on the floor, and then back up to my face. She twisted her small fingers together nervously.
"I... I need to find my friend first," she said softly. "Her name is Sophie. She was with me. She ran away into the jungle when they caught me."
I looked down at her. "Your friend is probably dead."
Mia flinched like I had hit her. "No! She's fast. Please, I have to find her. She's all I have left."
I thought about it. If there was another young woman out there alone, I wanted to find her before the jungle killed her.
"Fine," I said. "I'll help you look for her. But you follow my rules. No arguing. No running away. Understand?"
She nodded quickly, a tiny, hopeful smile appearing on her pink lips. "Yes. I understand."
"Good." I looked her small body up and down, making it very obvious what I was looking at. Her face instantly flushed bright red again. "But when I find your friend, she belongs to me too. Just like you."
Her mouth opened in shock. She looked a little scared, but she nodded her head obediently.
"Good girl," I said, reaching out and patting the top of her soft black hair.
She shivered under my touch.
***
I turned to David. "Help Isaac. We need to move him."
David glared at me with pure hatred, but he didn't say a word. He just went to the cage to get the older man.
I walked back into the main cave and took inventory. We had rifles, shotguns, pistols, grenades, and thousands of bullets. We had canned food, fresh water, radios, and medical supplies.
This place was a fortress.
I made a decision. We weren't going back to the old camp. This cave was our new home. I just needed to go get the other women and bring them here.
David carried Isaac out of the tunnel and laid him on one of the cots. Isaac was still totally knocked out.
Mia followed them. She stood near the wall, her small arms wrapped around her stomach. She looked around the giant cave in awe.
I walked over and stood right in front of her. She had to tilt her head all the way back just to look at my face.
"You're coming with me," I said.
Her eyes widened. "Where?"
"To get my women. They're hiding east of here. And on the way, we'll look for your friend."
"Okay."
I looked at David. "Stay here. Keep Isaac alive. Don't touch the guns. If you leave this cave, I will kill you."
David just looked at the floor.
I whistled for Goliath. The giant bear lumbered over to the entrance.
"Guard them," I told the bear. Goliath snorted and laid down in front of the cave exit. Nobody was getting past him.
I grabbed a fresh rifle, slung it over my shoulder, and walked out into the sunlight.
Mia hurried closely behind me.
As we walked into the jungle, I couldn't stop looking down at her. She looked even tinier out here in the wild. I watched the way her slim hips swayed as she walked, and the way her little ass bounced inside those tight denim shorts.
She caught me staring at her body. Her face turned bright red, and she quickly looked away, too shy to say anything.
We headed east.