CARNAL DESIRES | | NCT

Chapter 2

Mark's Pov

"Did you carve your arrow with ash wood, Mark? It is important that you-"

"Yes, Jongdae," I answered my father. I was not sure if his tired brain was unable to figure it out as yet, but I was growing quite annoyed with his nagging. "It's the only type of wood we have, so how could I not?"

"I was simply making sure-"

"You don't need to," I cut him off. He and I were not fit for a proper father and son relationship. Therefore, I didn't see any reason for us to communicate with each other. Especially not about how I construct my weapons.

"Hendery!" I shouted out for my brother. In a matter of seconds, I saw him emerging from the backyard with one of his newly sharpened knives.

"Is my favorite brother done playing with his dolls?" Hendery smirked at me, making a hand gesture towards the broken pieces of ash wood that I discarded earlier.

"I am your only brother, you mutt."

"Comparing me to a four-legged creature now? Nice one, brother!"

"You are a pain in my existence," I sighed, flinging my bag that consisted of my bow and arrows over my shoulder. On the other hand, Hendery snatched a red apple from the fruit basket off our dining table and made his way outside first.

"Mark," my father summoned me. If this was any other day I would've ignored him and gone on my way, but it was her anniversary, the day where I knew he was most vulnerable. So I pitied him, but only for today.

"Do not disappoint your grandfather," he said sternly.

"Do not worry," I scoffed out, "I am far from being anything like you." I heard my father say something behind me, but I ignored him. It was useless to focus on words spurting out of the mouth of a man like him.

"Will you ever get along with our father?" My brother questioned me. He knew the answer to his question, but still, he often went out of his way to try to defuse the tension between us.

It's always been like this. Our father and I not getting along and Hendery trying his best to keep the fighting to a minimum. I never understood why he held a pathetic Hunter like Jongdae on such a high pedestal. Even after forcing us, more so me, into torturous training without winning against a Fae himself, my brother still adored the man. But I guess being the younger sibling made it easier for him to forgive the man.

"Are you visiting those bloodsuckers again?" I changed the subject. Of course, Hendery caught the message. He wasn't the smartest in the bunch, but he wasn't an idiot either.

"Why? Curious about what it is like?" He spun around, carelessly holding one of his daggers between his fingers.

"Watch where you swing that thing," I scolded him. If it was not for his fighting skills I would have considered him too playful to be a hunter. But he was a great one. And if I might add, an even more brutal one than me.

Although I was trained to hunt down every cursed creature dammed on our earth, our grandfather made it clear that it was a must to get rid of the faes race. Especially the royal bloodline. As a child, stories were told about them using unspeakable powers to control and kill off the human race. They were responsible for many deaths, too many to count and keep track of.

However, Hendery chose to not focus on something he deemed as 'trivial'. He didn't understand the reasoning behind our grandfather's words and claimed it was not entertaining enough to follow the rules. Hence why he often visited different settlements with the help of me keeping his secret.

I could not blame him though. Not when our father continued to lie to him about our mother. And if it was not for my discerning nature, he would have continued to lie to me too.

"Also," I continued to say "there is nothing to be curious about."

"Are you sure?" There was a sly smirk on his face as he played with the dagger in his hand. God, this boy was always up to nothing good. "They are quite pretty on the outside."

"And the inside?" I finally took the lead on the trail. We were approaching dangerous and territorial grounds where I often saw wolves roaming in packs. They were quite common to be seen in this area, and if a hunter was not paying attention or traveling alone, then there was no guarantee they were returning in one piece.

"I will leave that for you to find out for yourself, brother," Hendery chuckled behind me. He had many impure and illogical thoughts that I could not often say out loud myself, but in the end, I was no different than him.

"Will we part ways now?" I looked at him, subtly checking for uncertainty in his body language.

"Unless you wish to follow me," he responded almost cockily. Even if he was scared, he never showed me otherwise. A good trait to have as a descendant of the greatest hunters to ever live. And even though our reasons were certainly different, I was still proud of him.

"Be careful," I pulled him into a hug, "and remember... if we act like prey..."

"They will act like predators," Hendery completed. It was a saying our grandfather taught us to live by before disappearing. We were quite young to understand the meaning behind it. But as we grew older, it started to mean more than a simple phrase as it is the only thing left behind by the old man.

"See you soon," I said to him.

"Bring me a souvenir and I shall do the same," he showed me one last smile before running into the white mist of the BloodHill Forest and vanishing along the man-made path.

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going back to my original roots and writing a mixture of first person and third person pov <3

And thank you all so much for already reading this fic!!! I hope to not disappoint you guys ♡.