Laura Loveless (Patreon)

Laura Loveless — The Hunter’s Gaze

The reeds rose around me in towering golden walls, whispering secrets to the wind. Dusk was settling in — that delicious in-between hour when the world pauses, unsure whether to surrender to night or cling to the last threads of day.

I stood still in the clearing, feeling the soft brush of the reeds against my hips as though they didn’t quite want to let me go. The breeze tugged playfully at a few strands of my hair, and I let it. Why fight a little attention?

Moroi was a few paces behind me, camera lifted, breath slow and steady. The whole scene was so quiet I could hear the faint click of him adjusting the settings.

I didn’t turn for him.

Not at first.

I waited… letting the light drop just a little further, letting the shadows kiss the edges of my outline. Then I turned — slowly, deliberately — and found his lens with my eyes.

For a heartbeat, everything held still.

Was he capturing me?

Or had I caught him?

The reeds circled me like spectators, swaying softly as if they themselves were unsure about the answer. My posture stayed calm, powerful, rooted — a kind of defiance that felt as natural as the dusk settling around us.

I let the gaze linger, unblinking, unguarded.

There was a question in the air — one I wasn’t about to answer out loud:

Was I the hunted in the frame…

or the hunter who’d just turned to claim her prey?

Either way, I wasn’t breaking that stare first.