“
I'm a girl of extremes. When I love something, I'm like a puppy dog (without all the licking). When I'm cranky, I'm a wasp (like a whole hive of 'em). And when I'm angry, I'm a Mother Bear with a predator after her cubs: Dangerous.
”
”
James Patterson (Fang (Maximum Ride, #6))
“
It's like when a kitten tries to bite something to death. The kitten clearly has the cold-blooded murderous instinct of a predator, but at the same time, it's this cute little kitten, and all you want to do is stuff it in a shoebox and shoot a video of it for grandmas to watch on YouTube.
”
”
Jesse Andrews (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl)
“
Just remember, girls: The young male vampire is a predator by nature. Some boys may look at you not only as a romantic interest, but as prey...
”
”
Beth Fantaskey (Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side (Jessica, #1))
“
We wait to be rescued, but for whatever reason, no one comes. We figure that if no one protects us then we must not be worth protecting so we become prey and are easily picked off. Our wounded, kicked-puppy gazes attract sly predators and we sell ourselves for clearance sale prices, mistaking screwing for caring.
”
”
Laura Wiess (Such a Pretty Girl)
“
Such a pity, really; the prey falling for the predator. The victim in love with the killer... A mere mortal girl thinking a demon was capable of love.
”
”
Charlotte Munro (The Lockharts)
“
Tortoises are incredible creatures," Dad says earnestly. "What they lack in elegance and beauty they more than make up for in the ability to curl up and defend themselves from predators."
"What, like me?
”
”
Holly Smale (Geek Girl (Geek Girl, #1))
“
Why me, then?” I ask. “Why not Branley? She’s way hotter and was just as drunk as I was.”
Alex shakes her head as she sits back down. “Physical attractiveness has nothing to do with it. You were alone, isolated, and weak. The three of them had been watching girls all night, waiting for someone to separate from a group. It happened to be you, but it could’ve been anyone else. Opportunity is what matters, nothing else. […] I’m telling you, Claire. It doesn’t matter. What you were wearing. What you look like. Nothing. Watch the nature channel. Predators go for the easy prey.
”
”
Mindy McGinnis (The Female of the Species)
“
We teach girls to be likeable, to be nice, to be false. And we do not teach boys the same. This is dangerous. Many sexual predators have capitalized on this. Many girls remain silent when abused because they want to be nice. Many girls spend too much time trying to be “nice” to people who do them harm. Many girls think of the “feelings” of those who are hurting them. This is the catastrophic consequence of likeability. We have a world full of women who are unable to exhale fully because they have for so long been conditioned to fold themselves into shapes to make themselves likeable. So
”
”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions)
“
Nice,' I say, realizing only afterward that I've mimicked her, a bad habit of mine; I'm like one of those animals that imitates its predators to survive.
”
”
Melissa Bank (The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing)
“
(Young girls) are taught to not see, and instead to "make pretty" all manner of grotesqueries whether they are lovely or not. This training is why the youngest sister can say, "Hmmm, his beard isn't really that blue." This early training to "be nice" causes women to override their intuitions. In that sense, they are actually purposefully taught to submit to the predator. Imagine a wolf mother teaching her young to "be nice" in the face of an angry ferret or a wily diamondback rattler.
”
”
Clarissa Pinkola Estés (Women Who Run With the Wolves)
“
All the general fear I've been feeling condenses into an immediate fear of this girl, this predator who might kill me in seconds. Adrenaline shoots through me and I sling the pack over one shoulder and run full-speed for the woods. I can hear the blade whistling toward me and reflexively hike the pack up to protect my head. The blade lodges in the pack. Both straps on my shoulders now, I make for the trees. Somehow I knew the girl will not pursue me. That she'll be drawn back into the Cornucopia before all the good stuff is gone. A grin crosses my face. Thanks for the knife, I think.
”
”
Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1))
“
Teenage girls know more than we're given credit for. We sense danger even when everyone's telling us it's fine, he's a perfectly nice man, an upstanding member of our community, have you tasted his sugar-cream pie?
”
”
Nova Ren Suma (Slasher Girls & Monster Boys)
“
The chief clears his throat and gives me the don’t be a sexual predator look.
”
”
Pippa Grant (Mister McHottie (Girl Band #1))
“
So the rich kids aren't the alpha group of the school. The next most likely demographic would be the church kids: They're plentiful, and they are definitely interested in school domination. However, that strength -- the will to dominate -- is also their greatness weakness, because they spend so much time trying to convince you to hang out with them, and the way they try to do that is by inviting you over to their church. 'We've got cookies and board games,' they say, or that sort of thing. 'We just got a Wii set up!' Something about it always seems a little off. Eventually, you realize: These same exact sentences are also said by child predators.
”
”
Jesse Andrews (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl)
“
You think you are some fine predator? A swamp panther or coywolv?” He pretended to inspect her. “Where are your teeth and claws, girl?” He bared his teeth. “Where is your bite?
”
”
Paolo Bacigalupi (The Drowned Cities (Ship Breaker, #2))
“
She smiled sinisterly. Light mist started to slowly swirl around us. All I could see was her, the tall rocks and the white wall. She beckoned to me. I took a step and another. I was now ankle deep into the water. The mysterious girl smiled like a predator.
”
”
Erica Sehyun Song (The Pax Valley)
“
I’m officially giving myself permission to ask; What are Mr. Garcia’s intentions? Maybe I’m late to the game on this question. The thing is, I’ve seen myself in the mirror. Why would I suspect anyone of wanting this?
”
”
Michael Benzehabe (Zonked Out: The Teen Psychologist of San Marcos Who Killed Her Santa Claus and Found the Blue-Black Edge of the Love Universe)
“
Because predators tend to eat the weakest of a species, they keep the remaining population strong. Without predators, herds become weak and disabled. In contrast, when humans hunt animals for trophies, they kill the strongest of the species, thereby weakening the herd.
”
”
Stacey O'Brien (Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl)
“
So many girls around the world—refugee girls in particular—suffer in silence after being sexually assaulted by someone they know. Most rapes happen at the hands of a relative or friend, not a stranger. I want girls to know that they have the power to speak out. They don’t have to stay quiet. No matter what culture or country you are from, there will always be pressure to remain silent, to never tell. But you don’t have to protect sexual predators. By speaking up, you are standing up for yourself. And you might be preventing it from happening again. Tell people what happened. The predators expect you to stay silent. You can prove them wrong.
”
”
Sandra Uwiringiyimana (How Dare the Sun Rise: Memoirs of a War Child)
“
We are no more than our biology, our genetic programming. Nature is harsh and cruel and unsentimental. When you get down to it, boys are predators and girls are prey, and what people call love or even simple attraction is just the drug of hormones, evolved to make the survival of our species slightly less painful.
”
”
Amy Reed (The Nowhere Girls)
“
There’s also the truth that 70 percent of serial killer victims are female. You better believe that knowing you’re prey heightens your interest in the predator. You find yourself desperate to make sense of largely random acts of serial murder, believing that if you can understand motivation and hunting patterns, you can protect yourself.
”
”
Jess Lourey (The Quarry Girls)
“
Female genital mutilation predates Islam. Not all Muslims do this, and a few of the peoples who do are not Islamic. But in Somalia, where virtually every girl is excised, the practice is always justified in the name of Islam. Uncircumcised girls will be possessed by devils, fall into vice and perdition, and become whores. Imams never discourage the practice: it keeps girls pure.
”
”
Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Infidel)
“
We wait to be rescued, but for whatever reason, no one comes. We figure that if no one protects us then we must not be worth protecting so we become prey and are easily picked off. Our wounded, kicked-puppy gazes attract sly predators and we sell ourselves for clearance sale prices, mistaking screwing for caring. We binge, purge, sleep around. We drink too much and get too high, anything to blot out the past.
”
”
Laura Wiess (Such a Pretty Girl)
“
Never and never, my girl riding far and near
In the land of the hearthstone tales, and spelled asleep,
Fear or believe that the wolf in a sheepwhite hood,
Loping and bleating roughly and blithely shall leap,
My dear, my dear,
Out of a lair in the flocked leaves in the dew dipped year,
To eat your heart in the house in the rosy wood.
”
”
Dylan Thomas (In Country Sleep, and Other Poems)
“
They were alike, they were. Both predators, both dangerous and both vain. And they each found the other fascinating.
”
”
Kady Cross (The Girl in the Steel Corset (Steampunk Chronicles, #1))
“
She drew a deep breath and said, “I hope the other girls get justice.
”
”
Ronan Farrow (Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators)
“
Perpetrators who don’t face consequences become predators
”
”
Angeline Boulley (Warrior Girl Unearthed)
“
Girls so young living on the road looked either forlorn, like prey for the nearest predator, or so hard and self-contained they could put a knapped flint blade through the rib cage of a wolf.
”
”
Charles Frazier (The Trackers)
“
Males have an internal radar that can detect female sexual availability or vulnerability. This exposes young girls and women to predators who prey upon them and manipulate their unconscious desire and yearning for father-love. Combine this with a girl’s natural longing for an older male’s physical and emotional affection, and we see an increase in unwed teenage mothers, perpetuating the cycle anew. Many fatherless girls fall for the first male who shows them any kind of affection or attention that they crave.
”
”
Rick Johnson (That's My Girl: How a Father's Love Protects and Empowers His Daughter)
“
Sometimes she despaired at other women - their feebleness, their triviality, the nonsense they absorbed. So many were like little doe-eyed deer waiting to be chased, clueless with a different mindset and a bit of effort they could be the predators.
”
”
Dave Franklin (Girls Like Funny Boys)
“
I’ve heard nauseating stories of women who have given up their dreams because they fear for their safety, who go to worse schools that are closer to home in order to avoid sexual predators. These stories come from all over the world, including the US. Until the day we end all gender-based violence, we need stronger efforts to protect women and girls. There is no equality without safety.
”
”
Melinda French Gates (The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World)
“
men like him are experts at
smelling out girls like me
the invisible ones
who believe they must be ugly
because their fathers didn’t love them
he said my name
and i had never heard my name
dance off a man’s lips before
give a little attention
to someone who’s never had any
and they’ll be slipping and falling
all over the place
unable to contain the joy
of being wanted
the relief of being discovered
he groomed me into thinking
i couldn’t survive without him
this is how men like him
trap girls like me
- predator
”
”
Rupi Kaur (Home Body)
“
Girls with Sharp Sticks” Men are full of rage Unable to control themselves. That’s what women were told How they were raised What they believed. So women learned to make do Achieving more as men did less And for that, men despised them Despised their accomplishments. Over time The men wanted to dissolve women’s rights All so they could feel needed. But when they couldn’t control women The men found a group they didn’t disdain— At least not yet. Their daughters, pretty little girls A picture of femininity for them to mold To train To control To make precious and obedient. She would make a good wife someday, he thought Not like the useless one he had already. The little girls attended school Where the rules had changed. The girls were taught untruths, Ignorance the only subject. When math was pushed aside for myth The little girls adapted. They gathered sticks to count them learning their own math. And then they sharpened their sticks. It was these same little girls Who came home one day And pushed their daddies down the stairs. They bashed in their heads with hammers while they slept. They set the houses on fire with their daddies inside. And then those little girls with sharp sticks Flooded the schools. They rid the buildings of false ideas. The little girls took everything over Including teaching their male peers how to be “Good Little Boys.” And so it was for a generation The little girls became the predators.
”
”
Suzanne Young (Girls with Sharp Sticks (Girls with Sharp Sticks, #1))
“
she seemed cold—like a predator eyeing its prey.
”
”
David Lagercrantz (The Girl in the Spider's Web (Millennium, #4))
“
We circled each other, prey and predator, girl and phantom. I was both, and yet I felt like neither.
”
”
Rebecca Ross (Dreams Lie Beneath)
“
A little girl hitting a violent predator with a log is hand-to-hand combat and that’s honest. A man, who is represented by a hand, shooting a series of unknown henchmen is dishonest.
”
”
Gabrielle Zevin (Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow)
“
Please do not ever put this pressure on your daughter. We teach girls to be likeable, to be nice, to be false. And we do not teach boys the same. This is dangerous. Many sexual predators have capitalized on this. Many girls remain silent when abused because they want to be nice. Many girls spend too much time trying to be ‘nice’ to people who do them harm. Many girls think of the ‘feelings’ of those who are hurting them. This is the catastrophic consequence of likeability. We have a world full of women who are unable to exhale fully because they have for so long been conditioned to fold themselves into shapes to make themselves likeable.
”
”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions: The Inspiring Guide to Raising a Feminist)
“
Afterward, as we walk down Congress Street toward my apartment, the man says, “Men like that know how to pick the right ones, you know? They’re real predators. They know how to scan a herd and select the weak.”
As he says that, I see a scene of me, fifteen and wild-eyed, separated from my parents, running in a panicked gait across a tundra landscape while Strane sprints after me, gathering me in his arms without breaking stride. An ocean roars in my ears, blocking out the rest of the man’s thoughts on the film, and I think, Maybe that’s all it was. I was an obvious target. He chose me not because I was special, but because he was hungry and I was easy.
”
”
Kate Elizabeth Russell (My Dark Vanessa)
“
I saw now that bad men existed who would take advantage of any weakness and insecurity they found when violating a victim. I saw it was not my fault; I did not choose to be raped or kidnapped. But now I was learning how to protect myself from the predators, to trust my No and my instinct and my strength. I was learning I was not to blame, I couldn't prevent men from trying to hurt me, but I could definitely fight back. And sometimes fighting back worked.
”
”
Aspen Matis (Girl in the Woods: A Memoir)
“
Most people wouldn’t be caught dead in the heart of the Florida Everglades at dusk. A treacherous land of myriad insects and predators, it kept visitors away effectively. Blood-seeking insects don’t even matter for the accidental visitor, more concerned with the few but deadly poisonous snake species, the huge pythons, and the 10-foot alligators. Here, in the Glades, only the skilled and the irresponsible venture, and the latter don’t usually make it out. Matthew
”
”
Leslie Wolfe (Dawn Girl (Tess Winnett, #1))
“
That was the tribal system at school: the girls—giggly gaggles of Miley Cyrus clones, the jocks in their swaggering gangs … and finally the third category, the ones like Edward Chan—the freaks. Loners, emos, geeks, nerds: the cookies that didn’t quite fit the cookie-cutter machine that was high school.
”
”
Alex Scarrow (Day of the Predator (TimeRiders, #2))
“
So the rich kids aren’t the alpha group of the school. The next most likely demographic would be the church kids: They’re plentiful, and they are definitely interested in school domination. However, that strength—the will to dominate—is also their greatest weakness, because they spend so much time trying to convince you to hang out with them, and the way they try to do that is by inviting you over to their church. “We’ve got cookies and board games,” they say, or that sort of thing. “We just got a Wii set up!” Something about it always seems a little off. Eventually, you realize: These same exact sentences are also said by child predators.
”
”
Jesse Andrews (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl)
“
That is still up to the federal government to investigate and prosecute. There aren’t enough resources to adequately do this for over five hundred federally recognized Indian tribes. Without consequences, we see perpetrators become predators. They prey on Indigenous women because the odds of being caught and convicted are slim to none.
”
”
Angeline Boulley (Warrior Girl Unearthed)
“
He said that a killer comes to hunting humans gradually. The appetite builds from a young boy’s undifferentiated anger and morbidity of mind to a search for ever more violent pornography, the visual and written material that Ted believed had shaped and focused his fantasy world. Then comes the window peeping, followed eventually by crudely conceived and unsuccessful assaults. In Ted’s case, these gave way, over time, to a sophisticated taste for the chase and its aftermath: the selection of what he called “worthy” victims, pretty and intelligent young daughters and sisters of the middle class, nice girls whom Ted desired to possess, he said, “as one would possess a potted plant, or a Porsche.
”
”
Stephen G. Michaud (The Evil That Men Do: FBI Profiler Roy Hazelwood's Journey into the Minds of Sexual Predators)
“
Back then, I was still just a fan of music. And to be a fan of music also meant to be a fan of cities, of places. Regionalism—and the creative scenes therein—played an important role in the identification and contextualization of a sound or aesthetic. Music felt married to place, and the notion of “somewhere” predated the Internet’s seeming invention of “everywhere” (which often ends up feeling like “nowhere”)
”
”
Carrie Brownstein (Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl)
“
If a woman, teen, or girl says No, Stop, I Changed My Mind, I Can’t do This, or I’m Just Not Ready… Believe Her! No, she doesn’t REALLY want it. No, she’s NOT playing hard to get. No, she’s NOT just a tease. No, she didn’t ASK for it. Sexual violence is NOT okay no matter how much you try to rationalize it. Don’t be a predator! Have some self-control and RESPECT her decision. Forcing yourself on a person is sexual assault, period!
”
”
Stephanie Lahart
“
What I want is clear, since the day I killed Watson. Since that exhilarating moment fifteen years ago, I’ve known exactly who I am, or at least I started to discover. I’m a predator, a deadly one. A skilled hunter with sharp instincts and a fearless heart. One kill, and I was hooked for life. I live for the thrill of the kill, anticipating whom I will choose next, how I will do it, planning every little detail over and over in my head. Counting the minutes until the day of the feast.
”
”
Leslie Wolfe (The Watson Girl (Special Agent Tess Winnett, #2))
“
I do love Oregon." My gaze wanders over the quiet, natural beauty surrounding us, which isn't limited to just this garden. "Being near the river, and the ocean, and the rocky mountains, and all this nature ... the weather."
He chuckles. "I've never met anyone who actually loves rain. It's kind of weird. But cool, too," he adds quickly, as if afraid to offend me. "I just don't get it."
I shrug. "It's not so much that I love rain. I just have a healthy respect for what if does. People hate it, but the world needs rain. It washes away dirt, dilutes the toxins in the air, feeds drought. It keeps everything around us alive."
"Well, I have a healthy respect for what the sun does," he counters with a smile."
"I'd rather have the sun after a good, hard rainfall."
He just shakes his head at me but he's smiling. "The good with the bad?"
"Isn't that life?"
He frowns. "Why do I sense a metaphor behind that?"
"Maybe there is a metaphor behind that." One I can't very well explain to him without describing the kinds of things I see every day in my life. The underbelly of society - where twisted morals reign and predators lurk, preying on the lost, the broken, the weak, the innocent. Where a thirteen-year-old sells her body rather than live under the same roof as her abusive parents, where punks gang-rape a drunk girl and then post pictures of it all over the internet so the world can relive it with her. Where a junkie mom's drug addiction is readily fed while her children sit back and watch.
Where a father is murdered bacause he made the mistake of wanting a van for his family.
In that world, it seems like it's raining all the time. A cold, hard rain that seeps into clothes, chills bones, and makes people feel utterly wretched.
Many times, I see people on the worst day of their lives, when they feel like they're drowing. I don't enjoy seeing people suffer. I just know that if they make good choices, and accept the right help, they'll come out of it all the stronger for it.
What I do enjoy comes after. Three months later, when I see that thirteen-year-old former prostitute pushing a mower across the front lawn of her foster home, a quiet smile on her face. Eight months later, when I see the girl who was raped walking home from school with a guy who wants nothing from her but to make her laugh. Two years later, when I see the junkie mom clean and sober and loading a shopping cart for the kids that the State finally gave back to her.
Those people have seen the sun again after the harshest rain, and they appreciate it so much more.
”
”
K.A. Tucker (Becoming Rain (Burying Water, #2))
“
she’d been offered money to attend parties hosted by Jeffrey Epstein, the billionaire investor, and attended by Trump. Hair-curling allegations of sexual violence followed: the lawsuit contended that the plaintiff and other minors were forced to perform sex acts on Trump and Epstein, culminating in a “savage sexual attack” by Trump; that Trump had threatened the plaintiff and her family with physical harm should she ever speak; and that both Trump and Epstein were told that the girls involved were underage.
”
”
Ronan Farrow (Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators)
“
That’s not shooting,” Dov said. “That’s violence. A little girl hitting a violent predator with a log is hand-to-hand combat and that’s honest. A man, who is represented by a hand, shooting a series of unknown henchmen is dishonest. It’s not violence that I hate anyway. It’s lazy games that act as if the only thing you can possibly do in life is shoot at something. It’s lazy, Florian. And the problem with your game is not that it’s a shooter, but that your game isn’t any fun to play. Let me ask you a question: Did you play
”
”
Gabrielle Zevin (Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow)
“
I dreamed I was standing on an island in a swamp full of alligators. I could see their backs floating in the water, like logs. And then I saw Kasey swimming toward me, blissfully unaware of the predators that surrounded her. So I pulled out a rifle and shot any alligator that got close to her. Then Kasey was with me on the island, braiding my hair and singing me Christmas carols. And a battered doll walked over to us, but Kasey couldn't see her. And the doll pointed at Kasey and looked at me and said, "Your sister is crazy.
”
”
Katie Alender (Bad Girls Don't Die (Bad Girls Don't Die, #1))
“
The doctor smiles. "Don't cling too tightly to what is natural, Captain. Here, look," he bends forward, makes cooing noises. The shimmer of the cheshire cranes toward his face, mewling. Its tortoiseshell fur glimmers. It licks tentatively at his chin. "A hungry little beast," he says. "A good thing, that. If it's hungry enough, it will succeed us entirely, unless we design a better predator. Something that hungers for it, in turn."
"We've run the analysis of that," Kanya says. "The food web only unravels more completely. Another super-predator won't solve the damage already done."
Gibbons snorts. "The ecosystem unravelled when man first went a-seafaring. When we first lit fires on the broad savannas of Africa. We have only accelerated the phenomenon. The food web you talk about is nostalgia, nothing more. Nature." He makes a disgusted face. "We are nature. Our every tinkering is nature, our every biological striving. We are what we are, and the world is ours. We are its gods. Your only difficulty is your unwillingness to unleash your potential fully upon it.
”
”
Paolo Bacigalupi (The Windup Girl)
“
Ducking beneath the low-hanging limbs of giant trees, she churned slowly through thicket for more than a hundred yards, as easy turtles slid from water-logs. A floating mat of duckweed colored the water as green as the leafy ceiling, creating an emerald tunnel. Finally, the trees parted, and she glided into a place of wide sky and reaching grasses, and the sounds of cawing birds. The view a chick gets, she reckoned, when it finally breaks its shell.
Kya tooled along, a tiny speck of a girl in a boat, turning this way and that as endless estuaries branched and braided before her. Keep left at all the turns going out, Jodie had said. She barely touched the throttle, easing the boat through the current, keeping the noise low. As she broke around a stand of reeds, a whitetail doe with last spring's fawn stood lapping water. Their heads jerked up, slinging droplets through the air. Kya didn't stop or they would bolt, a lesson she'd learned from watching wild turkeys: if you act like a predator, they act like prey. Just ignore them, keep going slow. She drifted by, and the deer stood as still as a pine until Kya disappeared beyond the salt grass.
”
”
Delia Owens (Where the Crawdads Sing)
“
When I was a little girl my uncle
Was a veterinarian
And I was a little girl who loved animals
I had a cat and a dog
And once I asked my uncle (who was a veterinarian)
Why does my dog love belly rubs
But they make my cat attack?
I showed him scratches up and down my arms.
He said the thing about cats you have to understand Is they are predator and prey
They can hunt and pounce and kill
But they’re small and light and probably
Delicious
So they take some things very very seriously
I was a little girl when he said this
But when I became a woman in this world
I understood what he meant.
”
”
Nat Cassidy (Mary)
“
Approaching the trail, he broke through the thicket a short distance ahead of the Empath. Causing the Empaths horse to startle as the surprised rider jerked on the reins. Cap was equally surprised to find a young girl before him instead of an older, experienced male Empath. Cap brought his horse to a quick halt. The young girl pulled a small knife from her boot and cautioned him. "I don't know where you came from, but I'm not easy prey.” Her voice shook slightly with fear as she raised the knife.
Not sure how to proceed, they stared silently at each other. Cap had always believed that Empaths didn't carry weapons. This pretty, chestnut haired girl couldn't be more than 18 years old. Her long straight tresses covered the spot on her jacket where the Empathic Emblem was usually worn, causing Cap to doubt she was the one he sought. Not wanting to frighten her any more than he already had, Cap tried to explain. "I'm Commander Caplin Taylor. I’m looking for an Empath that is headed for the Western Hunting Lodge.”
"My name is Kendra; I am the Empath you seek.” She answered cautiously, still holding the blade. A noise from the brush drew her attention as a small rodent pounced out, trying to evade an unseen predator. Cap was just close enough to lurch forward and snatch the dirk from her hand. Her head jerked back in alarm.
"Bosen May has been mauled by a Sraeb, his shoulder is a mass of pulp." Cap spoke quickly not wanting to hesitate any longer.
That was all Kendra needed to hear. She pushed her horse past him and headed quickly down the trail.
"Wait!" Cap called after her, turning his horse around. Reining in the horse, she turned back to face him annoyed by the delay. "Are you a good horseman?" Cap asked, as he stuffed her dirk in his jacket.
"I've been in the saddle since I was a child." She answered, abruptly.
"Okay so just a few years then?" Cap's rebuke angered her. Jerking the horse back toward the trail, she ignored him.
"Wait, I'm sorry!" Cap called after her. "It's just that I know a quicker way, if you can handle some rough terrain."
"Let’s go then." Kendra replied, gruffly, turning back to face him.
Without another word, Cap dove back into the brush and the girl followed.
”
”
Alaina Stanford (Tempest Rise (Treborel, #1))
“
Hello, Elisabeth," he said softly.
I stood dumb and silent. How did one respond to Der Erlkönig, Lord of Mischief, Ruler of the Underground? How did one address a legend? My mind spun, trying to reel in my emotions. The Goblin King stood before me, in flesh and not in memory.
"Mein Herr," I said.
"So polite." His voice was as dry as autumn leaves. "Ah, Elisabeth, we need not stand on formalities here. Have we not known each other your entire life?"
"Liesl," I said. "Then call me Liesl."
The Goblin King grinned. The tips of his pointed teeth gleamed. "I much prefer Elisabeth, thank you. Liesl is a girl's name. Elisabeth is the name of a woman."
"And what do I call you?" I strove to keep my voice from shaking.
Again that predator's smile. "Whatever you like," he murmured. "Whatever you like."
I ignored the purr in his voice.
”
”
S. Jae-Jones (Wintersong (Wintersong, #1))
“
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a girl ditch Darius like that,” an amused voice came from behind me and I turned to find a guy looking at me from a seat at a table in the corner.
He had dark hair that curled in a messy kind of way, looking like it had broken free of his attempts to tame it. His green eyes sparkled with restrained laughter and I couldn’t help but stare at his strong features; he looked almost familiar but I was sure I’d never met him before.
“Well, even Dragons can’t just get their own way all of the time,” I said, moving closer to him.
Apparently that had been the right thing to say because he smiled widely in response to it.
“What’s so great about Dragons anyway, right?” he asked, though a strange tightness came over his posture as he said it.
“Who’d want to be a big old lizard with anger management issues?” I joked. “I think I’d rather be a rabbit shifter - at least bunnies are cute.”
“You don’t have a very rabbity aura about you,” he replied with a smile which lit up his face.
“I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or not.”
“It is. Although a rabbit might be exactly the kind of ruler we need; shake it up from all these predators.”
“Maybe that’s why I can’t get on board with this fancy food. It’s just not meant for someone of my Order... although I’m really looking for a sandwich rather than a carrot,” I said wistfully.
He snorted a laugh. “Yeah I had a pizza before I came to join the festivities. I’m only supposed to stay for an hour or so anyway... show my face, sit in the back, avoid emotional triggers...”
He didn’t seem to want to elaborate on that weird statement so I didn’t push him but I did wonder why he’d come if that was all he was going to do.
“Well, I didn’t really want to come at all so maybe I can just hide out back here with you?” I finished the rest of my drink and placed my glass on the table as I drifted closer to him. Aside from Hamish, he was the first person I’d met at this party who seemed at least halfway genuine.
“Sure. If you don’t mind missing out on all the fun,” he said. “I’m sorry but am I talking to Roxanya or Gwendalina? You’re a little hard to tell apart.”
I rolled my eyes at those stupid names. “I believe I originally went by Roxanya but my name is Tory.”
“You haven’t taken back your royal name?” he asked in surprise.
“I haven’t taken back my royal anything. Though I won’t say no to the money when it comes time to inherit that. You didn’t give me your name either,” I prompted.
You don’t know?” he asked in surprise.
“Oh sorry, dude, are you famous? Must be a bummer to meet someone who isn’t a fan then,” I teased.
He snorted a laugh. “I’m Xavier,” he said. “The Dragon’s younger brother.”
“Oh,” I said. Well that was a quick end to what had seemed like a pleasant conversation. “Actually... I should probably go... mingle or something.” I started to back away, searching the crowd for Darcy. I spotted her on the far side of the room, engaged in conversation with Hamish and a few of his friends. The smile on her face was genuine enough so I was at least confident she didn’t need rescuing.
(Tory)
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Caroline Peckham (Ruthless Fae (Zodiac Academy, #2))
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In some people, studies had shown, atavism had preserved the ability to identify such danger, allowing them to react instinctively and recognize predators without even seeing them, or by looking at mundane photos.
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Leslie Wolfe (Dawn Girl (Tess Winnett, #1))
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Predators taking advantage of a loophole in US law that in practicality means a white or non-Native man can assault a Native girl or woman on tribal lands and the tribal authorities have no jurisdiction over him.
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Alexandra Sokoloff (Hunger Moon (The Huntress/FBI Thrillers, #5))
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The fire reached fingers of flame out toward them, daring the girls to surrender to its deadly embrace. A beautiful predator whose goal was to devour them in the same way it had the forest around them, leaving nothing behind but twisted and blackened skeletons to mark where they had once stood.
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C.M. Williams (Inferno)
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It’s a cool morning, raining out, and you’re a thirty-eight-year-old woman who can’t remember a thing about her life. A strange amnesia, one you never notice until moments like this, when you’re asked to recall what made you—and all you have is a dark space where memories should be. Your mind is never so quiet as when you reach for the past. You would think a predator is near. You would think a vast part of you is hiding. Praying not to be seen, even by you.
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Hope Nicholson (The Secret Loves of Geek Girls)
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A rake, at the time, was a very specific kind of man: an elite sexual predator.
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John Wood Sweet (The Sewing Girl's Tale: The Sewing Girl's Tale: A Story of Crime and Consequences in Revolutionary America)
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Court authorized,” the pale man said, smiling. “You think you guys can just get an underage girl killed and not be investigated? This falls under violent crimes against children, online predators, and maybe we’ll find more, but who really knows? Now sit down and shut up!
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Mateo Askaripour (Black Buck)
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As soon I see her, I get a rush of adrenaline. My muscles tighten like coiled springs, and I can feel my pupils dilating. I imagine that I can smell her perfume, light and sweet, over the scent of smoke, alcohol, and sweat. It’s the reaction of a predator when it sights its prey. Because I recognize this girl. It’s Nessa Griffin. The cherished baby girl of the Irish mafia. Their little darling. She’s wandered into my club like an innocent gazelle. Foolish. Lost. Ripe for the taking.
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Sophie Lark (Stolen Heir (Brutal Birthright, #2))
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She prays to be preyed upon. She is a deer standing in the middle of the forest road, knees buckling, begging for a predator.
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Kate Zambreno (Green Girl)
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Normally, I’m a predator who enjoys playing with his prey, but lucky for you, I’d much rather get this over with so I can get back to my girl.
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Melissa McSherry (Carving for Cara)
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Cara saw the dark side of me when she looked into my eyes; I felt it. In that split second, she learned that I am the predator, and she is my prey, but she didn’t back down. She wants it. My little nightmare craves the chase just as badly as I do, and well, who am I to deny my girl what she wants?
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Melissa McSherry (Carving for Cara)
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Lord Radnor is a man of great wealth and refinement,” Mrs. Howard continued. “He is highly educated and honorable in every regard. And if it weren’t for my daughter’s selfishness and your interference, Charlotte would now be his wife.”
“You’ve omitted a few points,” Nick said. “Including the fact that Radnor is thirty years older than Lottie and happens to be as mad as cobbler’s punch.”
The color on Mrs. Howard’s face condensed into two bright patches high on her cheeks. “He is not mad!”
For Lottie’s sake, Nick struggled to control his sudden fury. He imagined her as a small, defenseless child, being closed alone in a room with a predator like Radnor. And this woman had allowed it. He vowed silently that Lottie would never again go unprotected. He gave Mrs. Howard a hard stare. “You saw nothing wrong in Radnor’s obsessive attentions to an eight-year-old girl?” he asked softly.
“The nobility are allowed their foibles, Mr. Gentry. Their superior blood accommodates a few eccentricities. But of course, you would know nothing about that.”
“You might be surprised,” Nick said sardonically. “Regardless, Lord Radnor is hardly a model for rational behavior. The social attachments he once enjoyed have withered because of his so-called foibles. He has withdrawn from society and spends most of his time in his mansion, hiding from the sunlight. His life is centered around the effort to mold a vulnerable girl into his version of the ideal woman— one who isn’t allowed even to draw breath without his permission. Before you blame Lottie for running from that, answer this question in perfect honesty— would you want to marry such a man?
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Lisa Kleypas (Worth Any Price (Bow Street Runners, #3))
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I’d just like to understand how these poor girls found themselves in the hands of the worst kind of killer. Feel how that predator managed to move around in this city. Every killer leaves a smell, even years later. The smell of vice and perversion. I want to get a whiff. I want to walk in the places where he killed.
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Franck Thilliez (Syndrome E)
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Now you must tell me a story.” He sighed and nodded. “Very well.” Vincent stepped away from the tree and began. “A young girl was told to bring a basket of food and herbs to her grandmother, who was ill.” Lydia had heard this tale, yet the way Vincent told it with his melodious voice and sinister narrative had her listening with anticipation. She watched entranced as he adopted the persona of the wolf, stalking around the tree like a sleek predator. As Vincent neared the end of the story, he stepped closer to her. “‘What big eyes you have,’ said the girl. ‘The better to see you with,’ the wolf replied.” Lydia sucked in a breath as he circled her, eyes glittering with savage hunger. She could almost believe he was the wolf. Her knees trembled as he continued. “‘What big teeth you have,’ the girl said next. To which the wolf answered, ‘the better to eat you with.’” Vincent snarled and seized her shoulders. Heat flared low in her body at his touch. Lydia shivered as she looked up at him. A trick of the moonlight made his teeth appear sharp and deadly. A gasp tore from her throat as he lunged forward. For a moment it seemed he was going to bite her. She wanted him to. Instead, his lips caressed her neck as he whispered, “Then the wolf swallowed her whole.” Liquid
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Brooklyn Ann (One Bite Per Night (Scandals with Bite, #2))
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If only we could bring all the kids home. If only we could rid the world of all the predators.
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Mary Higgins Clark (Two Little Girls in Blue)
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Silly little girl. Hadn’t her bitch mother ever told her not to run from a predator? Because we like the chase.
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Zoe Blake (The More I Hate (Gilded Decadence #1))
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We’ve got girls here getting pregnant at thirteen without husbands. The fathers taking no care of them or the children. And the sons become predators and it starts again. So help me, all it takes for the world to crumble to nothing is for women to lose their virtue and men their honor.
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Andrew Klavan (The Identity Man: A Novel)
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Young people made easy targets for predators. Young people were glued to their phone screens, thumbs ramming keys, firing off messages of importance, like Facebook status, the color of their underwear that day, girl problems, hair problems, sport stats, where the next party was. They also always had earbuds in. With the music roaring, they could hear nothing until the lion struck. Then it was too late. Easy prey. And they didn’t even know it.
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David Baldacci (The Innocent (Will Robie #1))
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That man”—I pointed down at him, to where he’d rolled up into a ball with Broken Sue standing over him aggressively—“has been touching and groping the women in these parties for years. Every one of you knows it. Austin is the only one who has ever stood up for any of us. The only one in…years. What is wrong with you people that you’d allow someone like this in here? There are no little girls at this party, but they’re at other parties he attends. And yet you keep inviting this predator calling himself Uncle Ramous? Have you no shame? Have you no desire to do what is right and protect each other?
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K.F. Breene (Magical Midlife Awakening (Leveling Up, #9))
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He may have been young, but he was from Jefferson. He had already learned that, many times, sexual predators were also quite clumsy,
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Richard Montanari (The Rosary Girls (Jessica Balzano & Kevin Byrne, #1))
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Something as simple as sitting next to a lonely girl on a park bench may be enough to deter predators.
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Jessica Marie Baumgartner
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Despite Harrison being on remand for three of the sex attacks, he has alibis for all the others, and it looks like maybe there was more than one predator at large all along.
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Lisa Jewell (Invisible Girl)
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Magic,” Yennefer continued after a while, “is, in some people’s opinion, art. Great, elitist art, capable of creating beautiful and extraordinary things. Magic is a talent granted to only a chosen few. Others, deprived of talent, can only look at the results of the artists’ works with admiration and envy, can admire the finished work while feeling that without these creations and without this talent the world would be a poorer place. The fact that, following the Conjunction of the Spheres, some chosen few discovered talent and magic within themselves, the fact that they found Art within themselves, is the blessing of beauty. And that’s how it is. Those who believe that magic is art are also right.” On the long bare hill which protruded from the heath like the back of some lurking predator lay an enormous boulder supported by a few smaller stones. The magician guided her horse in its direction without pausing her lecture. “There are also those according to whom magic is a science. In order to master it, talent and innate ability alone are not enough. Years of keen study and arduous work are essential; endurance and self-discipline are necessary. Magic acquired like this is knowledge, learning, the limits of which are constantly stretched by enlightened and vigorous minds, by experience, experiments and practice. Magic acquired in such a way is progress. It is the plough, the loom, the watermill, the smelting furnace, the winch and the pulley. It is progress, evolution, change. It is constant movement. Upwards. Towards improvement. Towards the stars. The fact that following the Conjunction of the Spheres we discovered magic will, one day, allow us to reach the stars. Dismount, Ciri.” Yennefer approached the monolith, placed her palm on the coarse surface of the stone and carefully brushed away the dust and dry leaves. “Those who consider magic to be a science,” she continued, “are also right. Remember that, Ciri. And now come here, to me.” The girl swallowed and came closer. The enchantress put her arm around her. “Remember,” she repeated, “magic is Chaos, Art and Science. It is a curse, a blessing and progress. It all depends on who uses magic, how they use it, and to what purpose. And magic is everywhere. All around us. Easily accessible. It is enough to stretch out one’s hand. See? I’m stretching out my hand.
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Andrzej Sapkowski (Blood of Elves (The Witcher, #1))
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Families love young girls to adopt, but so do predators, and I won’t take the risk. At least at home, I can protect her.
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H.D. Carlton (Where's Molly)
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Good. You are not safe. Not in this castle. Not in this room. You are prey in a world of predators.'
He leaned closer.
'I will never hurt you,' he said softly. 'But I am the only one who will make that promise, and keep it. I will never give you false safety or kind lies. But I will teach you how to wield those teeth of yours.' He smiled, revealing for the first time the full length of his sharp canines- the death blow, surely, of hundreds.
The girl should have found the sight terrifying. And yet, for the first time in a month, she felt... safe.
'Perhaps they are not as sharp as mine,' he went on, 'but they can still kill, with the right bite.
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Carissa Broadbent (The Serpent and the Wings of Night (Crowns of Nyaxia, #1))
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They are at a hinge moment: between youth and age, between the life you thought you wanted and the one you feel might, now, suit you better. They are like hermit crabs who outgrow one shell and need to leave it before they are trapped inside, emerging for a moment, shell-less and pink, vulnerable to predators of every stripe.
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Anna Funder (The Girl with the Dogs: Penguin Special)
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While heterosexual males figure large in the abuse of girls, homosexual predators figure large in the abuse of boys.
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Judith Reisman (Sexual Sabotage: How One Mad Scientist Unleashed a Plague of Corruption and Contagion on America)
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[Axl Rose] is not a tall man—I doubt even the heels of his boots (red leather) put him at over five feet ten. He walked toward us with stalking, cartoonish pugnaciousness. I feel like all anybody talks about with Axl anymore is his strange new appearance, but it is hard to get past the unusual impression he makes. To me he looks like he's wearing an Axl Rose mask. He looks like a man I saw eating by himself at a truck stop in Monteagle, Tennessee, at two o'clock in the morning about twelve years ago. He looks increasingly like the albino reggae legend Yellowman. His mane evokes a gathering of strawberry red intricately braided hempen fibers, the sharply twisted ends of which have been punched, individually, a half inch into his scalp. His chest hair is the color of a new penny. With the wasp-man sunglasses and the braids and the goatee, he reminds one of the monster in Predator, or of that monster's wife on its home planet. When he first came onto the scene, he often looked, in photographs, like a beautiful, slender, redheaded 20-year-old girl. I hope the magazine will run a picture of him from about 1988 so the foregoing will seem a slightly less creepy observation and the fundamental spade-called-spade exactitude of it will be laid bare. But if not, I stand by it. Now he has thickened through the middle—muscly thickness, not the lard-ass thickness of some years back. He grabs his package tightly, and his package is huge. Only reporting.
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John Jeremiah Sullivan (Pulphead)
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Its number was registered to a pseudonym. Mine was “Candy.” “Oh, come on,” I said, incredulous. “I don’t pick the names,” Tye said, all serious. “I sound like a nice Midwestern girl who should not have moved to LA.
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Ronan Farrow (Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators)
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We teach girls to be likeable, to be nice, to be false. And we do not teach boys the same. This is dangerous. Many sexual predators have capitalized on this. Many girls remain silent when abused because they want to be nice.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Dear Ijeawele; or, A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions)
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Partnis's fight-masters will tell you it's a science, this business of fists and knives. They'll tell you, keep a cool head, detached, control.' The man had given a quick shrug of his shoulders and spat.'He'll tell you the professional calculates, watches, plans.''Don't they'' Nona had turned back towards him.'Nature shaped us, little girl. Shaped the animals. Predators. Prey. Millions of years. Fighting, making children, dying. A cycle that hones each to its purpose. And what have we in common, wolf, eagle, man, under-killers, bears, all of us'' His eyebrows had shaped the question. Nona had waited for him to answer, wondering what exactly under-killers were.'Rage. We've got hate and anger and red fury, child. Saw it in you too. Got your teeth into that idiot boy. Didn't care that he might snap your arms off.' The man had gone down on one knee, face close to hers.'Here in the Corridor they teach you to put that anger aside. They got their reasons. Keep a calm head and you'll see more. But on the ice we know better than to let go of the weapons so many hard years have forged for us.' He had jabbed a blunt finger at Nona's chest.'Keep that fire. Use it. We're wild things us men, and when we remember it we're at our most dangerous.
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Mark Lawrence (Red Sister (Book of the Ancestor, #1))
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A girl knew she was in trouble when she began seeing a man as catnip.
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Jamie Begley (Hostage (Predators MC, #3))
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Often it is easier for the community to focus on the girls than on potential predators.
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Mikki Kendall (Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot)
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We wait to be rescued, but for whatever reason, no one comes. We figure that if no one protects us then we must not be worth protecting so we become prey and are easily picked off. Our wounded, kicked-puppy gazes attract sly predators and we sell ourselves for clearance.
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Laura Wiess (Such a Pretty Girl)