His Trouble Maker

GRAYSON

After rearranging Jessica's recollection of her past events, | stare at her peaceful face and sigh. Rough sex is

always better when | am not trying to erase

another man’s scent on her.

| gave her shoulder a light kiss before | patrol the area to make sure no one followed us. It’s too difficult knowing

Riot can smell her. He'll cfor her again. | know it. He'll track her and | can’t have that.

Riot can’t have the girl just simply because she’s mine. And that’s not smetaphor. It’s not sweet. It's a fact.

Bone-deep. Territorial. Etched into the marrow of what | am. She doesn’t even realize what she’s carrying-how

easily her scent changes, how it tells stories.

She still smells like me. But faintly-just faintly-beneath it all, is the shadow of him. It makes my fucking blood

boil.

Thead toward the back exit, scanning for any trace of Riot’s trail. The trees are too still. Pierce and Theo should

cback now. | send them to gather information and alliance with the other pack so we can bring Riot down.

| stalk the treeline for another few minutes, claws itching beneath my skin. If I shift now, I'll track him easily. But |

won't leave her alone, not again. Not after what just happened. I've seen the way she crumbles and | cannot

have that.

Jessica is too vulnerable right now.

And that’s on me.

It was stupid-reckless-not to claim her during her first heat.

Something is wrong.

“Show yourself,” | growl, low and dangerous. My voice carries through the darkness.

For a moment, there’s nothing but silence. Then, a figure steps out from behind a tree-tall, lean, and

unmistakably rogue. His eyes gleam in the moonlight, wild and untamed. He's in human form now, but | can

smell the beast on him, the stench of someone who's been running too long, too far.

“Relax, Grayson,” he says with a smirk. “I'm not here for a fight.”

Too bad. I am.

My body tenses, my wolf prowling just beneath the surface, pacing behind my ribs, waiting for the smallest

excuse to rip out his throat.

“Then why are you here?” | snap.

He smirks, stepping closer, getting too comfortable that | won't slaughter him. “Let's just say I've got an offer for

you,” he says, his tone dropping. “We

want the girl with rogue blood.”

My stomach twists. “You're not getting anywhere near her.”

lunge before | can think. A blur of red and white hot fury Islam him into the nearest tree, claws bursting from my

fingers, one hand around his throat. “You so much as think about her again,” | snarl into his face, voice guttural

and raw, “I will rip your jaw clean off and feed it to the river.”

He gurgles beneath my grip, choking on the weight of my fury. “You made a mistake, Alpha,” the rogue says. “If

you won't mark her, someone else will.”

I slammed him into the ground so hard the earth split beneath him.

His spine cracked on impact, a sickening sound that satisfied something primal in me. He choked, coughed,

clawed at the dirt like he could crawl away. | could've crushed his throat then and there ripped it open with my

bare hands, let his blood flood the moss, and walked away with my boots soaked in

i)

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09:42 Tue, 26 Aug 6 M.

Chapter 104

But Jessica’s scent hitlike a goddamn freight train

And it wasn’t clean

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It was hers, yes-sweet, head) thick with heat-but there was a shadow threaded through it now. Something that

didn’t belong Something else. Cold

Male. Recent

ROL

My vision went red. | turned, teeth already bared, and ran Branches tore at my skin as | moved through the

forest like a blade | didn’t feel them Couldn't. My body was fire and vengeance and every step was too slow. The

cleaning cinto view, the treeline splitting open like a wound-and then

saw it.

The cabin. The door sagged off its hinges like a broken limb. Wide open Exposed Wherable. Just like her

My pulse slammed against bone-once, hard- n dropped into a twisted rhythm, too fast, too loud. Something was

wrong. | knew it before | crossed the clearing. The air had that thickness to it. That taste. Uke blood and regret.

| moved fast. Four strides, maybe less. Boots grinding through the dirt, claws itching for flesh | didn’t call her

name. Didn't knock Didn't hesitate. |

000 00 kicked the door in, the wood splintering like ribs under pressure-loud, sharp, satisfying. He'd been here. |

could feel it in my teet

The scent hitinstantly, Her-warm cotton, soap, something floral and so that silung to her hair when she

slept. But beneath it-him, Diet. Arrogance. Cheap cologne and testosterone. Like piss marking territory

If he touched her-he graced her wrist, her throat, anything-It soft him coen “Jessica barked. My voice cracked

“Jessica

“Please. “I didn’t even realize I'd said it-didn’t mean to. It crawled out of my throat before | could stop it. “Please,

not her. Not her

dn’t known how deep she’d gotten in until that moment-until the i

hatever would listen, just to find her safe.

Me. Praying. Like sbroken thing. And maybe | was.

You hear that. Jess? You wrecked me, baby.

something insidesplinter. Unellaght myself praying

I turned toward

of the cabin, something cold and primal snapping my head like a predator scoring blood testR

Barefoot. Shaking Shoulders curved in Oke she'd been folded under the weight of something unspeakable. De

she tried to do own skin and failed. Her clothes hung off her, smeared with dirt and blood-hers or his, | didn't

know, didn’t care, do tower

eyes-

her way out o

To was solt s

Fuck Her eyes

She stood on the edge of the porch like she’d meant to run, like her body remembered the command but forgot

how to follow it Like survival was

ghost of an instinct, not a promise.

“Jessica,” | breathed

Her eyes snapped to mine-and for one horrifying second, | was terrified.

“G-Grayson

Baby

“What's happening to me?”

I don’t know

| don’t fucking know

2/3

09:43 Tue, 26 Aug M

Chapter 104

But hell, | don’t fucking care.

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She dropped to her knees and | was quickly there, taking her into my arms. | think | have an idea what's

happening to her, but | don’t know what to do with it. The rogue blood inside of her is consuming her.

“Make it stop,” she whimpered, low and wet, right against my throat, and it was the voice that killed me. “It

hurts! Please...make it stop.”

Fuck this.

| can’t do this anymore.

| take Jessica in my arms and haul her up even as she twitches and claws at me, even as she snarls under her

breath like something in her throat is cracking open, even as she cries and begs and digs her nails into my neck

like she doesn’t know whether to hold on or tearapart, and | don’t care

| carry her inside the house anyway.

“Don’t letchange-Grayson-don’t letbecit-don’t let me-"

| won't, baby. | won't.

| drop to my knees beside her and take her face in my hands and everything about her is wrong.

Her spine arches again and | hear the pop, the crack of something dislocating, and she screams, and it’s like

glass shattering in my ears.

| grab her waist and pull her back flat, muttering her nover and over like it's a spell, like if | say it enough

the thing crawling up her throat won't take

over

“Please,” she gasps, voice shredded. “Killbefore | hurt you-"

“No,” | snap, grabbing her face again, dragging her close so our foreheads touch. “No.”

She jerks in my grip, back arched like something's lifting her by the spine. “I’m going to rip you apart-"

“Then do it,” | growl, voice breaking. “Fucking do it.

Ripapart, Jess. Ripapart. It'll fucking hurt. Tearopen and I'll thank you for it. Sink your teeth into my

throat and I'll call it mercy. Break my fucking ribs and I'll whisper your nthrough the cracks. You think I'm

scared of you? Baby, I'm not scared.

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