Chapter 195
Chapter 195
JESSICA
:
He betrayed you, my brain whispered.
He’s yours, my wolf snarled. Mate. Ours.
“Jessica.”
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Grayson’s voice snapped me back. He was still gripping my wrist, rough enough that I could feel each throb of his pulse against mine. He looked wild–blood on his lip, eyes bright with hunger and fury. The same hand that had touched Bella–maybe–was holding me now.
I wanted to scream. I wanted to break. Instead, I forced a laugh sharp enough to cut my tongue. “You’ll bruise me,” I said. “Let go.”
He did, but only because Riot was watching.
Always watching.
Riot’s head tilted, dark eyes narrowing. He didn’t know what was in my pocket, but his nostrils flared, and something in him went alert, predatory. “You’re hiding something,” he said softly.
My throat went tight. “You’re imagining things.”
Riot stepped closer until the heat of him crowded me. “No,” he murmured. “I can smell the lie on you.”
Grayson shoved between us, snarling. “Back off.”
For one hot second, it looked like they’d rip into each other again. But Riot only smiled, slow and sure, like he’d just confirmed his suspicion. “You’ll regret keeping secrets from me, Jess.”
Kade’s order still hung in the air: Tonight. Four hours to decide.
I shoved the Polaroid deeper into my pocket and forced myself to breathe. “Then stop wasting time,” I snapped. “If the Triad wants proof, they’ll get it.”
Grayson’s jaw flexed. Riot’s smile thinned.
Neither of them noticed how hard my hands shook, how my heart hammered as if the clock were already counting down.
“Get some air,” Grayson said, voice rough. He didn’t loosen his jaw; he just stepped back enough for me to
move.
I walked away like I was leaving a burning room. My feet took me down the tree–lined path without permission, carrying the Polaroid against my sternum like contraband.
I needed to do something other than think. Action steadied me. Proof. If this was a setup, I could find the
Chapter 195
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seam. If it wasn’t – if Grayson had betrayed me – then I needed to see the truth with my own eyes before the Triad made it public and turned my choices into theatre.
I could go to Bella. I could go to Grayson. I could storm Kade’s office and scream until someone taped my mouth shut. I could also do none of those things and spend the next two hours watching my life be auctioned.
A laugh
–
small and raw — escaped me. Of course nothing about this was sane. When I turn to go back to our house, I find Bella.
She startles when I appear, like I’m a ghost she didn’t expect. Her lip is split. Her mascara has run thin, like someone cried quick and ugly. She looks ten times smaller than the woman in the photograph.
“Bella.”
“Jess-” Her whisper is a dry breath. She doesn’t meet my eyes.
“Did you-” I swallow. The world has narrowed to a single line: Did you sleep with him? The rest of the sentence–on purpose–is venom in my throat.
Bella’s shoulders slump. Her whole body slumps as if someone just snapped a string inside her. “They made me,” she says..
My knees go weak. “Who made you?”
She looks at me then–really looks–and I see something like shame and a tidal, raw panic. “The Triad,” she breathes. “They-” Her fingers claw at her sleeves. “They have ways. They told me they’d ruin my mother if I didn’t–if I didn’t do it.”
A hot, cold blast smacks the air from my lungs. The photo folds up inside my pocket; the paper is suddenly a
knife.
“You’re lying,” I say, but it’s thinner than I want it to be.
“No.” Her voice breaks. “I left the pack three hours ago and they called me a car. I thought it was a private party. Then there was a man–Triad’s people–and they filmed it. They told me to say I was-” She swallows like someone has shoved a fist into her throat. “They told me if I didn’t, they’d send pictures to my mom’s phone. They showed me the messages. They said they’d make my life worse.”
A cold, clean rage blooms under my skin. The Triad. Of course. They don’t just want loyalty. They want leverage. They want to cut me down and tie our hands together while they watch.
“How long?” I asked.
“Forty minutes,” she whispered. “Less. He–Grayson–left before I did. He was drunk, he kissed me. He woke up-” She pressed her palms to her face. “I didn’t want this, Jess. I swear.”
My wolf keened; the word mate scraped my bones.
“Who filmed it?” I asked.
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Chapter 195
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She trembled. “A man in a black coat. He said he was with the Triad. He filmed it and sent it. Said he’d post it if I didn’t obey.”
My gut dropped.
“I don’t want the Triad’s game,” I said. “I want my life.”
She looked at me and, with grim certainty, said, “We don’t get what we want. The Triad takes what they want. Remember that.”
Her words slashed me open, but my wolf shoved hard against the wound. He’s ours, she snapped, louder than Bella’s voice, louder than my doubts. He would never choose her. Never.
I wanted to scream at her. How do you know? How can you be so sure when I saw the photo with my own eyes? But she only growled back, hot and stubborn, as if the bond itself was insulted by the thought.
And the terrifying part? She was winning.
Because even now, with Bella’s mascara–streaked face in front of me, with the Polaroid burning like a curse in my pocket, I couldn’t shake it.
If he wanted Bella, he wouldn’t look at me like that, I told myself. If he wanted her, he wouldn’t risk his own blood in front of Riot. If he wanted her… why do I feel like he’s drowning without me?
I squeezed my eyes shut. The picture might have been real. The kiss might have happened. But it wasn’t choice. It wasn’t betrayal. Bella’s words echoed back: They made me.
Made her.
Made him.
The Triad wasn’t showing me the truth–they were twisting it. Poisoning it. Using it like a knife against my ribs, against his throat.
My wolf whined, softer now, a thread of certainty weaving through the chaos. He’s yours. He’s ours. He wouldn’t betray us. Not like that.
Slowly, painfully, I let myself believe it. Not because it was easy, but because the alternative would kill me.
Grayson hadn’t betrayed me.
The Triad had.
And if that was true, if they thought they could break us with forged images and forced confessions, then they didn’t understand what it meant to tie me to him.
I opened my eyes. Bella was gone, slipped into the shadows. But the conviction remained, hard and sharp in my chest.
Grayson was mine. My mate. And no matter what games the Triad played, I would prove it.
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Chapter 195
Which meant that when the deadline came, I already knew my answer.
