Chapter 82
JESSICA
“NO.”
“I said no,” I snapped, lower now–shaking, wild–eyed, barely holding my skin on. “Don’t you fucking dare, Grayson.”
He’s fucking insane.
They both are.
There’s no way I’m letting this happen. No fucking way.
The Alpha wants them to fight–Riot and Grayson–and the winner takes me.
Takes me.As a mate. As a Luna.
That’s the condition before anyone leaves this cabin.
My hands grip the edge of the desk so tight my knuckles burn white. I won’t look at either of them. Won’t give this madness oxygen.
Grayson’s lounging against the steel rack, arms crossed, eyes sharp. “This was your fucking plan,” he says, snapping his head toward Riot. “You set this up.”
Riot doesn’t move. He’s halfway to me–still, tense–but I feel him like heat. Pressure. A pull that cuts deeper than
blood.
His wolf wants me.
Mine wants him back.
But I won’t let him do this.
“She’s my fucking mate,” Riot growls. “Not yours, asshole,”
I don’t look at either of them.
If I look, I’ll lunge.
If I lunge, I shift—and if I shift, someone’s not walking out of here.
My breath’s ragged. Chest heaving, Claws prickling beneath my fingertips like they’re begging to tear skin. I’m overheating. Spiking. My wolf is pacing, snarling, throwing herself at the walls of me–fight, take, bite, own.
My breath’s ragged. I’m trying to calm it. I’m trying. Trying to think.
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The Alpha said what he said. Either they fight, or none of us leave this fucking cabin. I don’t even know if that was a
threat or a joke or-
“She’s my mate,” Riot says suddenly, rough. “She’s mine.”
Across the room, Grayson laughs–short, mean. “You gonna fuck her right here then? Drag her to the floor and
mark her like an animal?”
A tear–a rip–like my ribs have been kicked out from the inside. My breath punches out of me, and I scream.
“SHUT UP!”
“Shut the fuck up!”
They blink. Just for a second.
“Let me make this real fucking clear,” I snap, pointing now–at Riot, then at Grayson. “If either of you touches the
other, I swear to god I’ll lose my shit so hard the Alpha will wish he never got involved. You hear me?”
Neither of them speaks.
I can still feel the shift crawling under my skin. My muscles are twitching. My wolf is pacing like she wants to break
every rib in my chest to claw her way out.
“There’s gotta be another way,” I say–lower now, breathless. “There has to be.”
My father used to say there’s always a solution. Every problem has a door–you just have to look at it from the right
angle, try harder, twist the lock till it snaps open.
But I’m twisting and twisting and I still feel trapped.
My knees almost give. I catch myself on the edge of the desk and I’ve realized I’m becoming so weak. If a she–wolf won’t be mated, it consumes her energy to the point of making her useless and that’s what terrifies me the most.
The moon goddess must be laughing at me. I’ve work so hard to be a warrior and she fucking reduced me into this.
“Jess-”
“Don’t,” 1 hissed.
His hand brushes my shoulder. And I shove him. Hard. Grayson stumbles back into the steel rack, metal clanging. I round on both of them now, wild–eyed, barely containing the shift lashing under my skin.
“No one is touching me!” I snap, voice cracked and feral. “Not you. Not him. No one.”
Grayson pushes off the rack, teeth bared.
“Then what the hell do you want us to do?” he growls. “Watch you die here?”
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Chapter 82
“Yes!” I scream it. A raw, jagged howl ripped from somewhere deep and aching.
Grayson’s eyes are glowing now. Riot’s are pitch–black. They both look like they’re about to tear something apart.
Grayson takes a step forward, and this time Riot stops him–arm across his chest, voice a low, vibrating snarl.
“Back off.”
“You back off,” Grayson spits. “You caused this.”
This is so fucking pathetic.
After a few minutes, it was Riot who broke the ice. “The next full moon is in a week.”
In a week?
That’s too soon to find a solution damn it.
If I’m not mated by then, it’ll ruin me. The shift will eat me alive. The heat, the burn–it’ll hollow me out until
there’s nothing left but instinct and bones.
And the Alpha knew that.
I stagger upright again, palms slick on the desk, breathing like I’ve run a marathon through fire. My vision blurs. My wolf is scraping her claws down my spine.
“We don’t have a week,” I manage. “We have days–if that. And I’m not sitting in this fucking cabin waiting for one
of you to come to your senses and volunteer to play monster for the Alpha’s little show.”
They both go still.
“What are you saying?” Riot asks.
“I’m saying we cheat,” I snap. “We don’t follow the Alpha’s rules. We find a third way.”
Grayson’s brow furrows. “There is no third option. You either reject the bond–or give in to it.”
“No,” I say. “That’s his binary. Not mine.”
My pulse is buzzing now. I’m burning up, but it’s the kind of heat I need–clarity laced with panic. My mind whirs. Options. Risks. Costs.
“What if we fake the bond?”
That shuts them both up.
“I’m serious,” I pant. “If the Alpha wants proof of a mating bond—then we give him one. Not the real thing. Not yet. Just enough to satisfy whatever inspection or ritual or twisted tradition he plans to drag us through.”
Grayson frowns. Riot looks at me like I’ve sprouted fangs.
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“You want to fake a mating bond?” Riot says slowly.
“Temporarily,” I grit. “Until we find a real way out. Something that doesn’t end in a death match or me bleeding
out on the full moon.”
Grayson’s eyes flick between us. Calculating. “And which one of us are you planning to fake it with?”
My throat tightens.
Fuck.
I hadn’t gotten that far.
I stare at both of them–Grayson, jaw locked like he’s already bracing for war. Riot, too still, too quiet, but there’s a
darkness in his eyes I know too well.
Hunger.
“This isn’t a fucking game,” Grayson says, low. “You can’t just toss a coin and fake a bond. It’s blood. It’s teeth. It’s the goddess.”
“I know that,” I snap, louder than I mean to. “But if we don’t do something, I’m going to lose control. I can feel it- I’m unraveling, Grayson. My wolf’s pushing closer every hour. I won’t survive a week.”
Riot shifts closer. “Then let me do it.”
I turn toward him slowly. “You–what?”
“You said fake it. Fine. I’ll do it. We go through the motions–just enough to convince the Alpha. Enough to buy us time.”
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” Grayson roars, putting himself between us. “She’s mine. You don’t get to touch her. You don’t get to say her name.”
Riot’s jaw ticks. “I don’t want to touch her, I have to.”
“Bullshit-” Grayson shoves him back a step, chest heaving. “You want this. You’ve always wanted her.”
“Because she’s my mate,” Riot bites. “I didn’t ask for it, I didn’t chase it, but it’s there and it’s killing her.”
“Stop,” 1 croak. My voice breaks. “Just–stop.”
They freeze,
Just long enough for me to breathe
“I can’t-“My voice cracks. “I can’t wait a week. I won’t make it.”
The room tilts.
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Grayson moves first. “Jess, don’t–don’t say that. Don’t even think it.”
But I do.
It’s the only thing left to think.
I lift my head. Lock eyes with Riot.
And I hate the word that leaves my mouth more than anything in the world.
“You.”
Grayson stiffens.
“You’ll do it,” I tell Riot. Flat. Feral. “You’ll bond me. Just enough to stop this.”
Grayson’s voice is raw. “Jess, no-”
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I choke on the words but say them anyway. “It’s him or the heat, Grayson. You can’t stop what’s happening. You
can’t fix it.”
His eyes go bloodshot. His voice snaps. “Because it’s not mine to fix!”
I flinch. His hands are balled into fists, like if he doesn’t clench them he’ll rip Riot’s throat out. “You said you
wanted me. You chose me. And now you’re giving up because your body’s–what? Inconvenient?”
1 step back like I’ve been slapped.
Riot shifts beside him, silent but bristling. A single twitch of muscle and the whole room tilts.
“Don’t talk to her like that,” Riot says, voice low and dangerous. “She’s trying to survive.”
Grayson snarls. “You don’t know her-”
“I know her wolf is dying,” Riot growls. “And I know you’re watching it happen.”
“Stop it-“My voice is shaking. “Both of you, stop-”
My legs give out.
Riot catches me before I hit the floor, arms around my shoulders, breath hot at my neck–and it’s a bolt of heat straight through my spine.
Grayson however sees something else. He looks at me–really looks at me—and the fury crumbles.
What’s left is worse.
“I won’t have it,” he says, quietly.
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I jerk toward him, half–reeling from the words. “Grayson-”
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But his face is unreadable now. He’s retreating behind it, sealing himself in. I can see him shutting down–click, click, click–one wall after another slamming into place.
“I won’t stay here and watch you give yourself to him.”
“I’m not–Grayson, it’s not like that-”
“You think I give a fuck what it’s like?” he snaps, eyes bloodshot. “You think it matters if it’s heat or fate or
hormones or some twisted curse from the moon? It’s still him.”
W–What?
I lurch forward–my knees are jelly, my fingers scrabbling against the desk for balance. “Grayson, don’t–please, don’t go like this-”
He freezes in the doorway but he never turns around. “You could’ve let me fight for you.”
And then he’s gone.
Riot exhales behind me, but my gaze is glued to where Grayson has left. “He’ll come back.”
I don’t answer.
Because I don’t believe it.
Because I’m terrified he won’t.
Because for one cracked second, I’m not sure which one of them I want to come back.
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