Chapter 110
GRAYSON
“You told me she’s going to wake up!”
“You told me it’s going to work!”
Shut up. Shut up.
My head is splitting in half. Right between the eyes. Like someone’s driving a spike through my skull. I grip the edge of the cot. Hard
go white. Theo’s pacing again. Saying shit like it matters. Pierce is slamming drawers like that’s going to fix anything. They keep making n breathing. But she’s still not fucking moving.
Her body’s burning through another fever. Skin wet and red like she’s being boiled from the inside out. I lean over her. Close enough to hear her heartbeat stutter. Then stall. Then start again.
I want to tear the fucking walls down.
“You said-”
“I said shut your mouth,” I snap.
Three days.
Three days since I carved that cut into her side and fed her my blood like it was enough to save her. Three days since I ripped Riot’s fucking leash off her
neck and chained her to me instead. Three days of her not opening her eyes.
What the hell did I do wrong?
Pierce grabs my collar and drags me outside like I’m the fucking problem. Slams me into the side of the cabin, breathing hard, like he’s ready to throw hands. Like I won’t split his spine for touching me.
“You said she’d wake up,” he snaps, shaking.
I don’t say a word.
“You said your blood would work-”
“I said shut your fucking mouth.”
He grips harder. I let him–for one second. Then I slam my forehead into his nose.
Crack. Blood everywhere.
He stumbles back, yelling, hands flying to his face. I don’t move. I don’t breathe. I just watch him bleed like I want to rip open ha ubs and check it ha heart’s still fucking beating.
“You think I won’t kill for her?” I ask, Low. Too calm
“You think I haven’t already?”
He spits into the dirt. “She’s not breathing right
“She’s breathing enough”
“She’s dying-”
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“No,” I snarl, stepping in. “She’s changing”
1 grab him by the throat this time. Drag him forward until we’re nose to nose, his blood on my mouth now.
“Riot buried himself in her spine. He left anchors in her scent. Leashes behind her eyes. You don’t come back clean from that
“Do you even know what’s happening to her?” he snarls.
I don’t answer. Because yes, I know. And no, I don’t. Not fully But I’ve seen the aftermath of what Riot leaves behind. I’ve seen bod imprint sickness. I’ve seen wolves cannibalize their own mates just to stop the pain.
I step back, exhaling through my teeth.
The cold air hits my lungs sharp.
We’re just outside the cabin now. A single floodlight dangles crooked from the gutter, swaying with every gust of wind. Its licken shadows over the forest clearing like a blade sawing through bark. Dirt. Blood.
The trees crowd in like they’re watching
I stalk away from Pierce, toward the edge of the clearing where we dumped the emergency water tanks and sterilization gear. My boots crust sticks under my soles.
I grab a jug and a knife at the same time–set them down hard on the makeshift bench we dragged out here two nights ago when her fever speed and Theo started praying.
“Where are you going?” Pierce asks, trailing after me like a kicked dog.“We need to fucking talk.”
“About what?”
I don’t turn around. Just keep walking–through the trees, past the shed we dumped the spare cot in, toward the clearing where everything’s been failing apart since the second we got here.
Pierce follows.
“About the pack,” he snaps. “About Riot. About how the line’s gone dead.”
I stop at the bench. Set the jug down. The knife harder.
He steps up beside me.
“It’s been five days,” he says. “No calls. No messengers. No scouts. Nothing.”
“So?”
“So that’s not normal.”
I look at him. Finally,
“You think I don’t know that?”
“I think you’re too busy carving open your soulmate like a goddamn butcher to notice the forest went quiet
I grab the knife.
Pierce stiffens. But I don’t swing.
Not yet.
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06:31 Sun, 31 Aug
Chapter 110
“You wanna say that again?” I ask.
He doesn’t.
I flip the blade once in my hand, then jam it into the bench wood between us. The metal vibrates. “I know it’s quiet,” I mutter. “I know the penat dead. You think I don’t have ears?”
“No one’s coming, Gray. That’s what I’m saying. No backup. No intel. No signal. The border is closed.”
Linhale slow. Hold it. Let it rot in my lungs. “Riot’s doing?” I ask.
“Has to be.”
Of course it is.
9920
The motherfucker doesn’t just poison people–he poisons systems. He spreads. Quiet. Fast. Like mold under the floorboards. You don’t see it uns house is collapsing under your feet.
“You said he was limping,” I mutter.
Pierce nods. “Last time we saw him. But that was before she ran.”
Before she ran. Before she bled. Before he tasted her. Now he’s not just limping. He’s pissed. Hungry. Imprinted. He has her scent in his lungs and. blood on his tongue and that makes him powerful again.
“She’s the tether,” I say under my breath. “That’s why he’s quiet.”
Pierce looks at me sideways. “What?”
“He doesn’t want to chase her. He wants her to come back.”
“Then why block the pack?”
“Because we’re a variable. A threat. He can’t pull her if I’m still in the way.”
Pierce looks back at the cabin. His jaw flexes.
“She’s not waking up.”
“She will.”
“She’s burning”
“I know.”
I yank the blade out of the bench and turn on him. “She’s mine. I carved it in blood. It Riot’s rotting the pack from the inside, then wu stay outside. We hold the line. We don’t move.”
Pierce shakes his head. “You don’t understand, do you? The line’s gone. There’s no one left on the inside.”
That gives me pause.
He sees it. Steps closer
“I think the whole pack’s compromised,” he says, voice lower now, like maybe that’ll soften the blow think Riot already took the capital poisons the pack, Grayson.”
Then, just like that, his next question ruins me.
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“Don’t you care about your people anymore?”
I move.
Fast.
My hand slams into his chest, shoving him back against the half–rotted trunk of a pine. The bark splits behind him. A thud echoes through the trees Moss rains down from the branches.
Hé gasps–just once–before I press my forearm to his throat.
“I care,” I growl.” How dare you question my authority?”
My forearm drives harder into his throat. His back scrapes bark, boots slipping in the dirt.
“I never question you!” Pierce coughs out, fingers clawing at my grip. “Damn it. But you have no plan, Grayson! You have no plan how to take over the damn pack after your father died!”
My grip doesn’t loosen.
“I know Jess is sick but damn it, aren’t you thinking?”
Wrong answer.
I slam him back again–hard enough that the bark splits behind his skull. His head snaps sideways. Blood beads where the skin splits above his
He wheezes, teeth bared, but I don’t care. I lean closer. Let him see it. Let him feel what’s boiling under my skin.
“You want me to think? Fine. Here’s my fucking thought: burn it all.”
His mouth opens–shocked, maybe. I don’t wait.
“Burn the pack. Burn the council. Burn the fucking bloodline. We don’t need a goddamn plan when every piece on the board is already rotten.”
I shove off him with enough force that he drops to his knees. Coughing, Spitting blood.
I pace. Violent, wide steps. Heat crawling up my spine, setting my shoulders on fire. My hands shake. My vision pulses red at the edges.
“You think I don’t hear the whispers in my sleep?” I hiss. “You think I don’t hear you planning with Theo?”
Pierce staggers up onto one knee, but he’s slower now. Weaker/
“You’re a goddamn traitor too, Pierce.”
His eyes flash. “I never betrayed you,”
“You doubted me,” I growl, stalking back toward him. “That’s the same thing.”
“I was trying to save you-”
“Don’t fucking lie to me!”
1
My fist slams into his face. He goes down again. don’t wait for him to get up.
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I’m on him. Pinning him to the dirt. My knees on his arms. My forearm crushing his throat again.
“You looked me in the eye and told me you’d follow me anywhere,” I snarl. “Now you’re sniffing around Theo like he’s got a spine.
“Grayson-” he chokes, trying to twist free.
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Chapter 110
I punch him again. His lip splits. Blood runs into his teeth. “I should rip your throat out,” I mutter. “I should end it now.”
“You already lost yourself,” he spits back, blood flying. “You think this is power? You’re just another fucking rogue in heat over a girl who doesn’t know who you are anymore!”
That’s it. I snap.
I drag him up by the front of his shirt and throw him into the side of the cabin. The wall cracks. His body leaves a dent. I’m on him before heera away, Slam him back, pin his throat again.
“I made you,” I hiss. “You owe me your life.”
“And I saved it more times than I can count,” he coughs. “But this? This isn’t saving her. This is dragging us all down with you.”
