Chapter 112
Chapter 112
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JESSICA
“I’m okay baby, really.”
Grayson sighs, burying his head further into my neck, making me laugh. I don’t think I’ve seen him cry like that earlier. My fingers brush his hair, admiring him like this. I don’t know what happened or how many days I’ve been sleeping, but I remember some fragments of what had happened before.
Ishift a little, body fucking heavy, muscles stiff like they’ve
“Jess…” voice low, rough, like it scrapes his throat raw to say it.
I feel his chest hitch, ribs brushing mine. God. I really fucked him up, didn’t I? This big, stubborn, half–feral man looking at me like I’m about to vanish if he blinks.
Fuck. He looks so… vulnerable. My hand slides down, knuckles bumping his jaw, thumb brushing the cut under his eye. When did he get that? And why is it not healing?”
Slowly, he lifts his head–fuck, it still knocks the air out of me.Hair stuck to his forehead, eyes shot red, jaw tight like it hurts him to breathe.
“Hey,” I rasp, tongue dry, voice scratchy like gravel. “W–What happened?”
Grayson looks wrecked. Worse than I remember. Like he hasn’t slept in days.
His gaze drags over my face, jaw, throat–hungry, haunted, desperate, all at once.
I shift on the mattress, heel sliding against the sheet, knee bumping his hip. The bed creaks under the weight of us both, wood complaining loud enough to drown out my heartbeat for half a second.
“Did… did I do this?” The words scrape out raw, softer than I meant, almost afraid of the answer.
His jaw tightens harder, a muscle ticking. “No, baby,” he mutters, voice rough, barely a breath. “You didn’t.”
My nails graze lower, skimming the sharp line of his throat. I feel his pulse hammer under my fingertip – quick, uneven, like he’s barely holding it together.
“What happened?” I ask again, words spilling out shaky. “How long… how long was I out?”
His eyes close lashes dark against the bruised skin under them. Shoulders lift, ribs straining the fabric of his shirt.
“Too long,” he rasps, voice gone hoarse, like it hurts him to admit it. His hand comes up, rough palm catching my wrist, holding it like it’s the only thing keeping him standing.
I shift closer, thigh brushing his leg, sheet bunching under my knee. The room smells like sweat, old blood, the ash and pine of Grayson’s wolf pressed so
close.
“Grayson,” I breathe, quieter. “Talk to me.”
His thumb drags over my pulse, hot and shaking. “… I fucking missed you,” he mutters, voice breaking on it. “I miss you so much Jess.”
“Grayson…”
“Do you know how fucking scared I was?” His voice roughens, turns sharp at the edges,
My mouth opens, but nothing comes out–words choking on
knot in my throat.
“You didn’t wake up, Jess,” he grinds out, breath hot against my cheek, “Days. Nights. Fuck–I thought… I thought I lost you.
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Chapter 112
His forehead drops to mine, rough and desperate. The heat of him burns through my skin, seeps down to the bone.
I feel my wolf stir, restless under my ribs–caught between wanting to nuzzle closer and bare her teeth at the weakness in his voice.
“Grayson…” My fingers lift, shaking, and I trace the cut at his cheek again. This close, I see it clearer–the split skin, dark bruising blooming under his eye. “Did I… do this?”
His breath hitches, chest shuddering under my palm. “No,” he rasps. “Not you.”
“Then who?” The words scrape out, half–broken. “Grayson, what the fuck happened?”
“Nothing.”
“What about Riot?”
His breath drags in rough, chest rising under my hand, shoulders bunching like he’s holding back from putting his fist through the wall again. “Don’t,” he mutters, voice gone raw, almost a snarl. “Don’t say his fucking name right now.”
“Why?”
His stare pins me–wild, ruined, wolf burning behind his eyes. “Because if I hear it again, Jess, I won’t be able to fucking stop myself.”
I swallow, tongue dry as bone. “Stop yourself from what?”
“From going out there and dragging him back by the throat,” he breathes, voice so low it vibrates through my ribs. “From finishing what I should’ve fucking finished the first time.”
He’s trying to dodge the topic. I know Grayson and I know what he’s doing–throwing blood and rage at me so I’ll stop asking. “That’s not what I asked,” I rasp, voice rough, throat burning. “Tell me what happened. The truth.”
His eyes flicker–wolf snarling just behind them, jaw ticking so hard it must hurt. His breath catches, chest straining under my palm.
“Jess…” he mutters, voice barely there, like gravel dragged over stone. “Don’t make me say it.”
“Say it,” I push, nails biting through the thin cotton stretched over his ribs. “Say what he did to me.”
His shoulders bunch, breath rips out of him like it’s tearing something loose inside. His hand curls at the back of my neck, hot and shaking, thumb pressing hard under my jaw like he’s afraid I’ll slip away.
“He fucking poisoned you,” he bites out, voice ragged. “His blood, Jess. He forced it into you so your wolf would bend.”
My stomach drops, something cold crawling up my spine. His blood. Inside me. Fuck.
I can’t stop the thought that slams through my skull, vicious and ugly: And I didn’t even fucking know.
“That’s why you couldn’t fight him off,” he says, voice raw, almost pleading like he needs me to understand it wasn’t my fault. “That’s why you listened.”
“And what did you do?”
I know he’s done something.
His hand tightens on my nape, thumb scraping rough under my jaw. His throat works around the words, sweat beading at his temple.
“I ripped it out,” he rasps. Words so raw they barely sound human. “The bond–his fucking bond–I tore it out of you.”
My breath catches sharp, chest seizing so hard it hurts.
“You what?” It croaks out, small, broken, half a snarl.
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Chapter 112
His gaze burns into me–wild, haimted, woll crouched so close it shadows every flick of his lashes. It was killing you, Jess he grinds est, voice thakingi so bad it scrapes through my ribs. “I could see it rotting you from the inside out. His blood. His claim. I couldn’t fucking wand it
His hand drags rough down the column of my throat, palm shaking so hard it’s barely a touch, more like a plex. “So I ripped it out,” he breather, softer now, words frayed. “My woll–our wolf—he knew where it was coiled under your skin. And he tore it out.”
My vision blurs, pulse hammering so loud it swallows the air between us. “Grayson,” I whisper, voice catching “What did it do to you?”
His chest heaves, breath shuddering, sweat slick at his temple. “Almost killed me,” he admits, so fucking low I feel it more than hear it. “But I’d do n again, Jess. A thousand fucking times.”
“So it’s gone,” I breathe, pulse fluttering like a trapped thing. “Riot’s bond… it’s gone?”
His eyes drag up to mine, dark and ruined but sure. “Gone,” he growls. “He’ll never touch you again.”
