Chapter 121
JESSICA
They think I’m asleep.
Sedated maybe.
Like the wolfsbane’s enough to make me blind, or stupid, or soft. Fuck. I never thought my own brother would do this to me. He poisoned me. Can you believe that?
The chains dig in when I shift–just slightly–testing the cuffs again like I haven’t done it every ten minutes for the past however- many hours they’ve left me here. Cold stone under my back. Metal against my skin. Sickness rolling in waves through my stomach like I swallowed fire and it’s melting me from the inside out.
I need to get out of here as soon as possible.
I twist my wrist and it stings.
“Fuck,” I hiss, closing my eyes and trying not to make so much noise.
The cuffs bite deeper when I flinch. My shoulder’s out of place again.
“I swear to god,” I mutter, low under my breath, “if Pierce walks in here again acting like I’m the unstable one, I’m gonna rip his throat out with my fucking teeth.”
I breathe through my nose. Try to focus. One second at a time. One breath, then the next. Then I count. Not for calm. Just to keep track of time. I’m up to five hundred thirty–nine heartbeats since the last time Grayson stood at the door and didn’t come in.
“You coward,” I whisper, just loud enough in case he’s on the other side again. “You can string me up, but you can’t even look at
me?”
The chain rattles when I shift my weight. My ankle’s raw. I keep flexing it anyway. Gotta keep blood moving. If I lose circulation, I lose options. And I’m not planning to bleed out in this room like some feral kept on a leash.
1 twist again, slower this time, eyes locked on the door like I’m waiting for it to flinch first. Metal scrapes against skin and it hurts like a bitch, but I keep going. Can’t stop. Won’t. If I’m bleeding, I’m breathing.
“Fuck,” I mutter again, voice sharper now, throat raw from the wolfsbane but still mine. “Come on. Come the fuck on.”
My fingers are numb. My ankle’s fucked. There’s a ringing in my head like a warning bell that never shuts up. But none of it matters. Pain’s information. That’s all. And I can work with that. Use it. Twist it into something useful.
1 shove myself upright, chain rattling but Grayson is there, showing up just on the right time.
I blink, once. Just enough. Just slow enough to make it look like I’m dazed, Head tipping back to the wall like the weight’s too much. “It hurts…”
As expected, Grayson quickly crouched beside me, touching the side of my face. “It hurts…”
His thumb brushes under my eye. “I know,” he murmurs, eyes searching mine for the kind of hurt he can fix. “I know, baby. I didn’t
want to–Pierce said-”
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Chapter 121
My wrists tremble, my chin lowers. “You did it anyway.”
90%
Silence. He can’t answer that. He just breathes, slow and shallow. Still crouched in front of me like he’s waiting for forgiveness that’s never coming.
I shift just enough to make the chain rattle, then wince like it takes too much.
“I’ve brought you something.”
I did not answer. Grayson looks so fucking lost navigating how to take care of a person. Well, at least he still cares. Not that I’m doubting his love for me. It’s just so fucked up. Really really fucked up.
“You poisoned me. You fucking chained me. Now you’re here wanting to spoon–feed me?”
Grayson’s jaw tightens. “You have to eat, Jess.”
“Grayson,” I breathe, voice hoarse and cracked. My eyes find his. “Just tell me the truth. Are you going to kill me or not?”
I breathe through clenched teeth. “What’s your plan, Grayson? Keep me up here until I stop fighting? Let me rot until I beg?”
He doesn’t blink.
I lean forward just enough to make the chain drag across bone. I want him to hear it. I want him to see what he did and still fucking lie to me. “That’s it?”
“Jess…”
Hé moves like he’s going to reach for me again. That pathetic little motion–hesitation before he pretends this is still salvageable.
“Don’t fucking touch me.”
Grayson pauses, his hand suspended halfway and that look that he gives me feels like I’m breaking his heart.
“What are you doing now, huh? What’s your brilliant next move, Alpha? Gonna pout outside the door? Keep me here till I rot?”
“I’m serious,” I say, louder now. “Tell me. What’s the plan, Grayson? And where the hell are you going?”
He doesn’t answer fast enough, and that’s how I know I’m right.
“Jess-”
“You sedated me,” i cut in, voice sharp now, body shaking hard enough to rattle the chain. “You stripped me down, put me in fucking shackles, and now you’re dressed like it’s judgment day and I’m not even allowed to stand beside you?”
He shifts, just half a step, like he’s going to say something gentle. I snarl.
“Don’t you dare,” I snap. “Don’t you dare try to feed me again like that makes up for anything. Don’t you dare pretend like this is some favor you’re doing me. If you’re going to war, you don’t leave your alpha in a basement. You don’t lock your mate to a fucking wall and disappear.”
Grayson’s fists clench. His shoulders shake. He opens his mouth, shuts it, looks like he wants to scream and cry and beg all at once. But I don’t want any of it. Not the pain, not the apology. I want answers. I want blood.
I lean forward, wrists screaming, chain dragged taut across raw skin until the bones grind together and my shoulders seize. I
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Chapter 121
breathe through it. I don’t break eye contact.
2༥ 3 90%D
“You still haven’t answered me,” I say, voice low and sharp like it could cut through steel if I had to. “What was your plan? Huh? Drug me until I’m compliant? Keep me down here until you clean it all up and bring back a peace treaty like a dog with a fucking
bone?”
“My alpha?”
“What?”
“You think you’re the alpha now?” I see it hit him–realization, shame, rage, all at once. He’s still facing the door, fists clenched so tight I hear his knuckles pop. His back is heaving like he’s trying to swallow it down, bury it, force the heat back into the furnace. “Is that what you’ve been aiming for all these days Jessica? Is that why you’ve bitten Theo?”
Fuck. I’m busted.
“Grayson-
His snarl cuts through the word before I can finish it. Low. Guttural. Alpha. It doesn’t come from his throat–it comes from somewhere deeper, older. It shakes the walls. It rattles in my ribs. The whole room seems to still for it, like even the stone knows what’s coming.
“I’m the Alpha, Jess.”
田
