JESSICA
My heart cracks, sharp and ugly in my chest.
Getting caught by Riot again was never part of the fucking plan.
1 twist, elbow jerking back, shoulder screaming from the angle–but he’s not there. He’s already shifted, already moved, already shoving me down with one hand like it’s effortless. I buck, legs kicking wild, but his grip cinches tighter until my hips grind against dirt and root.
He’s faster. Stronger. Always was.
His claws dig into my waist as he yanks me up like I weigh nothing, breath hot against my ear, body all brute force and maddened heat. My legs thrash–useless. He growls, low and guttural, and fuck, it rattles my ribs from the inside.
“Did you think you could run from me?” he snarls, voice split in two–half man, half beast.
I claw at his forearm, nails breaking. “Let go of me-”
He doesn’t. He hauls me tighter, spine bent over me like he’s shielding something that already belongs to him. His chest vibrates with another growl, and his mouth is right there at my neck, breath dragging heavy as he inhales me like a drug he’s been starved
- of.
“Mine,” Riot snaps, more animal than Alpha now. “You smell like him. You reek of wrong.”
I try to shift–goddess, I try–but the wolfsbane still sticks to my blood like tar. My limbs won’t respond. My skin burns with the weight of his grip as he drags me deeper into the woods, away from the lights, from the pack, from anything that could save me.
Twigs snap under his boots. My feet scrape the ground.
“You should’ve stayed hidden, baby,” he breathes, cruel and sweet against my throat. “Now I don’t get to be gentle.”
My shoulder hits a branch. Then another. My legs are raw from the bark, the bramble, from not being able to keep up. Every time I struggle, he tightens his grip–on my wrist, my waist, the back of my neck. His claws don’t break skin, but they could. That’s the point. It’s always the fucking point with him.
He’s dragging me somewhere–I don’t know where. The forest’s deeper here. Colder.
“Let me go,” I whisper, weaker now. “Please, you already have the pack. What else do you want from me?”
“Oh, baby,” he breathes, lips brushing my ear. You still don’t get it.”
He shifts his grip–faster than breath–spins me and slams my back against the nearest tree making me whimper in pain. “I don’t give a fuck about the pack,” Riot snarls, face inches from mine. His eyes burn–black ringed with gold, pupils dilated, wild. “I want you. I’ve always wanted you.”
I shake my head, throat closing. “You’re sick-‘
“Aren’t we all, Jess?”
What? What does he mean by that?
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Chapter 123
Riot seems to notice my confusion when he fists in my hair, yanking my head back hard enough that something cracks in my neck. My gasp turns into a whimper, jaw clenching as pain lights down my spine. “I’ve heard about your little escapade with your past lover Jess. Did you know what you’ve done?”
“What are you talking about-”
“You sank your teeth into him, didn’t you?”
“No-“I thrash.
His palm crushes my jaw so hard my teeth knock together. My head snaps back, spine bowed, ribs stretching too far around his forearm. My vision blurs from the pressure behind my eyes–but he doesn’t stop. He angles me up, forces my throat bare to the stars like I’m a fucking offering.
“Don’t fucking lie to me.”
“You tried to turn him rogue,” Riot snarls, shaking me. “You dragged him out into the woods like a dog and bit him.”
I gasp. He slams me back into him, hand digging into my stomach, holding me tight as my legs kick weakly against the air.
I buck hard, heels scraping bark, a snarl ripping from my throat. “He was mine—”
“Not anymore.”
He slams me forward. My face smashes bark. “You thought you could do what I haven’t?” he snarls, voice split at the edges, inhuman. “You thought you could drag that soft little fuck into the dark and he’d stay loyal to you? That you’d be the one to keep a mate?”
I choke. “You don’t know what happened.”
“I know enough.”
I try to shift. Nothing happens. Wolfsbane still burns through my veins, thick and slow. My hands are shaking.
“You want to build your own little pack, Jessica.” Riot murmurs as if it amuses him. “You want to lead your own pack.”
I try again–force it, blood screaming for the shift–but nothing moves. My limbs stay dead, fingers clawed into the dirt, heart beating so loud it cracks in my ears. The wolfsbane’s still there, crawling under my skin like poison, eating everything that makes
me strong
“And now look at you.” His voice slips into something colder. “Sniffed out. Caught. Bleeding wolfsbane and smelling like him.”
I go still.
“You don’t get to have that future, baby,” Riot breathes against my skin, all teeth and heat and wrong. “You’re mine.”
1 freeze. Every inch of me pulled tight.
“You don’t get to run off and make new rules. You don’t get to claim what’s not yours. You bit him-” his tongue swipes the side of my jaw“-and you thought that made you strong?”
My stomach twists.
“You’re not strong, Jess. You’re fucking delusional.”
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Chapter 123
His claws rip the hem of my shirt. “I’ve lied. You were never strong. I never trained you.”
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“I never trained you. Not really. I made you think you were getting better. Like you earned something.” He leans in, tongue dragging slow up the side of my neck. “You didn’t. You were always a little girl pretending to be a wolf.”
“SHUT UP!”
“You think Theo would’ve made it?” His mouth curls against my ear. “You think he could’ve survived you? No one survives you, Jess. Except me.”
“You can’t be Alpha,” he says, low and slow and cruel. “You can’t be anything without me.”
His hand fists in my hair again and yanks me back, arching me against him, my spine grinding against his chest. I gasp, legs kicking at nothing, lungs catching on the sheer size of him. “You want to lead?” he breathes, mouth at my nape, fangs grazing. “Then lead with a leash around your fucking throat.”
Chapter 124
Chapter 124
