Chapter 126
JESSICA
9.83%
My wolf still reacts at Riot being nearby. Although it’s my wolf, I think I’m getting confused by her reactions. Tendencies are, she reacts for him and that makes it worse because that only means whatever Grayson has done is—
No.
No, that’s not it.
My wrists burn raw against the rope again. I pull once, sharp, testing if the sweat from my back slicked the knot enough to shift it, but it only bites deeper. I taste the bark on my tongue. I smell the fucking rot of the meat he’s eating. Rabbit, maybe. Something small and still steaming, bones snapping in his mouth like he’s doing it for show.
My wolf licks her teeth. She doesn’t flinch from the sound. She doesn’t flinch from him.
I do.
And that’s the problem, isn’t it?
She still wants to roll belly–up every time he comes close. She still presses into the scent of him like it’s some kind of anchor. She still wants to believe the monster chewing tendon in front of me is a pack. She doesn’t understand what Grayson did. She doesn’t understand what he gave me.
He doesn’t look at me.
He hasn’t looked at me all morning.
Just sits there at the fire, crunching through tendon like he’s camping, like I’m not tied to a fucking tree with piss–stained moss under my knees and bruises on the inside of my thighs from where he carried me like a corpse.
him with
My stomach clenches and it’s not just hunger. It’s shame. It’s the way I feel every time I smell him. Like I’ve already lost. Like my wolf has already made her fucking choice.
She twitches. Perks. She wants to get closer. Idiot. Monster. I hate her. She hears his chewing and leans into it. She thinks it means safety. She thinks it means mate.
Across the clearing, Riot lifts his head. Doesn’t even look at me. Just says, lazy, like it’s a joke, like he hasn’t shattered my whole fucking life already-
“What? Do you want some, pretty?”
My mouth opens. Nothing comes out.
I’m starving. I’m not hungry. I’m shaking. I’m not crying. I think I’m dehydrated. I think I’m gonna pass out. I think I’d still bite him if he got close enough. I think I’d let him.
“Cat got your tongue?” he calls again, louder. Still not fucking looking. “What’s the matter, Jess? You hungry?”
Fuck you.
It’s in my throat. On my tongue. It wants out. My wolf wants to whimper. My human wants to scream. Neither of us do.
1/3
08:
Wed, 3 Sept
83%
+13
Chapter 126
He throws the bone.
I flinch before I even see it. It lands near my foot with a wet slap. Still steaming. Ripped meat still clinging to the end. My jaw clamps shut and I breathe through my nose, and that’s worse. It smells like blood and char and marrow.
Riot stands.
I don’t move. I don’t breathe. I know better.
He stretches like he just woke up from a nap. Rolls his shoulders, cracks his neck.
My wolf hums. Stupid bitch. She likes this. She wants him near.
I can’t stop shaking. My wrists burn. Rope. Rope. Rope. Rope. If I pull hard enough I’ll bleed. If I scream he’ll laugh. If I beg—
No. No begging. I’ve seen what that does to girls. I’m not her.
“Fuck you,” I say.
He stops walking.
Silence.
Then the smirk. It spreads like a crack across his face. His eyes stay wrong. Riot crouches and tilts his head like he’s sizing me before moves like he’s gonna kiss me.
I jerk my face away.
“Ah.” He laughs, low in his throat. “Still got a bite in you, huh?”
I realize something when he’s out there snoring like a mad man. We’re not going anywhere. I blink. Look past him. Past the fire. There are no others. It’s just him and me.
“What are we waiting for?” I say.
“What am I waiting for?” he repeats, slow, quiet. His mouth curls at the edges. “That’s a funny fucking question.”
“Waiting,” he says, low, almost to himself. “That’s good. You’re starting to think ahead. Starting to wonder if this ends. If we go back to the pack. If I drag you through the village and put you in the square and show them what happens to a bitch who disrespects bloodlines.”
I don’t answer. His steps slow when he’s close enough for the heat of the fire to hit my skin through the cold sweat. My arms shake, I’m biting the inside of my cheek so hard I taste blood.
He crouches again. That crouch. Always the same angle–low, calm, right at eye level so I remember what he is. So I remember what he’s not. Not a man. Not a wolf. Just something built for this. For girls like me. Tied like this.
“You think I’m waiting for them?” he murmurs. “You think I need an audience for what comes next?”
He reaches forward. Just enough to brush my cheek with his knuckle. “Every second you’re tied here, you’re learning. You’re being emptied out. Grayson left pieces in you, didn’t he? I can smell them. His scent. His mark. His fucking grief.” He spits on the ground. “But don’t worry. I’ll rot that out of you too.”
I breathe hard. I bite back a sound.
2/3
08:13 Wed, 3 Sept ti
Chapter 126
2 N . 82%
+13.
“You’re not ready yet,” he says, more to himself than me. “That’s what I’m waiting for. I want to take you back when you’re hollow. When there’s nothing left of you to fight.”
“You’re not taking me anywhere.”
He leans in, close enough I can feel the smile stretch across his face. “Hmm?”
“You’ve lost the pack too, haven’t you?”
It’s just an assumption.
Riot makes a growl that makes me think he’ll strike me. When he raised his hands, I thought he would hit me but instead, his fingers grasped my jaw, so tight it hurt.
“And why would you think of that?”
I’m right. Riot lost it too. But to whom?
He’s keeping me out here because he has no pack left to take me to. Because something bigger chewed him out.
“Do you know what you’ve done?”
What I’ve done. What I’ve….could it be. “Theo.”
