Chapter 128
GRAYSON
He pants and probably cursing me on his head but what the fuck?
He’s on the ground again, curled halfway up with a hand bracing the worst of it. I know which rib cracked. I can feel it in my own chest, phantom ache. We used to train like that–mirror–break each other till we were both on the ground laughing, groaning, fucked–up and proud.
Shit. We’re too fucked–up trying to kill each other. But hell, I’ve missed this. I think this is one of the mightiest memories I had ever since things happened in our pack.
My jaw’s off–center. I spit blood and watch it run down my chin. “You fucking idiot,” I curse Pierce, steadying myself on the fucking ground. I still want to gut him for selling her off–but fuck it–he loves Jessica. He just doubted his trust in me. He thought I’d lose it. Like I haven’t already. “What if he killed her, huh?”
My voice shakes at the end.
I hate it. I bite the sound back, try to smother it with dirt and blood and the weight of my own goddamn fists. I want to hit him again. I want to drag him through the forest by what’s left of his spine and scream into his skull until the answer makes sense. Until something fucking makes sense.
I turn, spit again, and my hands won’t stop curling. I can feel the claws trying to push through my skin–muscles twitching, bones humming, jaw locked too tight.
“She’s mine,” I mutter. “You know that. You fucking know that.”
I’ve known it since she was fifteen and punched a Beta in the teeth for talking over her. Since she pinned me with that look like she already knew I’d kneel. Since I smelled her blood and it rewired every part of me that used to make sense.
She was never supposed to be mine.
And now I’d kill anyone who tries to say otherwise.
“Jessica is a big girl, Grayson,” Pierce says, panting between the words, chest lifting slow, “Riot won’t kill her. Apparently… you’re not the only one obsessed with my sister.”
I let that sit for a second.
Then I laugh.
Low, bitter, too–close–to–breaking. It hurts my ribs pull wrong, something shifts under the skin–but I can’t stop. I laugh because it’s fucked. Because he’s right, Jess always have this trouble surrounding her. Her choices of lover makes me question her too.
I mean, look at me, worshipping the ground she fucking walks on.
“Yeah,” I breathe, dragging a palm across my jaw, trying to steady it all. “Well, I don’t want to share.”
“Clearly.” Pierce coughs, groans, tips his head back against the tree. “Jesus. You cracked something.”
“You did first.”
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Chapter 128
“Only because you fucking snarled like a beast and lunged.”
“You gave her to Riot.”
For a minute we just breathe, both of us wrecked. Wolves coming down from it. Bones knitting slow.
I glance at him again. “You okay?”
He shrugs. Winces. “You broke my rib.”
“You bruised my fucking spine.”
“So we’re even.”
“No,” I mutter. “But seriously, how sure are you Riot’s not going to kill her?”
I stand up. Everything fucking aches. My left leg’s numb and my spine feels like it’s been chewed by wolves and spit out sideways. Still–I reach down, grab the asshole by the arm, and drag him up like it’s my job to keep us moving.
Because it is.
Pierce groans, slightly shoving me off. “I’m not sure,” he finally admits. “just… he’s sick, not stupid, He wants her alive.”
“Why?”
Pierce look at me and I’m fucking confused when he took a step back as if I’m going to unleash war.
Istare at him. Frown. Tilt my head just enough to see the way his pulse ticks in his neck, the way his stance shifts–tight, bracing.
Ready.
“What?” I bark.
He lifts his hands, placating. “Don’t get worked up.”
“Say it.”
“Do you know the rogue who attacked her?”
That stops me.
The rogue.
I blink, hard. Try to summon the details, the scent, the blood, the blur of movement in the woods. I remember something. It’s the note that I’ve found with her,
Do you want to share?
-R.
I remember the note.
I remember the way her scent was wrong–faded, sharp, like fear under ash. I remember how her shirt was torn too clean to be random. The way the ground was disturbed but not destroyed–whoever it was, they stalked her.
Chapter 128
Watched.
Got close enough to write his fucking name and walk away like he was owed something.
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Riot.
“Fuck,” I choke, and my claws are halfway through already, skin ripping, bones realigning. I can’t stop it. I don’t want to stop it. I want to tear down the fucking trees and gut every shadow that could’ve watched and done nothing. My heart’s a weapon and it’s swinging wild inside my ribs, screaming one word again and again and again-
Mine
“Grayson, you need to calm the fuck down-”
“He touched her,” I snarl. “He fucking touched her.”
“She’s not dead.”
“He shouldn’t have gotten close enough to breathe near her!”
Pierce stumbles back again, and I don’t care. I don’t care if he bleeds or passes out or begs me to be rational because I’m not rational anymore. I haven’t been since the day she touched me and I decided I’d kill the world to keep her hand from shaking.
I’m going to find Riot.
I’m going to tear every damn skin in his body and feed it to the wolves.
And if he touched her like he owns her-
If he thought for one second she was his-
I’ll break his goddamn ribs in reverse. I’ll make him share the way I never will.
He thought he marked her? He thought I’ll fucking share what is rightfully mine? I’m going to carve my name into your spine, Riot. I’m going to make sure the last thing you ever see is her choosing me with blood on my hands.
And I’ll laugh when your bones break trying to understand why she never screamed for you.
