Chapter 170
Chapter 170
JESSICA
“Well, someone’s definitely had a good night.”
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Rolling my eyes, I sat beside Jack. My gaze scans his body, searching for wounds. He’s strong enough that no one should be able to lay a claw on him–but I check anyway. Instinct. Pack.
Because deep down, I know the truth. He’s here because of me. Because I couldn’t shut my mouth, couldn’t stay in line.
Kade’s just doing what an enforcer does, and Grayson–Grayson’s too blinded by his own fear to see anything clearly.
“You’re staring, Jessica,” he drawls, lips curving into that infuriating grin. “What? Hoping I’ve got scars you can lick clean?”
I bare my teeth. “Hoping you’ve got scars that hurt when I touch them.”
His laugh is sharp. “That’s my girl. Still a brat even when you’re the reason I got chained up.” He leans closer, close enough that I feel his breath ghost over my cheek. “Tell me, did you enjoy knowing I was down there? Did you piss him off?”
“Is that what you want?” I snap, chin tilting higher against his grip. “For me to piss Grayson off?”
That makes him laugh again, darker this time. He licks a slow stripe up his lips and shakes his head. “I just want you to know the truth.”
My pulse stutters. “What truth?”
“That you’re not weak as he thinks you are.”
Somehow, Jack’s words make my pulse pound harder, like he’s dragging claws through the parts of me I swore no one would see.
“You’re not weak,” he murmurs, voice rougher now, eyes gone wolf–dark. “Grayson leashes you because he’s terrified of what you’d become if you stopped obeying.”
My chest tightens. “You don’t know-”
He cuts me off with a growl, stepping closer, the heat of him choking the air between us. “I do know. I’ve watched you bite your tongue bloody just to keep from tearing into him. I’ve watched you hide the fire that should’ve been burning down his pack years ago.” His gaze drops to my mouth, lingers, then drags back up. “And you fucking love that I see it.”
“Jack-”
“But you’re in love with him.” His voice is a growl threaded with dark amusement, heavy with heat. “And you’ve convinced yourself that being his obedient little Luna is enough.” He tilts his head, a sharp smile cutting. “Content. Caged. Domesticated.”
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Chapter 170
The denial claws at my throat but won’t come out.
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He leans in, so close my lips tingle with the phantom brush of his. His scent floods me–wild, untamed, dangerous. My wolf stirs restlessly, betraying me.
“You’re just another Riot…” I whispered, lips trembling as I stared at his eyes. “You just want to use me against Grayson.”
As I look at him, I know fully, terrifyingly… why I’ve always been drawn to him. Because he sounds like Riot. And now… he’s using it.
Using me.
Twisting that instinct, that hunger, making me question everything I thought I knew about loyalty, about control, about who I belong to.
My wolf stirs violently, desperate, confused but I won’t betray Grayson now.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, voice breaking. “I… I love Grayson. And I won’t betray him. Not again.”
Jack’s eyes flare, sharp and amused, but he doesn’t move to stop me. He just watches, wolf–hot and predatory, as I turn on trembling legs.
I run. Fast. Heart hammering, chest heaving, wolf screaming in my chest, claws itching for freedom.
It’s the first time–I’ll shift again after–but the pull is already overwhelming.
Mud clings to my boots, rain soaks my hair, but I don’t feel it. My wolf is already prying at my bones, stretching, straining, hungry to be unleashed.
“Let me out!”
“No!” I snap, trying to hold her back, to stay human just a little longer, even as claws dig into the earth and every instinct screams freedom.
Rain lashes my fur, claws digging into the slippery mud as my wolf screams in my chest. I’m barely holding myself together, barely holding her back.
“It’s time Jessica! You can’t hold me forever.”
“You–don’t–dare-” I hiss back, voice rough, trembling, every muscle coiling, every vein alive. My wolf snarls with me, echoing, matching the storm. She pounds against the cage of my human bones, claws scraping at flesh, teeth grazing ribs, demanding release.
My lungs burn. My heart hammers. Rain streaks my face, but I barely feel it. Every step I take, every gasp of air, is a battle. She wants speed. She wants the wild. She wants teeth and claws and wind tearing past us. I want… to stay myself just a second longer. Just long enough to remember who I am.
Roots tear at my boots. Mud pulls at my legs. My wolf whines, desperate, frustrated, and I feel her surge, trembling beneath my skin. “I… I can’t-” I gasp. Her growl rattles my bones, shaking me from the inside out.
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Chapter 170
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Lightning cracks above, illuminating the forest in jagged white. I stumble, slip, and she presses harder, claws raking mud, teeth scraping, spine arching, tail whipping. Every nerve is fire. Every heartbeat screams freedom.
I bite back a scream, teeth clashing, and whisper to her, to me, to the wild in my chest: “Soon… soon, I’ll let you out.”
“Not soon! I want out now!” Her roar shatters the last threads of my control.
Bones twist, spine stretches, ribs cracking, muscles tearing free from human restraint. “NoooooOoo!” I roar, voice shattering into the storm. “NO! Not yet! I’m not ready!”
“You are. It’s been so long!”
The last hold of my human self snaps. I shift fully, claws, fangs, tail, fur, muscles pulsing with feral power. I scream again, a sound so deep, so raw, it shakes the trees.
I hit the ground on all fours, claws digging into mud, rain lashing against fur, and the forest erupts around
- me.
The wolf laughs in my chest, sharp, hungry, feral, and I answer with a howl that tears through the storm.
My wolf is free. I am free.
