His Trouble Maker

GRAYSON

After rearranging Jessica’s recollection of her past events, I stare at her peaceful face and sigh. Rough sex is always better when I am not trying to erase

another man’s scent on her.

I gave her shoulder a light kiss before I patrol the area to make sure no one followed us. It’s too difficult knowing Riot can smell her. He’ll come for her again. I know it. He’ll track her and I can’t have that.

Riot can’t have the girl just simply because she’s mine. And that’s not some metaphor. It’s not sweet. It’s a fact. Bone–deep. Territorial. Etched into the marrow of what I am. She doesn’t even realize what she’s carrying–how easily her scent changes, how it tells stories.

She still smells like me. But faintly–just faintly–beneath it all, is the shadow of him. It makes my fucking blood boil.

Thead toward the back exit, scanning for any trace of Riot’s trail. The trees are too still. Pierce and Theo should come back now. I send them to gather information and alliance with the other pack so we can bring Riot down.

I stalk the treeline for another few minutes, claws itching beneath my skin. If I shift now, I’ll track him easily. But I won’t leave her alone, not again. Not after what just happened. I’ve seen the way she crumbles and I cannot have that.

Jessica is too vulnerable right now.

And that’s on me.

It was stupid–reckless–not to claim her during her first heat.

Something is wrong.

“Show yourself,” I growl, low and dangerous. My voice carries through the darkness.

For a moment, there’s nothing but silence. Then, a figure steps out from behind a tree–tall, lean, and unmistakably rogue. His eyes gleam in the moonlight, wild and untamed. He’s in human form now, but I can smell the beast on him, the stench of someone who’s been running too long, too far.

“Relax, Grayson,” he says with a smirk. “I’m not here for a fight.”

Too bad. I am.

My body tenses, my wolf prowling just beneath the surface, pacing behind my ribs, waiting for the smallest excuse to rip out his throat.

“Then why are you here?” I snap.

He smirks, stepping closer, getting too comfortable that I won’t slaughter him. “Let’s just say I’ve got an offer for you,” he says, his tone dropping. “We

want the girl with rogue blood.”

My stomach twists. “You’re not getting anywhere near her.”

lunge before I can think. A blur of red and white hot fury Islam him into the nearest tree, claws bursting from my fingers, one hand around his throat. “You so much as think about her again,” I snarl into his face, voice guttural and raw, “I will rip your jaw clean off and feed it to the river.”

He gurgles beneath my grip, choking on the weight of my fury. “You made a mistake, Alpha,” the rogue says. “If you won’t mark her, someone else will.”

slammed him into the ground so hard

primal in me. He choked, coughed, clawed at the dirt like he could crawl away. I could’ve crushed his throat then

it.

1/3

Tue, 26 Aug

Chapter 104

Jessica’s scent hit me like a goddamn

And it wasn’t clean

62%

a shadow threaded through it now. Something that didn’t

Male. Recent

ROL

Branches tore at my skin as I moved through the forest like a blade I didn’t feel

saw it.

door sagged off its hinges like a broken limb. Wide

loud. Something was wrong. I knew it before I crossed the clearing. The air had that thickness to it.

fast. Four strides, maybe less. Boots grinding through the dirt, claws itching for flesh I didn’t call her name. Didn’t

the wood splintering like ribs under pressure–loud, sharp,

cotton, soap, something floral and so that silung to her hair when she slept. But beneath it–him,

throat, anything–It soft him coen

“I didn’t even realize I’d said it–didn’t mean to. It crawled out of my throat before I could stop it. “Please, not her.

she’d gotten

listen, just

some broken thing. And

hear that. Jess? You

inside me splinter. Unellaght

I turned toward

cabin, something cold and primal snapping my head like a predator

under the weight of something unspeakable. De she tried to do own skin and failed. Her clothes hung off her, smeared

eyes-

her way out o

To was solt s

Fuck Her eyes

meant to run, like her body remembered the command

instinct,

“Jessica,” I breathed

to mine–and for one horrifying second, I was

“G–Grayson

Baby