His Trouble Maker

JESSICA

His skin gives. The blood hits my tongue hot, faster than I expect, and I push him off me before it settles–before instinct drags me deeper. He stumbles, hard, crashing sideways into a tree, breath knocked out, hands scrambling for something solid, something

that isn’t me.

Fuck.

What did I do?

My eyes widen and my breath catches while watching him stumble like his body’s been pulled loose from itself, knees folding hard and fast as his spine convulses once, then locks.

“Look at me,” I hiss, but i don’t even know if he can hear me, pupils blown wide, sweat slick across his cheekbones, lips pulled back in a half–snarl that he’s not even aware of.

His heartbeat is wrong. I can feel it. Fast, yes–but uneven. Staggering. I’ve been thinking of doing this for so long and now, it’s satisfying. Theo won’t die for it but he’ll be something else.

I’m not sure what but it’s for us to figure out. If we want to win against Riot, we need to be something. We need to have leverage for us to fight and this is it.

His chest jerks again, ribs straining like they’re about to split. It fascinates me how fast his body is changing and how fast I need him. to survive this before the two dumbasses come here and discover what I did.

“You’re going to survive this,” I tell him—not soft, not as comfort, but as command–because I didn’t bite him to break him, I bit him to build something, to drag him into the same sharp place I’ve been living in since Riot sank his fangs into me and rewrote my instincts like they were his to own.

His eyes roll for a second, lids fluttering, pulse surging beneath the thin skin of his neck, and I press harder, fingers splayed, breathing with him now, one beat off, syncing as his blood tries to sort what it is–human, wolf, infection, me.

Because it’s mine now.

Theo’s breath comes in shorter bursts, throat tight, muscles clenching, and the sound of it scratches down the inside of my skull like static, something between pain and fury and change, and it doesn’t scare me, not anymore–it calls to me, feeds that part of me I’ve been pretending to choke out for the sake of keeping the others calm.

Grayson’s voice calls out in the distance.

Shit.

For a second, I don’t move.

For a second, we just breathe.

I glance over my shoulder, sharp, automatic, tracking distance, sound, threat–he’s near, maybe thirty feet, less–and if he gets close enough to see Theo like this, twitching in the dirt, eyes gone black and body caught mid–shift, he’ll know.

I did

Chapter 117

92%

Theo isn’t theirs

Theo’s chest like I can force the change to wait. It will take a few more seconds now.

every exhale laced with a rumble like he’s trying not to

He snaps.

not human anymore, and I barely flinch before he’s lunging–half up, half falling

I move.

hand slamming up under his jaw, forcing it closed with a crack, my knee sliding into the dirt as his full

soaked hair,

without giving it time to look deliberate, I throw my voice

“GRAYSON! HELP!”

Theo freezes.

One breath.

Two.

this time, louder, broken open–and before I can brace,

shoves.

Hard.

rock, lungs emptying on impact, and I see nothing but branches and sky for half

-but he’s already gone.

Fuck. That was close.

tearing through the woods, fast, wild, the snap of branches and the burn of brush underfoot. He’s going to

Obedience always does.

face to clear the sweat clinging to my brow, smear a little dirt over my cheek while I’m at it. My hair sticks to the side of my neck, tangled and damp, heartbeat thumping low

2

Chapter 117

he completed his transformation, he’ll come look for me

to me. They’ve kept it a secret enough for me to discover everything about this. Theo is the experimental shift. And soon, I’ll have to turn them one by one so I’ll have a pack of wolves that are

to die for me.

“Jess!”

step, dragging in a sharp breath through