His Trouble Maker

GRAYSON

I smell rot.

Moss, old blood, mildew crawling through bark. No wolves. And that tells me exactly what I need to know, there’s nothing here so it’s either Pierce is fucking with me or he’s….betraying me.

That last thought made a fucking snap inside me.

He’s ahead of me again, saying something. I don’t hear it. I’m already inside the spiral. Already halfway gone.

I’ve known him since I was young. Since blood meant brothers and secrets meant loyalty. Since we took our first shifts and swore on bone that no matter what happened, we’d never turn on each other. We used to bury our kills together. We used to run the ridge and mark the trees. He stood beside me when I bled for this pack.

And now we’re walking into corpse territory and he expects me not to notice the silence?

I pick up speed.

I shove past a low branch and let it snap behind me. Pierce will never betray me. What the fuck was I thinking?

“You okay?” Pierce asks without turning.

I should laugh.

I don’t. I just say, “You better be right about this pack.”

“They’ll help.”

“You ever think maybe Riot’s not the only one who knows how to set a trap?” I say it slow. Heavy.

Pierce turns.

That’s the first time he’s looked me in the face in ten minutes. His brows lift. Calm. But I see the flicker. Just a second too long before he speaks.

“You think I’d lead you into one?”

1 stare at him.

I don’t blink.

“You’ve done worse.”

as he forces his expression back into that neutral, too–fucking–smooth blank

I do. I always

his mother. Not the alphas

1/3

Chapter 125

me for Jess. Never did. And now he brings me here, into this silent, rotting forest, chasing some half–buried rumor about a pack that’ll help us reclaim control from Riot–as

to steal the power from me. I’m used to it now. I don’t even breathe differently when it comes. I just count the pieces I

to lose.

Pierce was never supposed to

holding the knife when I carved the first symbol into my skin, the one who

thing I never doubted. When Riot stood in my place and took my pack. When the others turned. I had one constant. One fucking

to be wrong. I want this to be some fucking test. Some dumb, reckless gamble that ends with us laughing and bloody and alive. But I know that weight in my gut.

weight shift. “Who are they?” I don’t blink. “Names. Structure. Rank. What

now I’m standing in the middle of

And that’s it. That’s all it

I feel ribs shift. His breath punches out in a grunt I don’t even register as human. My forearm jams up under his chin until I

out. I press my forearm across his throat and lean in close, until I’m breathing down on him. “You lied to me,” I spit. “Or you’re about to. And if you don’t give me a name in the next three seconds, I swear to every god that ever made me, 1 will gut you and

locks. His fists clench. His wolf flashes behind

to snap. I want him to give me an excuse to tear him open and find the truth in his

grind my arm tighter against his windpipe.

me and I growled, throwing him to the ground., Shit. SHit.

Jessica!

“You sold her,”

split out of my knuckles before even think. I grab him by the collar, haul him upright with one hand, and

“so I know which part of

his lips shape cowardice