His Trouble Maker

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.

my jaw, trying to steady it all.

head back against the

“You did first.”

1/3

Chapter 128

because you fucking snarled like a beast and

gave her to

a minute we just breathe, both of us wrecked. Wolves coming down

him

Winces. “You

my fucking

“So we’re even.”

sure are

it’s been chewed by wolves and spit out sideways. Still–I reach down, grab the asshole by the arm, and drag

Because it is.

not sure,” he finally admits. “just…

“Why?”

at me and I’m fucking confused when he took a step back as if I’m going to unleash

him. Frown. Tilt my head just enough to see the way his pulse ticks in his neck, the

Ready.

“What?” I bark.

his hands, placating. “Don’t

“Say it.”

know the rogue who

That stops me.

The rogue.

the scent, the blood, the blur of movement in the woods. I

want

-R.

I remember the note.

was wrong–faded, sharp, like fear under ash. I remember how her shirt was torn too clean to be random. The way the ground