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. “Well, I don’t

tips his head back against the

“You did first.”

1/3

Chapter 128

fucking snarled like a beast and

her

of us wrecked. Wolves coming down from it. Bones knitting

him

“You

my fucking

“So we’re even.”

“But seriously, how sure are you

left leg’s numb and my spine feels like it’s been chewed by wolves and spit out sideways. Still–I reach down, grab the asshole by the arm, and drag him up like it’s my job to

Because it is.

groans, slightly shoving me off. “I’m not sure,” he finally admits. “just… he’s sick, not stupid, He

“Why?”

fucking confused when he took a step back as if I’m going

at him. Frown. Tilt my head just enough to see the way his pulse ticks in his neck, the way his stance shifts–tight,

Ready.

“What?” I bark.

lifts his hands, placating. “Don’t get worked

“Say it.”

the rogue who

That stops me.

The rogue.

of movement in the woods. I remember something. It’s the note that I’ve

you want

-R.

I remember the note.

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