His Trouble Maker

Chapter 145

JESSICA

“Are you fucking insane?”

:

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My voice tore up my throat, raw and soaked as I surfaced, coughing lakewater and blood into the dark.

He-

Riot-

He fucking threw us in. He threw us in.

My fingers scraped his chest before I could see him, before I could even breathe right. My legs kicked under me, too heavy, too cold, water slapping up my spine, and still I shoved at him, slapped at his shoulder like that could undo it, like I wasn’t already screaming inside.

“You think this is funny?” I snarled, coughing. “We’re soaked, we’re stinking, we’re fucking reeking like heat- rut prey–every pack from here to the ridge is gonna catch this stink off the air-”

The water was freezing.

The sky was bleeding into light.

Day’s coming and if we don’t move, if he doesn’t let go, if I don’t get this fucking heat off me, they’ll see.

They’ll know.

They’ll find us here in the open, wrecked and wrecking, stinking of heat and rut and shame.

“Fuck-”

I slipped again. My elbow cracked off something sharp, and the lake tried to take me a second time. Riot lunged, grabbed my wrist–too fast, too hard–and dragged me up before I could sink.

“Don’t–fucking touch me-”

He didn’t let go.

He gripped under my arms, hauled me sideways, hands tight in places they shouldn’t be, his breath hot in my ear as he dragged me toward the edge, over stone, over mud, my legs useless, my hips grinding into sharp rock and broken roots. “Riot!”

“Stay still,” he muttered, voice low and hot right in my car. “You’ll thank me in a second.”

He settled me down–too carefully for someone who’d just ruined me–his hands firm on my thighs, his knee between mine as he lowered me back against the flat of a rock slick with moss and lakewater.

“There,” Riot breathed, his hand still on my leg, still too close. “Still cold?”

9:37 Thu, Sep 4

Chapter 145

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against the stone, breath shaking. He was watching me too close. Too amused. Too fucking proud of himself.

“What now?” I whispered.

up. Not at me. At the sky. Pale and ugly, cracking open

Not the rough, rutting snarl from before. Lower. Bruised. “Watch the light

sharp and hoarse.

it until his palm rested against my side,

one,” he said. “But you’re alive. We’re

shoulders shaking. The cold was biting now. “When are you going to thank me for

slow, like he wasn’t sure if I was

out of that pit,” I added, my voice breaking on the last word. “Don’t think I forgot how you

huffed a

chattering

his head back, the sound he made was full–throated, real–ugly, rough laughter that cracked like stone against stone in the open dark. It echoed. Stupidly

him. Mud

“You’re insane,” I muttered.

say the same for you,” he shot back, still laughing. “You jumped in after me

“You were drowning.”

“You were bleeding.”

stared at each

smoke across the shore. I shivered harder, biting down against

lose a toe,” I said, glancing at my feet–raw, scratched, purple under the

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Chapter 145

give you one

“Gross.”

this time. “Thank you for

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thud of my heart like it thought I could pull more air past him if I opened wider.

my ear, the sound all snarled and spit, no human softness, and my hips betrayed me for it, twitching toward

holding me under, and then

voice a low, hooked

you down when you tried to stand. For the names I called you because

jaw, wet and heavy, his lips grazing, teeth marking, until the apology turned

you.” His mouth dragged along my neck–hot, wet, hunting–until his teeth found the place

be the thing your heat kept calling back, even when I wasn’t near. I’ve marked you, filled you,

the bite before I did. “I should rip your tongue out,” I breathed.

felt it before I saw it–his weight shifting, the room shrinking, breath thick with

His hand found the edge of my jaw, rough, warm, too fucking familiar. “You love him,” he said again, like tasting the words might make

apart now. My breath

him… and I should

my mouth, slow like he wanted

ruined me,” I

lips, black–gold, fucked, starving. “I would’ve loved you

But my body didn’t care. My wolf didn’t care. She was tipping forward like she wanted Riot’s

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Chapter 145

“Riot… we shouldn’t.”

gulped. “Yeah…

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