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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breath shaking. He was watching me too close.

“What now?” I whispered.

cracking open with dawn. Still pink around the edges like a wound

voice was quiet now. Different. Not the rough, rutting snarl from before. Lower. Bruised. “Watch the light

sharp and hoarse. “That’s

and lakeweed with it until his palm rested

said. “But you’re alive. We’re both alive. That’s worth

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

lifted, slow, like he wasn’t sure if I was joking or

my voice breaking on the last word.

huffed a laugh.

chattering in my teeth. “Like a kicked

dark. It

blinked at him. Mud clung

“You’re insane,” I muttered.

shot back, still laughing. “You

“You were drowning.”

“You were bleeding.”

at

lake stink and smoke across the shore. I shivered harder, biting down against the rattle in

a toe,” I said, glancing at

9:37 Thu, Sep 4

Chapter 145

give you one

“Gross.”

time. “Thank

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parted, stupid, my chest caving in around the thud of my heart like it thought I could pull more air past him if I opened

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

let go, holding me under, and then thing that

voice a low, hooked

you leak for me. For shoving you down when you tried to stand. For the names I called you

and heavy, his lips grazing, teeth marking,

mouth dragged along my neck–hot, wet, hunting–until his teeth found the place he used to bite when I

taste of your fury. I wanted to make your legs tremble just from the memory of me. I wanted to be the thing your heat kept calling back, even when I wasn’t near. I’ve marked you, filled you, ruined you, because I needed you crawling through

Stupid. Weak. Pack–trained. My spine wanted the bite before I did. “I should rip

wolfshot, and I felt it before I saw it–his weight shifting,

fucking familiar. “You love him,” he said

breath apart now. My

wants him… and I should

slow like he

ruined me,” I

eyes dropped to my lips, black–gold, fucked, starving. “I would’ve loved

didn’t pull away. I should’ve. My spine bent, chest tipped, heat pulsing low where it shouldn’t. I was marked. Promised. Grayson’s. But my body didn’t care. My

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Chapter 145

“Riot… we shouldn’t.”

gulped. “Yeah…

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