His Trouble Maker

Chapter 146

GRAYSON

I could feel her from here.

She’s close.

Jessica is close to where we are.

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Pierce was wind–breaking beside me, lungs steaming, but neither of us had spoken since we caught her heat- stink at the stream.

I was barely holding shift. My gums were bleeding from clenching it back.

We hadn’t spoken since she veered off the main trail, and we didn’t need to.

Her scent was everywhere–smeared in the undergrowth, high in the bark, raw and streaking across stone.

The sun cracked above the ridge, slow and ugly, and I wanted to rip it down. Daylight meant time was up. She’d know. She’d see us. She’d bolt again.

Who is she running from? That keeps on circling in my mind. Now that Theo is gone, what more is making her run away from all of these?

I stopped moving, shoulders jerking like the shift wanted to snap back but my body didn’t know what it needed–man, beast, both–I couldn’t hold either.

My chest heaved. My lungs weren’t taking the air right. It stank of dirt, rot, pine sap, old blood, her.

Her. Her. Her.

My vision blurred at the edges, not from crying, not from grief–my wolf doesn’t cry–but from something

worse.

Jess. Jess. Fuck.

My jaw unhinged on her name, my throat too raw for words, too broken for anything but sound, and I threw it into the dark like it could reach her.

One long, blistered howl that tore from the pit of my chest and kept going. Through the trees. Through the dirt. Through the ache that wouldn’t shut up under my ribs.

I missed her.

Where are you.

Where the fuck are you.

I tipped my head back and howled again, this one sharper, uglier, blistered with rage. My paws skidded on the

9:37 Thu, Sep 4

Chapter 146

wet rock as I lunged forward.

“Grayson!”

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doing?” Pierce shouted, pushing me

“I can smell her…”

“What?”

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boots over moss, fingers splitting into claws before I even knew I was shifting, before I realized I was growling low through my teeth like

“Grayson wait-”

claws shredding roots, the wet dirt swallowing sound

parted, breath shivering, and Riot behind

“Grayson.”

chest and I almost tore it

yank me back like he didn’t smell it too, like he wasn’t about to drop to his knees from how fucking

was him speaking her heat

need to go,” Pierce was whispering, tugging again, voice breaking, “Grayson, she’s not–she

my wrist this time, pulling like I was something

I turned on him.

He flinched.

and I’ll feed you your fucking

how she would hate

didn’t hear the rest. I was rising. Stalking forward. Breathing

be fucked like an omega in heat, if she wanted to beg

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Chapter 146

“Having fun?”

eyes snapped to

Wide.

White–rimmed.

“Grayson!”

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I felt her warmth everything melted in me. Here I

still shaking, but I didn’t shove her off. Couldn’t. Her chest hit mine and my breath shattered. My ribs gave out before my

out of me anyway, soaked and shaking and wrecked. “You’re

my shirt, pulling me down, burying her face into my chest like she knew I needed

teeth, shame, the way her scent still had another male’s heat curled

didn’t answer right

Jessica doesn’t have to.

and let myself collapse the rest of the way, my knees giving out slow, dragging us both down to the

followed without a word, straddling my lap, arms locking around my neck

Not even a flicker. You were gone, Jess, you were just–gone, and

trembling, cupping my jaw like she was scared I’d disappear too. She tipped my face toward hers,

Wide. Dark, Open.

brushed beneath my eyes and I realized I was crying again, slow and silent, tears tracking down the corners

I didn’t care.

me so fucking happy I’ll cry every

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Chapter 146

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