His Trouble Maker

Chapter 179

GRAYSON

If she stays, she dies. If she sees this, I lose her.

Damn it.

Quickly, I stalk toward Riot only to freeze when he lifts his head and grins at me. Blood drips from his chin, glistening in the dark.

“Still keeping your little toy safe?” he taunts, voice guttural, throat shredded from too many screams and not enough sanity.

My claws flex. “What are you doing here, Riot? I thought we had a deal.”

He staggers a step sideways, circling like a wolf drunk on madness, saliva thick as he spits into the dirt. “A deal? You mean your leash?” His laugh is a cracked, broken sound. “You thought you could bind me–cage me like one of your rabid dogs. You forgot what I am, Grayson.”

I match his circle, boots grinding over blood–soaked earth, every muscle wound tight. “I didn’t forget. I gave you mercy. That was your last one.”

Riot lunges a step, sudden and sharp, shoulders twitching as though his skin can’t contain him. My weight shifts.instinctively, claws snapping free with a metallic scrape. He halts just short, lips pulling back in a grin too wide, eyes glowing red at the edges.

“Mercy,” he sneers, chest heaving. “You call that pit mercy? You call watching me rot while you fucked her mercy?”

A growl tears through me before I can leash it, the sound vibrating through my chest. I prowl forward, close enough to feel the heat radiating off his ruined body. “Careful.”

His grin splits wider, jagged. “Oh, I see it now. You marked her, didn’t you? Or were you too afraid? Afraid she’ll see the truth when her wolf wakes–that her Alpha’s a coward who couldn’t finish me when he had the chance.”

I strike, claws flashing, but he’s faster than he looks. He jerks back, dirt exploding under his heels as my swipe cuts the air where his throat was a heartbeat ago. He circles again, weaving, feral, every twitch a provocation.

“You can’t kill me,” Riot snarls, voice vibrating with manic certainty. “If you could, would have. That’s why you’re trembling, Alpha. That’s why you’re standing between me and her instead of putting me down.”

Her. Always her.

back a step. “I’ve given you

Riot!”

leash isn’t a

claws deeper into his chest, forcing him closer until his breath

Chapter 179

“Let’s go. Somewhere private.”

30 Vouchers

I drag him, step by grinding step, into the trees. His boots scrape, the forest swallowing us whole. Every stagger he takes, I tighten my grip, claws pricking skin,

“Scared she’ll learn her Alpha’s just another

running hot in

him again, harder, until his

moving. Away from her. Away from the pack. If they see him like this–grinning, bleeding, unbroken–it makes

to end it in the light. And I’m not afraid. Not of him. Not

Riot will just make everything complicated on my own terms. I’m already handling enough problems with Kade and

so hard

“He’s fine.”

眼

“Don’t lie

not.” His laugh is low, rasping, less wild than before. “Pierce has always been smarter than both of us. He knows how to keep his head down. He’s still running with the rogues on the border, but… he’s

less out of rage now, more to keep him steady. My pulse hammers in my throat. “Why

eyes flicking toward the camp we left behind. “You’ve got Kade circling your throne and Jessica whispering in the dark. You’re so busy

and claws, choking down challenge after challenge. Kade waiting to make a move. Jessica weaving her lies. And through it all, I told myself I was protecting

if Riot’s right, and all I did

to

even realize I’ve spoken them. Low. Rough. Not