His Trouble Maker

Chapter 194

Chapter 194

JESSICA

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My wolf howls before I even understand why. Heat slams into my ribs, a hot, traitorous claw. My knees wobble. Breath comes too fast. Both of them smell it – hunger and victory and something almost like fear.

Grayson’s eyes go bright. He looks like he’s found a prize. Riot’s mouth quirks, not amused – interested. “Oh,” he says, quiet and slow. “So that’s the truth.”

“Stay away from her.” Grayson’s voice is low and tight. He squares up as if he can stop the whole world by standing in front of me.

Riot doesn’t bother with him. His attention is on me, like I’m the only thing in the room. He steps closer, and the pressure of his presence makes the hairs on my arms rise. “The Triad told me you’d fight it,” he says. “That you’d cling to him because you think you have no other choice. But you do. You always did.”

“Riot.” I try to make the name a warning. It splinters before it leaves my mouth.

“You belong to the Triad,” Riot says. No flourish. No drama. Just a fact, delivered flat and final. “And the Triad wants you reclaimed. By me.”

My stomach drops like I’ve been kicked between the legs. Reclaimed.

“You can’t-”

Grayson moves without thinking, a raw animal motion. He lunges.

Riot catches him like he expected it. His hands are faster than they should be, steady in a way that makes my skin crawl. They collide–fists, elbows, teeth–metal scraping leather, a loud, ugly sound. Grayson’s first hit lands, a clean line of anger across Riot’s jaw. Riot tastes blood and smiles.

The fight isn’t pretty. It’s close and fast and cruel. They’re not any two men; they’re wolves, and the room smells like wet fur and adrenaline. I want to turn away. I can’t.

My wolf thrashes and thrashes again, torn between them. Grayson! she says. Riot! she says. I can’t make her stop.

the air tilts. You can feel something shift, like a switch flipped in the space between breaths. He’s not just fighting Grayson – he’s testing the

at Riot’s sleeve. Riot jerks back, then wedges his shoulder

yours?” Riot asks me, like a challenge. “Does she belong

of me wants to say no. My body betrays me and

want to say Grayson’s name and mean it and not mean

10:14 Mon, Sep 22

Chapter 194

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in so close the heat of his breath fogs my mask. “They

that, the fight ends – not because someone wins,

the room.

Kade.

look at me. He looks at Riot and Grayson the way a god looks at sparring children. “Enough,” he says. That single word pulls all the hair on my arms

blood from his lip and breathes like

says, low. He steps nearer,

“Tonight?”

bond lies, Jess. Or we will

out of my chest. Grayson’s hand finds my wrist – possessive, desperate –

electric. Want and hate and anger braid into a single rope

room like he’s given us instructions and a

a terrible, suspended second — everything hushes. Grayson looks at me like he’s asking for forgiveness and war in the same blink. Riot

Grayson says. His voice is broken

can keep her,” Riot says, cold as

have no idea what to

think, before the bond or the Triad or either man can pull me into their plan

the Triad steps out of the shadows holding a sealed envelope with my name on

before you make

in me wants to burn the thing, to tear

I open it.

line inside makes the room tilt and the