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.

breathes in and 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

then wedges his shoulder

me, like a

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

say Grayson’s name and mean it and not mean it at the same

10:14 Mon, Sep 22

Chapter 194

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of his breath fogs my mask. “They

that, the fight ends – not because someone

the room.

Kade.

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

wipes blood from his

a decision,” Theo says, low. He steps nearer,

“Tonight?”

will prove where your bond lies, Jess. Or we will choose

wolf screams. My heart tries to explode out of my chest. Grayson’s hand finds my wrist – possessive, desperate – while Riot’s gaze

I am. I am also, impossibly, electric. Want

and leaves the room like he’s given us

a breath – a terrible, suspended second — everything hushes. Grayson looks at me like he’s asking for forgiveness and war in the same blink. Riot looks at me like he’s catalogued every weakness he can find.

says. His voice is broken

her,” Riot says, cold as

no idea what to say.

or the Triad or either man can pull me into their

my name on it. My name,

read that before you make any

reach for the envelope. Everything in me wants to burn the thing, to tear it open and not

I open it.

room