His Trouble Maker

JESSICA

His skin gives. The blood hits my tongue hot, faster than | expect, and | push him offbefore it settles-before

instinct dragsdeeper. He stumbles, hard, crashing sideways into a tree, breath knocked out, hands

scrambling for something solid, something

that isn’t me.

Fuck.

What did | do?

My eyes widen and my breath catches while watching him stumble like his body’s been pulled loose from itself,

knees folding hard and fast as his spine convulses once, then locks.

“Look at me,” | hiss, but i don’t even know if he can hear me, pupils blown wide, sweat slick across his

cheekbones, lips pulled back in a half-snarl that he’s not even aware of.

His heartbeat is wrong. | can feel it. Fast, yes-but uneven. Staggering. I've been thinking of doing this for so long

and now, it’s satisfying. Theo won't die for it but he'll be something else.

I'm not sure what but it’s for us to figure out. If we want to win against Riot, we need to be something. We need

to have leverage for us to fight and this is it.

His chest jerks again, ribs straining like they're about to split. It fascinateshow fast his body is changing and

how fast I need him. to survive this before the two dumbasses chere and discover what | did.

“You're going to survive this,” | tell him—not soft, not as comfort, but as command-because | didn’t bite him to

break him, I bit him to build something, to drag him into the ssharp place I've been living in since Riot sank

his fangs intoand rewrote my instincts like they were his to own.

His eyes roll for a second, lids fluttering, pulse surging beneath the thin skin of his neck, and | press harder,

fingers splayed, breathing with him now, one beat off, syncing as his blood tries to sort what it is-human, wolf,

infection, me.

Because it's mine now.

Theo's breath comes in shorter bursts, throat tight, muscles clenching, and the sound of it scratches down the

inside of my skull like static, something between pain and fury and change, and it doesn’t scare me, not

anymore-it calls to me, feeds that part ofI've been pretending to choke out for the sake of keeping the

others calm.

Grayson’s voice calls out in the distance.

Shit.

For a second, | don’t move.

For a second, we just breathe.

| glance over my shoulder, sharp, automatic, tracking distance, sound, threat-he’s near, maybe thirty feet, less-

and if he gets close enough to see Theo like this, twitching in the dirt, eyes gone black and body caught mid-

shift, he'll know.

He'll know I did something.

Chapter 117

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He'll know Theo isn’t theirs anymore.

| turn back fast, hand pressing harder into Theo's chest like | can force the change to wait. It will take a few more

seconds now. The sound of boots is getting nearer and the wind shifts, carrying Grayson’s scent toward us.

Suddenly, Theo's breath punches out of him in short bursts, every exhale laced with a rumble like he’s trying not

to growl and failing, and then-

He snaps.

Head jerks. Shoulders heave. The growl tears loose from deep in his chest, raw and grinding and not human

anymore, and | barely flinch before he’s lunging-half up, half falling into me, teeth bared, mouth open wide

enough to catch my throat.

I move.

Hard to the side, hand slamming up under his jaw, forcing it closed with a crack, my knee sliding into the dirt as

his full weight crashes against me.

He snarls again-louder this time, breath breaking over my cheek-and | grab the back of his neck, fingers digging

into soaked hair, yanking his head down, wrestling him lower, spine bending under my grip like he’s seconds

from snapping in either direction.

Bootsteps crash through the underbrush-closer, louder, too fast to lie-and without thinking, without giving it

tto look deliberate, | throw my voice hard through the trees, sharp and ripped with edge-

“GRAYSON! HELP!”

Theo freezes.

One breath.

Two.

Then he snarls again-different this time, louder, broken open-and before | can brace, he slams his palm into my

chest and

shoves.

Hard.

My body hits the dirt, spine cracking against rock, lungs emptying on impact, and | see nothing but branches and

sky for half a second before | twist up, coughing, ready to chase-

-but he’s already gone.

Fuck. That was close.

| took a deep breath watching him get lost in the woods. | hear him tearing through the woods, fast, wild, the

snap of branches and the burn of brush underfoot. He's going to cback to me. When the change finishes,

when the poison settles into his bones and he realizes what he is now, who did this to him-he’ll follow it straight

back to me.

Obedience always does.

| push to my feet, slow, knees stiff, back aching from the fall, and swipe a hand across my face to clear the sweat

clinging to my brow, smear a little dirt over my cheek while I'm at it. My hair sticks to the side of my neck,

tangled and damp, heartbeat thumping low and hard in my throat like it doesn’t know whether to calm down or

keep racing.

09:02 Tue, 2 Sept 0

Chapter 117

I've turned Theo into mine and soon after he completed his transformation, he'll clook forfor obedience.

Somehow, | feel bad for all of this but it's their fault doing this to me. They've kept it a secret enough forto

discover everything about this. Theo is the experimental shift. And soon, I'll have to turn them one by one so I'll

have a pack of wolves that are willing

to die for me.

“Jess!”

I quickly mask my plans and stagger back another step, dragging in a sharp breath through my teeth, twisting

my face into something that looks more like shock than satisfaction.

“Jess, what the fuck happened?” he demands, voice snapping like a whip, but | don’t answer right away. | flinch.

“-“I choke it, soft, almost soundless. “I didn’t see it coming.”

Let him fill the rest in himself.

| let my breathing stay rough, shallow, broken in the middle like I've been crying when really | haven't blinked in

minutes. My shirt’s ripped at the shoulder where Theo threwoff, and | tug it tighter, curl an arm around my

ribs like I'm trying to hold something in.

“I tried to help,” | say, voice catching like it hurts to speak, and | don’t look him in the eye. “He shifted too fast.”

Grayson moves closer, eyes darting past me, scanning the treeline.“What do you mean he shifted fast?”

“I-1 don’t know!”

“His eyes were red, Grayson. Red. Not gold, not even close. He didn’t look like Theo.”

| back up a step and grab a tree trunk for balance, fingers digging into bark like the memory’s rattling through