His Trouble Maker

Chapter 96

Grayson POV

*63% 6

Her breathing is wrong. She's shivering, hurting-and | can’t do a damn thing. Fuck. What kind of mate does that

make me?

| scrub my hands down my face for the fiftieth time. Try to blink the image of her out of my head-But she’s still

there. Broken. Bleeding. Looking atlike | wasn’t enough to stop it.

Because | wasn't.

Because | left her.

If I hadn't been stupid enough to walk away from that damn cabin, if I'd just stayed-if I'd listened to my instincts

instead of trying to give her space like scivilized fuckin’ coward-

None of this would've happened. She wouldn't have been taken. Wouldn't have had to shift to survive. Wouldn't

be lying there now, half-human, half- wolf, half something else | can’t name.

“You okay?” Theo asks from the corner, voice low.

I don’t look at him.

| haven't looked at him since we got her out.

Since | saw the bruises on her hips and smelled the rot of magic and wolf-scent clinging to her skin.

I'm not done being angry with him.

I'm not sure | ever will be. But he’s the one who gotout. He's the one who pulledfrom Aria’s grip before

they could shatter something | couldn't rebuild.

So | don’t answer.

“You want a smoke?”

| grit my teeth. “Fuck you.”

He shrugs. “Sorry, man. | don’t do guys.”

Prick.

What is he doing here anyway? After Jessica's unexpected shift last night, we were forced to run for our lives.

She wounded Riot’s but | know what he did.

He killed the alpha and our father. While | am the rightful heir by name, him, killing the alpha, the power is

already transferred to him.

| also knew the councils are snakes. | just didn’t know all of them would turn their back on us.

Those fucking assholes.

When | am done with my revenge, | will gut all of them and dance in their graves.

“She’s strong,” Theo says eventually, like that changes anything.

“I know.”

“She shifted. That's rare for--

“Don’t.” | cut him off before he could make it sound like a good thing. “We're not friends. | will still exile you for

plotting a coup behind my back.”

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Chapter 96

Theo exhales and tosses the cigarette back in his pack. He doesn’t light it. Just move to the window, keeping

watch. There are still sthings we

haven't discussed.

A lot of things. Like the fact that he knew. That he always fucking knew Riot was rising. And he didn’t stop him.

Didn’t warn me. Didn't say a goddamn word while the pack rotted from the inside.

Maybe he thought I'd be too blind to listen. Maybe he was right. But he still chose silence. He still chose Riot.

| glance at Jessica again.

“I should've killed him,” | say quietly, more to myself than to Theo.

“Theo,” | repeat when he doesn’t answer. “I should've torn his throat out that night in the ring. When he

challengedin front of the council.”

“You weren't ready,” he mutters.

“I was ready. | just didn’t know he’d already bought them.”

Silence again.

He shifts his weight. Coward.

“We're rogues now,” | say. “You realize that? You, me... her. Outlaws. Exiled. Marked.”

Theo finally looks over his shoulder. “You think I give a shit about the pack brand? That nmeans nothing if it

bends to Riot.”

“It was ours.”

“Was.”

| stand up and roll my shoulders. The fire in my chest hasn't cooled-it’s just waiting.

“Don’t mistake this for forgiveness,” | say. “I'll gut you myself the second I'm done gutting them.”

Theo doesn’t argue. “Fair.”

We were in that argument when the door creaked open.“Ah, group hug?”

Pierce.

0)

He’s covered in mud, blood, and gods know what else-his shirt torn, knuckles scabbed over, a fresh claw mark

across his neck that doesn’t look treated.

Theo straightens. | rise, but slowly.

thought you were dead,” | muttered.

Pierce grins. “Disappointed?”

“I'm not celebrating either.”

“Typical. | cbearing gifts, and nobody claps.”

“What the hell do you want?” | snap.

He walks in fully now, boots tracking dirt across the floor, and glances over at Jessica. Something flickers in his

expression—something uncharacteristically careful-but it vanishes before | can nit.

“I heard about the shift,” he says. “Half the woods are whispering about the girl who burned Riot’s enforcers

down to the bone.”

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Chapter 96

“She didn’t burn anyone,” | growled.

He lifts a brow. “No? Then you should see what's left of them.”

That stopscold

Pierce shrugs off his jacket and tosses it over a broken chair.

“Riot’s sending scouts. Two, maybe three. They're sniffing close to the eastern ravine. That buys us time. Not

much, but enough.”

“Enough for what?” Theo asks.

Pierce smirks, eyes glinting. “To start a war.”

| feel it then-like a heartbeat in my spine. Riot is no longer a shadow on the hill.

63%

He’s a god in the making, and the only thing between him and the pack is a fractured heir, a half-shifted girl, a

traitor, and a psychopath with a death

wish.

Perfect.

| glance at Jessica again. Her breath is uneven. Her body was twitching. “She’s not ready,” | say. “None of us

are.”

Pierce shrugs, teeth flashing. “Doesn’t matter. War's not asking.”

“She won't survive another break,” | mutter, almost to myself.

“She might not,” Pierce says. “But she also might burn the whole fucking forest down. Either way, Riot loses

something.”

Theo crosses his arms, posture rigid. “What are we saying? We use her like bait?”

“No.” | growl. “She’s not a weapon. She's a person.”

Pierce laughs, low and dry. “She was. Before Riot. Before all this. But you saw her last night. You heard her.”

1 did.

The growl that wasn’t just pain.

The way the shift cracked through her like bone lightning-unnatural, too fast, too much.

“She’s changing” Pierce adds, watchingtoo close. “And not just wolf. There's something else in her now.

Something Riot couldn't fully break. That's

what he’s afraid of

Or pissed about,” Theo mutters.

Inod, slow. “He doesn’t want her dead. Not yet. Which means she matters. Which means she’s leverage.”

“Exactly, Pierce says. “So let's stop pretending this is a rescue mission. This is survival. And survival’s bloody.”

A beat passes. My jaw clenches. | don’t like the way he says that. She was never supposed to carry this war on

her back. But here we are.

“We wait,” | say, “Until she wakes. Until she decides.”

Pierce’s expression shifts, but he doesn’t argue. Just nods once, then turns away, cracking his neck like the

tension’s something he can snap loose. “Take care of my sister, Grayson,” he mutters as he leaves the room.

| will always take care of her. He doesn’t need to say that. However, this is bigger than both of us. And | don’t

know what kind of monster is going to wake

up in her.

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Chapter 96

If she wakes up at all.

I reach for her hand. It's cold, fingers twitching with phantom memory. | hold it anyway.“You don’t owe us

anything,” | murmur. “But if you cback, | swear-I'll burn the whole world to keep you safe.”

Tue, 26 Aug

Chapter 97

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