bChapter /bb179 /b

    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 chinb, /bglistening in the dark.

    “Still keeping your little toy safe?” he taunts, voice guttural, throat shredded from too many screams and bnot /benough sanity.

    My ws 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. “bA /bdeal? You mean your leash?” Hisugh is a cracked, broken sound. “You thought you could bind me–bcage /bme 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 yourst one.”

    Riot lunges a step, sudden and sharp, shoulders twitching as though his skin can’t contain him. My weight shifts.instinctively, ws 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, ws shing, 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.

    My hand shoots up, fisting in his cor, mming him back a step. “I’ve given you a chance to start a new life,

    Riot!”

    “A leash isn’t a life, brother.”

    I bare my ws deeper into his chest, forcing him closer until his breath is hot and rank against my face.

    “Let’s go. Somewhere private.”

    30 Vouchers

    Before he can twist free, I drag him, step by grinding step, into the trees. His boots bscrape/bb, /bbthe /bbforest /bswallowing us whole. Every stagger he takes, I tighten my grip, ws pricking skin, steering him baway /bbfrom /bher scent, away from her eyes.

    “Scared she’ll see?” he rasps, half–choking, halfughing. “Scared she’ll learn her Alpha’s just banother /bbbeast/bb?/b”

    “Quiet,” I snap, shoving him forward harder, my own growl running hot in my throat. “You and I finish bthis /bbin /bthe dark.”

    I shove him again, harder, until his heels gouge ruts in the dirt.

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

    An Alpha doesn’t drag his brother into the dark unless he’s too afraid to end it in the light. And I’m not afraid. Not of him. Not of what I’ll do.

    I’m afraid Riot will just make everythingplicated on my own terms. I’m already handling enough problems with Kade and Jessica.

    I m him sideways into a tree so hard bark sprays my arm. “How about Pierce?”

    “He’s fine.”

    眼

    My jaw grinds. “Don’t lie to me.”

    “I’m not.” Hisugh 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 breathing.”

    I tighten my grip, less out of rage now, more to keep him steady. My pulse hammers in my throat. “Why are you telling me this?”

    “Because no one else will,” Riot spits, 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 ying king, you forget the blood that actually matters.”

    I’ve been holding this pack together with my teeth and ws, 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 Pierce by keeping him away.

    But what if I wasn’t? What if Riot’s right, and all I did was abandon him?

    “I’m going to mark her.”

    The words rip out before I even realize I’ve spoken them. Low. Rough. Not for Riot’s ears, but theye

    anyway.

    And I know I should’ve kept it buried. I shouldn’t tell him about this–because that is what Kade and I agreed to. We keep it a secret until the timing is right. Until the pack is steady. Until we have enough to protect her

    b8:17 /bbSun/bb, /bbSep /bb14 /b

    from the pack who wants her blood.

    :–

    flo vouch

    “Mark her?” Riot’sugh scrapes raw through his throat. “Should’ve you done that long bago/bb?/bb” /b

    bI /bshould’ve. But I didn’t.

    “So when? After Kade tears your pack in half? After Jessica gets carved up in the dirt by wolves bwho /bbthink /bbshe’s /bnothing but prey?”

    The growl rips out of me before I can stop it. “Next full moon.” The words drop like stone, final, brutal. “That’s when. She’ll be mine, and every wolf in the valley will know it.”

    For a moment, Riot goes still, theughter drying on his lips. He studies me, chest heaving, blood running down from the punctures I’ve carved into him. And then he bares his teeth in something that almost looks like pride–almost.

    “About damn time.” His chuckle is rough, wet, but quieter now. “You waited so long I thought you’d choke on your own cowardice.b” /b

    I m him again, just to feel the bark splinter, to remind him I’m still Alpha here. “Don’t mistake patience for fear. I’ll mark her when it means something. When the pack sees it and understands they can’t touch her. Not before.”

    Riot’s grin sharpens, feral. “Then you’d better hold your throne until the moon rises again. Because if you fall before then… she’s mine to tear apart.”

    The words sear through me, sharper than any w. I drag him off the tree, m him back again, just to shut him up–but the full moon glows over us, and I know he’s already sunk his teeth into the truth.

    I’ve set the clock ticking. One moon. That’s all the time I’ve got.