JESSICA

    “Where. Were. You.”

    “Out.”

    That was it?

    :

    398

    5 vouchers

    Three goddamn hours of pacing grooves into the floor, chewing my nails down to nothing while every clock tick scraped my nerves raw, and that’s all he gives me?

    Grayson didn’t pause. The bastard stalked past me into the bedroom like he’d crawled out of some pit, jacket still reeking of smoke and sin. My chest burned. I should’veunched amp at his head. Instead, I followed, pulse hammering like it wanted to strangle me from the inside.

    “Grayson!”

    “Baby, I’m tired.”

    Baby. Oh, fuck him. My fists curled at my sides, nails biting into skin. I stepped into the doorway, spine rigid. If he thought he could breeze in with one word and vanish into our sheets, he had another thinging.

    “Don’t you dare ‘baby‘ me.”

    I wanted to w the word out of his throat, even as some traitorous part of me catalogued the sweat at his temple, the heat rolling off him, the loose tie, the way his shoulders carried danger–and something else, something maic. My stomach twisted. My thighs pressed tight. Rage and want wed at each other inside ollime. /li/ol

    He dragged a hand down his face like he was swatting an itch he couldn’t shake. “I don’t want to do this tonight.”

    “Too fucking bad,” I snapped, shoving at his chest. He didn’t budge. Never did.

    Instead, his palm caught my wrist, scorching skin. He tilted his head, eyes cutting me like he could y me open with one look.

    “Careful,” he warned.

    “Careful?” I barked augh. “You disappear for hours smelling like hell and tell me to be careful?”

    He leaned into me, pressing me back, chest crushing mine, grip sliding to my waist. My ribs cinched under him. My breath hitched.

    “Where were you?”

    “Out,” he muttered, a twitch of a smirk.

    b8:16 /bbSun/bb, /bbSep /bb14 /bbN /b

    bVouchers /b

    bI /bmmed my palm against his chest–not to push, but just to feel him buckle. He didn’tb. /bbHe /bbleaned /bbinto /bbit/bb. /bpinning me tighter, like he liked my fight.

    “Don’t y games with me, Grayson.”

    “Out where?” I tipped my chin, jaw locked, daring him. “Out with who?”

    His gaze flicked to my mouth, lingering like a curse. “Does it matter?”

    “If you’re fucking someone else-”

    A low, dangerousugh vibrated against my knuckles. “If I were fucking someone else, you’d know. You’d smell her on me.”

    That’s true.

    “You’re lying,” I said, throat bare in defiance that tasted too much like surrender. “Say where. Say who. Or I’ll

    He growled, guttural, bone–deep, and the next second, I was pinned so hard the drywall cracked behind me.

    “Grayson-”

    My gasp died in his mouth, swallowed whole. I shoved at his chest with both hands, but all it did was make him grind closer.

    “You want to know where I was?” he rasped, teeth grazing my jaw, lips relentless. “I fucked up, baby. So bad.”

    His nose buried in my neck like he could crawl inside and stay there.

    My nails wed his shirt. Fury shook me. “Fucked up how?”

    “I lost control.” His hand slid higher on my thigh, forcing it open, grounding me against the wall with sheer weight. “Out there–blood, teeth, rage–I let the wolf win. I nearly-” His voice cracked, then hardened. “I nearly didn’te back to you.”

    Grayson lost control?

    “What the hell are you saying?” I snapped, eyes wide, nails wing at his shoulders. “You nearly… didn’te back? You’re telling me–what? That you let yourself get lost out there?”

    His eyes flicked to mine, ck, dangerous, raw. “I–I couldn’t stop it. The wolf… he came out, and I… I almost didn’t make it back to you.”

    Rage, fear, disbelief–and something traitorous–twisted low in my chest. “You’re insane,” I hissed, shoving at him. Hands barely budged him.

    “I do,” he growled, forehead pressing to mine, teeth brushing mine in warning. “I’ve never lost control of my wolf.”

    He’s telling me he almost… didn’t make it back. Almost lost himself. Almost… lost me.

    b8:16 /bbSun/bb, /bbSep /bb14 /bbN /b

    “How… what…?” I whispered, mind spinning.

    Slowly, he guided me back to our bed. I sank onto it, trying to catch my thoughts. “Did something else happen? Before… losing control?”

    “Yes.”

    “What?”

    “I’ve visited Logan, Jess.”

    My chest seized. I leapt to the edge of the bed, eyes wide. Grayson’s hands shot to my waist, holding me in ce.

    “I went to see him. Check if he’d gone too far. Make sure he wouldn’t hurt you.”

    “Check on him?” My voice caught between fury and disbelief. “Grayson… you don’t check. You go in… you- what? Kill him? What did you do?”

    His gaze pinned me. “Do you really think of me as a monster, Jessica?”

    Of course not.

    My jaw fell. “Logan… wants you to kill him?”

    “Yes.”

    “No!” My chest burned, a wild knot twisting low. “You… you’re telling me that Logan… asked you to-”

    “Yes.”

    “You will not kill him.”

    “I won’t,” he rasped, jaw tight, gaze dark. “But you have to keep your options here.”

    “Options?” I snapped, shoving at his chest. “You think I want options? You go out there, blood on your hands, and I’m supposed to… what? Praise you?”

    His hands caught mine mid–shove, iron locking my wrists. “I didn’t go to hurt him, Jess. I went to see him. Make sure he wouldn’t-”

    nust be

    “You see him?” My voice cracked. “Grayson, he wants you to die. Do you understand? He–he wants you to die, and you’re standing there deciding if-” I gasped, fingers wing his shoulders. “Please… th another way.”

    There must be another way. I cannot lose Logan. No. I cannot lose someone else again.

    Grayson’s jaw tightened, and for a long, terrifying second, he just stared at me. “I won’t,” he said again, voice low, rough, almost breaking. “I won’t kill him, Jess. Never. Not for Logan, not for anyone. I swear it.”

    I searched his eyes, needing to see the truth, needing him to be the man I knew–the one who could fight the

    b8:10 /bbSun/bb, /bbSep /bb14 /b

    wolf and stille back to me. “Then… what do we do?” My voice was bsmall/bb, /balmost trembling.

    His gaze softened just a fraction. His thumbs brushed over my wrists, easing the tension in my muscles. “bWe /bsurvive it. Together.”

    “Together?” I echoed, incredulous, the word catching in my throat. “Grayson… people die out there. bYou /b

    “I’ll fight to make sure it’s not him,” he cut in, teeth grazing my jaw in a warning that wasn’t meant bto /bbhurt/b. “And I’lle back to you. Always.” ollin. I wanted to believe him. I had to. /li/ol

    “You have to promise me,” I whispered, leaning into the weight of him, needing some anchor. “Promise bme /byou won’t lose yourself again.”

    His lips brushed mine in a ghost of a kiss, a promise more than anything else. “I won’t. The wolf may roar, Jess, but I alwayse home.”

    I let my forehead press to his, the world outside our bedroom shrieking with danger, yet here, in this moment, we found a fragile, feral kind of calm.

    biAD /i/b

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