bChapter /bb182 /b

    JESSICA

    2$ ????b, /b58b%/b°

    It was hard to decide what to wear. I don’t think I have enough in my wardrobe either. Grayson had a lot of clothes here but I have nothing but his shirts.

    My heart won’t stop pounding, like it’s trying to escape before tonight can chain it down. I hate this. I hate how nervous ! am. Jack saw it–he called me out without even blinking. And he’s right. I’m terrified. Not of Graysonb, /bnot of the ceremony, not even of the bond. I’m terrified of me. Of faltering. Of proving I’m not the fierce, unbreakable girl I’ve always told myself I was.

    “Trouble?”

    I bite my lip, grateful he can’t hear my thoughts anymore. The mirror betrays me, though–his reflection filling the doorway, steady, unshakable, eyes locked on me like I’m the only thing that matters.

    He never wavers.

    “Keep doing that,” he says, voice low, dark amusement curling through it.

    My brow furrows. “Doing what?”

    His gaze flicks to my mouth, and heat curls down my spine when I realize–he means my lip. “That.” His smirk grows, wicked and sure, like he owns the ground I’m standing on. “Makes me want to ruin yourposure all over again.”

    My cheeks burn. “Grayson-”

    He steps closerb, /buntil the solid weight of his presence surrounds me. My breath stutters when his hands settle on the back of the chair I’m perched on, caging me without touching me. “You’re nervous,” he murmurs, his lips brushing the shell of my ear. “I might not be able to hear your thoughts but I can still read your expressions, Jessica.”

    “Geez. Thanks for reminding me you’re my obsessive stalker before.”

    That earns me a low chuckle, “Do you know my mother used to love you when you were a kid?”

    I blink, thrown. “What?”

    “She used to say you had fire in you. Said iyou /iwere going to be in trouble one day.” His lips graze my temple, soft but deliberate. “She was right.”

    My throat tightens, heat crawling up my neck. “Trouble? That’s what she called me?”

    “Mhm.” His fingers trail down the side of my neck, pausing just above the cor of his shirt that drowns me. “Beautiful trouble.” His voice drops lowerb, /bhusky. And I’m the idiot who can’t get enough of it.”

    I try tough it off, but ites out breathless. “You’re ridiculous.”

    His reflection in the mirror shows his grin–wolfish, devastating. “You really are trouble, Jess.”

    “Am Ib?/b”

    b1/3 /b

    17:47 Mon, b15 /bSeptA

    $ b.53/bb% /b

    “You wreck me, Jess. Every damn day. I used to think I was in control–of the pack, of myself–but then you…” His eyes burn into mine through the mirror, unblinking. “You turned me inside out.”

    My heart lurches, hammering so hard it hurts. “Grayson-”

    He cuts me off with a low growl, his forehead pressing against the side of my head, ivoice /iraw against my skin. “I’d burn this world for you. Do you understand that? I’d tear it apartb, /bw it bloody, just to keep you in my arms.” His hand slides lower, gripping my hip like he’s staking a im only I can feel. “And I don’t regret a single second of it.”

    Heat rushes through me so fiercely I can’t breathe. The mirror catches everything–the flushed pink of my skin, the wild look in my eyes, the way his mouth hovers at my neck like he can’t decide whether to kiss me or bite.

    My throat closes, and before I can stop it, the burn behind my eyes spills over. A single tear slips free, trailing hot down my

    cheek. Then another.

    “Jess?” His hand stills on my hip, trembling just enough for me to notice. “Hey… look at me.”

    I shake my head, pressing my lips tight, but the tears keep falling anyway, traitorous and relentless. “I’m scared… Grayson.”

    “So am I.”

    “No.” I tried very hard to not fall apart. “You’re Grayson Westwood. You don’t get scared.”

    “That’s a lie, Jess.” He paused and I saw him on the verge of tears too. “There have been a million times I’ve been scared- because of you.”

    My breath catches, my tears freezing midfall. “What?”

    “Every time you run off without telling me where. Every time you throw yourself into danger like you’re fucking invincible. Every time I think I’ll lose you, that some bastard will take you away from me…” His forehead presses hard to mine, his words breaking apart as his grip on me shakes. “That terrifies me, Jess. You terrify me. Because you’re the only thing in this world I can’t control. And if I lose you, I lose everything.”

    “Grayson…” I whisper, small, fragile.

    His thumb brushes another tear away, but his jaw clenches, eyes wild. “So don’t you dare say I don’t get scared. I’ve been scared a million times, every single one because of you. Because loving you this much–it’s the one thing that makes me weak.”

    His words gut me, tearing me open in ways, I never thought possible. Then he moves. Swift, decisive. His hands leave my hips only to grab mine, tugging me up from the chair and pulling me across the room. My heart stumbles with every step, confusion tangling with the ache in my chest.

    “Grayson–what are you-”

    He doesn’t answerb, /bnot right away. He pushes open the wardrobe door, and for a moment, I don’t understand what I’m seeing.

    Then bI /bdo.

    b213 /b

    Mon, 15 bSept /b

    Hanging there, delicate and impossibly beautiful, is a dress. White. Flowing. A wedding dress.

    My breath lodges in my throat. “You…” My voice falters, shaking. “You got me… a dress?”

    He turns to me, and for the first time, he looks like the boy I knew before the alpha, before the blood, before the fire-his eyes ssy, his chest rising and falling too fast. “Because I want you to know this isn’t just about a mark. Or a bond. Or some ceremony everyone expects us to get through.” His voice breaks, the words spilling rough, jagged. “It’s about us, Jess. You and me. I want you as my wife. Not just my mate. My forever.”

    My knees nearly buckle, tears blurring the edges of the dress, of him, of everything. “Wow.”

    Grayson’s lips twitch, the faintest ghost of a grin. “Wow? That’s it? I bare my damn soul to you, and all you can say is wow?”

    A shakyugh escapes me, tears still streaking down my cheeks. “What do you want me to say? That it’s the most beautiful thing anyone’s ever done for me? That you’re insane? That I’m two seconds away from ugly–crying on your shirt?”

    He leans closer, crowding me back until my shoulders hit the wardrobe, the wedding dress brushing against my arm. His grin sharpens, wolfish. “Ugly–crying I can handle. But you calling me insane?” His mouth hovers just above mine, teasing. “That’s just forey.”

    Heat floods my face, a gasp catching in my throat. “You’re ridiculous.”

    “And yet-” His hand slides around my waist, tugging me flush against him. His voice drops lower, velvet–dark. “You’re still looking at that dress like you’re already imagining me taking it off you.”

    “Grayson!” I smack his chest, but theugh that slips out of me betrays how warm, how alive I suddenly feel.

    His teeth graze my jaw, yfulb, /bdangerous, but when he speaks next, it’s no longer a tease–it’s a growl, low and aching. “It’s full moon already, baby. Can’t you feel it?” His nose brushes down the side of my throat, inhaling me like I’m air. “Every part of me is howling for you. For this. For us.”

    And I know, deep down, if I said yes, if I said the words; he’d drag me straight into forever without hesitation.

    b3/3 /b