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“I was going to say you’re spiraling, but clearly, we’re past that.”
“Careful,” I snarl. “Keep pushing, and I’ll spiral with your spine between my teeth.”
“I miss this,” he says, stepping closer, unbothered by the threat. “You. Unhinged. Honest. All teeth and hate. No leash, no mask. Just the pretty little beast beneath.”
“You don’t miss shit,” I snap. “You miss having something to provoke. You miss throwing fire and pretending you’re not just as mmable.”
??? ????? ?
He’s too close again. Always circling like he owns the perimeter of my fury.
“You want honesty?” I ask, voice rising. “Here’s the truth, Theo. I don’t know what the fuck you want helping us–but it sure as hell isn’t redemption.”
He raises a brow, says nothing, and that pisses me off more.
“You don’t care about the pack. You never did. You sure as shit don’t care about me. So why are you still here? What, you bored of ying rogue on your own? Needed someone else to stalk in circles? Someone to remind you you’re not the only fucked–up wolf in the woods?”
His expression doesn’t shift, not even a little, and that nkness hits harder than if he’d thrown a punch.
When he finally speaks, his voice is lower, stripped of the usual taunting edge. “You think I’m sticking around to see you fall apart? You really believe that’s what this is?”
1 cross my arms and narrow my eyes. “Isn’t it?”
He exhales slowly, but it’s not frustration. It’s something heavier. Something restrained. “I’m here because I want to help Jess-”
“You want to help? You?”
Theo nods. He flicks his tongue over his bottom lip and locks eyes with me like he’s peeling something raw open just by looking. His gaze is too steady, too still—it feels like staring down a ck hole, the kind that doesn’t just swallow light, but pulls the truth out of you whether you want it or not.
“Then tell me why we haven’t done anything yet?”
1 blink. “What are you talking about?”
“You know what I’m talking about,” he says, <i>tone </i>low and even. “We’ve been out here–circling, waiting, snapping at each other like rabid dogs while Grayson sulks and Pierce plots and you… you seethe. But no one’s made a move. Not one.”
I fold my arms tighter across my chest, though the cold isn’t the problem. It’s the heat crawling up my spine. “Because we’re not ready.”
“Bullshit,” he replies, calm as a de pressed to skin. “We’re not doing anything because you’re not ready.”
My jaw clenches. “And what? You think I’m holding us back?”
“Yeah. I do.”
Iugh, but there’s no humor in it. Just a bitter exhale through gritted teeth. “You think this is hesitation? You think I’m sitting on my ass because I’m
scared?”
“You’re waiting for something,” he says. “Grayson fo apologize. Pierce to fall in line. The universe to give you permission to stop ying the victim and start being the one they should’ve feared all along<i>” </i>
I snap my head toward him, eyes shing. “I’m not waiting, Theo. I’m watching. I’m learning. I’m giving them the space to see who they really are when they think I’m broken. Because when I move, it won’t be subtle. It won’t be clean. And it won’t be fucking reversible.”
<b>I </b>stand, all the way up, and the shadows stretch long behind me, the woods catching their breath like they know what’sing.
“They’re so busy trying to protect me,” ! spit, “like I’m some fragile, feral girl that needs managing. Like I’m a fucking bomb they can’t defuse. But they
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don’t realize-“I throw a matchstick into the fire, letting it snap and pop as it catches, “-that I’m not the one who needs protecting.”
Theo’s watching me now. Really watching.
? ? ? 92%<b>E </b>
+25)
“I’ve been holding back,” I continue, pacing now, voice low but building like a stormfront. “Not for me. For them. Because I know what I’m capable of. I know what happens when I stop holding the leash. When I stop muting my instincts. You’ve seen glimpses, but none of <i>you </i>have seen what I be when I stop caring about who gets caught in the wreckage.”
“So you knew all along?”
I nod, slowly. “I’ve heard.”
“You knew Riot infected you,” he says, the words almost a whisper now. “You knew it made your shifting worse.”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
Theo’s gaze flicks back to mine, and there’s a different kind of heat in his stare now–fear, maybe, but not for himself.
“And you’ve been keeping it the whole time?”
“I’ve been waiting for this moment.”
Theo’s eyes narrow and <i>before </i>he can realize what I’m nning to do, I quickly control my mind to shift, before lunging and sinking
Theo’s eyes narrow and <i>before </i>he can realize what I’m nning to do, I quickly control my mind to shift, before lunging and sinking my teeth into his shoulder.