NovelEnglishChapter 178
JESSICA
“Focus, Jessica.”
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“Yes, alpha.” | inhale deeply and close my eyes. When | open them, | set my eyes on the target and pull the
arrow until it lands on it. “Bullseye!”
Chuckling, | turn around to see Grayson'’s reaction but he’s busy talking to Kade. Always busy. Ever since that
day, he seems to be very occupied. He toldthey have to put off the marking for another week.
I don’t know what to think about it.
Grayson never askedfor my opinion. He just assumed | wanted to be marked by him which is partly true but |
also wanted him to considerin every plan that he got going around his head.
| stalked toward them, boots crunching in the dirt. “Grayson.”
He lifted a hand without looking, a silent command to wait. My teeth ground together. My pulse throbbed in my
throat. He could command a whole damn pack with that gesture, but | wasn’t one of his wolves-was 1?
I don’t wait.
If he thinks that hand is enough to leash me, he’s forgotten who | am.
The distance between us closes in three strides, and before Kade can shift aside, I'm sliding my hand up the
back of Grayson’s neck. | tilt my face into his, lips grazing the cut of his jaw before pressing a kiss there.
“So,” | purr, nails pricking the back of Grayson’s neck, “what's worth your attention more than me?”
Finally, | turn my gaze on Kade, my mouth still brushing Grayson’s jaw.
“Well, well,” he drawls, tilting his head as if cataloguing every brush of my mouth against Grayson’s jaw. “Didn't
know | was interrupting something... intimate.”
“Kade.”
“What?” Kade smirks, spreading his hands. “I'm just appreciating the view. If you don’t want her tested, maybe
don’t parade her in front of wolves who like a challenge.”
“What did | do?”
Grayson’s eyes darken, wolf-black, hunger barely caged. For a heartbeat, | think he’ll takeright here in the
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtdirt where anyone could see. But then he releasesso abruptly | stumble back.
“Training’s over.” His voice is steel. “Everyone out.”
Wolves scatter at the order, the field emptying fast. Only Kade lingers, arms folded, a smirk playing at his lips.
Chapter 178
“Touchy,” Kade murmurs, watching me, not him. “Almost like you're hiding something, alpha.”
Grayson’s snarl cuts the air, sharp enough to make the trees quake, but Kade just chuckles and drifts toward the
tree line, his laugh curling back on the wind.
I round on Grayson, heat and fury sparking off me. “What the hell was that?”
His jaw ticks, eyes still immed in black. “You shouldn't provoke him.”
“Provoke-?" | bark out a laugh, sharp and disbelieving. “You're the one keeping secrets and I'm supposed to sit
here and be your quiet little shadow?”
Grayson closes the space between us in a blur, his hand clamping my chin, forcingto meet his gaze. “I
delayed the marking for a reason, Jessica. You think | don’t want you? You think | can’t smell what you're doing to
you're safe.”
“Safe from what?”
For the first time, he looks away. His chest heaves, breath unsteady. “There's a traitor in the pack.”
The way he said that, it almost felt like he’s been thinking about it for weeks now. | know Grayson and | know he
thinks everything thoroughly before concluding everything. So him saying this tomeans that he already has
a nin mind.
“Who?”
His grip drops, fists balling at his sides. “I don’t know. But Kade’s watching everyone now. We're all alphas here,
Jess. | just don’t think...”
A howl rips through the night before | can answer-raw, panicked, tearing across the valley. Both our heads snap
toward it.
“That's the eastern patrol,” Grayson growls, already moving. He whips his head back to me, eyes blazing. “Stay
here.”
But the wolf inis already awake, already clawing to run. My blood sings with the sound of that cry, and
there’s no universe where | stay behind.
“Like hell,” I snarl, snatching my bow from the dirt. “If there’s blood in my pack, I'm not hiding in the shadows.”
Grayson'’s lips curl in something between pride and fury before he bolts toward the tre blur of muscle and rage. |
chase, every step burning with the promise that whatever waits for us out there is about to change everything.
The forest tears atas | run, but | barely feel it. My wolf is awake, hot and ravenous, scraping at my bones like
she wants to rip free and devour the night.
Grayson’s voice is in my skull even though he doesn’t look back. Breathe through it. Don’t cage her. Own her.
apter 178
God, | used to hate the way he barked orders atat dawn, the way he brokedown until | thought I'd
shatter. But now-now | feel it. The power in the burn of my lungs, the way my wolf snarls but doesn’t consume
me. She’s mine. I'm hers. And it's because he shovedinto the fire and refused to letcrawl back out.
The forest bends around Grayson'’s figure ahead of me, his shoulders broad, every motion precise, terrifyingly
fluid. He doesn’t just move through the wild; he rules it. And part ofthrills at the fact that I've been learning-
slowly, stubbornly-to keep up with him.
Stay close to me. Feel the ground before it gives. Breathe through the rage. It’s yours, not hers.
| drag air into my chest and snarl it back down. The shift doesn’t take me. | take it. My lips curl in something
feral.
Grayson feels it. | know he does. He glances over his shoulder, eyes black, burning-and the pride there punches
throughharder than the run. For one heartbeat, the danger around us doesn’t matter. What matters is that
he sees me. That I'm not just the hybrid that ruiend his pack, his burden-I'm becoming the thing he’s been
forging with blood and grit.
“Jessica. Wait here.” The command tears out of him, low and savage, the kind that snaps spines into obedience.
Ligh
My wolf shudders inside me, a traitorous pull to submit. My knees almost bend before | catch them, locking tight.
“You forget,” | rasp, nails biting into my bow’s grip, “I don’t take orders. Not even yours.”
Grayson'’s snarl rakes the air, but | don’t give him the satisfaction of stopping. My boots chew up the forest floor
as | push after him, matching stride for stride.
He doesn’t slow. He knows I'm there. Maybe he wantedto stay back. Maybe he wantedto prove |
wouldn't but | didn’t until...I saw it.
Bodies. Torn wolves littering the patrol line, fur matted dark with blood, throats shredded like meat. And beyond
them, one still moves-crawling, whimpering-before another shape crashes down on it, teeth ripping, flesh
tearing in wet, sickening bursts.
My wolf slams against my chest, not in hunger but in panic. Her whimper tears through me, raw and primal, a
memory stitched to the marrow of my bones.
| know this slaughter.
| see it again—my body pinned, hot jaws snapping inches from my throat, the stink o. cath and blood choking me
as teeth scraped across my skin. That helplessness.
And she remembers too. My wolf shrinks, curls in on herself, tail between her legs, beggingto back down, to
hide, to run before those sjaws turn on us.
“Jessica.”
My chest convulses like something is tearingapart from the inside. | grip Grayson’s hands as if I'll be ripped
away without them, nails digging into his skin, anchoring myself to the only thing keepingupright.
8:17 Sun, Sep 14 N
Chapter 178
“It's Riot,” | choke out. My wolf keens at the sound of it, a hollow cry inside my skull. “It’s him. | know it haw. this
before...when he was chasing me.”.
Grayson'’s fingers clamp around mine, hard, grounding-but his eyes are fire, hunting, already calculating the
kill.
| wish | could borrow his rage. Riot’s shadow has lived in my bones ever since, and | know we did all the forgiving
in the past but this is makingterrified.
The wolf insidecowers lower. Whimpering. Shaking. She doesn’t want to fight him. She wants to curl up and
disappear. “Grayson...what happened to him? Where's Pierce?”
He doesn’t answer right away, just drags his gaze over the battlefield like he’s counting sins instead of bodies.
“Riot was supposed to be alive,” | whisper, voice splintering. “You swore you'd keep him-and Pierce-safe. You
promised me.”
“I did keep them alive, Jessica. That's the problem.”
“I don’t... I don’t understand-"
Grayson pullscloser, forcingto look away. “Listen.” His hand strokes my cheek so gently and lovingly, |
think he’s trying to hide something from me. “I need you to go and ask Kade to chere then | need you to
hide.”
What...is this?
“Why do | need to hide? Grayson! What the hell?”
His thumb lingers against my cheek, tender where everything else about him is ruthless. That softness terrifies
“What aren't you telling me?”
Grayson releases a long breath and I'm sure | felt him tremble when he kissed my lips. ” Go. Truston this.”
AD
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