His Trouble Maker

Chapter 178

JESSICA

“Focus, Jessica.”

verter Vauchers

“Yes, alpha.” I inhale deeply and close my eyes. When I open them, I set my eyes on the target and pull the arrow until it lands on it. “Bullseye!”

Chuckling, I 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 told me they have to put off the marking for another week.

I don’t know what to think about it.

Grayson never asked me for my opinion. He just assumed I wanted to be marked by him which is partly true but I also wanted him to consider me in every plan that he got going around his head.

I 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 I wasn’t one of his wolves–was I?

I don’t wait.

If he thinks that hand is enough to leash me, he’s forgotten who I 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. I tilt my face into his, lips grazing the cut of his jaw before pressing a kiss there.

“So,” I purr, nails pricking the back of Grayson’s neck, “what’s worth your attention more than me?”

Finally, I 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 I 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 I do?”

Grayson’s eyes darken, wolf–black, hunger barely caged. For a heartbeat, I think he’ll take me right here in the dirt where anyone could see. But then he releases me so abruptly I stumble back.

“Training’s over.” His voice is steel. “Everyone out.”

at the order, the field emptying fast. Only Kade lingers, arms folded, a

Chapter 178

watching me, not him. “Almost like you’re hiding

cuts the air, sharp enough to make the trees quake, but Kade just chuckles and drifts

Grayson, heat and fury sparking

jaw ticks, eyes still rimmed in black. “You shouldn’t

I bark out a laugh, sharp and disbelieving. “You’re the one keeping secrets and I’m supposed to sit here and

meet his gaze. “I delayed the marking for a reason, Jessica. You think I don’t want you? You think I can’t smell what you’re doing to

“Safe from what?”

chest heaves, breath unsteady. “There’s a traitor in

said that, it almost felt like he’s been thinking about it for weeks now. I know Grayson and I know he thinks everything thoroughly

“Who?”

“I don’t know. But Kade’s watching everyone now. We’re all alphas here, Jess. I just don’t

through the night before I can answer–raw, panicked, tearing across the valley. Both

growls, already moving. He whips his head back to me, eyes blazing. “Stay

wolf in me is already awake, already clawing to run. My blood sings with the sound of that cry, and

snatching my bow from the dirt. “If there’s blood in my pack, I’m

and rage. I chase, every step burning with the promise that whatever waits for us out there is about to change

tears at me as I run, but I barely feel it. My wolf is awake, hot and

he doesn’t

apter 178

he broke me down until I thought I’d shatter. But now–now I 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 shoved me into the fire and refused to let me crawl back

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 of me thrills

it

chest and snarl it back down. The shift

does. He glances over his shoulder, eyes black, burning–and the pride there punches through me harder 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

Wait here.” The command tears out of him, low and savage, the kind that

Ligh

shudders inside me, a traitorous pull to submit. My knees almost bend before I catch them, locking

my bow’s grip, “I

I don’t give him the satisfaction of stopping. My boots chew up the forest

there. Maybe he wanted me to stay back. Maybe he wanted me to prove I

And beyond them, one still moves–crawling, whimpering–before another shape crashes down on it, teeth ripping, flesh

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

I know this slaughter.