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.”

Only

Chapter 178

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

enough to make the trees quake, but Kade just chuckles and drifts toward the tree line, his laugh curling back on

Grayson, heat and fury sparking off

rimmed in black.

one keeping secrets and I’m supposed to sit here and be

Jessica. You think I don’t want you? You think I can’t smell what you’re doing

“Safe from what?”

he looks away. His chest heaves, breath unsteady. “There’s a traitor

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

“Who?”

fists balling at his sides. “I don’t know. But Kade’s watching everyone

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

whips his head back to me, eyes blazing. “Stay

blood sings with the sound

I snarl, snatching my bow from the dirt. “If there’s blood in my pack, I’m not hiding

fury before he bolts toward the tre blur of muscle and rage. I chase, every step burning with the promise that whatever

run, but I barely feel it. My wolf is awake, hot and ravenous, scraping at

he doesn’t look

apter 178

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

doesn’t just move through the wild; he rules it. And part of me thrills at the fact that I’ve been

it gives. Breathe

into my chest and snarl it back down. The shift doesn’t take me. I take it. My lips curl

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 forging with blood

tears out of him, low and

Ligh

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

nails biting into my bow’s grip, “I don’t take orders. Not even

My boots chew up the forest floor as I push after him, matching

knows I’m there. Maybe he wanted me to stay back.

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,

panic. Her whimper tears through me, raw and primal,

I know this slaughter.