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.”

fast. Only Kade lingers, arms folded,

Chapter 178

him. “Almost like you’re

but Kade just chuckles and

round on Grayson, heat and fury sparking off me. “What

eyes still rimmed in black. “You

disbelieving. “You’re the one keeping secrets and I’m supposed to sit here and be

closes the space between us in a blur, his hand clamping my chin, forcing me to 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

“Safe from what?”

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

felt like he’s been thinking about it for weeks now. I know Grayson and I know he thinks everything thoroughly before concluding everything. So him saying this to

“Who?”

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

can answer–raw, panicked, tearing across the

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

to run. My blood sings with the sound of that cry, and there’s no

snarl, snatching my bow from the dirt. “If there’s blood in my

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

feel it. My wolf is awake, hot and ravenous, scraping at my bones like

though he doesn’t

apter 178

at dawn, the way 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.

his shoulders broad, every motion precise, terrifyingly fluid. He doesn’t just move through the wild; he rules

before it gives. Breathe through the

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

heartbeat, the danger around us

him, low and savage, the kind that snaps spines

Ligh

pull to submit. My knees almost bend before I catch

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

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

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

with blood, throats shredded like meat. And beyond them, one still moves–crawling,

chest, not in hunger but in panic. Her whimper tears through me, raw

I know this slaughter.