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.”

the field emptying fast. Only Kade

Chapter 178

murmurs, watching me, not him. “Almost like

to make the trees quake, but Kade just chuckles and drifts toward the tree

fury sparking off

rimmed in black. “You shouldn’t provoke

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

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 to me right now?” His words scrape low, rough,

“Safe from what?”

he looks away. His chest heaves, breath unsteady.

thinking about it for weeks now. I know Grayson and I know he thinks everything thoroughly

“Who?”

grip drops, fists balling at his sides. “I don’t know. But Kade’s watching everyone now. We’re all alphas here, Jess. I

I can answer–raw, panicked,

whips his head back to

the wolf in me is already awake, already clawing to run. My blood sings

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

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

My wolf is awake, hot and ravenous,

skull even though he doesn’t look back. Breathe through it. Don’t cage her. Own

apter 178

The power in the burn of my lungs, the way my wolf snarls but

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 of

close to me. Feel the ground before it gives. Breathe through

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

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.

The command tears out of him, low and savage, the kind that

Ligh

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

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

him the satisfaction of stopping. My boots chew up the forest floor as

wanted me to stay back. Maybe

wolves littering the patrol line, fur matted dark with blood, throats shredded like meat. And beyond them, one still moves–crawling, whimpering–before

hunger but in panic. Her whimper tears

I know this slaughter.