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Chapter 187

JESSICA

“Are you sure you didn’t see anything?”

“No.”

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Grayson is suspicious. I can see it in his eyes when he found us in that cell after the Triad left. I know I’m supposed to tell him everything but how can I do that when he’s the one lying to me?

“Jess.”

I forced my hands steady on the bandage, keeping my gaze low. “I said no. You gonna ask me a third time, Alpha, or actually let me patch you up?”

A muscle ticked in his cheek. He didn’t believe me. He never would. Around us, others murmured–no casualties, they said. Lucky. Blessed. I heard the claim, but the forest still hummed with a different voice: the Triads‘ echo, patient and hungry.

My wolf growled low in my chest.

Grayson didn’t ask again. He just stared at me–tired eyes, jaw tight, and I realized, all at once, how damn wounded he looked. A slow exhale left him, and he released my wrist only to slide his hand to my waist. “Fine,” he said, voice rough but quieter now. “If you say no, I’ll believe you.”

Before I could react, he pulled me in, guiding me until I straddled his lap, the bandages forgotten. His arms wrapped tight around me, one hand spread firm across my spine, the other caging my hip as though he could fuse me into him.

“Grayson-” I started, but his mouth was already brushing my temple, his voice breaking softer.

“You scare me half to death every time you’re not in my sight. Do you know that? I fight, I bleed, I tear rogues apart–but it’s this,” his grip tightened, breath shuddering against my hair, “the thought of losing you, that ruins me.”

I realized I wasn’t just holding him… he was holding me. Broken, desperate, and impossibly alive.

Slowly, carefully, I cupped his jaw in my palms, tilting his head until our foreheads pressed together. “I’m… I’m sorry if I scared you again.”

at protecting you, Jess.

his, searching, tracing the exhaustion and the edge of pain in them. Is that how he always felt? That no matter

the tense line of his cheekbones. “You protect me, Grayson. And

and a shudder ran through him. He buried his face in my neck, letting out a rough, uneven breath. “I… I just…” His hands gripped my hips, trembling. “I can

15:49 Tue, Sep 16

Chapter 187

when it comes to

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leaned in and kissed him, hard, shutting his mouth with everything I wanted to say–the fears, the rage, the ache of knowing how much he carried. His lips parted instantly, groaning low, trembling, hands clenching my hips like I was the

tugging gently at his hair, letting him feel the sharp insistence of me. “You protect

“Understood?”

low and ragged, licking his lips, eyes dark and molten, nodding like

knew we had a long night ahead–too many to fix, too much blood, too many aching bodies. Tomorrow there

someone’s

heat crawling up my neck, cheeks

chest and ignited something dangerous in me. Before I could even blink, he scooped me up,

his neck, pulse hammering, every

wriggle free,” he muttered, half

felt good to make him carry me. “You sure you don’t want to keep bleeding on me a while longer?” I teased,

“Get used to me carrying you. Tonight I’ll carry you out of trenches and

dared, soft and

down not in the middle of the chaos, but by Kade and the others–by safety–and his hands lingered on my waist as if the world were trying to pry us

the questions that might ruin us both – did Grayson know about the Triads? Did I have to find out? The thought

me up again, carrying me through the darkness. I thought he was taking me to our bed, but then he turned,

a rough kiss to my temple, his pace never faltering.

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Chapter 187

are you taking me?”

“You’ll see, baby.”

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