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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,

pain in them. Is that how he always felt? That no matter what he

my thumbs against the tense line of his cheekbones. “You protect

a shudder ran through him. He buried his face in my neck, letting out a rough, uneven

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Chapter 187

all… but when it comes

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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 only

up,” I breathed against him, tugging gently at his hair, letting him feel the sharp insistence of me. “You protect me.

“Understood?”

and ragged, licking his lips, eyes dark and molten, nodding like a man who’d give anything right

and loud, and my eyes flicked toward the others. Even if everyone was wounded, I knew we had a

at least someone’s happy,” Kade

heat crawling up my neck, cheeks burning. Damn him. Always

low, rough, a sound that rumbled through my chest and ignited something dangerous in me. Before I could even blink, he

his neck, pulse hammering, every nerve

wriggle free,” he muttered, half

make him carry me. “You sure you don’t want to

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

I dared, soft

was a vow, rough as gravel and twice as binding. He set me down not in the middle of the chaos, but by

I let myself be happy, empty–headed and stupid with it. Tomorrow would bring the questions that might ruin us both – did

didn’t give me time to dwell. His arms tightened, and without a word he hoisted me up again, carrying me through the darkness. I thought he was taking me to our bed, but then he turned, not toward our chambers. The steps grew unfamiliar, the torches fewer, the air colder. My

but his only answer was a rough kiss to my

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Chapter 187

are you taking me?”

“You’ll see, baby.”

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