Chapter 196
Chapter 196
JESSICA
“I accept the offer of the Triad.”
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Grayson’s eyes snapped to mine, wide, furious, burning. His body vibrated beside me like a storm barely contained, and I knew if I blinked, he’d rip Riot’s throat out and drag me away.
I didn’t blink.
“One condition,” I said, louder this time.
Riot tilted his head, a cruel smile tugging at his mouth. “A condition? Sweetheart, you’re in no position—”
“My bond stays with Grayson.” My voice shook, but I forced it out. “No matter what theater you make of me. No matter what game this is. That bond is mine. And it stays.”
The silence cracked like a whip.
Riot’s smile froze, then sharpened. “You’d accept us on paper, but keep him in your bed?” His gaze slid toward Grayson, hungry for a reaction.
Grayson didn’t move. Didn’t breathe. His eyes locked on me like I was both salvation and executioner.
Kade finally stirred. He stepped forward, his presence heavy enough to suffocate the air. “You understand what you’re saying,” he murmured. “The Triad doesn’t share.”
“They don’t have to.” I curled my fists until my nails bit skin. “You want my loyalty? Fine. You’ll have it. But I won’t break my mate–bond to give it. You want me under your banner–you take me as I am.”
Grayson’s breath hitched, ragged and sharp, as if I’d pulled him back from a cliff.
Riot laughed once, low and mean. “She thinks she can bargain with gods.”
Kade’s gaze held mine. “How will you maintain the bond if you’re living with them? Breathing their air? Eating their food?”
Behind me, Grayson’s chest rose and fell in broken rhythm. I didn’t dare look back.
“I’ll maintain it the same way you keep a throne,” I said. “By refusing to let anyone take it.”
Riot’s smile widened, “Cute. You think willpower can fight hunger? Do you know what happens when mates are separated too long?” His voice dipped, taunting, “The wolf starves. It scratches. It begs. It finds another way.”
My wolf snarled inside me. Never.
“Then let me starve,” I snapped. “Let me bleed, howl, break apart. But I won’t let you rewrite what the bond already decided.”
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Chapter 196
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Kade’s eyes narrowed. “And what if he isn’t strong enough to wait?” His gaze flicked to Grayson, sharp as a blade. “What if your mate breaks before you do?”
Grayson stepped forward, shoulders rigid. “I don’t break.”
“He won’t break.”
That assurance was enough.
Kade leaned closer, his voice low and dangerous. “You want both–your bond, and the Triad’s power.”
“Yes.”
A pause stretched, heavy as chains. Then, slowly, Kade inclined his head. He nodded once to Riot. His hand squeezed Grayson’s shoulder–hard–and he turned away.
For one dizzy heartbeat, I thought I had won.
But then-
Grayson jerked under Kade’s grip.
A lurch, as if something had ripped through his ribs and tore his breath away. The world narrowed to the scrape of leather and the metallic smell that hit me before I even saw the stain spreading over his collarbone.
Blood, black and bright at once.
“Kade-“I lunged, a reflex of heat and claws and pure, stupid panic, but Riot’s forearm snapped out like a barred door and pinned me in place. His hold was a show of easy power; he wasn’t sweating. He was enjoying it.
“Don’t.” He said. “This is the price of your condition, sweetheart. You wanted the impossible. You wanted both. Nothing that costs nothing was ever real.”
Grayson went to his knees but he did not cry out. His jaw ground until I could hear it. His eyes never left me -fierce, raw, broken. The bond between us thrummed like a wire strummed by a storm. I felt it in my teeth, in the hollow where my breath lived. It screamed.
Stop. Don’t let go.
My wolf tore at my insides, wanting him out of Riot’s grip, wanting to tear the man who laughed like a god. “Stop it!” I shouted. Sound, by itself, felt useless in the face of that power. “Stop- you’re killing him!”
Kade’s face didn’t change. He looked as if I hadn’t spoken at all, or as if I were some curious insect he could crush for sport. His hand hung at his side–slick, red–and he said, flatly, “Not killing Testing.” The single word folded the air like a blade. “If your bond is as unbreakable as you claim, let it hold. If it frays–better to
know now than later.”
Jess–Grayson breathed my name.
“Do you know what happens when a wolf bleeds long enough? When the thread between mates is pulled thin,
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Chapter 196
stretched past the point where it remembers how to tie itself?”
He chuckled. “Sometimes it snaps.”
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The bond between us hummed faster, a tuning fork losing its patience. At first it was a small prick along my spine, then a lancing cold that made my fingers go numb. For the first time since I’d spoken the words that had pushed them to this–My bond stays with Grayson–I felt the thread that tied us give, like hair straightening under heat.
A tremor. Fingers slipping from mine.
My lungs forgot how to take oxygen. “Kade!” I called, desperately.. “What will you do if it breaks? What then? Kill him? Hunt his pack? What happens to me?”
He considered me as if I’d offered him a toy. “If it breaks, the Triad decides. We take what remains. We bind you differently. Maybe, I’ll take you for myself.”
“Please.”
My throat closed. Two alphas versus one is never a good number to succeed.
The blade kissed the skin of Grayson’s arm and the moment he bleeds, I’ve lost control of everything.
My wolf screamed.
I should have screamed back. Instead I did something I hadn’t planned. My wolf overpowers me and suddenly I’m howling letting her take control.
I didn’t care about the rules. I didn’t care about the Triad’s sanctity or the look of horror on Grayson’s face. We both know I haven’t learned how to control my wolf.
I took Grayson’s wrist and brought it to my mouth.I pressed my lips to his skin where the blood pooled, and I let the tiniest cut kiss my tongue.
The copper burned and filled my mouth. A part of me expected lightning; instead there was a warmth that slid down my throat and settled in the hollow beneath my ribs.
The bond screamed.
For a second the room dissolved. Colors bled into one another. I saw the moment we’d been bound again— his laugh, my hand finding his in the dark.
Kade swore under his breath. Riot’s face went white with a new kind of calculation.
Grayson’s eyes, already wet, widened. “Jess-” he said, and the single syllable was so full of everything I could
not answer.
The bond did not snap. It didn’t mend perfectly either. But it held enough that I could feel him whole again, small sparks of warmth pulsing from his side into my hands.
“He’s mine!”
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Chapter 196
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I helped Grayson to his feet. He leaned heavily on me, and for a wild, private second I felt like the world was a tight, terrible promise kept between two people in the dark.
Then Kade smiled that slow, his eyes telling me he’s more satisfied than he’s ever had. “Tell the Triad we can confirm. She’s a hybrid and we’re not letting her go.”
