Chapter 200
JESSICA
“Get up!”
A hand yanks me by the collar, drags me to my feet. My knees scrape stone. The air bites cold, thinner than I’ve ever breathed.
The sack tears off.
Light slams into my eyes. I blink hard, once, twice–then freeze.
Mountains. Endless, jagged, black against the sky. A wall of stone cut with towers, gates, fires burning white instead of gold. Wolves prowl the ridges, their eyes glowing like scattered stars. Armor clatters. Claws scrape. Too many. Too strong.
This isn’t a pack. It isn’t even a city.
“What… what is this place?” I breathe before I can stop myself.
Cid shoves me forward, hard enough my teeth knock together. “Don’t play dumb, omega. This is the belly of the Triad. You’re not in your soft little woods anymore.”
I stumble, catch myself, glare over my shoulder. “Hands off.”
His grin flashes white and cruel. “Oh, I’ll have more than my hands on you before long. They said I get to break you in.” He leans close, his breath hot, foul with smoke and iron. “Hope you like bleeding.”
I bare my teeth, wolf rising sharp in my chest. “Try it, and I’ll rip yours out first.”
Cid laughs, low and amused, like I’m a pup snapping at a grown wolf. His hand clamps back on my arm. dragging me toward the stair cut into the rock. “Go on, love. I’ll have to bathe you before you appear in the Triad.”
I spit straight into his face – thick, salty, meant to sting. Cid blinks, shock flashing across that smug mouth for half a second, then his fingers curl into my hair and he hauls my head back.
“Ugly,” he sneers, dragging my face close enough that I taste him. “Bitch!”
I wrench my arm free with a hard twist and shove him in the ribs. Pain blooms in my shoulder where the cuff bites, but the shove lands. A grunt. Cid snaps, hand flying up to slap my cheek but I block him using my feet.
I don’t stop. I kick again, this time at the hip, then drop my weight and knee him in the gut. The world narrows to the sound of his breath leaving him and the barked shouts around us.
Cid’s face goes white, then angry, then impressed in a flash. Hands grab at me; I twist, elbow snapping back into a jaw I barely graze.
“Try me and you’ll wish you hadn’t spoken.”
Chapter 200
A hush falls. Even the training wolves pause–their interest sharp as knives.
“Enough.”
My wolf tightens, ears flat.
Someone stops two paces away and looks at me. His eyes are dark and patient and hungry.
Á、 (9)).
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“I told you she’s not to be touched.” He looks back at me.” My apologies, Ms. Wilkinson.” He steps closer, slow as if daring me to flinch. His hand finds mine, rough fingers closing around my cuffed wrist.
Heat jolts up my arm, as I watch him lower his head and brush his lips against the back of my hand.
“The Triad may claim you, but I won’t let them dishonor you.”
The kiss lingers for a heartbeat too long.
Then he releases me, gaze unreadable, before turning sharp to Cid. “If she bleeds again by your hand, you’ll answer with bone.”
Cid stiffens, jaw working, but says nothing. “Yes, Kirill.”
I stiffen, blinking at him. “Kirill?”
He inclines his head slightly, eyes never leaving mine. “Alpha Kirill,” he says, the weight of the name rolling over me like winter wind over the mountain peaks. “And I expect obedience, even from those who think themselves untouchable.”
The air tightens around us, every wolf in the yard suddenly smaller, careful. Cid shifts, muttering the name like a curse. “Yes… Alpha Kirill.”
Who are you? I want to ask but instead, I’m mesmerized at his gaze.
“Come. I’ll tour you in your house.”
I don’t know why I follow–maybe because everyone else steps aside. Cid shoots me one last look–hate, hunger, something like warning–then melts back into the shadows of the stone.
We descend.
Stairs cut into the bone of the mountain wind down and down. Torches spit white fire along the walls; shadows bite at the edges.
The closer we get, the louder the world becomes–metal on metal, shouted commands, the slap of trainers. Wolves shout in a language of teeth and angles.
“Who are you?” I ask at last, voice small against the roar.
He glances at me, one corner of his mouth lifting like a blade. “Kirill,” he says. “Alpha. Keeper of the Cradle. And for now–your judge.”
Chapter 200
Cradle. What is it?
“It’s a place where you train, Ms. Wilkinson or should I call you Jessica?”
I swallow. “Jess is fine. And for the record, Cid is an asshole.”
Kirill’s lips twitch, just the barest hint of a smirk. “Cid is… rough,” he says. “But he has his uses.”
The hall widens, and my eyes widen with it. Wolves everywhere–massive, lithe, deadly–train with precision that borders on terrifying.
“In this direction,” Kirill said, distracting me away from whatever is in store there.
“What is that?” I ask, my pulse spiking.
“Soon,” he replies, dragging me into another corner.
I have many questions, but those words vanish the moment he opens the door. The sight steals my breath. Towering arches carved from black stone stretch overhead.
Torches flicker, casting long shadows along the walls.
“I don’t know how lavish Grayson pampered you,” Kirill says. “but this will do.”
The chamber is simple, almost spartan–stone walls, a low bed, a bench, a basin. Yet in its austerity, there’s a sense of strength, of purpose.
“You know him?”
“I know enough. Enough to recognize why he’d want you alive. Why he’d want you… controlled.”
“Controlled?”
A faint, unreadable smile flickers on his lips. “Oh, I think you know Jess why he marked you that night. You’re not that dumb, aren’t you?”
I stiffen. “I don’t answer riddles.”
“Marking binds more than flesh, Jess. It ties a wolf to its mate. To keep them alive… to keep them loyal. You know why he did it.”
I glare. “He did it for me. To protect me. Not to make me weak.”
He studies me. “And yet you’ve come here. You’ve left him behind, willingly or not. Does that feel like weakness to you?”
My chest tightens, wolf snarling beneath my ribs. “I’m not weak. Grayson knows me. My bond with him… it keeps me alive. Even here, even under your eyes, I’m still his. No one touches him. No one ever will
Kirill’s lips twitch–half amused, half approving. “I never said anything about touching him. I don’t care how you move mountains for each other, Jess. But your training here… will be valuable for us.”
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Chapter 200
I glance at him, narrowing my eyes. “Valuable? You mean a weapon? You want to turn me into a tool?
“Exactly, but not quite.”
At first, I thought he was checking me out, letting his gaze weigh me down like stone–but there’s no lewdness here. “You can’t control your wolf,” he says quietly, almost a murmur.
“How did you know that?”
“I watch. I listen. Wolves speak in ways humans rarely notice. Yours… it’s loud. Hungry. Restless. Dangerous if untamed.”
I snort, fangs flashing. “Hungry, restless, dangerous… sounds like every wolf I’ve ever met. What makes mine so special?”
instincts… “When Riot bit you, he didn’t just mark you. He poisoned the order of your blood. Your omega your need to obey… they’re twisted now. You’re a hybrid. Half rogue, half wolf–born omega. And now, you let Grayson stir up your identity. Fierce. Unbound. Dangerous.”
