Chapter 197
Chapter 197
JESSICA
“You fooled me?”
:
“Jess-” Grayson tried to reach for my arms but I pushed him away. “It’s the only way.”
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Kade doesn’t turn, only drags his hand over his jaw. The rasp of stubble is louder than it should be.
Grayson finally meets my eyes. His are tired, not guilty. “If we hadn’t, you’d already be dead.”
I wrap my arms around myself, trying to hold back the heat building in my chest. “So you lie to me, scare me half to death, and I’m supposed to thank you?”
Kade stops pacing.. “You think we wanted this? You think Grayson wanted to shove a blade up your dress and pretend you were prey?”
Grayson stiffens but says nothing.
My pulse hammers, loud enough I’m sure they all hear it. “I don’t know what to think anymore.”
The forest stirs then, birds scattering high above us, their cries sharp. A chill crawls down my spine. The sun is climbing, but the shadows between the trees stay thick, like they’re hiding something.
Kade finally looks at me, his eyes dark and unblinking. “Then stop thinking,” he says. “And start listening.”
I look at Grayson, and I shouldn’t. I shouldn’t let my eyes lock on his, but the bond thrums between us, low and steady, a current I can’t shut off. His chest rises slow, controlled, but I feel the stutter of his pulse like it’s
my own.
“You let them use me,” I whisper, but the heat of it dies before it reaches him. The bond won’t let me hate him, not the way I want to.
I would bleed out before I let the Triad touch you. But if you don’t understand how dangerous they are–if you don’t feel it–you’ll keep questioning us. And they’ll take you.”
Grayson takes one careful step closer, palms open. “Jess. Look at me.”
I do. I shouldn’t, but I do, and the bond answers–my pulse syncing to his, my chest aching like it’s trying to match his breath.
“I’m so sorry if I’ve been so harsh on you these past few days but I can’t lose you, baby.”
My heart races, syncing faster with Grayson’s, and it terrifies me. My body wants to step into his arms, but my head screams to run. “You can’t just say sorry and expect me to forget. You made me believe-” My voice cracks. “You made me believe they’d kill me.”
“They would,” he snaps, harsher than he means, and then his face softens. His eyes search mine, desperate. “They still might.”
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Chapter 197
:
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The forest closes in around us. Shadows stretch long and deep, swallowing the last warmth of morning.
Grayson takes another step, the bond thrumming hard enough I feel it in my bones. “Baby,” he whispers. “Please, listen to us.”
I don’t know what more lies they can feed me.
“Jess,” he says again, softer now. “If you can’t trust me, then trust this. I will die for you.”
I know.
I sigh, wiping my tears with the back of my hand, trying to stop my wolf from answering before my mouth can. The animal inside me claws at the cage of my ribs–hot, impatient, hungry for certainty. It wants to snarl, to leap into his arms and never let go. It wants to tear out the throat of anyone.
Tears spill again, hot and sudden. “What is your plan?”
Grayson’s hand finds mine and squeezes. “You have to join the Triad.”
“What? I thought-” My voice fractures. I pull my hand back like his touch burned me. “I thought you said we were protecting me. You want me to join them?”
He swallows, jaw working.
“Join them how? As bait? As a—what, Grayson? Give them my name and my life?”
He looks away, and for a second he looks every bit the tired, dangerous man he is–more wolf than human. “No. Not as a gift. As an inside. As leverage.”
Leverage.
“You expect me to pretend to betray you? To smile at people who’d tear me apart?”
Kade stepped forward and I hated him so much because I knew this was his plan. “You’ll be under watch. We’ll be with you. We’ll keep you from getting hurt.”
Riot’s laugh is humorless. “And if they test you? If they mark you as theirs?” He glances at Grayson- accusation and fear braided together. “What then?”
Grayson’s eyes burn. “Then we have to be ready to take it back.”
Take it back. The words are meant to comfort, but they make my stomach drop. I imagine hands–dirty, greedy–reaching, claiming. I imagine being paraded before men whose smiles are knives. I imagine the Triad knowing the rhythm of my breath, the timbre of my voice, knowing every weakness to exploit.
“You’re asking me to lie to their faces,” I whisper. “To smile while I rot inside.” Tears blur the world. I’m shaking. My wolf whines–small, humiliating. It doesn’t want this. It wants to tear and run and hunt and kill. It doesn’t understand subterfuge. It knows the truth in blood.
Grayson’s thumb rubs my knuckle.. “I know.” His voice cracks. “I know it’s cruel. I know it’s asking too much. But right now we don’t have an army. We have three of us, and you with them inside is the only way to learn
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Chapter 197
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their plans without walking into a trap. You’re the only one who can get close enough without them killing us all first.”
“Or you’re asking me to be their prisoner.”
His face collapses. For a heartbeat I see a man undone–no alpha armor, just a raw, fearful human who loves too much. “I can’t-” He closes his eyes. “I can’t lose you, Jess.”
I think of everything they’ve done to ‘protect‘ me. The staged attacks. The cold metal at my thigh. The knife hidden where my dress can’t reach. I think of the bond–how it pulses at his words, how it makes me want to obey even when every sane part of me screams no.
“Kade,” I say suddenly, and the name is a lifeline. “If I do this–if I pretend–what happens when they try to take me for real? When they demand proof? When they bind me to them in a way you can’t fix?”
Kade’s jaw works. “We’ll have a plan,” he says finally. “We’ll have signals. Extraction points. If it goes sideways, we pull you out. We burn their safehouses. We take them down.”
Riot steps to the treeline, scanning. “They’re closer,” he says. “We don’t have time to debate philosophy.”
The forest breathes around us–cold, patient, full of eyes. Somewhere, not far, something moves with intent. My throat tightens. Decisions taste like iron.
I press my palms to my face and feel the wet warmth of tears. I am so tired. So full of betrayal and love and
doubts. fear. The bond hums like a second heartbeat, louder than
my
“I won’t be your weapon,” I whisper, almost to myself. “I’ll be my own blade.”
Grayson doesn’t smile. He only nods, and in that nod there is surrender, strategy, and the fierce, terrible promise of a man who would burn the world for me.
AD
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