<b>Chapter </b>199
JESSICA
Today is the day I’m going to surrender myself to the Triad. I’ve made a condition <i>so </i>Grayson won’t be hurt seeing me go away.
“Did you say your goodbye?”
“Shut up, Kade. I’m just inches away from slithering your throat.”
“Whole forest heard you moan,” he says, grinning. “Crows jealous.”
I snap my head at him, wolf shing hot in my chest. “Say that again and I’ll make sure you don’t get a throat tough with.”
He smirks but doesn’t push it. He knows better. His knife spinszy in his hand, but his eyes are sharp, restless, already watching the road.
The bond tugs. Hard. Even with Grayson not here, I feel him — his pulse, his ache, the echo of his arms still burned into my skin. My chest tightens until I can barely breathe.
“Kade.” My voice cracks. I swallow and try again. “Promise me.”
He nces over, brows raised. “Promise you what?”
“That you’ll keep him standing.” My nails dig into my palms. “He won’t eat when I’m gone. He won’t sleep. He’ll tear himself apart if you don’t-” My throat closes. “Promise me you’ll take care of him.”
Kade exhales, long and rough. “Jess-”
“No.” I cut him off, stepping closer. “You don’t get to brush this off. You don’t get to joke this away. He’ll follow me straight into hell if you let him. You know he will.”
Kade’s gaze hardens. For once, no jokes. “You think I’d let my alpha crumble? You think I don’t know what he’s like without you?” He steps closer, voice dropping low, almost a growl. “I’ll keep him breathing. Even if I have to chain him down myself.”
I clutch my arms around me, the wolf wing, restless, hating this surrender. “Swear it, Kade. Swear you’ll keep him safe.”
He exhales through his nose, rough, andys two fingers over his heart. “On my blood. On my wolf. I’ll guard him. Even from himself.”
The truck’s engine growls in the distance – closer now. Kade’s knife stops spinning. “Showtime,” he mutters.
I wipe my face with the back of my hand, straightening. The truck grows louder, closer, the stink of the Triad bleeding into the morning air.
I turn to Kade onest time. “Don’t let him follow me.”
<b>9:45 </b><b>Fri</b><b>, </b><b>Sep </b><b>26 </b>
He bares his teeth in something that isn’t quite a smile. “I’ll chain him down myself if I have to.”
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The bond pulls, aching, begging me to run back to Grayson. But I stand still. The Triad is here. And today I’m
theirs.
“You’re Jess,” the Alpha says. His voice rumbles like winter through stone. “And this is not your mate.”
Kade’s jaw snaps shut. “Nope but I’m here to make sure you meet the end of your bargain,” he spits.
–
The Alphaughs a sound without mercy. “Pity. Your pack keeps uglypany” He leans in, breath hot with smoke and iron. Up close I taste old fights and older blood. “He smells soft. A pup ying at kingship like your mate, perhaps?”
“Grayson is no pup,” I say. Rage sharpens my tongue. “He’ll burn every one of you down before you touch him.”
The Alpha’s eyes glow faint amber in the pale light. “Bold,” he says. “Typical omega bravado. I don’t really understand the hype-”
“Enough, Cid.” Another alpha steps forward — older, broader, and colder. His presence snaps the air tight. “The council wants her.”
The Alpha studies Kade as if he’s insulting him through his gaze.
Then he nods like a king epting a minor lord’s word.
“Very well. This is where you end, pup. We will im her. She will be in our den for training. She will learn to kill with pack mind, not lone fury.”
My chest goes cold and hot at once.
Training.
The things they’ll make me do–run in cold, fight in blood, obey orders that hurt.
The wolf inside me snarls and wants it.
To be strong is everything.
To be taken and trained by the strongest is an honor and a sentence.
“Do you fear your mate will follow?” the Alpha asks. “Do I have to kill Grayson Westwood for your sake?”
“No one kills my mate,” I snap. “You want me? Take me. But youy one hand on Grayson and I’ll tear this world down around you.”
The Alpha’s lips twitch – amusement, maybe annoyance. “Will he be a distraction for you?”
“He is my hunger, and he keeps me from starving. Touch him and I will make you beg for the hunt you so love.”
9:45 Fri, <b>Sep </b><b>26 </b>
The Alphaughs, low and full. “So theatrical. Love makes fools of wolves.” He leans close, breath sour with smoke. “You’d risk a kingdom for a mate? How quaint.”
I step forward until my face is an inch from the Alpha’s. If he thinks I’m a scared omega then he’s wrong. Grayson Westwood made me strong and I’m going to conquer everything for him.
“You don’t kill him. You hear me? Kill him and I swear I’m going to paint you red and dance on your graves<b>.</b><b>” </b>
For a heartbeat I think I’ve won something.
Then the older alpha
–
the council one – inclines his head like someone closing a book. He nods once, slow and absolute. “So be it. Take her.”
Cid grins, all teeth. “Finally.” He flicks a gloved hand. Two burly wolves move in, hands closing on my arms. One of the men produces a sack, thick canvas, ckened at the lip. It smells of smoke and old wolf. He slips it over my head like a hood.
“What the hell. Get this off me!”
Darkness swallows my vision.
“I don’t trust anyone, Jess. Keep that on until we’re in our ground.”
I yank at the canvas and the man’s cuffed hand mps harder. Painnces–real and good–reminds me there’s a bargain in y.
I stifled a curse and forced steady breathing until I heard Kade’s words. “Come back,” he breathes, the words muffled as if through earth. “Come back whole.”
Those are thest words I hear before they drag me away. The Triad has me now. And nothing about this ride will bring me home the same.
Outside, I catch the echo of howls rolling through the trees–my pack, my bond, my Grayson. The sound punches through me like ws, but I grit down hard. If I break now, they win.
I press my nails into my palms until I feel blood. A reminder. A vow. They can chain me, blind me, drag me through fire and ice–but I’ll take their training. I’ll take their lessons. And I’lle back stronger.
For him. For us<b>. </b>
The Triad thinks they’ve imed me. But they’ve only armed me.