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Chapter 61 – Teeth Behind Smiles
Last Updated:
2025-08-12 19:13:19
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Marked by the Alpha: Blood Oath CHAPTER 73 – The Edge of Trust
EliI wasn’t trying to eavesdrop. The only reason I was even in the vicinity of Mara’s office was because the kitchen was out of tea and I thought maybe she had some stashed away.Ronan’s sister hasn’t exactly welcomed me with open arms, but it’s part of why I like her.She reminds me of Jace. Gruff, no-nonsense, honest. What you see is exactly what you get. She wouldn’t smile to my face and gossip behind my back.But voices carry in the lodge corridors when the wind’s up, and I’ve spent enough of my life surviving by catching the half-heard things people don’t mean you to hear.“…can’t leave him alone,” Jace’s voice, low and full of gravel, carries through the crack in her door.“That’s not your decision,” Mara says, clipped. “And you don’t have proof.”“I don’t need proof to know he’s trouble. Do you? He’s not like the others.”My chest tightens.I don’t hear a name, but who else could they be talking about? The pack’s golden Deltas and loyal Betas? No. I’m the stray no one asked fo
Marked by the Alpha: Blood Oath CHAPTER 72 – A Whisper in the Dark
JaceLast night’s frost melted under boots that didn’t belong to patrol. The tracks cut across the hard ground to the storage sheds and vanish where the earth turns to pine needles. Same as yesterday. Same as the day before.I rub the pad of my thumb against the faint impression of a heel and lift my head, letting the scents sift themselves. Oil. Old smoke. The tang of oiled leather from the armory hinges. Under it, faint and sweet if you know what to look for, I detect Loran. His scent’s a soft thing. Wildflower and clean rain with the sugar note Omegas carry whether they like it or not. I check the ledger, and scrape a knuckle across the page where someone signed Reed’s name with Reed’s letters and not his hand. He prints his e’s backwards when he’s rushing. This isn’t printed at all. This is neat script, rounded and precise. I close the ledger. Mara’s right. Something’s rotting.I step back into gray morning and make for the training yard. Hazel’s already there, breath cloudin
Marked by the Alpha: Blood Oath CHAPTER 71 – Quiet Sabotage
MaraThe first thing I notice is the weight. The armory door should drag a little on its hinges. Too much humidity in these mountains, the timber swells. But tonight it swings open without that familiar resistance. My fingers hover on the iron latch a heartbeat too long before I push inside.The familiar smell envelops me. Oil, steel, cold stone. Normally it’s clean, orderly, a space that reassures me the pack’s teeth are always sharp. I step in, boots echoing against the planked floor. The torches on the wall flicker as I run my gaze over the racks. My gut goes cold.Two long rifles are gone from the upper hooks. A set of silvered throwing knives are missing from the locked case at the back. I check the lock for signs of tampering, but it’s intact. Someone had the key. I pull the ledger from its shelf, flipping pages under my thumb. Last entry for those weapons? Three days ago. Logged as “maintenance” by Reed, one of our Deltas. I’ll talk to him later, but my instincts tell me thi
Marked by the Alpha: Blood Oath Chapter 70 – Territory Lines
RonanThe air is cold and sharp today. The kind of cold that wakes the senses, that makes every shift of wind feel like a whisper carrying someone else’s scent.We’ve been running the northern edge of Blackthorn for two hours now, and the trail is too clean for my liking. Too quiet after all the activity in the preceding days.Then I see it. A claw mark carved deep into the trunk of a pine, the sap still bleeding fresh and gold. The edges are deliberately ragged. This wasn’t a lazy stretch from a passing wolf, this is a signature.I step closer, palm against the grooves and inhale deeply. It’s someone from Redmaw, without a doubt.The wolf in me shoves against my ribs, all teeth and forward momentum. I can almost see them in my mind’s eye. A scout with too much confidence and not enough speed, thinking they can leave their stink on my border without consequence.It would be easy to follow the trail. Hunt it down. Tear it open.Instead, I roll my shoulders back and force the impulse d
Marked by the Alpha: Blood Oath Chapter 69 – The Long Game
LoranI know how to play the long game. It’s the only way to survive in Blackthorn if you’re not born into teeth and territory.Eli doesn’t.He’s still walking around like he can win people with that wide-eyed act and a mouth that doesn’t know when to close. The pack is still in its “he’s shiny and new” phase with him, but that will fade. I’ll make sure of it.It starts small. Always small.I drop remarks where they’ll land best. A mutter to a Beta about how I overheard Eli talking about Blackthorn’s market routes and how Ashgrave should look at using them. A comment to a Delta about how Ronan’s spending more time in his cabin than in the war room. A shrug and a glance, like I’m just making small talk, not standing there with matches in hand, ready to light the fuse.The trick isn’t to make anyone believe he’s a traitor outright. The trick is to make them wonder. Wondering is corrosive. It eats trust from the inside.I need to wipe that look from Ronan’s face. The tell-tale way he ‘a
Marked by the Alpha: Blood Oath Chapter 68 – The Wound You Can’t See
Eli POVHazel’s warning should be easy to ignore. She’s given me the watch yourself speech before. Usually about Ronan, sometimes about the pack in general. But this time, it sticks.He’s not your friend.He’s not doing you any favors.Loran doesn’t give without taking.I told her I could handle it. That I don’t need a big sister hovering over me. But the words loop in my head like a song I can’t turn off.The problem is, I keep replaying it all wrong. Not the warning, but the way Loran leaned in, the subtle curl of his mouth, the almost lazy way he told me my stance was fine for someone who’d just started trying to keep up.It wasn’t just what he said. It was how he said it. Like he knew more about me than I’d given him, like he’d been studying me long before offering a single “tip.”I don’t like it. I don’t like how much it gets under my skin either.This morning I wake up already tense, like my brain’s been chewing on the whole thing all night.The mirror doesn’t help. There are fr
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