All Chapters of Marked By The Rogue Alpha: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

Meredith Silas brought Jacob into Kieran's office a few minutes after the supply room was sealed. Jacob was already sweating. His shirt clung at the collar, and his hands kept moving, smoothing his sleeves, gripping his knees, never settling. He sat down in the chair across from Kieran's desk before anyone told him to, like standing took more out of him than he had left. Kieran didn't raise his voice. "Where were you?" "I hid." Jacob said it fast. "After you took Tobin in, I knew I'd be next. So I hid. That was stupid, I know it was stupid—" "Jacob." "The batch number was me." The words came out on top of each other. "I copied it wrong when we moved the records over. And the ledger, the duty ledger, I took it because I panicked, that's all, I wasn't covering anything. And the thing with Nessa, in the courtyard, that was just—people were already talking, and I thought if I explained it where they could hear, it would stop. That's all it was." He stopped. He was breathing

Meredith I woke in the east family room with the sun already high. Hayley was asleep in the chair beside the bed, her head tipped against the wing of it, one hand still half-curled like she’d dozed off mid-task. The medicine Yara left sat untouched on the table. The curtains were half-drawn, but the light still cut a hard line across the floor, which meant I’d slept past midday. I didn’t move at first. I lay still and felt for my body before I asked it to do anything. My wolf was there, but further away than she’d been last night, curled somewhere deep and refusing to come closer when I reached. Kieran’s answer came back to me before I’d shaken off the sleep. Tonight? Yes. He would have refused me. If I’d asked him for the mark last night, lying there after collapsing in his hall, he would have said no to my face. The anger came back slowly. And under it was the part I liked less, the memory of how safe I’d felt when he carried me out of that hall. Both things were true at once,

Meredith The room stayed silent after I said it. Kieran didn’t move. That annoyed me more than a flat refusal would have. He only stood there, watching me like one wrong step from him could break something neither of us knew how to fix. My hand tightened around the edge of my robe. “You don’t have to look at me like I’ve lost my mind,” I said. “I’m trying to decide if you’ll hate me tomorrow.” “I might hate you tonight if you keep standing there.” That got the smallest reaction out of him. His eyes dropped for a second, then came back to my face. “Do you understand what the mark changes?” he asked. “I understand enough.” “That isn’t an answer.” So I gave him one. “Once you mark me,” I started. “Alarick has nothing left to reach for. Bloodmoon can’t claim me. Silverthorn stops treating me as your arranged wife and starts treating me as your marked Luna, whether they like it or not” I paused. “The coalition will notice. My father will find a way to use it. Everyone is going

MeredithI stood in front of the mirror and looked at the mark on my neck.Three days had passed since Kieran gave it to me.The bite had healed, but not enough to disappear. When I turned my head, it caught clearly above my collar, and the sight of it made my fingers curl around the edge of the dresser.My wolf was closer now. Part of me again and that was supposed to be the only thing that mattered.But Kieran hadn’t come to me since that night.He’d sent instructions. He’d kept the pack from disturbing me. He’d handled the medicine review, Tobin’s office, and every mess that came after the hall. He had done all of it without once standing in front of me.I told myself that was fine. This was still a contract. The mark had saved my wolf, and it was not a confession. He had never promised me anything past protection and stability.Still, my eyes stayed on the mark. He had put this on my body, tied himself to me, made it impossible for my wolf to ignore him, and then stepped back like

KieranThe question was wrong the second it left my mouth.I don't know why you still let him reach you.I'd meant that Alarick should not still have a road to her. That a man who'd thrown her away should not be able to reach into her week with a single message and make her hand go tight around a phone. That was what I meant.What she heard was blame, and her face closed around it before I could take it back."That sounded very close to caring," she'd said with a deadpan face."It sounded like common sense."It hadn't, and she knew it.She stepped closer. “Common sense?”I said nothing.Her laugh had no humor in it. “You keep saying this is a contract.”“It is.”“Then why are you angry?”“I’m not angry.”Her eyes moved over my face like she was tired of that lie before I finished saying it.“No?” she said. “Because you sound very interested in who gets to reach me for someone who keeps reminding me I’m only here on paper.”I didn't answer fast enough.I stood there with nothing in my m