All Chapters of Mark Me, Reject Me, Beg Me: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

The impact drives the air from my lungs as I hit the training mat, but I'm already rolling, using momentum to spring back to my feet. My opponent—a male warrior named Garrett who outweighs me by at least eighty pounds—charges again like a freight train with bad intentions.I wait until the last possible second, then drop and sweep his legs. He crashes down hard. Before he can recover, I'm on his back, forearm locked against his throat in a hold that would make him unconscious in about ten seconds."Yield," I say quietly.He taps the mat twice. I release him immediately and offer my hand."Damn, Isla." Garrett accepts the help up, rubbing his neck with a rueful grin. "You get faster every week. What are you, part cheetah?""Just focused." I grab my water bottle from the bench, trying to slow my racing heart.Three years of training under the Alpha King's Elite program has made me lethal. Three years of proving I'm more than the broken girl who showed up at his gates, pregnant and despe

Leaving Asher was harder than the rejection.That thought circles through my mind as the transport vehicle carries me north toward Blackthorn territory. I can still feel his small arms wrapped around my neck, his face buried in my shoulder when I explained Mommy had to go away for a little while."How long?" he'd asked, voice muffled."Not long, baby. Uncle Thorne will take good care of you.""Promise you'll come back?"The question shattered something in my chest. "I promise."Thorne had to physically pry him off me. The sound of Asher's crying followed me down the hallway, through the compound gates, into the vehicle that's taking me back to my personal hell.I press my forehead against the cool window, watching unfamiliar landscape roll past. Trees blur together. The sun climbs higher. My reflection stares back at me, pale and hollow-eyed.Three years. I spent three years building walls brick by painful brick, and now I'm voluntarily tearing them down.The memory surfaces without p

For a moment, we just stare at each other across the Luna's suite. Kieran looks like he's seeing a ghost. I probably look the same.Three years of exile carved lines into his face that weren't there before. The scar is the most obvious change—a vicious slash from his right temple down to his jaw that should have killed him. Whatever gave him that mark wanted him dead.But his eyes. Those warm amber eyes that always saw too much are exactly the same."I heard you were here," he says, voice rough like he hasn't used it in a while. "I had to see for myself.""You're supposed to be exiled." The words come out sharper than I intend. "What are you doing back?""Funny thing about exile." A ghost of a smile crosses his face. "It doesn't stick when your brother needs you."Movement behind him draws my attention. Kade appears in the doorway, and the temperature in the room drops about ten degrees."Kieran." His voice is pure Alpha command. "I told you to wait downstairs.""Yeah, well, I never w

The drive to the eastern border takes twenty minutes that feel like twenty hours.I'm wedged in the back seat of Kade's SUV between Kieran and a stone-faced warrior named Marcus who looks like he could bench-press a truck. Kade drives with the kind of focused intensity that makes conversation impossible, his knuckles white on the steering wheel. Two more vehicles follow behind us, packed with additional security.The blood bond pulls gently but persistently, a reminder of the invisible leash tying me to the pack house. It's not painful at this distance, just uncomfortable. Like wearing a shirt that's slightly too tight."You okay?" Kieran asks quietly, noticing my wince as we hit a pothole."Peachy." I stare out the window at the darkening forest. "Just trying to figure out how rogues know what I am when I barely know what I am.""That's what worries me." Kade's eyes meet mine in the rearview mirror. "Moon-Blessed bloodlines aren't common knowledge. Outside of healers and historians,

Planning a confrontation with your adoptive father who may or may not be conspiring with a dark witch turns out to be complicated.We spend three more hours in the library, fueled by coffee and grim determination, mapping out every angle. Luna Ava pulls up communication records between the Blackthorn Pack and the Gray Pack over the past decade. Kade contacts allied Alphas, carefully fishing for information about Marcus without revealing why. Kieran digs through more archives, looking for any historical connection between the Gray family and known practitioners of dark magic.I stare at Celeste's photograph and try not to think about the fact that the man who raised me might have been selling information about me to the woman who wants to harvest my blood.By three in the morning, we have something resembling a plan."The Gray Pack is hosting a regional Alpha summit next week." Kade leans back in his chair, rolling tension from his shoulders. "Security will be tight, but Marcus will be