The Rejected True Heiress (Liora and Callum) novel Chapter 228

He froze, instantly spotting Marcus standing behind me. “What are you doing?” he asked.

Before I could answer, Marcus stepped forward. “You must be Callum.” He extended his hand. “My name is Sir Marcus, Delta of the royal pack. I suppose you already knew that.” Callum nodded as they shook hands. “I’m actually glad you’re here. Liora was telling me about your mission to find Marissa. I’m very impressed.”

Callum arched a brow. “You are?”

“I am.” Marcus looked between the two of us, then went on, “That’s why I would like to invite you two on our upcoming mission. We intend to root out the rogue encampment and find your classmate. Your other friend—what was his name?”

“Zane,” I replied.

“Right. He should come, too. We might need your help locating the encampment. It will be a two-day camping trip, of course, but you don’t need to worry about gear. We’ve got everything you’ll need.”

I turned to Marcus, completely taken aback. He met my gaze. I saw a glimmer in his eyes that I had only seen before on a few occasions, like when he had a particularly grueling drill for me to run during training.

“Marcus…”

“A little combat could help your wolf emerge,” he replied through our mindlink. “Don’t you think?”

I considered that for a moment. Maybe he was right. My wolf had emerged for the briefest of moments last night, when I had been running from that rogue. I’d felt it. Maybe I could get her to come out again during combat.

“I’d be honored,” I finally said.

Callum nodded. “As would I.”

“Did someone say ‘camping trip’?” Zane asked, appearing out of seemingly nowhere. He draped his arm around my shoulders and grinned. “I love camping. Count me in.”

Marcus curled his lip indignantly, glancing at me, but I just rolled my eyes and smiled.

“What, so you can cut off supplies and funding for the wolfless again?” I growled. I knew he had done it to punish me. I wasn’t stupid. “How much longer did you intend to do that?”

Mr. Alder’s eyes gleamed. “As long as it would take for you to do the right thing.”

“Which is…?”

“Drop out of school,” he said simply. He leaned back in his chair.

I stared at him, jaw working silently. He thought I was going to be cowed into dropping out. Into abandoning the place I had grown to love just because he didn’t want me here anymore.

I scoffed. “I’ll bring back Bella instead. You can’t keep using the wolfless as bargaining chips if there’s no reason to keep the school under lockdown.”

With that, I left. The door slammed shut behind me, and I didn’t look back.