Layla took a step back. Her first instinct was to run, but where the hell would she go? The girl was blocking the path down the side of the vast building, and they had come quite a distance from the main door of the house. The girl was strong. Maybe she was fast, too. Trying to make it back to the room would be a gamble. She should never have come out in the first place. She should have listened to Jackson."You shouldn't be here, Monica," Diedre said, stepping in front of her as if to shield her. The woman's sunny nature had disappeared, and it actually felt a little chilly in the air. Layla had no idea if Diedre was just like the girl, if she was just as strong from whatever they ate or injected themselves with in this place, but she hoped so. She did not fancy getting her ass kicked again."But I didn't do anything wrong," the girl, Monica, said. Her voice sounded small. That fierce snarl she had shown the first day was nowhere to be seen. The anger and the attitude were gone as
“You know the rules better than anyone, Jackson. No humans on pack territories,” Hugo said. “There are Hunters who have been operating not too far from you. Now isn’t the time to take any chances.”“Who told you about her?” Jackson asked as he sat back in the chair.He was willing to bet it was Zach. That old man hadn’t been happy that he had shut him down during that dinner. But of course, after the rogues had declared Layla one of them, it could have been anyone in the pack. “That doesn’t matter, Jackson,” Lincoln said. “What matters is that you need to fix this before things escalate. We don’t want to have to take any... extra measures.”The threat was clear in Alpha Lincoln’s tone. He’d seen some of their ‘extra measures’ before. The Circle was so sadistic that he wasn’t sure who was worse; them or the Hunters. Whole packs had disappeared—maybe moved off their lands or worse, he didn’t know for sure—just to make sure the Hunters found nothing when they arrived. All in the name of
Rage.That was all he felt when he saw Layla pinned down on the path. When he saw Laken and his sons with their filthy hands on her. His vision was red as he slowed to a stop. He’d got out of the car and ran the rest of the way to the packhouse, but he hadn’t shifted because he had assumed Layla had just seen something that had scared her, and he’d known how dangerous it would be for Layla if she saw Cain. But he couldn’t rein his beast in now. He growled in warning, and the three wolves let go of Layla immediately and backed away. Their fear polluted the air as they lowered their gazes. He had stopped Cain from carrying out justice many times already but this... This he would not let go of. Dylan finally reached him and stopped beside him.“Fuck,” Dylan whispered. Because he knew. He knew this was the end of them.His gaze lowered to Layla, who was still on the ground, frozen in place. His mate. She felt... broken. They had done this to her. ‘Stay,’ he growled in the mind link w
Layla sat on the edge of Jackson’s bed and ignored the woman hovering around her.“I thought you were safe. I should have seen it...”The mumblings of a crazy person. But who was she to talk? She spoke to wolves in her head.Still, that was better to focus on than the fact that she’d almost been raped and killed. And that Jackson was blaming her for that.Anger fought with despair and shock. The turmoil in her head threatened to consume her. Almost raped. Almost raped.She could still feel their hands on her body as if it was still happening. Still feel their breath on her face. Still see the looks in their eyes. “I’m sorry, Layla. I don’t know what came over them,” Diedre continued.She didn’t want to hear about it anymore, so she stood up and walked to the bathroom. She stripped and threw her clothes in the trash before entering Jackson’s colossal shower. The spray was icy at first and then very hot, but she was too numb to feel it. All she wanted was to get rid of the feeling of t
Jackson looked at the two young men and their kid sister as they hung suspended on silver chains. The girl had passed out before he could do anything to her. The boys had lasted a little longer. They were bloody, and he could smell their impending death as the silver poisoned them, but he wasn’t satisfied. His rage still filled him and clouded his mind. It had been worse when he’d held Layla and listened to her talk in her sleep.The hatch opened, and he caught Dylan’s scent as he came down. Cain growled in his head at the intrusion. He knew why his Beta was there. Dylan thought the kids had had enough, but he and Cain begged to differ. It would be enough when he could no longer smell their scents or hear their heartbeats. “Alpha Chase is still trying to get a hold of you,” Dylan said as he came to stand beside him. “I’m still busy,” he growled. “You killed their dad, Jax. I think they’ve learned their lesson.”“It’s because I killed their dad that they must die. I don’t need thes
Jax looked over at the woman still sitting on the bed, in the same spot she’d been in all day. She was in no state to be put through anything else.Those fuckers. They should have listened to him. ‘Keep them at the gate. I’m coming.’He stood and stretched, paying attention to Layla’s emotions. At least she’d got used to him being in the room; she hadn’t flinched at any movement for a while.“I’m going to check on a few things before I sleep,” he said as he walked over to her. “You should get some rest.”He didn’t like the look she had in her eyes as they followed his movements. She was still looking at him as if he was the enemy, and that was crushing him. He was in an uncharted place with his emotions, stuck somewhere between his rage and his need to protect her. Protect her from his pack, from the Circle, from the witch coming after her. From himself. Because while he’d had nothing but his thoughts to accompany him, he had realised he was dangerously close to marking her, and tha
Layla was sprawled on top of Jackson when she woke up the second morning after her traumatising walk with Diedre. Right on top, as if she had been climbing all over his naked body in her sleep. She didn’t get off him straight away. Her head was on his chest so she could hear his heartbeat. It was oddly soothing. His arms were around her back, securing her in place, and her feet were tangled with his. The warmth of his body once again sent her on a weird, secure, fluffy cloud where the thoughts in her head were just a distant, unpleasant memory. His arms felt like a cocoon. She didn’t want to move.She felt safe with him.Despite knowing what he was, and the fact that he blamed her for being attacked, she felt safe. If that didn’t say she’d been drugged, then she didn’t know what did. “Good morning.”The sound of his husky voice brought her back down to earth instantly. She lifted her head and met his alert, icy-blue eyes. He looked like he had been awake for a while, and something
There was a lot of shit happening in his territory.But there he was, getting ready to go jogging with a half-blood.Jackson opened up his senses and scanned as far as he could reach. He’d sensed the Circle in the area when they’d been having breakfast, but they’d left as he had ordered. They wouldn’t have gone too far, though. They'd probably only gone back to the city. Those three were the most arrogant people he had ever met, so they wouldn’t take kindly to being reminded that he was more powerful than them, and they still meant nothing to him. They would try to find a way to bring him down a peg or two, despite having come to ask for forgiveness.He would need to find Diedre to find out how they had done the wards. He was relying on the fact that they wanted him to provide heirs, but he didn't know who was behind the attacks. Letting them anywhere near his protective magic was a significant risk. Black magic wasn’t Diedre’s thing, but she could handle herself against it if she h