Everything hurt.Jax opened his heavy eyelids and winced against the brightness in the room. Even his eyeballs hurt. For the first time in his life, he felt disoriented and weak. His head was swimming, and it felt like someone had hit him continuously with a sledgehammer. His limbs felt too heavy to move, and the bite on his side made his whole body feel like he was burning from the inside. Normally he healed faster than other werewolves because of his royal blood, but that witch must have done something to prevent that. He could feel the dark magic in his blood, trying to get a hold of him again. Whatever spell or poison she had used had to have been very strong because he hadn’t sensed it until seconds before he passed out.Even Diedre, the strongest witch he knew, had not sensed it.He pushed that worry away because he was in no shape to make sense of that. The only thing that soothed him was the weight on his chest and the scent of his mate. Since the day he’d met her, he’d tried
Jax could feel Micah’s worry as he lowered him into the large bathtub.‘I’m healing. I’ll be fine,’ he said through the mind link.His head warrior nodded and then stepped back before looking at Layla standing quietly next to the sinks at the other end of his bathroom. Their bathroom. They had been in physical contact for a week, their bond strengthening even in their sleep. She was his; he couldn’t deny that anymore.“I’ll help him out when he’s ready,” Micah told Layla. “Thank you.”Layla sounded uncertain. She watched Micah leave the room and didn’t move even when he closed the door behind him. It was only when he heard the bedroom door being closed that Layla came forward. It was as if she had heard the door being closed, too.Speed. Check. Better eyesight. Check. Sensitive hearing. Double-check.“Can I trust any of them?” she whispered as she put some toiletries on the side and sat on the edge of the tub.There was no point lying to her about that now. She had to learn how to p
Layla washed quickly and let the water out of the tub. How the hell had she got herself into this mess? There was no trust involved in this place. She wasn't safe. And she was a crazy fool to feel even the slightest bit safe with Jackson.Something had changed. She could feel it even though she couldn’t understand it. Her head was a lot clearer, yet she still wasn’t herself. She couldn’t be, not when she felt like this for Jackson. How could she feel so... attached to him? Her feelings had been wild before she had passed out on top of him, and those feelings seemed to have settled even though she was very well-rested. Madness.She looked back at the man who’d fallen asleep when he had found his release. The image tugged at her heartstrings, something it shouldn’t have done. But he still looked so... defenceless. If he couldn’t trust the people around him, then that meant he expected her to look out for him again. And she felt compelled to because of whatever twisted thing was happeni
Layla swallowed a lump in her throat and took another step back.She’d been told not to trust anyone, but she knew Jackson meant this man in particular.Dylan folded his arms across his expansive chest, and the snarl turned into a sneer. Whatever truce he had called while Jackson had been unconscious was well and truly over. “Well, look who’s walking around the place as if she owns it,” Dylan said. “Did you sleep well, princess? Was it too much for you to give your boyfriend a sponge bath?”Taking care of Jackson required much more than that, and he knew it. His anger wasn’t about that. “I would have thought Jackson wouldn’t have let you out alone. Or has Micah already failed at his babysitting duties?”She recognised that tone. Dylan’s ego had been wounded when Jackson had chosen someone else over him. There was nothing more dangerous than a bully walking around like that—they tended to take their frustrations out on other people. “I only came downstairs to eat. I’ll go back now,”
Jackson forced his eyes to open and immediately searched for Layla’s scent.But it wasn’t her scent that filled his nose. The sickly sweet smell was familiar and too close to him. Way too close. He turned his head to the source and found Dylan’s friend lying in bed next to him, looking down at him with that come-hither smile she’d had on her face when they had been introduced. The buttons of her shirt were undone so her breasts were showing. He'd been right about her intentions, after all.He sat up quickly and regretted it instantly. Sleeping had helped him heal more, but he wasn’t back to his full capabilities yet. He was still too weak to fight this woman off.“Get the fuck out of my bedroom,” he snarled.Just the fact that she was lying down on Layla's side made him fume. Only Layla was meant to be there. They’d have to burn these sheets so he’d never had to smell that scent again.And he knew this was another sign that he was already screwed. Though he could feel his wolf somewh
Maybe she really had gone insane.It had been a week since she had embarrassed herself by pulling such a juvenile move. Everyone knew this was Jackson’s room, and just because he was sleeping with her, it didn’t make him hers. Mine? Seriously? How could she even say that word?Yet that was how she had felt at that moment, driven by insane jealousy that had come out of nowhere. Maybe her mental issues had gone to the next level because she still felt like two people in one body. And when she felt like herself, those emotions still lingered. “You haven’t eaten enough.”She looked up from her food to see Jackson watching her across the balcony table. He had done that a lot since she’d climbed all over him and kissed him in front of Amber. Jackson hadn’t stopped at just looking. She caught him smiling a few times, and she was pretty sure he was fully healed, yet he insisted on being bathed and taken care of every day. He seemed to have undergone a personality transplant of his own.“I
Jackson blocked out the insistent chatter in his head from Dylan and sat on the smooth rock on the edge of his territory that looked over the forest.Things had been quiet the whole week. According to Micah, there were no more sightings of rogues or the red wolf, and his scouts had nothing to report. Whatever issues Dylan had to talk about all had to do with the amount of time he’d spent locked away with Layla, and he wasn’t in the mood for that. Especially since he didn't want to listen to how they had to kill her and how bad it would look when others found out he was shacking up with a half-blood.The past two weeks had put things in perspective. He’d realised he just didn’t give a shit about what they thought, but his biggest realisation was that he wanted to spend his dying days with this woman. Child or no child.How the mighty had fallen. He'd turned into the type of person he had loathed before he'd caught Layla's scent.“I said I wanted to stretch my legs, not tire myself by
Layla could hardly walk when Jackson led her out of the woods. He had carried her most of the way, and now she clung to his side for support.He smiled at her smugly before the weight of what he had done settled on his shoulders.He’d openly chosen his mate over the pack. There were warriors on patrol and trainees who’d finished for the day walking around the packhouse grounds when he walked towards the house. They all stopped and lowered their heads to show respect, but he could feel their judgement.Not only had he been ill, he’d also hidden away with someone they all thought was a rogue. His reputation had taken a big hit lately.The moment he opened the door, Dylan was waiting with Micah in the lobby.“Alp... Jax,” Dylan said. “We really need to talk.”“I’ll go and find something to eat before I go back to our room,” Layla said quietly.Our room. How right that sounded. He smiled down at her but tightened his hold on her. He would take care of her like a mate was supposed to. I
Jackson grinned when Dylan rolled his eyes at him as Hope led him by the finger to the tea party she had set up in the garden. “Enjoy your party,” he called to them before he turned and walked toward the packhouse. The trainees had the day off today, but he was pleased that most of them took their training seriously and were sparring in the fields. All the kids had to grow up quickly after the last war. In a few days, they would all hold a memorial honouring all the people they had lost. Gavin walked up to him before he reached the door. “Everything is all set, Alpha,” he said. Gavin was the most prominent reminder of what the war had cost him. He’d had to fill Micah’s big shoes. Though it wasn’t his fault, his heart cracked whenever he saw Micah’s replacement as the Gamma. “Thank you. We’ll be ready in time,” he said with a nod. The packhouse was spotless as usual, awaiting all the guests he had invited. As he walked toward the stairs, Faith’s mother walked in, a huge sm
Layla clutched her heart and fell to her knees. Hope started to cry behind her, as if her poor child could sense her pain, too. Faith tried to soothe her, but there was too much fear in the air, too much pain. “Jackson is hurt,” she whispered, looking at her mother. She had held out long enough. The house was full of all the vulnerable people in the pack, and their fear and anxiety weighed down on her. She couldn’t wait any longer. Rebecca walked over to Faith and took Hope from her. And her little girl instantly quietened in her grandmother’s arms. Rebecca met her gaze and nodded. “I will look after Hope. And I will protect everyone in this house,” Rebecca said, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears. Her mother knew what she had to do. She couldn’t leave Jackson to fight alone, but if anything happened to one of them, it would happen to the other. “Can I trust you, Mum?” she whispered. She hadn’t called her mum since the day she had abandoned them. “Always,” Rebecca whis
The dark clouds completely covered the sun. Jax stood at his lookout rock and looked over the forest. Even the witch was closing in from that direction when it was supposed to be their safest. He could sense her magic filling up in it even though he couldn’t sense any individual wolves. It was like when she’d sent the rogues who had hidden in the shadows right under their noses. His warriors wouldn’t sense them until it was too late. ‘The women and children are in the packhouse,’ Dylan said in the mind link. He didn’t know if that would make a difference. The strength he could sense in the magic around him was something he had never experienced from the witch before. He could feel it in the clouds above him, in the air they were all breathing. He could feel it rippling over his skin, yet they had not reached their boundary. Cain was silent in his head, already in hunting mode. But he couldn’t hunt everywhere at once. They were surrounded by armies bigger than any that had ever
The air was knocked out of her lungs as Layla landed in a heap in the field. Everything hurt. Jackson had been pounding into her for hours. ‘And not in a good way. How the hell are you getting worse at this instead of better?’ the voice in her head said. Since Jackson had marked her, that voice had become a more permanent feature in her head. She’d been able to shut it off before, but now it was impossible. She was constantly arguing with it and losing focus, and her ability to control her emotions was also on the fritz. Her moods were yo-yo-ing worse than when she’d been pregnant. “You’re distracted.” She lifted her head with the bit of energy she had left and looked at Jackson, who was glaring at her from the other side of their makeshift ring. “I’m tired,” she corrected. “Let’s take a break.” “We can’t, Layla,” Jackson growled. He marched across to her and helped her to her feet. “You pissed off the Circle, and I pissed off the Wicked Witch. It was fine when our sins were
Angelic singing. It drifted in and out of his ears and tried to force him from his peaceful slumber. It was beautiful but it was pissing him off. Why did anyone have to sing so much when people were trying to fucking sleep? His eyes shot open. His heart slammed in his chest. Could it be? He turned and saw the face he had fallen asleep next to because it was the last face he wanted to see before he died. Layla’s mouth was slightly open and she was snoring softly. He sat up with a jolt and listened to the singing. Those weren’t angels. That should have been his first clue. His soul had been damned long ago; there were no angels in his afterlife. “What are you doing? Come back to sleep,” Layla mumbled. It took her a few more seconds, but Layla jolted awake and her eyes widened as she looked at him. She sucked in a breath, her heart hammering to match his. Maybe he was dreaming. Perhaps he wanted this so much that he was dreaming about it just before the curse snatched his l
Jackson watched the sleeping baby in his arms and blinked back his tears. He was leaving his precious little girl in chaos. All his efforts to find the witch had failed. She’d disappeared after Amber and Miss Roberts had failed. He assumed the witch knew there was no point now. She’d already achieved her goal of making the rest of his life miserable. “I’m sorry, Hope,” he whispered. “I know you’ll become a better person than I was, even in any adversity. Do you know why? Because you also have your mother in you. You are going to be magnificent.” The more he said it, the more he would believe it. But it was hard to see any such future in a helpless three-month-old. “What the fuck was I thinking?” His chest squeezed as it had done all day. “It’s not your fault.” He looked up to see his mate in the bathroom doorway, a vision in a green, body-hugging dress. It had thin straps, so his mark was on show. For a second, he felt pride in it. But he remembered it was nothing but a death s
Jackson wasn’t too worried about Hugo’s threat. Since Diedre had started feeling better, she had been working hard to remove all the traces of dark magic around their territory. Her well of magic seemed to run deeper, even though it was not yet fully replenished. Warding the whole territory had been beyond her before Layla had healed her. But all the entry points had been fortified. Her magic wasn’t as it used to be but strong. Nobody would enter through his gates without his permission. Even if Diedre’s magic didn’t work on him and Layla, it had to work for the rest of the pack. Right? He was more worried about what the hell Layla was doing there. She should have been home with Hope and the others. Especially since he’d already warned her that the Circle was worse than any Hunter she would ever meet. Layla seemed intent on breaking all his rules. He was about to tell Hugo they had wasted their time when he sensed the rage rising in his mate. It was so dark it felt like Cain’s
Layla opened her eyes and stretched. And then she remembered what she had done. She sat up and looked at the other side of the bed. Jackson hadn’t come back, though she could sense he was close. And he was angry. Rightfully so. She lay back and pulled the covers over her naked body. Her hand went to her neck, and she felt the grooves left by his teeth. She’d assumed his bite would heal like all her other injuries. Maybe that was why they called it marking. Would everyone be able to see it? It tingled when she ran her fingers on it, and though the way she had got it made her cheeks heat up with shame, she didn’t regret it. She had known he would react like that. She would have been livid in his shoes. If he never spoke to her again, then she would understand. But she would never have forgiven himself if he died and she could have saved him. She’d had no choice. She sighed as she pushed the covers off again and slid off the bed. She started walking toward the bathroom, but her st
Everything felt different. The longer he lay on the rock, the more he sensed the differences. Everything was sharper, as if there had been a veil on his vision before. The stars were so clear he felt like he could touch them. The air was sweeter. The chirping of the birds as they woke up to get the worm... Beautiful. Fucking beautiful. And the rage in his heart eclipsed it all. He’d told her. He’d said no over and over again, even before she had known what his bite would do. And she’d gone ahead and violated his trust. Violated him. ‘She was never going to give us up without a fight,’ Cain stated. ‘Stop talking like you knew it was going to happen. This isn’t Romeo and Juliet. We don’t have to die together!’ ‘What would you have done in her shoes?’ That question cooled some of his anger. He knew what he would have done for his love. He’d have moved heaven and earth to save her. He’d have crossed any ocean, climbed any mountain. But this wasn’t about him! “I’ve killed her,”