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
“We should do a pregnancy test.”Layla had been feeling strange the past couple of days. They’d been cooped up in the bedroom again for days, so she didn’t know if she was just losing her mind from being locked up or she was finally pregnant. And if she was pregnant, she didn’t know how she would deal with that.She’d accepted that she had to leave her child with Jackson so he could raise their child among fellow werewolves, but that had been easy to agree with when it hadn’t been a reality. But now she was getting the sweats, feeling ravenous all the time, and things just didn't feel right. That had to be a symptom of pregnancy. How could she still go along with leaving her child now?“You’re not pregnant,” Jackson sighed as he walked to sit next to her on the sofa. He sounded disappointed, and she couldn’t help but feel she was letting him down, despite knowing she didn’t want to leave her child anyway. But how did he know? He had said the same thing before he’d passed out after
Jackson stopped whistling when he walked out of the packhouse and saw Dylan walking up the steps. As if his Beta didn’t already believe he had lost his mind. He never whistled. He couldn’t remember a single time in his life when he had felt unburdened enough to do that.“Alpha,” Dylan said, lowering his head.“Beta,” he answered before he walked past him.Petty. He knew that was petty, but damned if he would back down now. Layla would never go anywhere near Dylan again. Micah was speaking to a group of young trainees about to start their training when he found him. The man immediately lowered his head and walked towards him while the trainees rushed towards the field. The fear was still there. It was fucking everywhere. He supposed it was something he would have to live with until his dying breath. His pack would never forget that he killed one of them and tortured three more. And then killed an Alpha in cold blood on his doorstep.“Alpha,” Micah greeted. “What was so urgent that Dy
Jackson had never experienced anything as excruciatingly painful and devastating yet overwhelmingly satisfying. He had spent days fighting his beast while getting Layla through her heat. Every time he had latched onto her neck, something had got through the fog in his head to remind him that the bite would be a death sentence for Layla. It had been enough to make him let go, but only barely. He’d been too weak to bite her in the end anyway. This hadn’t been his first experience with an unmated female’s heat, but it was the first that had depleted all his energy completely. The first that he had felt himself. It wasn’t supposed to be like that. The men tended to the women for a day or two, rested for a couple of hours, and then returned to their full strength. They didn’t lie down for a whole day, unable to move. They didn’t feel the burn in their body as if they had bathed in a fire for days while their bodies were so thoroughly and shamelessly used. It was because he hadn’t mar
What the hell was going on?Though Jackson had said she had been in heat, he hadn’t explained how that was possible. And it didn’t explain any of the other things. Was all of it only happening because of all her time with Jackson? And if that was the case, did that mean she would turn into a werewolf like him?The first thought that floated through her mind was that she wouldn’t have to leave her baby behind if that happened. She could stay and be a real family with Jackson.But she pushed that thought aside. Despite all these odd thoughts and feelings for him, she didn't even like Jackson. And she had Brit to think about. She couldn’t abandon her sister. It would have been better if she left before this pregnancy was confirmed.She sucked in a breath as something else occurred to her. She was feeling completely fine now. No nausea, no fever... That had to mean that she had felt like that because of the heat. She wasn’t pregnant. She could leave with Dylan and not feel guilty about ta
Jax strolled out of the packhouse with his hands in his pocket. He had to find the red wolf. It was the only way he would get answers. While Layla’s fight with her dual nature was expected, it didn’t usually happen until the half-breeds were older. And he hadn’t actually found any cases where the wolf side got so strong so quickly. It was the wolf he had seen in her eyes the whole time he had eased her through her heat. It was the wolf that had endured every impossible position, every frenzied thrust. It was the wolf that had kept pulling his head down to her neck so he could mark her. Things were not adding up. Layla had masked her scent from everyone but him. Since red wolves were so rare, not much was known about them, but he wondered what was really happening to his mate. Was she a half-blood? Or was she just unshifted? Maybe red wolf physiology was different, and they shifted when they were older. His heart started to pound as he stood on the top step outside the packhouse. I
It was late afternoon when Jackson left the bedroom again. He locked it this time because Layla was still slightly out of it. No, that was an understatement. She was a lot out of it. It hadn’t helped when she had watched the cuts on her knuckles healing right in front of their eyes.She didn’t look mentally prepared to accept what he had to tell her, and he didn’t want to say anything until he knew the whole truth. What if being the offspring of a red wolf was worse than being just a regular half-blood?What if it meant that everything was accelerated, and the Circle would put her down sooner than he expected? They wouldn’t give a shit if she was already pregnant with the heir they wanted.There was a shift in the air when he stepped outside again. He could feel the disappointment crashing down on him even though the warriors standing around outside the packhouse didn’t say a word.What could he have possibly done now?He felt a wave of anger in his direction and turned to watch Dyla
“I have to go out for a little while.”Layla didn’t even look at him; he wasn’t sure she had even heard him. After going through her heat, they were supposed to be closer than before, but there was a canyon between them. “Layla?”She seemed to snap out of whatever she was thinking and gave him the fakest smile he had ever seen.“Hmm?”“I have to go out,” he repeated.Her eyes widened.“Oh, that’s today?”He frowned at her odd choice of words. He hadn’t mentioned anything about going out to her unless she was referring to his promise to take her to see her sister. Maybe that was what she needed to step out of it. “I mean, you’re going out today?” she asked.She perked up a little bit. After her mini-breakdown when she had beaten Amber up, she had become distant but completely calm. And her emotions had become difficult to read. It was almost as if she was channelling her red wolf traits and masking her feelings.After he spoke to Chase, he was taking her out of there. They could mak
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,”