Page 32 of Cruel Mate

“Smells like you’ve been having a little fun for once,” Jack commented, leaning back in his chair. “I guess you took my advice.”

“Not intentionally,” Zander growled. He crossed his arms over his chest and warned, “We need to expand patrols past the borders.”

Jack raised a brow. “Why would we do that?”

“Because we almost lost a messenger last night,” Zander said through gritted teeth. When he blinked, he could still see Layla pinned beneath that huge black wolf.

“What happened?” Jack demanded. He leaned forward, clasping his hands together on his desk.

Zander cleared his throat and explained all that had happened, all that Layla had told him, leaving out only the most personal details. He wasn’t ready to tell his best friend that he had been mated yet. He wasn’t even sure he was ready to admit it to himself.

“Is Layla alright?” Jack asked when he had finished.

“Physically, yes. Otherwise, she’s still shaken up,” Zander said, though he suspected the latter had far more to do with what had happened between them than the attack itself. “Maybe it's time we stopped living in the stone age?”

Jack sighed, glancing down and picking up a report from his desk. Handing it to Zander, he said, “I wish that were possible.”

“What is this?” Zander asked, taking the papers from him.

“John sent this via messenger. It’s information on the latest hacking of pack technologies. It seems Pine Valley and a couple other packs have been targeted recently, and it's the reason they prefer to live in the stone age.”

Zander only glanced at the report. Communications weren’t his area of expertise. “What do we intend to do?”

“Well, eventually, I'd like to think we’ll get the fucker, but for now, we have to keep running messages however we can,” Jack explained, running his fingers through his dark hair. “I’ll send Hanson and a couple of guys to scout for the pack on the way to Pine Valley to let them know what’s happened. I’d send another messenger, but by the sounds of it, things are escalating over there.”

Zander nodded in agreement. “I’ll go myself.”

Jack shook his head. “I need you here.”

Zander growled through his teeth. He desperately wanted another go at the wolves who had laid hands on Layla. If it hadn’t been for hearing their reinforcements, he might have torn them both apart.

“Fine,” he said, hands tightened to fists behind his back so that Jack wouldn’t see. “But promise me one thing?”

“That depends on what it is,” Jack said, pursing his lips.

Zander thought for a second of how Layla had reacted when he’d suggested what he was about to request of Jack. She had been furious. And yet, he couldn’t risk her.

“I think it's best we take Layla off messenger duties for a while.” Or forever, he added to himself. Clearing his throat, he added aloud, “She’s been through a lot, and she could do with a rest.”

Jack looked thoughtful for a second and Zander feared he was going to reject the request.

“She is the fastest messenger we have,” Jack pointed out, and Zander’s jaw clenched so hard that he almost broke a tooth.

“She’s no good to anyone if she doesn’t recover properly from this attack,” Zander replied. “She’s pretty shaken up.”

Again, he thought of how it was likely far more to do with their personal problem than the attack, but Jack didn’t need to know about any of that—not until they had figured it out.

Jack sighed deeply and nodded. “You’re right. I’ll take her off duty for now.”

This time it was Zander who breathed deeply with relief. It was short-lived. He knew Layla wasn’t going to take the news too well.

She had better get used to it, he thought. No mate of his was going to be put in harm’s way like that ever again. And whether they liked it or not, she was his mate. He was certain of that, even if he had no idea what to do about it.

Chapter 12 - Layla

Being stuck in Nightstar as Jack had insisted made it exceedingly difficult to avoid Zander as she had intended to.

Everywhere she turned, he was there—in the grocery store, the bar, the I, at the park. Whether he intended for it to be that way or not, Layla wasn’t sure, but the more he made excuses that it was mere coincidence, the less she believed him.

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