Page 24 of Cruel Mate

“How did you say you knew about this place?” he asked, looking about the small cabin. One room with a bed, kitchenette and dining table and a second room for the bathroom. It wasn’t much, but it looked as if it had once been cozy. With a little tender love and care, it might be so again.

Fuck! he growled silently. He was not in any mood for making a home, he told himself over and over again, and yet Layla was right there with him, making him think of things he had never even considered before.

“It belonged to my grandma before she passed,” Layla explained.

Zander cocked his head. “I thought you said it was a messenger outpost.”

Layla’s face grew pale. “I’ve used it as one, but nobody really knows about this place. She left it to me, and well…I don’t know why I lied. I wasn’t thinking straight. I was in pain. I…I’ve never brought anyone here before.”

Zander saw the discomfort on her face. He didn’t like the fact she had lied, nor did he understand why, but somehow it didn’t really matter. All that truly mattered was that they were safe.

And so he changed the subject again. “Tell me what happened.”

“To my grandma?” Layla asked, looking confused and perhaps even a little suspicious.

Zander bit the inside of his lip. “Another time, perhaps,” he said, feeling as if he meant it. Oddly, he felt as if he’d like to get to know everything about her, past, present and future. But now wasn’t the time. “Tell me how we ended up here. Why were those wolves chasing you?”

He heard Layla gulp, saw the way her throat constricted. He gritted his teeth, certain he wasn’t about to like her answer.

She shrugged. “Nothing really out of the ordinary. They targeted me because they’d figured out who I was, I guess.”

“Were they Pine Valley wolves?” Zander asked. The urge to run right to the neighboring town and give the entire pack a good hiding for allowing her to be hurt by any of their number made him grip the edge of the cot to stop himself.

“Oh hell, no!” Layla exclaimed, looking horrified that he would ever think such a thing. “The Pine Valley pack is one of the most peaceful I’ve ever delivered messages to.”

“Then who were they, Layla? Because I’m pretty sure they wanted to kill you, and me too for helping you.”

Layla pulled back visibly then, looking at him as if he had bitten her.

“I didn’t ask for you to get involved!” she yelled at him. “You could have passed right on by, and I’d have figured it out for myself.”

“It looked like it,” Zander scoffed. He shivered as he imagined what might have happened to her if he hadn’t come along. If they hadn’t argued at the bonfire the night before, he might never have felt the need to go for a run so far from home. She might have been torn to shreds without any member of the pack ever knowing what had happened to her.

If that wasn’t fate, he didn’t know what was, and he felt even more terrified than before.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Layla growled at him. He saw the way her gaze darkened, glimpsing the woman who was always quick to draw his temper.

“It means if I hadn’t come along, you would probably be dead right now,” Zander said, meeting her gaze challengingly.

Hell, she was even hotter when she got angry. The way her nostrils started to flare was actually a little cute.

“You have no idea what you’re talking about!” she snapped back at him, crossing her arms over her chest in a defensive and grumpy manner. It only made him want her more.

He would teach her a lesson or two, he was certain of it. Though he feared she might have a couple to teach him, too.

“Tell me then,” Zander said, leaning closer. He didn’t so much as blink, meeting her angry gaze unflinchingly. “What did they want from you? Why were they trying to kill you, if they weren’t Pine Valley wolves?”

Layla scoffed at that. “For an army guy, you don’t know much, do you?”

Zander gritted his teeth and bared them at her. “Don’t test me, Layla.”

Something flashed in her eyes then, and he was almost certain that was exactly what she was going to do. She continued to meet his gaze for a moment longer and Zander prepared himself for whatever came next.

Then, she lowered her eyes from his and said, “It’s nothing I haven’t faced before. Messengers carry secrets. It’s only natural that enemies would try to get them.”

That’s when her head whipped up again, her eyes growing wide as saucers.

“What? What’s the matter?”

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