Page 5 of Cruel Mate

The wind was blowing back toward their pursuer, making it impossible for her to even attempt to make an identification on scent alone.

She cringed. Who was sneaking about out here in the dark? By now, ninety percent of the pack would already be at the top of the hill. And besides, there weren’t many who would try to sneak up on them for the fun of it.

“What if it’s one of Karl’s men?” Darwin hissed, and Layla hushed him quickly. Whoever it was, she didn’t want them to hear his questioning. Nothing was worse in this kind of situation than not knowing the enemy you were up against. It wouldn’t be the first time she had been targeted.

As a messenger, she often had a target on her back. She knew the drill well enough. Get somewhere better suited for a fight or manage to outrun them altogether. Even better, draw them into the place you knew that your entire pack was gathering and let them have at it.

Jack and his army guys would have a field day. She was sure that half the time they were so bull-headed and annoying because they’d been too long away from the action. They were like that, just as many army guys she’d been around were, but they were generally a walk in the park compared to the guys Karl had allowed into the pack.

Guys like Christian, her now-ex, who had disappeared without a trace when Karl’s cronies and supporters fled after Jack’s takeover.

Until she’d learned he had set up his own pack further west, that was. She hadn’t heard from him directly, only through her fellow messengers, and luckily no route had been set up between his new pack and theirs.

But still, the thought crossed her mind. What if he has come back to cause trouble?

It would be just like him. And if it was him, she quickly decided, she wanted to be the first to have her go at him.

She was just about to turn and face him when she realized he wasn’t behind them any longer. Her thoughts had distracted her, and hell, he moved fast.

Before she could stop, she smacked up against something that felt like a damned brick wall.

Stumbling backwards, she was only saved by outstretched arms.

“Get off me! Get your filthy hands off me!” she screamed the words instinctively.

“Well, hell, darlin’,” said an all-too-familiar voice. “No need to get your panties in a bunch.”

Zander! Growling low in her throat as she steadied herself, she glowered at the new beta of the pack. The scent of him wrapped around her, resisting the tightening of her throat. Why did he have to smell so good when she was so furious with him?

“What the hell? Are you trying to get yourself killed, Zander?” Layla demanded when her throat eased a little. Darwin remained behind her, more than a little awkward. He stared down at the floor, clearly too scared to look the beta in the eye. But Layla did just that.

And oh, those eyes, deep and blue like the ocean…

Get a grip, Layla!

He was just as handsome as any other member of the Nightstar pack, there was no need to go losing her head over him, especially when he was Zander Mallox, the beta whose reputation for being a player was known amongst practically every pack in a three-hundred-mile radius.

Not to mention the fact he was a bully—a charming one, at that, but a bully nonetheless.

Especially when it came to her. She seemed to have a special target on her back. She told herself it was simply because he was the new beta and she the best-known messenger in the pack. Their paths crossed more often than not, most of Jack’s messages coming from him—that was, whenever he wasn’t swanning off to gods knew where.

“Killed? By you and him?” Zander asked, inclining his head to Darwin without so much as glancing in his direction. Layla felt sorry for the omega. He was so low in the pack he was practically invisible.

And yet, here Layla was, feeling as if she were the only person in the world as Zander stared down at her, his blue eyes blazing cold teasing fire at her.

She knew all too well what was coming.

“Don’t make me laugh, darlin’,” he said in his usual drawling tone that made Layla quiver as much as it made her cringe. “It’s been a while, and you might crack me up.”

“We thought you were an enemy, sneaking up on us like that!” Layla insisted, her hands tightening to fists at her sides. “I was just about to turn and tear you a new one.”

Zander didn’t so much as blink as he seductively closed the distance between them in a single, languid step. Layla had to crane her neck to meet his gaze as his chest almost touched her chin.

“If I was an enemy, darlin’, you’d be dead already,” he said, his voice low, little more than a breath that caressed her face and made her suck in a breath of her own. “For a messenger, your survival skills are severely lacking, Layla. Maybe you could do with a few lessons?”

“From you? Not a chance,” Layla growled back at him. She forced herself away from him, all too uncomfortable in his presence. No matter how she tried to stay away from him, he always seemed to find her. “I heard you coming a mile off and scented you just as fast.”

That wasn’t entirely true, but he didn’t need to know that. Nor did he need to know that the mere scent of him now was driving her wild. It frustrated her to no end. This was Zander Mallox, the cocky, good-for-nothing beta of the pack who teased and tormented and flattered his way into the pants of any she-wolf who took his fancy.

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