Page 1 of The Alpha King's Curse: Part One

Chapter 1

“I’ll get straight to the point. I need you to have my baby.”

Jackson King watched the girl’s eyes widen as she looked from him to his Beta, Dylan.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t get that. I thought you said you needed me to have your baby,” she chuckled.

He could sense her unease the same way he could smell her arousal. She was drenched. Even without a wolf telling her she was his, her body knew it, and he hated that. He hated that he had to fight so hard with his beast to stop it from claiming what was rightfully his. He hated the fact that he had to resort to this. She was half-human! Why would the Moon Goddess curse him like this on top of everything else?

He’d caught her scent even before he had walked into the hotel days before, and now it filled the entire suite, taunting him, reminding him how fucked up everything was.

“I did,” he answered. “I need a surrogate, and I will pay you handsomely.”

“Um... I’ve just walked into this room to clean. You don’t know me; you don't even know my name,” she said.

“Layla Carlisle.”

Layla looked down at the name tag on her uniform. She covered it briefly before she probably realised it was useless and lowered her hand. But he didn’t need her name tag to know who she was.

“Twenty-one years old. High school dropout. You live in a trailer with your father and sister.”

Layla’s eyes widened, and for a moment, he sensed her anger.

“Have you been stalking me?” she hissed.

Dylan snickered. He gave his Beta a look that shut him up before he returned his attention to the human.

“No, I haven’t been stalking you,” he said, but he could tell he had already lost the momentum. Layla's anger had grown at an alarming rate, eclipsing even the sweet scent of her arousal.

The human stood and smoothed her uniform before she lifted her head and looked him directly in the eye. His beast unfurled, his excitement rippling through him at the thought of accepting his mate’s challenge.

“I don’t know why you two need to ask a stranger to have your baby, but I don’t think I will be right for the job. I wish you all the best, though,” Layla said.

It took him a moment to realise what she meant as she walked over to her cleaning cart and started pulling it out of the room.

This was the problem with humans. Feeling the pull of their bond wouldn't have been an issue if she’d had a wolf. He would have marked her the moment he had found her, and she would have been carrying his pup already.

“Miss Carlisle, can we talk about this? You haven’t even heard what I’m willing to pay.”

“It doesn’t matter. I don’t want to be your surrogate,” she answered firmly. “I’ll return later to clean your suite.”

When she closed the door, he heard her mutter, “It’s always the handsome ones.”

She thought he was crazy. And she was right—he lost more of his mind the longer he went without a child and the shorter his time on this earth got.

“She thinks we’re gay, Jax,” Dylan pointed out as he sat in the spot she had vacated.

“I got that,” he growled.

“I don’t think she will change her mind,” Dylan said. “I don’t understand why you can’t pick someone from the pack and be done with it.”

He would have had many children already if it had been that easy. Goddess knew how much he had tried. But Fate had messed that up for him, too, and made sure only one woman could carry his children. Only one woman could save them all—his mate.

“I told you why.”

At least as much as he could. Dylan was not only his Beta; he was also his only friend. Keeping the truth from him was essential. Keeping it from everyone was crucial. It was bad enough that they would have to accept his heir from a woman who was as useless as a human, but he could deal with that better than the panic that the truth would cause. He had no time to soothe anyone or deal with the packs that would circle his territory when they realised he was about to die.

As the Alpha King, the repercussions would be astronomical.

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