Page 139 of The Alpha King's Curse: Part One

“I can walk, Jackson,” Layla whispered.

He didn’t have to read her emotions to know she was mortified, but when he did, he couldn’t stop the smile on his face. Whatever discontent she had been feeling before was gone. There was nothing within her to suggest she was thinking of running away again. He had thoroughly soothed her for hours; she was nothing but sated and content.

“Let me take care of you, Layla,” he said, ignoring the people behind him who were probably looking at him as if he had grown two heads.

The Alpha King had never been gentle. The Alpha King was never swayed by a pretty face, and he most certainly never put anything above his duty to the pack.

And yet there he was.

Once he was in his room, he walked over to their bed and set her down.

“How will you pretend you’re still not well when you carried me up the stairs?” Layla laughed.

A beautiful sound. It tugged at something inside him that he had realised only she could touch.

“Oh, you know how these things work. You think you’re fine and overdo things, and that gets you right back to feeling like shit again,” he said as he stepped back from her. “I’m pretty sure I’ll need your expert care from the moment I get back from speaking to Dylan. I’ll send Faith with our lunch.”

It was surprising how hard it was to put some distance between them.

“You said he’s your best friend,” Layla said. She sat up on the bed, and her emerald gaze stopped him in his tracks. “You still don’t trust him?”

“Dylan’s my only friend,” he admitted. “We were raised together. Everyone else is scared of me, but Dylan is never afraid to speak his mind. I can trust him with everything else, but not with you, Layla. Keep away from him, okay?”

She nodded, and he turned to walk out.

“I’m going to have to lock you in—”

“What? I thought I wasn’t a prisoner anymore,” Layla cut in.

“It’s for your protection.”

He shut the door and pulled the key from his pocket to lock it before he changed his mind. As the key turned, he felt her sadness pushing out all the positive emotions he had spent hours building up. And his mood dropped right alongside hers.

Layla knew the dangers outside, so he was sure she wouldn’t try going into the forest by herself again. Why the hell couldn’t Dylan let that be? She wouldn't feel like this if she could walk around the packhouse without feeling like a prisoner.

He forced himself to walk away and headed down the stairs. The sooner he spoke to Dylan, the sooner he’d be able to soothe Layla again.

His Beta was waiting with Micah at the foot of the stairs, and the animosity was coming out from him in waves. It had been Micah he had relied on since he’d woken so his Beta’s emotions were understandable.

Still, he couldn’t bring himself to trust his friend again just yet.

He walked past both of them and headed towards the soundproofed conference room. He sat down at the head of the table before he turned his attention back to Dylan and Micah. They remained standing next to the table, their heads lowered.

Micah always did that, but seeing Dylan doing it when they were not in public was a little disconcerting. Was their friendship truly over now?

“What’s so urgent that you can't deal with it yourself?” he asked Dylan.

“The messengers wouldn’t speak to me.”

“Well, if they can’t speak to you, what made them think they had a right to request to speak to me?” he growled. “You still speak on my behalf, do you not?”

“Do I? I wasn’t sure,” Dylan answered.

“Stop being a smartass,” he sighed. “Micah, what do you need to report?”

“One of the patrols reported seeing a red wolf on the east side of our boundary,” Micah said. “There was no trace when they arrived at the spot.”

Had she returned? He and Layla had been over on the east side, but he hadn’t sensed anything. Whatever her intentions were, it was worrying that she could get so close without him being aware.

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