Page 147 of The Alpha King's Curse: Part One

Jackson knelt on the bed and lowered his lips to hers. His kiss was so gentle and sweet that it tugged at her heart. This was such a far cry from when she had arrived, and he’d locked her in a room. Somehow the lines between a business deal and a real relationship had been blurred, but she had to remember that this was still what it was. Jackson was just taking advantage of the situation until he let her go while she... She didn’t even know what to think anymore. It was wild that she felt safe with him just because the hallucination had said to stay with him.

It didn’t make sense because she was only in danger because she was in his bed. Once she was gone, her life would return to normal. Or as normal as it could be with the little extras she would take when she left. She could already hear the chatter outside and downstairs as people returned to the house.

“Rest,” he repeated before he got off the bed and headed to the door.

He hesitated with his hand on the door handle, and for a moment, she imagined she felt the heavy weight he carried on his shoulders. What sort of trouble could he possibly be in that it would make such a huge beast feel so... destroyed?

“Maybe you should speak to Dylan.”

Jackson looked back at her with a questioning frown.

“If you can’t talk to me because I’m human, maybe you should talk to your best friend,” she suggested gently.

And somehow, her words brought more anger than pain to him. How the hell could she feel that, too? No matter what Jackson said, that wasn’t normal.

“No,” Jackson said before he opened the door.

He stopped before he walked out and pulled something from his pocket. When he dangled it in the air, she realised it was the room key. He put it on the sideboard beside the door and looked back at her.

“Lock the door. I’ll be back soon.”

It took her a moment to realise what he had done. He had shown his trust in her.

She clutched the bedding to her chest, and her mouth dropped open. A part of her soared and felt like she finally belonged with him, but another part was scared.

What would happen to her if she got too used to this and he finally got rid of her? His answer to that hadn’t changed from the moment he had told her what he was. She would have to leave. Jackson didn’t see a future with her in it.

Once she recovered from the shock, she pushed the covers off and rushed to the door. Jackson didn’t start walking away until he heard the key turn in the door.

What would she do now? She had to find Dylan and find out when she would get out of the whole mess.

After a quick shower, she dressed casually and rushed to the door. Her body was still stiff from what she had done to Jackson, but she was trying not to think about that. Maybe all wolves made love like that, and she was nothing special. She couldn’t put any significance into what had happened if she was going to keep control of her sanity.

She hadn’t reached the end of the hallway when she saw the last person she wanted to see coming up the stairs with a sneer on her face.

And for the second time since she had arrived, she froze when faced with danger.

“You have been a bigger thorn than I expected,” Amber said as she stopped at the top of the stairway. “I suppose you think there’s something special about you.”

She stepped back as a wave of hatred almost knocked her back. She could sense Amber’s emotions almost as well as she had felt Jackson’s, but she had no time to process that as the woman started to walk forward.

For the first time, she cursed the size of this house. The hallway was too long to make a run for it back to the bedroom; Amber was likely to catch her before she got too far.

“He is not yours, Layla. He will never be. Men like him don’t get stuck with a nobody like you,” she sneered again. “You don’t even know the man you’re sleeping with, so you can’t possibly understand what he needs.”

That thing inside her—the thing that assumed Jackson was hers—started to bubble over. Like the first time Amber had declared her intentions and the time she had ended up on their bed with her hands on Jackson. It took over her body, and any thoughts of running away disappeared.

“Oh, I don’t know. Jackson made it pretty clear who he wants in his bed, didn’t he?”

She had never once thought she would become one of those women who fought over men. It was a pointless thing to do- if a man wanted to leave and be with someone else, she would never stop them. But the very thought of that...

“Oh, he’s a man, honey. They always want me,” Amber chuckled. “Once I get rid of you, everything will play along the way it should. I will be Luna. I will be the Queen.”

Those words set her off.

Like a flame on gasoline, she ran to cover the distance between them and launched herself at the other woman. In the back of her mind, she was aware that this wasn’t her; these weren’t her intentions, thoughts, or usual behaviour.

But she couldn’t stop herself as her kick landed on Amber’s chest.

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