Page 49 of The Alpha King's Curse: Part One

There was a flash outside and then a rumble of thunder that drew her gaze from the angry girl to the windows. The heatwave had finally broken. It looked like a storm and possibly the only chance she would get.

It was now or never.

Chapter 26

Jax tightened his fist around his cutlery as he sensed the reactions around the room. The hatred, the disgust. It was no less than what he had expected, but he hadn’t anticipated how hard it would be not to react to it. Cain was still lying low, so once again, he was the one who wanted to rip heads off.

He also hadn’t anticipated how he would feel when she’d walked out of the bathroom looking like a goddess sent to make him lose his mind. It was just a dress, and he had already seen her hair out of the braid when he’d made love to her.

But this was a temptation on another level.

She’d walked out of that room and had claimed another part of his soul. Something had flared inside him at the sight of her that changed something. His whole body had tightened in reaction. Her scent seemed stronger. The pull between them was stronger. And it appeared his need to protect her was stronger.

After finding out that she was in danger, the best thing to do would have been to hide her away, but he knew he couldn’t be with her every second of the day. The only thing to do had been to carry out his plan. He’d introduced her and then ordered everyone to stay the fuck away from her in the pack link. No one could defy their Alpha’s orders without severe consequences.

They didn’t like Layla or understand why she was there, but they wouldn’t dare touch her again. At least he had eliminated that threat so he could work out what the hell was going on outside his territory without worrying.

But instead of thinking about the prisoner, he remembered how turned-on she’d been when he’d touched her. How ready to accept him inside her body.

He shouldn’t have done it. He should have just given her the shoes and waited outside her room. There was so much he needed to do to make sure the pack was safe. For starters, he had to ensure sufficient security around the whole boundary of the territory. He had to question the warriors individually. He’d already had a run to track the wolf’s scent where they had found him, but he hadn’t caught anything, which was extremely worrying. Cain was the most efficient hunter in the territory; he could track anything. But that insane prisoner seemed to have appeared out of thin air.

He needed to concentrate, but there he was, wishing everyone would eat and go home so he could take Layla to bed. The mate bond had made every part of her body an erogenous zone, so she couldn’t help how she reacted to him. And he couldn’t help how he responded to her. He should have remembered that and kept his hands to himself.

‘I’ll make sure they don’t shift where she can see them,’ Dylan said in his head.

Just hearing his voice brought distrust and anger again. He put his cutlery down because he was tempted to use it on his so-called friend. Dylan said all the right things, but he sensed his Beta was as disgusted as everyone else.

‘Sure.’

He looked outside the windows as the rain started to worsen. It would be hell in the forest for the night with the flooding, and the river would probably overflow, but he didn’t think it would stop anyone who was determined, especially if they had been hexed and didn’t give a shit about their safety.

‘Keep an eye open. That prisoner may not have acted alone, and tonight would be the perfect night to breach our territory again.’

‘All our warriors are out on duty, most just outside our boundaries. The more advanced trainees are patrolling inside the territory, and we have some manning the security cameras. No one will get past us,’ Dylan said.

Dylan sounded confident but hadn’t seen or talked to their prisoner. And if he had, maybe he wouldn’t be as invested in protecting Layla as he was. Dylan would have told that hexed madman to kill Layla and be done with it.

He looked at Layla and watched how she nibbled on her food. She was a bag of nerves. Understandable. She didn’t need to be a full werewolf to know she was in a hostile environment. He’d felt like a dick for forcing her to come to dinner after her altercation, but at least she was safe now.

He looked back at Cassie and balled his fists under his table. She hadn’t even tried to hide her hostility towards Layla, and unlike her friends, there wasn’t an ounce of fear in her.

“Have you thought about when you will reschedule the meetings you were supposed to have in town?”

He forced his attention away to concentrate on Zach. He was one of the elders in the pack and had been part of his father’s advisors.

“No.”

Zach had been trying to retain his position even though he had made it clear the moment his father had died that he didn’t need advice from any of them. They had assumed it had been teenage rebellion, given how young he had been when he’d taken the role. But it had been years, and he hadn’t once sought his advice.

It didn’t stop any of them from trying. Like he would take advice from people who’d been partly to blame for his father's choices.

“Given what happened today, I think discussing the rogue issue would be—”

“This isn’t the right time for this conversation, Zach.”

“Of course. I apologise. I had forgotten we have a guest,” Zachary said as he brought his wine glass to his mouth.

He hadn’t forgotten. Issues like this weren’t even publicly discussed in front of pack members. Zach just wanted to make a point about how difficult it would be to maintain their secrets.

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