Page 52 of The Alpha King's Curse: Part One

Chapter 28

Jax took control of his beast and shifted as he watched the drenched woman before him.

He’d warned her not to run. Cain loved to chase. He was hard from the adrenaline, and all he wanted to do now was fuck. She was lucky he hadn’t pinned her down and marked her.

And now she was on her fucking knees like she was waiting for him to desecrate that pretty mouth.

He groaned at the tempting picture just as lightning struck and illuminated him.

Even with the sound of the beating rain and thunder, he heard her gasp as she fell back. He heard everything. Her pumping heart, her whimper. Her bare legs splayed in front of her as she tried to scramble backwards on her ass. She looked helpless and completely vulnerable, and the beast inside him reared his ugly head, frothing at the mouth to dominate her.

He stepped forward, uncaring that he was in the middle of the road and a storm was raging around them. All he wanted was to sink in her flesh right where she was and show her who she belonged to. Mark her inside and out. Did she think she could run from him?

The thought made Cain howl in his head, his first normal reaction since the Cassie incident.

“I’m sorry,” Layla whimpered. “Please don’t kill me.”

She had blood on her face, and the scent of it almost tipped him over the edge. But she had done that to herself; there was no one he could hunt down for that. The blood had already stopped flowing. Diedre’s potion was still working in her body, so he calmed himself and let his gaze roam over her other wounds. Nothing serious. Nothing that would put a stop to what was coming.

Lightning struck again, and Layla saw he had moved closer to her. She yelped and rolled over quickly before getting to her feet and running back towards the packhouse.

Excitement, something he hadn’t felt in years, rolled through him in waves. She was fast. Her long, strong legs quickly ate up the distance, and the sight almost stopped his heart. He knew she didn’t know what she was doing to him, but... fuck, this was all the holidays he’d enjoyed, and battles he’d ever fought rolled up in one.

His dick hardened even more as he started to follow.

The young trainee who was supposed to have been watching the gate stood beside the guardhouse, his head hanging low. He projected so much fear that, for a moment, it distracted him and made him lose his focus.

“I’m sorry, Alpha. I won’t fall asleep again.”

He was a young kid who’d been called on to do this out of the blue, someone who’d yet to fight a battle. How Dylan thought the packhouse would be safe was beyond him if Layla had managed to sneak past him.

‘I’ll deal with you later,’ he said through the link.

He focused his senses on Layla again, but that little distraction had cleared some of the lust in his head. Layla was half-human; she wouldn’t want to fuck outside in a storm. And since she’d been trying to run, chances were she wouldn’t want to fuck at all.

But there she was, running through the trees and enticing his savage beast.

At the front of the packhouse, he could see activity there as the pack members started to bundle into their cars to drive back to their houses. He’d just left the room after Micah had mind-linked him, so he hoped none of them would wait around to speak to him. The storm was worsening, but Dylan would have to go out there to sort out the things he’d wanted to do alone because he would be busy. Very busy.

He started to jog in the direction Layla had taken, keeping his senses open so he could track her. His need to chase and mate intensified. The rain was muting everything, but after whatever had happened when she had changed for dinner, he didn’t need to rely on his compromised senses. Something was pulling him towards her, something he could feel deeply as if Layla was a part of him. He slowed down when he reached a dense part of the woods at the side of the packhouse. Layla had stopped running.

He caught sight of her hiding behind a tree. Her chest was rising and falling rapidly as her heart nearly beat a hole in her chest. She was trembling—what had she said? Don’t kill me? If only she knew that was the furthest thing from his mind. The canopy of the trees protected her from the storm, but it wouldn’t protect her from him. From Cain.

Layla held herself still and bit her lip as if to stop herself from making a sound, and her eyes blindly searched the space in front of her. She couldn’t see him, but he could see every inch of her. Every glorious inch. Her dress had ridden higher, so he could see her lace panties teasing him. He could see the gap between her legs where he was aching to be.

She was still a sight to behold, even looking so wet and dishevelled. His heart did the thing it had done before he had fucked her the first time. It started to beat. Hard and fast. Uncontrollably. Lust filled him in delicious waves as he slowly approached his prey.

“I told you not to run from me, Layla,” he said huskily.

Layla sucked in a breath when she whipped her head forward and realised he was only inches away. She tried to move, but he quickly caged her against the tree trunk.

“Don’t hurt me, Jackson,” she whispered.

“I think you’ve been doing a good job of that all by yourself,” he growled as he closed the gap between them.

Layla could tell which part of him was digging into her stomach, even if she couldn’t see it. Her eyes widened, and she let out a shaky breath. He could scent everything. She was an odd mixture of scared and turned on.

“Please,” she whispered, closing her eyes. “I don’t know what you’re doing to me, but you need to stop.”

---