Page 111 of The Alpha King's Curse: Part One

“I’d given up on all of this yesterday until I remembered something else. A lot was happening in Wolfdale at that time. Rebecca hadn’t been the only one to disappear,” Dylan said as he handed him a copy of another newspaper clipping.

It was about the rise in reported missing or dead people. He’d been a boy then, but his father had sat him down and taught him how to recognise when Hunters were operating somewhere. A lot of times, they didn’t just get rid of the wolf; they got their entire family, too. So when whole families disappeared, his father always investigated. But those events were few and far between, and happened in other cities besides Wolfdale.

Until that year.

“We had Hunters in the city,” he recalled. “Ones that didn’t give a shit about the humans that got caught in the middle of it. The king had a hard time outsmarting them.”

Dylan nodded and then placed a small stack of papers in front of him.

“The first attack was only days after Rebecca’s picture was in the paper. The last attack was on the day she disappeared.”

He could see where Dylan was going with this. He’d figured it out. He knew Layla’s mother was a wolf, and by that reasoning, Layla was the very thing most wolves despised. So why was Dylan vibrating with excitement instead of the disappointment he had expected?

“That could have been a coincidence,” he said with a shrug.

“And that’s what kept me up at night. Was it a coincidence?” Dylan asked as he spread the stack of papers. “These are all the people murdered or missing at that time.”

He could tell what the connection was straight away. All the women were green-eyed redheads like Layla’s mother.

“I think Rebecca came into town and got comfortable once she realised it was safe. She met a man, had some kids and thought she could live among humans. The Hunters came into town for her, Jax.”

Could he steer Dylan away from revelation? Or was it time to learn if he could trust his friend again?

“I think that’s a stretch,” he said. “You only have assumptions to go on.”

“Except for the wolf sighting in Rebecca’s neighbourhood the night she disappeared. We were all under strict orders from your father to stay out of town. Only a lone wolf would have dared,” Dylan said. “Rebecca Carlisle was a wolf, Jax.”

Dylan’s excitement grew; he was practically bouncing on his feet.

“And that means Layla is a half-blood,” Dylan continued.

He frowned questioningly at his friend’s attitude.

“And that pleases you?” he asked.

“Yes. That means she’s the wrong person to have your child. An Alpha can’t be seen with a half-blood; it will destroy your reputation. And having a child with one condemns him to the same life as his mother. The Circle would have killed her themselves if they had known.”

Dylan smiled and started to collect the rest of the papers.

“We can get rid of her today after the meeting. Don’t worry, Jax. I’ll take care of everything.”

Chapter 59

Jackson watched the look on Dylan’s face as he continued to collect all the paperwork.

Was he that excited to get rid of Layla even after he had told them all that wouldn’t happen? Maybe finding somewhere safe for Layla to take his child was the only thing he could do now.

He’d been desperate to have a child to leave his legacy behind with his pack, but his bond with Layla strengthened every day. He was still desperate for a child, but only so he could watch Layla swell with his seed. So he could leave her a part of himself to console her when he was gone.

She would feel it when the bond severed. She would get depressed without understanding why. She would break down a little. But she would recover. She would love his child as no one else would.

A part of him knew he was asking for the impossible. With his blood running through their veins, his child would be the Alpha King, no matter where he was raised. He would need a pack around him to help him understand what he was and his responsibilities, or he would lose his fight with the darkness inside him. His child would become worse than he had been. Layla wouldn’t be able to do anything for him.

But how he wished...

He shook his head and picked up the paperwork that Dylan had placed neatly on the table. He would have to burn all of it.

“And I was thinking that if Alpha Chase has that much of an issue with it, we can tell him she’s going today. We need to keep the truce,” Dylan continued. “I’m worried about the number of rogues you killed last night. Something big is going to happen; we will need Alpha Chase on our side.”

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