Page 81 of The Alpha King's Curse: Part One

He pushed her face down onto the pavement, scraping her skin as the other boy fumbled with her jeans. If she was still in town, she could have screamed to draw attention to herself, and somebody would have come to help. But who would help her here? They were all the same.

She thrashed around, trying to slip out of their grasp, but they were so strong, and the other man had gripped both her legs. It felt like trying to fight her way out of a metal grip. Her body started to tremble. She knew her body was going into shock, unable to process what was about to happen to her in broad daylight.

"Get back over here and help us. We have to get rid of her quickly."

The man she had kneed returned, and they rolled her over. This time they managed to undo the button of her jeans and pull down the zip.

All the fight left her body. The shock finally made her numb. It was over.

Chapter 43

“You know the rules better than anyone, Jackson. No humans on pack territories,” Hugo said. “There are Hunters who have been operating not too far from you. Now isn’t the time to take any chances.”

“Who told you about her?” Jackson asked as he sat back in the chair.

He was willing to bet it was Zach. That old man hadn’t been happy that he had shut him down during that dinner. But of course, after the rogues had declared Layla one of them, it could have been anyone in the pack.

“That doesn’t matter, Jackson,” Lincoln said. “What matters is that you need to fix this before things escalate. We don’t want to have to take any... extra measures.”

The threat was clear in Alpha Lincoln’s tone. He’d seen some of their ‘extra measures’ before. The Circle was so sadistic that he wasn’t sure who was worse; them or the Hunters. Whole packs had disappeared—maybe moved off their lands or worse, he didn’t know for sure—just to make sure the Hunters found nothing when they arrived. All in the name of keeping the whole of their kind safe.

“There’s nothing to fix. I’ve taken all the necessary precautions. She doesn’t leave the bedroom without me,” he growled in warning.

“Is that what you have her there for? To fuck? Surely the welfare of the pack is more important than that?” Finn said.

“Have you come all this way to tell me who I can have in my bed?”

“You have this hotel to do whatever you want in. Pack territory is off-limits. We’re here just to make sure your little stunt doesn’t bring trouble to the pack. The person who told us about it did so out of concern for everyone,” Hugo said.

Or they just wanted to score points with the Circle. It was no secret that their spies were handsomely rewarded.

“Their concern is misplaced, but thank you for dropping everything and stopping by,” he said as he stood up. “I hope you have a pleasant journey back to whatever hole you crawled out of.”

He couldn’t stand the stench of their dark magic any longer, and he didn’t want to be in their presence too long, or he would say something that would make them suspicious. So far, they had kept their magic to themselves, but they could get that information out of him if they brought out all their tricks.

“Oh, we’re sticking around,” Finn grinned.

“Why?”

“Because if she’s not dead by sundown, then we will have to come and do the job ourselves.”

His rage took him over so swiftly that he couldn’t control his beast. He had Finn by the neck and up in the air before he could think. And he knew his eyes were blood-red when he looked the Alpha in the eyes.

“You do not step foot in my territory without my invitation, or I will take that as a challenge,” he growled, his Alpha tone filling the air with his command.

The moment he felt Finn’s magic flare up to defend him, he dropped the wolf and faced the other Alphas. They hadn’t even moved from their seats to help their brother.

“Do you really think I would have a human in my house for no reason? Do you think I would endanger the people I have been protecting all my life?” he growled.

“The rumour is you’ve not been yourself lately,” Lincoln said. “They suspect magic. A hex, perhaps?”

That hit too close to home.

“I have the strongest witch in all four corners living in my house, ready to die for me, and you think someone can hex me?” he chuckled before he turned away from them to walk to the door. “The human stays in my house until I don’t need her anymore. And then she will be free to live her life. Set foot on my land, and your people will be coming to pick up all the pieces of you that I haven’t devoured.”

No one spoke to the Circle like that. That was another reason why they both hated and coveted him. To have such power that he could face three Alphas without bending to their will made him a threat, but they still hoped to one day have him or his children on their side.

But he knew he couldn’t piss them off too much now because he wasn’t the one who would pay the price. It was his pack they would punish.

---