Page 106 of The Alpha King's Curse: Part Two

‘What’s the point?’ Cain said. ‘We’re going to die anyway.’

But the depressed wolf lowered his head and started to focus as they crouched and began to walk into the grass. It was tall enough to hide him, which disadvantaged him. Anyone watching from the Night Walker territory would see him moving through the grass while he could only rely on his other senses.

It didn’t take him long to realise the witch was up to her old tricks.

Amber’s scent hit him from all directions. Everywhere and nowhere. The smell of dark magic and the scent of rogue combined. He lowered his snout almost to the ground and concentrated on his hearing instead. But in every direction, he heard footsteps. Quiet ones, the way Layla had described. He heard heartbeats. Some were beating fast, and others were calm.

He couldn’t tell which were real.

Unless none of them were.

The dark magic had surrounded him, swallowed him up as if it were in every blade of grass.

Had this been the witch’s plan? To somehow lure him towards his enemy’s territory and trap him in her magic? Or was this still just Amber hell-bent on revenge? Either way, this was a trap, and he’d walked right into it.

‘Alpha, something is coming!’

He didn’t wait for Dylan to warn him again. He turned back and started to run, but he hadn’t taken even two steps when he felt something sink into his flank.

He looked back and saw the arrow sticking into him. And then he felt the sting that told him it wasn’t just an arrow.

He looked forward and realised he had gone further into the field than he had thought. His only hope was to get to his pack, but his side was on fire, and his paws felt like lead.

One step.

Two steps.

Darkness encroached on his vision before he took the third.

Chapter 53

Layla had been standing by her window for hours.

No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t sense anyone else in the woods except Jackson and the men he had arrived with. She hadn’t realised how much she had come to rely on her senses until Jackson had told her that Amber was somehow hiding in there. Her enhanced senses were useless in that situation.

But Jackson said he was stronger than the others. That meant he could find her, didn’t it?

“You should rest.”

She looked back at Faith, who was pretending to read a book. And she knew the girl was pretending. Faith couldn’t hide her anxiety, even though she looked calm.

“I’m sure it’s nothing. Why would we get an intruder so far away from anything?” Faith continued.

Even though Faith knew she had been involved in the fighting at the packhouse, the girl still didn’t discuss pack business in front of her. Maybe they were all going to pretend she didn’t know when they let her go after the baby was born, although she doubted it would be as simple as that. They all believed she was human, and humans didn’t have the option of living with that knowledge.

“You’re probably right,” she answered.

“I am. Now sit down before your feet start swelling.”

She took one last look outside, and a frightening thought started to gnaw at her. She’d only heard one set of footsteps, but what if there were many of them hiding in the woods? Would she ever feel safe in the house again?

Gavin came out of the woods in only his sweatpants, and a breath of relief left her. If they didn’t find anything, maybe they could all just leave. She didn’t want anyone else to die in the attacks that seemed to follow her. The pack had been right, after all. It was all her fault. They were trying to hurt Jackson, so they wanted to hurt his child. They didn’t care who they hurt to make that happen.

She put her hand over her bump as if that would protect the precious little life in there. When Jackson had been in trouble during the last attack, her wolf side had told her she would protect the child and had pushed her to go out and fight. But now that voice had been silent for so long because she had pushed it to the back of her mind, she didn’t know if she would still protect the child now.

Gavin looked up at the window. His eyes looked brighter in the sunlight as if his wolf was still controlling him. She sensed his anxiousness and a wave of fear. The witch was doing a number on all of them.

“I’m just going to... I’ll make some food,” Faith said quickly as she put her book down.

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