Page 101 of The Alpha King's Curse: Part Two

And what sort of audit did a Housekeeper do by herself in the middle of the night?

‘We should just kill her,’ Cain suggested.

‘Not until we know it won’t bring Hunters into town.’

That was the only problem. One dead Hunter caused an infestation. It was always better to hide from them than to fight.

“When she comes back, tell her I told her to go home,” he said before walking towards the entrance.

He’d just walked out when he caught a scent he had hoped never to smell again. It was just a hint and quickly dissipated in the breeze, but he knew he wasn’t mistaken.

Amber.

What the hell was she doing in town?

He opened his senses and tried to locate her, but he couldn’t sense her anywhere. The hotel was for anyone from any pack or even rogues if they so chose, but surely Amber knew how dangerous it was to be in town so soon after a Hunter sighting? She should have stayed wherever she had gone to hide after spreading the rumours about Layla.

He sniffed the air again as the valet returned his car to the front. There was nothing. Maybe Amber had sensed him there and then ran away. It was a possibility, considering she, more than anyone else, knew that Layla was more than she appeared to be. And she knew he would kill her if she tried to find a way around his command.

‘She’s not here,’ Cain said.

No, she wasn’t. But still, something wasn’t right. He looked back at the desk that he could see through the doors and saw Andrea still hadn’t returned to the desk. He would have to keep an eye on those two somehow. As if he didn’t already have enough on his plate.

Why were they both at his hotel?

Chapter 50

Three months.

That was how long Jackson had ignored her while Faith and Gavin imprisoned her. She'd felt like somebody had plunged a knife through her chest the whole time.

She looked back at the man following her at a distance and pulled a face. He stopped at a distance and lowered his head. His heart started beating a little fast as it had done since he’d brought her back home by force after her last escape attempt.

She knew she’d kept her emotions in check, and he hadn’t seen anything wolfish, so why the hell was he scared?

She turned back to the dirt trail through the woods and looked at the distance she still had to go before she reached the boundary. Beyond that was No Man’s land, only to be crossed once the baby was born.

It took longer to walk there because of how big she’d gotten. She looked overdue instead of seven months pregnant. Faith assured her it was okay and said stuff like Jackson had been a big baby, too, as if that was supposed to make her feel better.

The baby was taking everything from her. Her energy, her food. She was always hungry and tired. It had come on so suddenly that she’d even stopped trying to escape. How could she if she couldn’t even walk to the boundary?

She sighed and put both hands on her back to support it. Her body ached in places she hadn’t known she could hurt, and while Faith was a soothing presence, her heart longed for someone else. Even though he’d made it clear he didn’t want her. Even though she had sensed him several times in the woods, meeting with Gavin or Faith. He never bothered to come to check on her in person.

“You’re not that important,” she told herself.

And it was better that way, anyway. She would fall apart if she saw him again, and it wouldn’t be her wolf side doing the begging.

That side of her had been quiet since Jackson left her in the middle of the night. Sometimes she could feel the pain inside her when she let her guard down. There was just too much of it that if she allowed herself to feel it on top of her own, she would keel over and die. It had taken her several days of practising how to focus the way Jackson had taught her before she had managed to pull herself from that added pain and shut it off.

How could one man do that to her? How could he make her believe he was her whole world, yet she meant nothing to him?

It was a good thing he was staying away.

She moved her hands to her bump and felt that pain again. She was physically unable to run away now, but as soon as her little girl was born, they would go. She would put herself in Fate’s hands and see what happened. They would have her baby only if she was dead. She’d come to like Jackson’s pack but would go through anyone who tried to stand in her way. If he thought he could hide her baby there, he could think again.

She was not giving up her child. Ever.

She sighed and turned to walk back the way she had come. Even with the distance between them, she felt Gavin’s tension decrease.

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