Page 136 of The Alpha King's Curse: Part Two

Jackson smiled against her lips and then took her mouth the way she wanted him to. But the kiss was too brief. Jackson groaned and then off her.

“Rain check. Our guests are here,” he said.

Shit. She’d forgotten about that. But her body was on fire; she couldn’t host anyone if Jackson didn’t take care of it. And she would likely give herself away. Revealing herself to the pack was one thing. Slipping up in front of the two Alphas was another.

“They’re still at the main gates. We’ll be quick,” she promised as she brought her lips down to his.

Her love for Jackson turned her into a nymphomaniac, and she was okay with that. Jackson helped her out of her leggings and then crashed her lips back down to swallow her screams as he filled her up. It never worked; she always made too much noise, but Jackson tried his best anyway.

By the time she walked out of the woods, the warriors had disappeared from the vicinity, and Jackson laughed out loud.

“I don’t know how you’ll hold your head up at lunch. I’m sure everyone heard you.”

Her cheeks flushed as she shook the leaves from her hair and adjusted her clothes. The downside of being a wolf was there was no privacy. If people wanted to listen, they would. She still wasn’t used to that.

“I’m going to shower quickly and get Hope ready,” she said as she started to jog to the packhouse. “I’ll see you at lunch.”

The packhouse was busy as people prepared for their guests. The smell of food made her stomach grumble even though she had stuffed her face before training. She’d been eating a lot even though she wasn’t pregnant anymore.

“Miss Layla.”

She stopped at the second-floor landing when Faith called her name. And her mood plummeted. The young girl was with her mother, and judging by the uneaten tray of food she carried, it had been a bad morning.

“She’s refused everything?” she asked.

“She won’t even drink water,” Faith’s mother answered with a frown.

Diedre had been getting worse since they had returned to the packhouse. Jackson told her she had done some magic that was too much for her to protect their home. She’d watched them together and realised they were very close. It felt like a mother-son relationship even though Diedre was not his mother.

“I’ll go and try,” she said, taking the tray.

“I heard the guests have arrived. Maybe—”

“Tell them to start without me.”

The older woman bowed her head. It was always mortifying when they did that. She was only twenty-one years old and in no way commanded such respect from them.

She took the tray and asked Faith to get Hope ready before she walked down to the end of the hallway. She knocked before she walked in, even though she knew there would be no answer. Diedre’s room was directly under Jackson’s, so it had the same layout. The older woman lay under the covers in the middle of her bed.

Her heart jolted when she saw how frail she was. She couldn’t tell if Diedre was breathing.

“Diedre?” she whispered, putting the food tray on the nightstand. “Diedre, you have to wake up and eat. You need to get your strength back.”

She sat on the edge of the bed and took Diedre’s hand. It was ice cold.

Her heart hammered again as she focused on Diedre. Her heart was still beating, but very faintly. She was slipping away.

“Oh, Dee,” she whispered, tears stinging her eyes. “You can’t do this to him; you have to get better.”

She rubbed Diedre’s cold hands and tried to blink the tears away.

“Jackson told me stories about you,” she said with a sniff. “You're a badass. The strongest in the world. Why are you letting this beat you?”

She brought the witch’s hand to her face. There was no reaction on Diedre’s face. Her mouth hung slightly open as if she was already dead. Jackson’s heart was going to break if anything happened.

“Dee,” she whispered, using the pet name she’d heard Jackson use. “You need to get better. They need you here. Come back to us, please.”

She didn’t know how long she sat with her, how long she was lost in her thoughts. She only remembered they had guests when someone opened Diedre’s bedroom door and their scents carried into the room.

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