Page 158 of The Alpha King's Curse: Part Two

“What have you done to her? What sorcery is this?” Lincoln shouted, his eyes on Layla.

He looked down at the woman who had given herself away.

“Just take your people and leave. I think we’re done here.”

Lincoln’s anger grew.

“I have been too lenient with you, King Jackson. You are not above the Circle!” Lincoln growled. His eyes were glowing as his anger rose. “I don’t have to evacuate the women and children. You can all die in there like the vermin you are. Your bloodline causes nothing but trouble; I will end you all today.”

It was Layla who reacted first again. She had mastered control over her feelings before, but if he had changed so much after the marking, so had Layla. She would have to learn to control herself again. Or maybe they didn’t have to bother now.

Layla slammed her hands against the bars of the gates. They shook from the force as his mate looked directly at the Circle member without flinching.

“Mine. Everything here is mine,” Layla growled.

He sucked in a breath at the sound of her voice. It was deeper. It rolled through the air in waves that rippled over his skin and sent a jolt through his body. It was her wolf’s voice. That side of her had claimed him first, loved him first, and now she rippled so close to the surface.

The Circle stopped attacking as they all looked at Layla with varying levels of curiosity. And she was a curiosity. There hadn’t been a red wolf seen or heard of until recently, and once Lincoln and his buddies figured it out, they would hunt Layla the same way the Hunters would.

“If I see or smell any of you anywhere in my forest, I will hunt you down and rip you apart,” Layla continued. “Leave.”

The command had all of them stepping back. Lincoln’s eyes widened in horror. Yet another wolf who could command him, and she wasn’t even an Alpha. Perhaps it was good that Layla was following him to the grave. They would never leave her alone now.

“Leave!” she shouted, and even the warriors behind him stepped back.

Her power was raw, unfiltered, and unhidden. They could all feel what he had spent months teaching her to hide.

“What is this?” Lincoln asked as he stepped back, unable to do anything except what Layla had ordered.

“It’s a command from your Queen,” he answered easily.

“You mated with the human?” Lincoln gasped.

Another sin the Circle wouldn't tolerate. But Lincoln could tell she clearly wasn’t human. It would click soon enough.

“Consider this our emancipation. Stay away from us, and we won’t have to come hunting.”

He knew it wouldn’t be that easy. The Circle was more than just a few people gathered at his gates. They would want to kill Layla, though that job would be done for them on his birthday. But when they realised they had both died; they would swoop right back and get Dylan under their control in the hopes of getting to Hope. They would be more interested in Hope’s bloodline than ever. He and Layla had made their pack’s situation worse.

Lincoln’s anger blasted at him as the Alpha was compelled to return to his car. The engines started going again, and then tyres screeched as they turned around and headed back the way they had come.

He exhaled and looked down at the woman still gripping the bars and watching the cars disappear down the road. She was still in a rage; he had to wonder how close she had come to shifting. Would he see her shift before he died? Would he get to be with his wolf mate the way Cain wanted?

His eyes flashed as his wolf paid more attention to that part of the conversation than anything else that had just happened.

When he could no longer hear the cars, further in the distance than he had ever reached, Layla released the bars of the gate and turned to face him. Her rage was still simmering inside her. If she was anything like Cain, she would need an outlet for it.

“Go and check on things at the packhouse,” he commanded the warriors without taking his eyes off Layla. “Your Queen and I have things to discuss.”

The wolves around them and those who had been waiting in their positions in the woods started to move.

“We fucked up,” he said to Layla.

A muscle in her jaw ticked. Her wolf wouldn’t think they had done anything wrong, just like Cain always believed he was in the right.

“I’m sorry,” Layla said through her teeth, and he sensed a little remorse. “I couldn’t help myself.”

She lowered her gaze but he could feel her struggle to get a hold of herself.

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