Page 165 of The Alpha King's Curse: Part Two

It took her a moment longer to sense what her mother felt as the darkness rolled across the sky. People were coming from every direction, heading right for their territory.

She started to run back to the training fields when she realised that her mother meant she would be trapped in the woods with whatever was coming. Maybe she would never forgive her mother, but she didn’t want her fighting whatever that was by herself.

“Come with me,” she said as she took her sweaty t-shirt off and threw it at her mother.

With her sports bra on, she didn’t wait to see if Rebecca would follow as she ran out of the woods.

‘Jackson!’ she shouted in her head.

But when she reached the field, they had already stopped training to look at the black clouds rolling across the sky. Jackson stood with Alpha Brax, his shoulder tense and his fists clenched at his sides.

When he looked at her, he knew what they had feared was coming to pass. The Circle couldn’t be responsible for those clouds. The witch had come to finish the job.

“Go to Hope,” Jackson called out.

She didn’t need to be told twice.

As she ran towards the house, she saw Brax’s gaze following something behind her and knew her mother had followed. His fascination was unmistakable on his face.

The house was a hive of activity. They had been making lunch, but now she heard them running around, switching everything off in preparation for a fight.

She took the stairs two at a time until she reached the second floor. Though she didn’t sense her mother behind her, she knew Rebecca was close as she rushed into the room Faith used when she was looking after Hope. The young girl was looking out of the window at the darkening sky.

“Do you remember what you need to do?” she asked Faith.

“Yes. I have to hide with Hope, and if anything happens to you, I’ll find my way to your sister’s,” Faith answered. “Is it the witch? Has she hexed another pack to attack us?”

She opened up her senses to track the enemy. She could hear the loud thudding of wolves as they ran through the forest, but there was something else that she couldn't quite read. Their steps were almost too silent, and they moved through the trees quicker than any of the wolves she had seen before.

“More than one pack,” Rebecca whispered.

The blood drained from her face. She looked at her baby and Faith and then the woman behind her. The only other person she knew who could essentially disappear under anyone’s nose.

“You have to take care of them,” she told her mother. “You have to find a way to get them to Britney until I come for them.”

Could she trust her mother now? She had no other choice. Jackson expected her to stay in the house with Hope, but she knew there was no way she would let him fight alone.

“I’ll protect them, Layla,” Rebecca answered, stepping towards Faith and the window. “But you should come with us. I think she means to kill everyone here.”

Chapter 80

The dark clouds completely covered the sun. Jax stood at his lookout rock and looked over the forest. Even the witch was closing in from that direction when it was supposed to be their safest. He could sense her magic filling up in it even though he couldn’t sense any individual wolves. It was like when she’d sent the rogues who had hidden in the shadows right under their noses.

His warriors wouldn’t sense them until it was too late.

‘The women and children are in the packhouse,’ Dylan said in the mind link.

He didn’t know if that would make a difference. The strength he could sense in the magic around him was something he had never experienced from the witch before. He could feel it in the clouds above him, in the air they were all breathing. He could feel it rippling over his skin, yet they had not reached their boundary.

Cain was silent in his head, already in hunting mode. But he couldn’t hunt everywhere at once. They were surrounded by armies bigger than any that had ever attacked the pack. No matter how he looked at it, his people would die.

‘Tell anyone else who would rather not fight to head to the packhouse, too. I won’t force anyone to do it.’

He had brought this terror to their home by himself. He couldn’t ask them to die for him.

He let out a breath and rolled his shoulder to try to work out some of the tension in his body. For the first time in his life, he was terrified. He was the cause of the witch’s anger, and her obvious targets would be the people he loved. Even if Layla and Hope stayed in the packhouse, the sheer force of magic heading in their direction was enough to decimate all the wards that Diedre had put up.

He jumped off the rock and shifted. Cain immediately began running through the woods behind him, heading for the main gate. There was silence all around him. All the animals had already hunkered down or escaped. The sense of impending doom was pressing down on him as his paws thundered on the forest floor.

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