Page 3 of The Alpha King's Curse: Part Two

“Lock the door behind me and hide. Do not let anyone but me into this room.”

“What’s happening?” she repeated, following him to the door.

“We’re under attack.”

Chapter 2

Layla opened the window and leaned out to figure out what was happening. There was something in the air pressing down on her. Fear and desperation. She recognised it only because she had felt it too much in the months she had been there.

All around her, she heard the sounds of fighting. Growls. Snarls. Yelps and whines. She heard the clinking of weapons and shouting. She heard children crying.

The gates had been open when Jackson’s people gathered at the front of the house, but they were firmly shut now. The fighting seemed to be beyond the gates, maybe in town. She didn’t know why she could hear that far, but the sounds brought her out of the depression she had sunk into the past two weeks.

People were dying. She could hear their gurgling as they took their last breaths, terrifying her, breaking her. She heard a girl scream and then nothing. As if her life had just been ripped from her.

Shock forced her to step back from the window and clutch her chest.

These were Jackson’s people, and he wasn’t there to protect them because of her. This was her fault.

She looked down at the keys she had gripped tightly in her hand. It was her fault, yet she was safe in the packhouse. It wasn’t right.

“Help! Help me!”

Layla leaned out of the window again and tried to focus on where the sound had come from. And when she saw it, her breath hitched, and her heart stopped beating. Two girls, no older than nine or ten, pounded at the gates, constantly looking behind them as if the threat was getting closer.

Something inside her pushed her to move before she could think too deeply about it. She unlocked the door and ran down the hallway and the stairs. Only as she was speeding towards the gate did she realise she was running faster than usual. Maybe it was the adrenaline. Her heart was now beating like crazy, and she felt invincible.

“Please, hurry,” one of the girls cried. “They took our father. Please help us.”

No one was in the guardhouse when she finally reached it, but after a few seconds, she worked out which button to press to open the gate. She rushed out to meet the girls as they ran inside.

“Are you okay? Did they hurt you?” she asked as she quickly inspected the girls.

“I don’t know where our mum is,” the younger girl said.

The little girls trembled, and tears fell continuously down their cheeks. They reminded her so much of Britney that her protective instincts kicked in. She put her arms around them briefly and looked towards the sounds of fighting. The gate was still open and the commotion was getting closer. The hair rose on her neck, and goosebumps appeared on her arms at the vicious sounds. And the screams... Her heart cracked with each one.

“Run to the house and lock the door behind you,” she instructed the girls. “If anyone comes who you don’t know, don’t open the door. Just go and hide.”

The girls ran as soon as she released them, and then she turned her attention back to the gate. What could she do? These were clearly werewolves fighting; they would kill her instantly if she went out there. She didn’t even have a weapon.

She ran back into the guardhouse to look around and then breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the back wall lined with weapons. Knives, swords, guns... She’d never had any weapons training, so she knew she would probably hurt herself, but she picked up a small knife that she felt a little more confident with once she weighed it in her hand.

She was about to run back outside when she thought of the girls she had sent to hide. She couldn't leave the gate open. When she returned to the controls, she finally noticed the security screens at the side. There was fighting on every screen. Giant wolves lunging at each other and ripping each other apart. Men and women fighting with weapons.

Children... The children.

She couldn't sit and not do anything.

Among all the buttons on the control board in front of her, she saw a button to open the gate manually. She would still see if anyone tried to go inside if she stayed close enough to the entrance and could get to the kids in the house first if someone got too close.

Once again, something pushed her to press the button, and she ran out of the guardhouse to slide the gate closed. And then she let out a breath as she held the knife in front of her. The thought that she would probably die that night filtered through her mind but she pushed it away.

She knew she was being stupid. She was that idiotic girl that got in everyone’s way and got people killed. She knew everyone trained; it was why Jackson had kept her locked up so she wouldn’t see them. They were more experienced than her. They wouldn’t fault her if she stayed inside.

“The wards around the packhouse should hold. You’ll be safe once you get through the gates. Take your sister.”

A woman’s voice carried over to her from somewhere down the road. She squinted and saw a woman coming out of the shadows of the trees onto the road and handing a bundled-up baby to a boy who didn’t look old enough for such a big task.

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